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This attempt to build an unified Europe is coming to the same end all the previous ones have. The only question is: how chaotic will the collapse be?

It won't be a collapse, it will be a war, actually a civil war similar to the mid-19th century civil war in the United States. The United States of Europe will go through the same thing. The wealthy productive states will impose more and more requirements on the indebted states, the indebted states rebel, the wealthy states resentful that their money would be used to bail out the states that spent more than they had, and it will come to a head.

So which are the wealthy states? Well, at the top is Germany. And many in Europe see Germany as attempting to implement the "Fourth Reich" to take over Europe through financial means. That may be a little over-the-top, but the political climate there is growing heated. Germany and the EU will use this crisis to press for greater central control, and in fact are already doing so. Countries that don't like giving up more sovereignty balk, and more financial pressure is applied. We can only hope it doesn't turn into a shooting war. Already a lot of street-level violence going on.

With all due respect to the victims and their families and friends - this isn't world news. In quite a few parts of the world, not just Iraq and Afghanistan, that's a small note somewhere on page 5 of the local newspaper.

It seems the world disagrees with you. This are all page one stories at sites that span the world.

Germany - USA: Explosionen beim Boston-Marathon - drei Tote, hundert Verletzte
Russia , (Act of terrorism committed in the U.S., numerous victims reported
Australia - US on alert after blasts shatter Boston Marathon killing 3, wounding 140
India - Boston Marathon bombing kills 3, injures over 130
Argentina - Bombs kill 3 people, wound more than 100 at Boston Marathon
United Arab Emirates - Boston Marathon: 3 killed, more than 140 injured as 2 bombs explode near finish line
South Africa - Boston terror attack: Three killed, 100 injured
Japan - 3 dead, more than 110 hurt after two bombs explode near Boston Marathon finish line

So it's not news-worthy for the body count and not for the fact that there was a bomb or two.

Actually it is newsworthy, for both reasons. Mass casualty events tend to be that way. Last I heard the number of bombs was 5-7.

And, most importantly and most disgustingly, we are still thinking in tribal norms. Our own dead and wounded are more important than the foreign ones.

Every family looks after its own first, as does every country. But as to tribes - there aren't really any tribes in the West anymore, none that function anyway. (Were the last the Scotts?) You might try that line of thinking on people from parts of the world that actually do have functioning tribes, such as the Middle East, or Africa. Your disgust will probably be taken as evidence of being crazy. It wouldn't even be a question to them - of course you look after the tribe first, it is a matter of survival. If you can convince the Arabs that making peace with the Jews is preferable to killing them, you might have a chance a reducing tribalism, but I doubt you can eliminate it.

Besides violating over a dozen international treaties...

Untrue. There are exceptions to WTO treaty obligations, one of which includes national security.

...an unsubstantiated claim that there may be espionage/surveillance capability built into some devices.And let me be clear: No government or private agency has come forward with conclusive proof that any product made in China for commercial resale has these capabilities built into it at the direction of the Government.

There were many claims from many different parties that the Chinese government engaged in active spying/covert intelligence gathering on New York Times, Google, RSA. And those are just the ones we know. Lets also not forget the Mandiant Report that caused such a reaction online not too long ago. None of this is conclusive proof but it sure is a great cause for concern.

The economic and political rammifications of this are being glossed over -- this action doesn't just affect our relationship with China, but with any country we do business with, because they signed the same treaties, and now they're looking at our unilateral action and thinking: What makes us think the US won't renege on their deal with us?

The consequences you paint may well be overblown. There is evidence that the US is not the only country worried about China's activities. Australia, for example, has blocked Huawei from bidding for work on its $38 billion national broadband network, for the same security fears. Germany has sent representatives to the Chinese Government to ask them to stop, unofficially. Even the UK is so worried about the China spying problem that Jonathan Evans, director general of MI5 publicly warned that the West now faces an "astonishing" cyber espionage threat on an "industrial scale" from specific nation states.

Given that China itself uses national security as a reason for imposing restrictions on foreign commercial activities on its shores, I really don't think there is any basis to complain about the present measures introduced by the US.

