Austerity is hurting our health, say researchers

Posted on April 29, 2013 by DRenegade
People hold umbrellas as they march with a banner during a protest against government austerity measures in Barcelona April 28, 2013. REUTERS/Albert Gea

People hold umbrellas as they march with a banner during a protest against government austerity measures in Barcelona April 28, 2013. REUTERS/Albert Gea

(Reuters) – Austerity is having a devastating effect on health in Europe and North America, driving suicide, depression and infectious diseases and reducing access to medicines and care, researchers said on Monday.

Detailing a decade of research, Oxford University political economist David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu, an assistant professor of medicine and an epidemiologist at Stanford University, said their findings show austerity is seriously bad for health.

In a book to be published this week, the researchers say more than 10,000 suicides and up to a million cases of depression have been diagnosed during what they call the “Great Recession” and its accompanying austerity across Europe and North America.

In Greece, moves like cutting HIV prevention budgets have coincided with rates of the AIDS-causing virus rising by more than 200 percent since 2011 – driven in part by increasing drug abuse in the context of a 50 percent youth unemployment rate.

More…

Posted in Editorial, Financial | Tagged | Comments Off on Austerity is hurting our health, say researchers

Gold Bears Defy Rally as Goldman Closes Short Wager: Commodities

Posted on April 29, 2013 by DRenegade

Hedge funds accumulated their second-biggest bet against gold on record just as prices rallied the most in 15 months on surging demand for coins and jewelry and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. ended a recommendation to sell.

The funds and other large speculators held 69,726 so-called short contracts on April 23, within 0.6 percent of the all-time high reached six weeks earlier, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. The net-long position dropped 25 percent to 46,168 futures and options. Net-bullish wagers across 18 U.S.-traded raw materials slid 5 percent, the third decline in four weeks, with cuts in silver, corn and gasoline.

Bullion rallied 11 percent since reaching a two-year low April 16. The U.S. Mint ran out of its smallest gold coin last week, with sales across its products poised for the best month since December 2009, and the U.K. Mint said purchases tripled. Premiums paid by jewelers in India (XAUINR), the biggest importer, to secure supply surged as much as five fold in 10 days. Goldman said April 23 it closed a bearish recommendation, while saying further declines are likely.

“It’s bizarre that the price has come back so rapidly,” said Donald Selkin, who helps manage about $3 billion of assets as the chief market strategist at National Securities Corp. in New York. “After the big decline, demand jumped like crazy. It’s the old rubber-band theory: You stretch too far, and eventually, it snaps back. Banks came in to buy, and there is record demand for coins around the world.”

Gold Rally

More…

Posted in Editorial, Financial | Tagged | Comments Off on Gold Bears Defy Rally as Goldman Closes Short Wager: Commodities

Obama Begins Push For New National Retirement System

Posted on April 29, 2013 by DRenegade

It may be time to take the tax hit and withdraw funds from private retirement accounts before they are forced into long term T-bonds.

The Obama administration is reportedly quickly moving on plans to nationalize private 401k and IRA retirement accounts, and replace them with government sponsored annuities(aka Treasury bonds that the Treasury currently can’t sell to anyone but the Fed).

National Seniors Council Director Robert Crone warns: “This whole issue is moving forward very quickly. Already there is a bill requiring all businesses to automatically enroll their employees in IRA plans in which part of every employee’s paycheck would be automatically deducted and deposited into this account. If this passes, the government will be just one step away from being able to confiscate all these retirement accounts.”

All your retirement savings are belong to us:

More…

Posted in Editorial, Financial | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Lack of Diversity? It Used to Be Called Racism

Posted on April 28, 2013 by DRenegade

Charlotte Mayor Anthony FoxxPresident Barack Obama on Monday will nominate Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx as his new transportation secretary, a White House official told The Associated Press Sunday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Foxx would replace outgoing Secretary Ray LaHood.

Foxx is Obama’s first black nominee among the new Cabinet members appointed for the second term. The president faced criticism early in his second term for a lack of diversity among his nominees.

More…

Posted in Editorial | Comments Off on Lack of Diversity? It Used to Be Called Racism

GRNC Alert 4-28-13: Restaurant Carry Gets Vote on Tuesday! Help Fight-off Weakening Amendments!

Posted on April 28, 2013 by DRenegade

Help Fight-off Weakening Amendments!

On Wednesday, HB 937, “Amend Various Firearm Laws” which contains; restaurant carry, provisions for guns in locked vehicles on college campuses, carry in assemblies for which admission is charged, and a “cleanup” of parks carry language, passed from the House Judiciary A Subcommittee. It is now calendared for a vote on the House floor on Tuesday, April 30. Attacks by anti-gun leftists, narrowly fended off in the committee, will likely be tried again when the bill hits the floor.

