Decades of mismanagement have left our forests vulnerable to terrorism

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if you don't weed out a little then you get a chaos that is not reflective of untouched nature

Smokey Bear told us: “Only we can prevent forest fires.” But behind him was a vast and growing firefighting bureaucracy, equipped with fleets of heavy equipment, aerial tankers, helicopters and satellite guided workforces. 

This firefighting juggernaut has not only crushed many would be disastrous fires over the years, but many beneficial ones as well.

Many of the forests protected by these fire fighting efforts have also been shielded from best forest management practices.  In the name of restoring our forests to their former pre-mankind condition, man was taken out of the equation. As a result, many of our forests are unnaturally overgrown with decades of underbrush, dry branches and millions of disease ridden trees.  

But the west is now on fire and reports say some of these fires have been caused by arson. This  leads many to believe that America's national security Achilles heel,  is it's tinder dry, over protected, overgrown forests, which can instantly be transformed into mega-fires with one match.

The Lake Tahoe basin which sits on the border of California and Nevada was managed by a maze of bureaucratic environmental agencies.  Through ineptitude, these agencies did not allow property owners to even hand clean brush on their property, in the fear that it would intrude on the "natural state" of the forest.

As a result of this idiotic forest management practice, the area was consumed by a mega fire which burned down 253 homes and consumed 3,100 acres……This is just 1 small forest area out of hundreds of thousands of square miles being subjected to the same or similar practices. 

But there is a solution to the madness which has proven over and over again to work.  When these rampaging fires reach privately managed forest land, they are checked.

Privately owned or leased forests, are maintained to produce a healthy vibrant environment which can in turn, be used to harvest timber and forest products.  They are in the business of having forests of healthy trees and do what’s necessary to make them that way.

I spoke to Tom Ray, vice president of northwest resources for Plum Creek Corporation. Plum Creek is the largest and most geographically diverse private timberland owner in the United States with approximately 6.6 million acres of timber in major timber producing regions of the country.

Tom helps manage his company’s land according to the Sustainable Forest Initiative, which looks out for the best long term care of their forests.  These practices include thinning-harvesting of timber and brush clearing as necessary. 

Managing the land in a healthy vibrant condition is good for the forests as well as for the owners of the property.

Tom said out of control fires on public lands that have swept into managed forests, have been stopped.  The fire intensity lessened due to the availability of less fuel and the presence of access roads on managed forests allowed personnel to reach the fires.

Much of Plum Creeks 6.6 million acres of land is open to the public for recreation purposes as well, showing that private forest land management is compatible with public use.

When you look at the ability of just one corporation to successfully manage 6.6 million acres of forest land, it doesn’t take much to wonder why some of these practices aren’t transferred to our national and state forestlands.  After all, the public can have access to these privately managed lands that are not dry diseased tinderboxes.

Peter Kolb, Associate Professor of Forest management at the University of Montana has been observing the effects of public policies affecting forests across the Northern Rockies for years.

Kolb has determined that forests can benefit from well planned and thoughtful tree harvesting in order to help revitalize forest landscapes that have become homogenized by a combination of past climatic phases and fire suppression, which produce mega fires. 

He feels it is best to create a forest with greater species and structural diversity using a combination of thinning and irregular sized” patch” cuts.   These types of mosaics in the forest have been shown to provide firebreaks, good habitat enhancement for wildlife and a birthplace for a new generation of trees. 

Such management emulates historic natural process and forests can be made more resilient and functional for the future…. This is the definition of conservation – “to keep “functioning” rather than “restoration” which is to bring back to the way it was.

But many conservation groups seem to be stuck with the outdated concept of bringing forests back to a snapshot of 200 years ago

Perhaps we should be focusing more on what it will take to keep forests healthy and functional in the future.  It seems obvious that the hands-off approach is not working all that well, and costing us an enormous federal bankroll we can ill afford. 