There is broadly applicable principle that laws should not usually yield counter intuitive results. If they do, the odds favor the law itself being unjust. In this case, we're punishing a harmless-but-stupid mechanic for making otherwise legal car customizations only because our perverse drug laws created an unreasonable situation. Also, the DEA and DOJ got pissed that he feared the drug dealers more than them.

There is ample evidence that drug prohibition causes crime and prevents treatment, making all the DEA agents, DOJ prosicutors, and prison contractors who lobby for unjust intimidating laws wholly responsible for the drug related deaths, addiction cases, etc. All the ridiculous scenarios like asset forfeiture cases or locking up mechanics who make otherwise legal mods flow entirely from the underlying corruption in our prison-industrial-complex.

There is one small measure I'd suggest that might reduce the problem somewhat : Do not permit federal prosecutors to become federal judges or win primaries for elected office. Any time we hear about a proposed judicial appointment or a new candidate in some race, just google them and find their past jobs. If they were a federal prosecutor, then google more to find if they ever brought charges under the CFAA, DMCA, etc. or if any drug cases stand out as unjust. If so, then make a stink online to help derail their career advancement. If federal prosecutors cannot usually become federal judges or representatives then they'll lose considerable lobbying power over time.

Namie may never recover.

What is this bullshit and why are you modded insightful?

Radiation type pollution by definition *disappears* over time. Never is an infinite amount of time. Over a period of 5 generations, there will not be enough radiation to be of any importance. Over a period of 2 generations, there will be less radiation in Namie than in New York.

And before you start with other bullshit about "outside" radiation, radon is not exactly "outside".

An airline pilot is exposed to radiation from outside his/her body, most of which can't penetrate the skin and none of which accumulates permanently. The next year the pilots exposure is still 20uSv/yr, and if they stop flying it drops back to norm

Utter *ignorance*. Most of the extra radiation that pilots are exposed to originates from cosmic radiation particle showers. They easily penetrate **the plane**, yet, you say they can't penetrate the skin?? Think logically.

Secondly, "radiation" doesn't accumulate. Radioactive elements accumulate. Unless you start eating dirt around Fukushima, the "radiation" there also doesn't accumulate and most certainly can't penetrate the skin - it is much less energetic than from potassium!

Give me 100 acres around Namie and I'll move there tomorrow and live there for next 50+ years. There is much worse shit you are exposed to everyday than some radiation. Another case and point,

http://www.spiegel.de/international/living-in-chernobyl-radioactivity-that-s-nonsense-a-412954.html

people have never evacuated. They lived there for last 26 years and the only thing they gained was peace and quiet. Paranoia and related mental illnesses is what will kill people in Japan, not radiation.

That is what causes cancer and leukemia, and that is why every child living near Chernobyl had to have their thyroid glands removed

No leukemia spike from Chernobyl. Only about 200 cases of actual thyroid cancer attributable to Chernobyl and that is 99.99% curable. On the other hand, 1000s and 1000s that have literally killed their thyroids with "protective iodine dosages" and similar got butchered because ultrasound finds benign growths and they remove the thyroid "to be safe". You know, 15-60% of population has thyroid nodules (genetic). A doctor would tell you "if you look for something, you will find it", it doesn't mean there is a problem. From circulatory issues to growths, you'll find it! *Everyone* has those.

FUD and more FUD. No wander people freak out about "radiations". How many "victims" and "survivors" have killed themselves with alcoholism and other drugs? Think about it.

Sure, then again you guys in the US do have this real problem with environmentalists and NIMBY's wanting to stop all nuclear power plants too, and really anything. Bah it's a mess no way or the other, I'm sure you'll find this story interesting though, about germany canceling a trio of climate/green energy programs as their budget becomes tighter.

Agriculture may have given us civilization but beer gave us agriculture.

But unfortunately it is half-true.

Wikileaks at least shares some of the blame for leaking the information. At least gross incompetence over the handling of sensitive information.

I'm not saying the NYTimes would have done any better, but I know if I handled sensitive information in my job as clumsily as Wikileaks did, I'd be shown the door pretty damn quick.

that guy on Fox who talked about how sunny Germany is compared to the US and how that's why solar power makes sense for them...