Anti-gun treachery you can expect

Numerous anti-gun amendments were attempted in committee, principally by Reps. Deborah Ross (D-Wake, 0-star) and Darren Jackson (D-Wake , GRNC 0-star) . Although all anti-gun amendments failed in committee, they will try again when the bill hits the floor, so here they are:

Protecting rapists instead of students: Both UNC lobbyist Andrew Moretz and NCSU police chief Jack Moorman testified to the committee in opposition to allowing concealed handgun permit-holders to keep guns on college campuses, but neglected mentioning the high rate of violent crime on those campuses. In fact, Moorman apparently prefers to protect rapists rather than students, since the morning after he testified against self-protection on campuses, a student was dragged into bushes and raped outside the “Free Expression Tunnel.” Lest you assume Rep.Bob Steinburg (R-Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell, ****) supports the bill, he introduced an amendment which would have undermined the deterrent effect of guns on campus by requiring guns be kept in locked compartments within vehicles.

“Poison pill” amendments to restaurant carry: Although at least 43 states have some type of restaurant carry (including laws recently passed in Georgia, Arizona, Tennessee, Virginia, and Ohio) Reps. Ross and Jackson remain committed to stopping you from protecting your family in restaurants. If they can’t remove it entirely, they will use “poison pill” amendments to induce the NC Restaurant & Lodging Assoc., which is currently neutral on the bill, to oppose it.

Continue reading →

Posted in 2nd Amendment, Editorial | Tagged , , | Comments Off on GRNC Alert 4-28-13: Restaurant Carry Gets Vote on Tuesday! Help Fight-off Weakening Amendments!

14,000 hungry, scared, angry food stamp recipients come to your local Walmart…

Posted on April 28, 2013 by DRenegade

44 million is too big a number for most people to understand, including me. The numbers mean this is 14,000 food stamp recipients for each of the 3,500 Walmarts in America. That’s still hard for most people to visualize.

This amazing article shows with easy to understand computer-generated pictures what 14,000 people at a Walmart would look like:

Now imagine this is going on at all of the 3,500 Walmarts in the country.  You think your local police – let alone the Department of Homeland Security – have enough officers to keep order at your local Walmart?  Now imagine this happening at all 3,500 Walmarts.  This is why I don’t think the authorities can pull off much.  They’ll have 14,000 people per Walmart to deal with.

More…

Posted in Editorial, Food | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Tehran presses Assad to send Hizballah sophisticated anti-air interceptors

Posted on April 28, 2013 by DRenegade
Self-propelled SA-17 anti-air interceptor

Self-propelled SA-17 anti-air interceptor

Israeli Air Force jets were reported flying over Damascus in the last few hours by foreign sources. According to debkafile’s Iranian and intelligence sources, Iran has been pushing Bashar Assad hard to let Hizballah have sophisticated weapons, including self-propelled SA-17 interceptor missile systems. Tehran is reminding the Syrian ruler of the debt he owes Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah who was ready to deploy 5,000 out of Hizballah’s 8,000 combat-ready fighters to Syrian battlefields to fight rebel forces and keep the Assad regime in power.

Assad is therefore in no position to spurn Tehran’s demand.

And so, preparations for sending those weapons systems across to Lebanon have been sighted in the last few days at Syrian military bases. Israeli Air Force are said to be overhead monitoring these movements after Israel repeatedly warned Damascus any attempts to make such transfers would draw a reaction.

On Jan. 30, Israel bombed a convoy passing through Jamraya near Damascus on its way to Lebanon with a consignment of sophisticated weapons systems for Hizballah.
The drone launched on April 25 from Lebanon, which Israeli fighter planes shot down opposite Haifa, is seen now as a counter-warning from Tehran that if Israel strikes another arms convoy on its way from Syria to Lebanon, the next drones flying over Israel would be armed and come in numbers.

The Israeli security cabinet held a long session on the Syrian question Sunday, April 28, headed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. They reached a number of decisions on how to handle the latest developments on the Syrian front, including evidence of the use of chemical weapons.

More…

Posted in Editorial, War | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Tehran presses Assad to send Hizballah sophisticated anti-air interceptors

I Am Not Laughing

Posted on April 28, 2013 by DRenegade
Barack Obama

President Barack Obama at the White House Correspondents Dinner. (AP Photo)

Speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, President Barack Obama joked that he is no longer a young Muslim socialist.

Early in the speech, Obama jocularly said that his advisers “suggested that I should start with some jokes at my own expense, just take myself down a peg. I was like, guys, after four and a half years, how many pegs are there left?”

A few moments later, the president joked: “Now, look, I get it. These days, I look in the mirror and I have to admit, I’m not the strapping young Muslim socialist that I used to be. Time passes. You get a little gray.”