Private companies could provide active forest management more consistent with conservation, and at no cost.  But rather could provide tax revenue and jobs, in exchange for harvesting some timber across the vast national forests of the west.   

Forestry, logging and science, have come a long way over the decades, it’s time to move into the future and allow a different paradigm to take over.  It’s time to help our forests cope with changes in climate and the wildfires and insect outbreaks that come with them in unprecedented destructive waves.

Egypt used chemical weapons in the 1960s; no one did anything then either:

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Arabs, allied with Russia, kill hundreds of other Arabs with chemical weapons. A cover-up of chemical weapons use and angry denials, allowing Western nations stand by and do nothing for political reasons.

In 1967.

FromChemical and Biological Warfare: A Reference Handbook,by Albert J. Mauroni (2007):
The Yemeni Civil War (1962-1970) pitted the Yemeni royalists of the deposed imam against the Yemen republican forces in North Yemen, with Saudi Arabia and Jordan supporting the royalists and Egypt supporting the republican forces. This war was fought for five years until the two forces reached a stalemate in 1967. Although there had been occasional mentions of Egyptian military employment of mustard agent—filled bombs between 1963 and 1966, in 1967 these attacks became more frequent. International journalists began reporting that Ilyushin heavy bombers were dropping mustard-filled and phosgene-filled bombs on cities and rebel bases.

In January 1967, a gas attack near Sada killed more than 125 people. In May, two villages suffered 75 casualties from phosgene-filled bombs. Between 1967 and 1968, it is estimated that more than 1,000 Yemeni were killed as a result of exposure to CW agents. An International Red Cross mission sent doctors to assist the wounded, and the doctors testified to what they saw. Al-though they were careful to clarify that they did not see any evidence of actual attacks taking place, the signs and symptoms of the victims included burning eyes and trachea, pulmonary edema, internal thorax pain, extreme fatigue, and anorexia. Their findings were that in all probability these victims had inhaled toxic gases (Cookson and Nottingham 1969).The doctors were reluctant to identify the specific chemical warfare agents used, in part because they wanted to retain their neutrality and access to war victims. Although it appeared conclusive that mustard and phosgene had been used, a few cases suggested the use of nerve agent—filled bombs as well. The problem was how to prove the use of chemical warfare agents and who was responsible for using them. Because there were no arms control experts assigned to monitor or investigate these attacks, there was very little evidence other than eyewitness accounts from civilians and what could have been propaganda from the royalists. Although bodies and samples were sent to Saudi Arabia for more study, again, it was difficult to accuse any specific nation. Egypt claimed it had not used chemical weapons in Yemen, and, according to some sources, this may be true if Soviet air crews were manning the Egyptian-marked bombers that attacked those cities.

When Saudi Arabia and the royalists tried to get the United Nations to investigate, the UN's secretary general, U Thant, declined. On March 1, 1967, he stated that he was "powerless" to investigate the issue, and that the facts were in sharp dispute. Although he almost certainly knew exactly what was going on in Yemen, he had made a political decision to stay out of the affair. The U.S. government, occupied with answering criticisms about the use of Agent Orange and riot control agents in Vietnam,chose not to get involved. The U.S. military decided that the chemical warfare attacks were an aberration and not reflective of any requirement to worry about future chemical warfare attacks (and in 1972, chose to disestablish the Chemical Corps). The United Kingdom was attempting to reestablish relations with Egypt at that time, so it chose not to say anything publicly against Egypt or Soviet affairs in the Middle East (Seagrave 1981, 124-125). The incident became a political nonevent, fodder for the arms control community but not much else.
This incident teaches several interesting lessons. The first is the failure of the world's nations to react against the use of chemical weapons against civilians and military forces that were not similarly armed. This was not a clear violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, since Egypt was not then (and still is not) a signatory of the Geneva Protocol, unless it could be proven that Soviet crews were in those bombers. The reason that some military analysts believe there were Soviet crews in the bombers was twofold: First, they do not believe that the Soviet Union would have allowed Egypt to own or employ chemical weapons in 1967, Egypt having just started its interest in an offensive CW program. Second, the bombers dropped their munitions upwind of their targets for maximum effect, and in some cases, MiG fighter planes came back to drop high explosives or napalm on and near the targets to reduce or eliminate the evidence. These same tactics were seen years later when the Soviet air force attacked Afghani villages with chemical weapons. Because the attacks occurred in such remote locations and because post-mortem examinations took place days or weeks later, it was very difficult to directly attribute the cause of death to the bombing attacks.
This was the first instance of Arabs attacking Arabs with chemical weapons.
The second was the Iran-Iraq War, where some 45,000 are believed to have been killed by chemical weapons.