Research this. Make sure you understand what actually happened vs. what you are accusing.

What actually happened was a reasonable news story and one person, a woman named Shibani Joshi, made one throwaway comment that wasn't part of the story. It was a mistake for her to make a comment like that about an area she hadn't researched well. But if you watch the clip on YouTube you can hear her say "In California, it's a great solution; here on the east coast, it's not gonna work." Lots of articles are mocking her and amplifying her claim to say that the whole USA gets less sun than Germany. It turns out that even the east coast gets more sun than Germany, so she was wrong, but not as stupidly wrong as people are saying.

Here is an article by Shibani Joshi, a follow-up. She publicly retracts her mistaken comment.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/02/08/germany-isnt-all-that-sunny-and-case-for-diversified-energy-world/

The other big mistake Shibani Joshi made was to agree that solar power was "working out great" for Germany. The price of electricity is brutally high there. Here's an article, not by Fox news, but by a respected German news magazine.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/consumers-bear-brunt-of-german-switch-to-renewable-energies-a-861415.html

Now that you have gone on record as opposed to false statements by the news media, can I get you to complain about the stuff Piers Morgan has been saying about guns, or the false reporting about how the economy is not that bad, or the savage attacks on Mitt Romney for claiming that Jeeps were going to be built in China (claims that were correct), or the false reporting about the dangers of fracking, or any of a dozen other things I could mention?

It wouldn't be wise to get all your news from Fox. It also wouldn't be wise to get all your news from the Huffington Post, or CNN, or any other single source.

I happened in Berlin: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/a-perfect-crime-twins-suspected-in-spectacular-jewelry-heist-set-free-a-614245.html

I think there have been other occasions too.

Should be possible - just not with the bums running the show right now.

"The bums" have tried, but it's failing:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-desertec-solar-energy-project-has-run-into-trouble-a-867077.html

You can't make this sort of thing happen with massive subsidies; people will eat up the subsidies, and when they stop, they just revert to doing things the old, cheap way. Furthermore, the Sahara is not politically stable enough for anybody to make that kind of investment.

Germany has advanced its clean energy capacity because it has maintained a clear and consistent policy of incentivizing it for over a decade. It is paying off. Last year they set a record by generating half of weekend electricity demand with solar. Denmark has managed something similar with wind power, getting 24% of its electricity that way.

Of course, Germany and Denmark have strong green constituencies who support those policies, but there are realpolitik concerns at work too. A few years back Russia shut down the natural gas pipeline that ran through the Ukraine to Germany and central Europe because they wanted to play politics with the Ukrainians. Natural gas prices spiked in Europe overnight and put a serious crimp in its economy. The Germans, Danes, and many others got the wake up call and have been driving toward energy independence hard.

There are longer term benefits for those economies who move their energy base off fossil fuels: predictable energy costs. In economic terms, when you increase the predictability and stability of key inputs businesses can better plan and grow, in the same way that low inflation means businesses can better know what their borrowing costs and real revenues will be.

Actually the irony gets even better.: A year ago she publicly humiliated another politician because of his shoddy "copy & paste" PhD. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-press-review-of-the-annette-schavan-plagiarism-scandal-a-881783.html

Does the article say if he also plans to clone a bride for him?

TFA (here's the English-language version, although from your name and earlier comments I'm guessing you might be German-speaking and thus don't need a translation) says:

SPIEGEL: How do we have to imagine this: You raise Neanderthals in a lab, ask them to solve problems and thereby study how they think?

Church: No, you would certainly have to create a cohort, so they would have some sense of identity. They could maybe even create a new neo-Neanderthal culture and become a political force.

We don't need the google translate version, there is an official one: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/george-church-explains-how-dna-will-be-construction-material-of-the-future-a-877634.html

I saw another summary of this report a day ago (in a German language publication) and they included a detail missing from this particular summary. Healthcare in the US costs almost $8000 per capita, the median in the other countries was around $3200.

Pretty much everything they measured (Diabetes, Heart problems, Lung problems, whatever) the US was way over at the wrong end of the table.