Source

Posted in Editorial, Radical Islam, Religion | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Truth Is Still the Truth

Posted on April 28, 2013 by DRenegade

clip_image001

Posted in Editorial | Tagged | 6 Comments

SGT Report UNBOUND: MEGA Precious Metals Update

Posted on April 28, 2013 by DRenegade

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYhZ3FAgyc4#t=120s

From YouTube:

The news is coming at us so fast and furiously (pun intended) that it’s hard to keep up, even for us. But here’s a half hour update dedicated to the very latest cartel precious metals manipulation news as we watch the end game unfold before our eyes: The COMEX default and economic collapse nears as 99% of ALL gold sales in the last 3 months was thanks to primary broker and agent of the FEDERAL RESERVE, JP Morgan. You can’t make this stuff up – it can ONLY happen when and if the collapse is at hand.

Posted in Editorial, Financial | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on SGT Report UNBOUND: MEGA Precious Metals Update

Front-Line Observations from a Seasoned Gold & Silver Bullion Dealer

Posted on April 28, 2013 by DRenegade

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IC55oABdWg#t=15s

Posted in Editorial, Financial | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

On Black Guns

Posted on April 28, 2013 by DRenegade

 

I went to a garden shop yesterday for some supplies. The owner told me that he was out but expecting a shipment (no, it was no potassium nitrate).

He asked for a card to call me when the supplies came in . I gave him one of my CADD Graphics AR-15 cutout cards expecting the usual “cool” response.

Instead, he started to lecture me on why automatic rifles are not necessary for hunting and “black guns” are “bad”. When I asked what an AR-15 had to do with hunting, he did not have an answer other than “people use them to shoot deer on the run”.

Since the man was not sentient, I did not engage him further. The media and government would have been proud. As for me, one less business that I will be supporting in the future.

David DeGerolamo

Posted in 2nd Amendment, Editorial | Tagged , | 1 Comment

On Noise Pollution…

Posted on April 28, 2013 by DRenegade

Source

Obama is a politician. By extension, are all politicians liars? This is obviously an example of flawed logic but ask yourself how many politicians do you trust to tell us the truth.

How many people are fooling themselves by placing their fate in the hands of the political parties responsible for destroying our future? The solution is looking at you in the mirror.

David DeGerolamo

Posted in Editorial | Comments Off on On Noise Pollution…

Two Viewpoints on Muslims in Burma

Posted on April 28, 2013 by DRenegade

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz7glYZSOyI

Another view:

There is no hope at all for those who follow the MSM news to ever get even a tiny glimpse of objective truth. It is tragic indeed, and very depressing, for those who believe in freedom of information and unbiased news reporting.

Luckily enough, Wirathu has been given a voice at the Burmese online magazine “The Irrawaddy”. His declarations made to this magazine allow us to know the side of the story which the MSM so dhimmishly conceal:

“…I have been told about many cases, such as cases of fighting between Burmese and Muslims and rape cases of 4th- and 7th-grade girls. Most rape victims are students. Other cases are physical attacks and insulting Buddhism — to tell you the truth, there was a case of verbal abuse of monks. Other cases include illegal mosques; mosques and Muslim graveyards constructed without government permission. I’ve received over 50 such cases and I provided suggestions in over 100 cases. I told them to solve the cases in accordance with the law and most take my advice, even the senior monks. Everything is fine as I deal with the cases within the law. In our community, the real 969 [campaigners] do not use violence”.

This shows great contrast with what the article in Spiegel writes about him: “The radical monk is extremely dangerous. Because in the climate of fear and violence heated up by Wirathu […] our land will no longer be peaceful.”

But nevertheless Wirathu is very aware of the real danger. He says that “If you buy in a Muslim shop, then your money does not remain there. It will be used to destroy your race and your religion.” That is, the money spent in a Muslim shop (or at least a part of it) will inevitably be used to fund any of the various forms of jihad.

More…

Posted in Editorial | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Two Viewpoints on Muslims in Burma

Two police officers shot near Italian prime minister’s office as new government is sworn in

Posted on April 28, 2013 by DRenegade

Italy’s paramilitary police, the Carabinieri, a unit of NATO Training Mission – Iraq are responsible for mentoring the training of the Iraqi Federal Police and instructing the Basic Oil Police course at Camp Dublin, Victory Base Complex. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Karen Sampson)

Two Italian paramilitary police officers were shot and wounded near the Italian prime minister’s office today as the new government was sworn in around half a mile away at the president’s palace.

An AP television producer saw two injured officers, one of them lying on the pavement with blood pouring out of his neck. Seven bullets lay on the square.

A man was arrested at the scene of the shooting, a witness said, and it was initially unclear whether the attack was linked to the launch of the new government.

The Italian news agency ANSA said the assailant, described in reports as a man dressed in a suit and tie, was detained by police.

One of the officers was shot in the neck and was in a serious condition, police said.

More…

Itay’s Paramilitary police? Is that the same as the militarized police in Boston?

David DeGerolamo

Posted in Editorial | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Two police officers shot near Italian prime minister’s office as new government is sworn in