How to Survive as a Jew in Sweden

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(h/t CIFWatch) On April 26 of this year, I was on a train with my five-year-old son Charlie. We were on our way to spend shabbat with friends in the city. You see, our town, significant in the history of Swedish Jewry, shut its synagogue in the late 90s. All that remains now is a plaque stating that there was once Jewish life here, while we are left with an hour-long train ride every weekend to attend services.
 My son was wearing his kippah as we got on the train. He loves his kippah. He is not yet old enough to know the dangers entailed in wearing it, for this is a fact from which I have tried to protect him. But April 26 would change all that.
There was a gentleman sitting in our reserved seat. An Arab, maybe fifty years old, listening to music. Apologizing for the inconvenience, I asked him politely for our seat. He got up, inspected my son, and then leaned over me, saying: You people always take what you want. You need to learn.
He then walked straight into my son, causing him to fall over, and took the seat behind us.
We sat. Hiding my trembling hands from my son’s sight, I picked up Shabbes for Kids and started to review the week’s Torah portion with him. We hadn’t progressed as far as a page before the man stood up and screamed:  Quiet! I don’t want to hear that! You take what you want and never think of others! Shut up!
He stamped his feet, grunting and glaring at my son. Fighting tears of rage, I assured Charlie that the man was just grumpy and tried to turned the episode into a game, one that required us to remain super quiet for as long as possible. I even managed to coax a conspiratorial smile out of him.
But even this failed to appease our tormentor, who spent the rest of the trip repeatedly kicking the back of my son’s seat. At one point I glanced around our compartment: there were four other people there, four adults witnessing a single mother and her five-year-old child being attacked by a grown man. They did nothing. I tried forcing them to meet my gaze; but they just turned away, put on their headphones, stared at their screens, ignored what was happening in front of them.
I did not summon the railway police. I did not scream back at the man. I know better. I know that the only way to survive as a Jew in my country is not to be seen as one. Not to be exposed but to shut up and fade into the woodwork. I’ve known this for quite some time. Unfortunately, my son knows it now, too.

I am Chelsea Manning

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Manning wrote in a statement read on the Today show”Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition. I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility).”

Occupy Mom

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(According to the US census Bureau, at least 1 in 4 N.J. adults, ages 18-31 live at home and 42% are 24 or older. Experts call it an “epidemic” of millennials leaching off their parents, but does a bad economy and student loan debt crisis justify the situation? A new survey from Coldwell Banker says parents in the Northeast region are more lenient on this than anywhere else in the US on children moving back home. But, according to the survey, more than two in three Americans believe that too many adults living at home with their parents are avoiding responsibility, and 65 percent believe too many young adults who move back home after college are overstaying their welcome.Dr. Susan Newman, a Jersey-based social psychologist and author of the book “Under One Roof”, she says it’s almost expected for kids in N.J. to move back into their suburban homes after college. But a Moody’s study shows that each new household that is created helps stimulate the economy, so children moving back home might actually hurt economic growth in the state.)
As if we had an option?

HuffPost Covers Alice Walker Story, Brings Bias

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(Alice Walker) her point of view is given five paragraphs while the University of Michigan's response was only given one

Hosni Mubarak is likely to be released from prison this week, his lawyers said, after corruption charges are dropped.