Sure is easy to always hit the terrorists when "militant" is defined as a non-infant male killed by drone.

http://voices.yahoo.com/report-obama-redefines-militant-avoid-counting-11403806.html

Any other bullshit you want to shovel asshole? You have blood on your hands by virtue of your blind suckage of the lies. That makes you an accessory to evil and as such, you deserve loathing just as the people pulling the trigger on "dogs" (the childlike two legged variety) in drone attacks deserve.

http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/07/18/washingtons-untrue-claims-no-civilian-deaths-in-pakistan-drone-strikes/

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/pain-continues-after-war-for-american-drone-pilot-a-872726.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2208307/Americas-deadly-double-tap-drone-attacks-killing-49-people-known-terrorist-Pakistan.html

So why are you for government funded stuff when e.g. germany clearly shows the industry and society can handle it alone?

Germany's energy sector is extensively subsidized, directly, through tax breaks, and through price controls. I think those subsidies are bad policy:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-addresses-problems-with-renewable-energy-subsidy-system-a-852549.html

I'm for some "government funded stuff", namely when it makes economic sense. That's either because it produces a public good, or because it accounts for some externality, or because it compensates for other government interference (like, for example, patents and subsidies on fossil fuels) that politically can't be eliminated by other means.

Why do you care about global CO2 certification trade or emission limits? It costs you nothing. You should not care at all. But you believe it is somehow bad?

First, until low-GHG energy is as cheap as oil and coal, imposing emission limits must necessarily cause prices to go up, and that makes me poorer. Once low-GHG energy is as cheap as oil and coal, you don't need emission limits because producers and consumers will switch voluntarily.

Second, in order for trading or emission limits to be meaningful, they would have to be global and uniform. They can't be based on population or historical usage, they'd have to be structured like a global auction for a limited number of carbon credits. If you don't do it that way, GHG-intensive production will simply move to countries outside the regime. But China isn't going to agree to that, and it would be economic suicide for lots of other nations. So, certificates and carbon trading as proposed by all the protocols to date amount to nothing more than corporate welfare and international financial aid, but often to corporations and nations that don't even need it.

Here is the fundamental difference between Rwanda and Syria. The Rwandan Genocide was horrific but it was a national tragedy. It was not as if the Tutsi and Hutus were going to export their fight elsewhere. The fight in Syria has regional and global ramifications - that's a huge difference.

The fight in Syria is of interest to the West because the jihadis fighting there are working to establish a *global* Caliphate (according to their own words) that is coming to an area near you as soon as they can do it. They are against Free Thought, Free Speech, Women's Rights, Homosexual Rights, the equality of all religions and ethnicities. In short, the battle for Syria is not an isolated situation - it is part of the ongoing upheavals in the region that are going to spread elsewhere as soon as the jihadis finish their current round of fighting. Interestingly enough, they appear to be trying to follow a plan revealed in 2005 by the respected Der Spiegel - http://www.spiegel.de/international/the-future-of-terrorism-what-al-qaida-really-wants-a-369448.html and according to this timeline it appears things are proceeding to their plan (according to the plan we're between Stages 4 and 5, as far as I can see).

So my suggestion about Syria is to not listen to what poorly informed pundits in the West are saying (since they appear to be in willful denial). Instead, listen to what the jihadis are saying. They are not hiding their agenda at all. Their plan is to bring Sharia to the globe and restore the Caliphate. Don't believe what I say, just do a simple YouTube search of their speeches in Arabic (with English subtitles) - since the principle of 'taqiyya' means whatever they say in English doesn't count. Also, it appears the Russians have a greater awareness than the US does about this (although part of the problem is that the Russians supported Assad when the protests were still peaceful yet the will of the people was clearly against his regime).

It is the difference between a regional genocide and the intent of global genocide/domination that makes Syria worthwhile of more attention than Rwanda. Ideally we'd give attention to both, but if we have to prioritize then it is simple which conflict is more significant for *global* human rights and Enlightenment values than the other. Yes?

It will be hard calling you six years ago.

So they don't actually have an automatic system for picking up the content of interest? That's hardly believable.

According to one drone operator they have at least a recording system which helps to label smaller than adult size human objects on two legs as four legged dogs.