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(Hosni Mubarak) is likely to be released from prison this week, attorneys for the former Egyptian president said Monday. Farid a-Dib, Mubarak's chief attorney when he was sentenced to life in prison by a court after he was thrown out of office by the Egyptian Army in 2011. A-Dib said that the new government of Egypt had decided that there was no reason to keep Mubarak in prison after he was cleared of corruption charges. The New York Times on Monday quoted Egyptian security sources as confirming the story. It is not clear where the 85 year old Mubarak will go when he is released. According to Egyptian law, Mubarak should have been released months ago after he was given a retrial, with no new charges filed against him on charges that he deliberately caused the deaths of protestors against his presidency. The prosecution has postponed bringing Mubarak to trial on those charges, as it attempts to gather evidence, and last winter an Egyptian court ruled that he could be released until that case was ready. However, the court decided to keep Mubarak in prison after a new indictment was filed against him on corruption charges last April. Those charges have been dismissed, and as a result Mubarak is set to be released, a-Dib said. Mubarak is being held in a prison south of Cairo, ironically in a facility in which members of the Muslim Brotherhood who were officials in the government of Mohammed Morsi – Mubarak's replacement – are also being held. Morsi himself is not being held at the facility, however.

The Man Behind the "9/11 Million Muslim March" Is A "‘Virulent Anti-Semite’, Blames 9/11 on the Jews .

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They’re basically a bunch of ‘truthers’ who think that the America is to blame for everything, Jasser said of Alam’s group. Faces From Mediaite:
On Thursday night, MD Rabbi Alam, the organizer of the Million Muslim March planned to take place on September 11 in commemoration of the attacks of 9/11/2001, engaged in a heated debate with Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity over whether such an event was appropriate on that day. On Friday morning, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser joined Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade where he called Alam one of several “virulent anti-Semites” who should rethink their plans

Combatant from West Africa taking part in the “Defense of Saydah Zaynab”

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(Random West African Photo)

(Syria’s Shia Militias) feel free to compare: 
(Saydah Zaynab is a Mosque)

'Million Muslim March' falls 999,951 short, mistakenly cites French beauty

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(Marion Fischer, who's recently completed her matriculation at Strasbourg's famed Lycée International des Pontonniers, secured her Facebook address of MAMA.F (apparently for her internet nickname of Mama Fischer) in late 2008, beating out the MAMAF (Million American March Against Fear) by at least five years.)

US-Egyptian relations on the rocks. Al-Sisi wouldn’t accept Obama’s phone call

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Cross defaced near grave of Rabbi Nachman

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(A cross near the gravesite of a Jewish sage in Uman, Ukraine, was defaced with a Hebrew inscription.
Hebrew graffiti was discovered Aug. 12 on a cross opposite the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the 18th century founder of the Breslov hasidic movement, the Ukrainian news site allday.in.ua reported
“To exact vengeance on the gentiles,” reads the message, which was scrawled across the torso of a figure of Jesus Christ. A further inscription on Jesus’ leg reads, “Stop desecrating the name of God.”
Uman is a major pilgrimage site for followers of Rabbi Nachman, whose gravesite is the focal point of an annual Rosh Hashanah celebration. Last year, the festivities drew an estimated 40,000 Jews.
The cross was installed the summer, timed to coincide with the 1,025th anniversary of the mass conversion of medieval kingdom of Kievan Rus, the precursor of contemporary Russia and Ukraine.
)

Saudi King Abdullah for Al-Sisi

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Report: Leaked Peace Talks Guidelines Call for International Status for Jerusalem

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Ted Koppel says Terrorism is the weapon of the weak. If terrorism is the weapon of the weak, why are society’s weakest its most common victims? (TLV)A Palestinian newspaper published a document Tuesday it claimed to be Palestinian Authority guidelines for the upcoming peace talks with Israel. Published by Palestine Today, an organ of the Islamic Jihad terror group, the list was flagged by anonymous blogger Elder of Ziyon who translated the 10 touchstone points of the talks. The list includes the following key items: Land swaps of roughly 8-10% of the territory of the West Bank; residents in “frozen” settlements will be given the choice of citizenship at the conclusion of the process; Jerusalem will be placed under joint international, Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian rule for ten years with Israelis being given the choice as to their nationality. While it is unclear how the document was leaked, Elder of Ziyon claimed that it could have possibly been from Russian sources. The Palestine Today report also points to Hamas, which is not party to Wednesday’s talks, as being the source of the information.  (EOZ) Were the guidelines for the "peace" talks leaked? (update) Palestine Today, an organ of Islamic Jihad, has been a surprisingly good source for accurate news (that doesn't involve Islamic Jihad.) They published a set of supposed guidelines for the "peace" talks starting this week, and they don't sound like someone's idea of misinformation.  It is expected that negotiations will take 6-9 months and will be based on the following guidelines:
1) Bilateral talks without any preconditions but following the guidelines listed here.
2) Jordan will participate in meetings relating to refugees, Jerusalem and borders where necessary.
3) "The security barrier will establish a security border for the Jewish state and a permanent border for the Palestinian state, subject to change by mutual agreement" (h/t Ali) Not sure what this means unless they are saying that Israel's borders will not go beyond the Green Line, which is strange if there is a land swap.
4) Land swaps of roughly 8-10% of the territory of the West Bank
5) Israel freezes construction on some outposts, but not on existing settlement blocs including Maaleh Adumim, Har Homa, Gilo, Neve Yaakov, Ramat Shlomo, Kiryat Arba, and some others with large populations
6) Residents in the "frozen" settlements will be given the choice of citizenship at the conclusion of the process
7) At the end of the negotiations it will be announced that the conflict is over and there will be full normalization of relations between Israel and all Arab countries announced at an Arab League meeting; Israel recognizing Palestine within the borders mentioned above and Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people
8) At the end of negotiations some Palestinian families will be allowed to re-unite in the WB and Gaza; others will get he right of compensation or immigration to Arab countries, especially Gulf countries, with them being naturalized in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar; not sure about the source of the compensation
9) Jerusalem will be placed under joint international/Palestinian/Israel/Jordanian rule for ten years with Israelis having the choice as to their nationality
10) I think that outstanding issues on specific land issues as well as citizenship issues both within the area and in Gulf countries will be pushed off to committees to speak about in coming years.

Also some details on prisoner releases, Palestinian elections, when the details of the agreement would be made public. It sounds like this document might have been sent to Moscow by Abbas for consultations, and it might have been leaked that way.

Meanwhile.... Hate gives Arabs a collective identity that is far more important than peace is. This story illustrates it in this question posed to an Arab before 1967 by Martha Gellhorn.
"If the position were reversed, if the Jews had started the war and lost it, if you had won the war, would you now accept Partition? Would you give up part of the country and allow the 650,000 Jewish residents of Palestine -who had fled from the war--to come back?" "Certainly not," he said, without an instant's hesitation. "But there would have been no Jewish refugees. They had no place to go. They would all be dead or in the sea."

...as illustrated...

Some went out to kill any Jew that would pass by; others targeted specific civilians. One killed a Holocaust survivor. Another killed an 84 year old man with an axe. Yet another targeted a 51 year old woman in the car where she would give rides to Arab workers. To Israel's "peace partner" Mahmoud Abbas, and to his people, they are heroes.











Obama Released Taliban Prisoners in July from Gitmo to Encourage ‘Peace’ Talks.

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(In late July five Taliban members who were held in the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were released)Under the proposal, some Taliban fighters or affiliates captured in the early days of the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and later sent to Guantanamo under the label of enemy combatants would be transferred out of full U.S. control but not released.

Iran's 'Moderates': Hassan Rouhani’s defense minister was founder of Lebanese Hezbollah.

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Hossein Dehghan standing alongside
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nassrallah
(OTHER NEWS) Iran's 'Moderates': Hassan Rouhani’s defense minister was founder of Lebanese Hezbollah.

NCRI,12 August 2013 - The Iranian regime’s new defense minister nominated by Hassan Rouhani is one of the founders of the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist group, regime websites have revealed.

The latest details of Hossein Dehghan’s murky past come after reports he was also a former terrorist student who stormed the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, taking 53 American diplomats hostage.

Now the regime’s news sites have told how Dehghan was a founder member of the Revolutionary Guards, and an IRGC commander in Tehran until 1982 when he played an active role in suppression of the opposition.

He was then appointed as the commander of the IRGC force in Syria before establishing the IRGC training garrison near Lebanese border to train the regime’s Lebanese agents.

He later entered Lebanon to set up the ‘Abol-Fazl Abbas Garrison’ in the Nabi-Shit region of Bekaa Valley and organized Hezbollah forces.

According regime websites, Dehghan had close relationship with Hezbollah leaders including Seyed Abbas Moussavi, the former Hezbollah chief killed in 1992, and Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s current leader.

Dehghan, born in 1957 in Shahreza, central Iran, has maintained his relationship with Hezbollah, who have also released photos of him in Lebanon alongside Moussavi.

The new minister in Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet was also among the ‘Line of Imam’ extremists who held the hostages captive for 444 days until their release in January 1981.

Details of Dehghan’s role in the US hostage crisis has been referred to on various websites of the clerical regime, including shakhsiatnegar.com and the ‘Muslim Students followers of Line of Imam’ site. However this information has been omitted from his official biography provided to the press following his nomination.Source.

More here from Carl in Jerusalem.

1,000 Jurists to EU: Settlements are Legal - Mammoth petition delivered to Catherine Ashton states: ’1967 lines’ don’t exist.

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A mammoth jurists’ petition delivered to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton states that the EU is wrong in holding that Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are illegal, and that the term “1967 lines” does not exist in international law.
The letter is signed by over 1,000 jurists worldwide. 1,000 Jurists to EU: Settlements are Legal - Mammoth petition delivered to Catherine Ashton states: ’1967 lines’ don’t exist.HT: INN.By Gil Ronen. (MFS Among the signatories are former justice minister Prof. Yaakov Ne’eman; former UN Ambassaor Dr. Meir Rosen; Britain’s Baroness Prof. Ruth Deech, Prof. Eliav Shochetman and Prof. Talia Einhorn.They include legal scholars from the U.S., Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Malta, Holland, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Taiwan, South Africa, Sweden and, of course, Israel.
The man behind the initiative is Dr. Alan Baker, Israel’s former ambassador to Canada and legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry, who currently heads the International Action Division of the Legal Forum for Israel.
Baker was also a member of the three-person committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Edmond Levy, known as the Levy Committee, which pronounced that Judea and Samaria were not occupied territory.(MORE)

The benefits of Internet porn

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This link between an increase in web porn and a decrease in rape was first noted in 2006 by Clemson economist Todd Kendall. Kendall’s study, which was supported by the National Bureau of Economic Research, concluded that “Internet access appears to be a substitute for rape; in particular, the results suggest that a 10 percentage point increase in Internet access is associated with a decline in reported rape victimization of around 7.3 percent.”
Recent statistics indicate that Kendall’s research was no fluke. In fact, as Internet access — as well as the amount of cheap or free online porn — has further increased, incidences of rape and sexual assault have continued to plummet.
According to the National Crime Victimization survey, an annual report published by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, the rape/sexual assault rate fell from 5 per 1,000 American women over age 12 in 1995 to 1.8 per 1,000 in 2011.
“Over the past two decades, as pornography has become much more easily accessible over the Internet, the rate of rape and sexual assault has declined by about 60 percent,” according to Ronald Bailey, a science correspondent at Reason magazine.
Even one 2009 Texas A&M study that began with an assumption that easy access to porn led to more rapes found that the opposite was true. The study’s authors admitted that “the increasing availability of pornography appears to be associated with a decline in rape.”
While crime rates are on the decline for all types of offenses, “it’s only rape (and sexual assault) that appears to be pegged to online connectivity,” Bailey reports.
Besides reducing the horrendous crimes of rape and sexual assault, online porn also appears to reduce several societal ills, as well. Over the last dozen years, since Internet pornography use first became widespread in the U.S., rates of divorce and teen pregnancy have also fallen.
Read more:
So I guess that book they pushed at Carnegie Mellon University by Susan Wendell was bullshit. It is a shame the school treated men so poorly based on the fraudulent data of a feminist

Obama again waives ban on Palestinian aid.

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(Obama again waives ban on Palestinian aid. HT: IsraelMatzav/MFS OTHER NEWS)
With a stroke of his pen, President Barack Obama paved the way for more aid to the Palestinian Authority on Friday, waiving congressional restrictions on funding to the organization — again.

Citing the United States’ “national security interests,” the president signed an executive order providing $148 million to the Palestinian Authority. That is in addition to the $500 million Obama authorized just four months ago, also in apparent violation of congressional authority. At that time, Secretary of State John Kerry said he would like to see an additional $200 million go to the Palestinian group, according to The Washington Times.

“Some lawmakers oppose the aid, both because of sequestration budget cuts and the Palestinian Authority’s ties to the terrorist organization Hamas,” the Times reported.

Section 3 of the Palestinian Accountability Act provides in part, “No funds available to any United States Government department or agency to carry out the provisions of chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 for any fiscal year may be obligated or expended with respect to providing funds to the Palestinian Authority.”

An administration official referred to the $148 million in aid as, “the most immediate and efficient means of helping the PA maintain and build the foundations of a viable, peaceful Palestinian state.”

This is the first time I've seen any mention that Iran, Syria and Russia were behind the Benghazi attacks

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This would contradict the Blind Shiek theory... or maybe not?

Is there a leak in the CIA? It is almost like the place is run by a Muslim

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( MIDDLE EAST AND TERRORISM /Americans Stand with Israel) by Arutz Sheva
The U.S. intelligence community has been leaking information on Israeli air strikes in Syria, and U.S. President Barack Obama is behind the leaks, according to a report in the World Tribune.
Diplomats told the Tribune that the Obama administration has enabled the U.S. intelligence community to disclose details of Israeli military operations against the armed forces under Syrian President Bashar Assad. These leaks include reporting Israeli air and naval strikes on advanced Iranian and Russian weapons that arrived in 2013.

“This is a decision that could come only from Obama,” a diplomat said. “[T]his reflects his dismay over the Israeli operations, which the president believes could result in a regional war.”
“The leaks will continue because there is a lot of resentment within the U.S. intelligence community over Israeli assessments regarding such countries as Egypt, Iran and Syria,” the diplomat added.
The latest leak attributed to the U.S. intelligence community was about a July 5 Israeli strike on a recent shipment of the P-800 Yakhont coastal defense system, at Latakia.

The diplomats said the CIA disclosed the Israeli strike to the press, and later said the operation was only partly successful. “While the warehouse was destroyed, American intelligence analysts have now concluded that at least some of the Yakhont missiles had been removed from their launchers and moved from the warehouse before the attack,” a U.S. official told the New York Times on July 31.

The diplomats told the World Tribune Israel has protested the U.S. leaks, which have increased tension with Damascus. They said the leaks have strained the CIA's relations with Israel’s Mossad. The CIA director is John Brennan, regarded as a confidante of Obama.
“The Israelis have also been going to their friends in Congress to stop the leaks,” the diplomat said.

BENGHAZI: UNAUTHORIZED WEAPONS OPERATION OR CONGRESSIONAL COVER-UP?

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What is going on with these Republicans?
(Brietbart) Legislation implemented in 1980 gave the president the authority to limit advance notification of especially sensitive covert actions to eight Members of Congress--the “Gang of Eight”: the chairmen and ranking minority Members of the two congressional intelligence committees, the Speaker and minority leader of the House, and Senate majority and minority leaders. These members are: House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA).
By law, such a covert weapons operation in Benghazi should have been known by all eight members. The disastrous results from the events of September 11, 2012 have not made it easy to get answers from these lawmakers regarding this point. 

Members of Congress seek to move US Embassy to Jerusalem

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(Ynet).HT: AstuteBlogger, Israel Matzav, MFS The Other News

Members of Congress have introduced legislation that would transfer the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, sending a message of commitment and resolve to Israel and also presenting the US government with a cost-saving measure at a time of major budget cuts.

The bipartisan bill, known as the Recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of the State of Israel Act (H.R. 2846), comes as Israelis and Palestinians are resuming peace negotiations after a three-year hiatus, and is intended to offer an unflinching sign of support on Capitol Hill for Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital.

The bill, which is being sponsored by Representatives Trent Franks (AZ-08), Brad Sherman (CA-30), Doug Lamborn (CO-05), Gene Green (TX-29), Juan Vargas (CA-51), is now being circulated among members of Congress.

The initiative is unique because it recommends that the United States government either repurpose the current Embassy property in Tel Aviv to a consulate, or sell the property, which has the potential to garner an estimated hundred million dollars at market value.

Former CIA Spook: John Brennan A “Bully Of The Highest Order”

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t
(involved in crafting the phony talking points that then-Secretary of State Susan Rice gave regarding attack)(alleged gun-running is being blamed for the death of Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission and CIA annex. CNN confirms)

Benghazi was about a blind shiek

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...a planned prisoner exchange to swap Ambassador Chris Stevens for “The Blind Sheik.”, a deal between Barack Obama and Mohamed Morsi that went bad.

Obama hides jets with Saudi Arabia

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the single largest sale of weapons to a foreign nation in the history of the U.S., outfitting Saudi Arabia with a fully modernized, potent new air force.

MUSLIM CABBIE DUMPS LESBIAN COUPLE ON SIDE OF FREEWAY BECAUSE THEY ARE GAY

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Broadway Cab driver suspended after allegedly forcing same-sex couple out on I-84Oregon Live, July 28, 2013 
(Shanako M. Devoll and her partner Kate Neal say a Broadway Cab driver ditched them on the side of a Portland freeway around midnight Thursday because of their sexual orientation.)
Devoll said she was showing affection to Neal when the cab driver started making inappropriate comments.
"I was holding her hand and we kissed a couple of times in the back seat, minding our own business,'' Devoll said. "He made homophobic remarks that were very hurtful to us. We did not want to be in his cab.''
But the couple asked to be let off at a safe spot, Devoll said.
"This was an unsafe situation. We told him 'we can't get out on the freeway. We're not getting out on the freeway,' '' she recalled. "If people are working in customer service they need to be able to accept people for who they are.''
Neal said the driver was yelling homophobic remarks at them, and they offered to pay the fare of just under $40 if he'd just let them out at a safe spot, off an exit ramp of the freeway. But Neal said he refused.
"When this happened, you're in shock and you're not believing that it's happening,'' Devoll said. "There is no reasoning. You just need to get out of the situation.''
They ended up out of the cab, on the side of eastbound Interstate 84, just before 102nd Avenue. 
Neal said their driver had radioed to another Broadway Cab driver, and a second cab pulled up alongside the freeway where they were let out. The second driver told the three on the side of the freeway to get into his cab, and they did, Neal said.
There was some communication between the first driver and the second outside of the cab, and suddenly the second cab driver told the group in his back seat to get out, according to Devoll and Neal.
"That second cab driver came back and ejected us from his cab,'' Neal said.

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