Germany already said so in 2010.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/defending-privacy-german-high-court-limits-phone-and-e-mail-data-storage-a-681251.html

Simply put, the US is in no position to lecture anyone about incarceration rates [wikipedia.org].

Simply put, you just changed the subject from one which many Europeans and Westerners would rather avoid, limits on free speech, to the ever popular topic of US prison population (Why do they have so many people in jail when crime rates are dropping? Duh!)

Why free speech is baffling to many
European Free Speech Under Attack
Are there limits to freedom of speech?
Muslim Protests Show Limits of Free Speech

Ok...
Doctors leaving Germany over low wages:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/german-brain-drain-sick-of-bad-pay-doctors-flee-germany-a-399537.html

Waiting lists for hospital treatment:
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/nireland/healthcare_ni/healthcare_nhs_healthcare_e/nhs_patients_rights.htm#Hospitalwaitinglists

Hospitals unable to meet maximum wait times and resorting to fraud to meet guidelines:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-90691/Patients-cheated-NHS-waiting-list-scandal.html

Wait times continue to increase despite government pressure:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/19/david-cameron-pressure-nhs-waiting-times
"Recent hospital figures show the average waiting time across all 19 departments to be about eight months. While breast surgery patients are seen in less than a month, patients waiting for a pain management appointment can expect to wait years"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-20238418

Remember those "death panels" that were such a joke? Meet a victim of one:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/2910780/NHSs-refusal-to-fund-cancer-treatment-costs-mother-21000.html

There's a movement growing rapidly in Europe to reduce traffic signs and lights, and they are finding that removing signs and lights can cause a rather dramtic reduction in accidents. A number of cities have done away with traffic lights and signs entirely with surprisingly good results. (EG: average trip times drop dramatically, accident rate plummets, people report greater satisfaction, etc)

I'm not saying that we should do away with all signs everywhere, but there is sufficient evidence available that the "common sense" utility of the traffic sign or a traffic light is clearly unproven.

What if it's a false positive?

Also, for those who think this is extremely unlikely and automatically believe DNA evidence is some sort of slam-dunk:

Teenager wrongly accused of rape (and imprisoned) because of DNA contamination (fortunately, it was picked up in this case)

DNA evidence contamination leads to review of 7,000 cases The police in Victoria are reviewing 7,000 cases involving DNA evidence after they had to withdraw murder charges in a high profile cold case. Police now say they deeply regret having charged a man with the murders of Margaret Tapp and her daughter Seana, at their home in 1984. They charged Russell Gesah two weeks ago, but since then problems have emerged with the DNA evidence.

DNA rape sample procedures 'not adequate' Adam Scott, from Devon, was held for a couple of months after being accused of raping a woman in Manchester. The charges were dropped when it emerged a DNA sample had been contaminated at LGC Forensics.

Police Fear 'Serial Killer' Was Just DNA Contamination A notorious German serial killer known as "the Phantom of Heilbronn" might not exist. Police believe DNA evidence which pointed to a 15-year trail of crimes across Germany was a case of contaminated cotton swabs.

Aerosolized Vaccine as an Unexpected Source of False-Positive Bordetella pertussis PCR Results etc.

An interesting side effect: A few years ago, a most PV panels installed here in Germany where actually produced in Germany. Since there is now a much bigger market for them, production has shifted abroad, mainly to China (of course).
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/german-and-chinese-solar-firms-fight-for-survival-a-835367.html

In most EU countries, higher education is either free or cheap. That makes it available to practically everyone, which makes the EU countries the true lands of equal opportunity.

Spoken like someone who doesn't live there and is speaking from the outside. Education is not free, it's paid for by taxes - which Europe has no lack of and are far from cheap. If you think Europe is a bastion of opportunity and equality you're sorely mistaken. Racism and Nationalism are alive and well, if you're an outsider you will forever be a foreigner there. Look at France, Germany, Norway.

All countries have their faults, this isn't some broad claim that Europe should be avoided, far from it. This is like someone misunderstanding the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit.

Spiegel had a very good series of articles on different forms of governance, their strengths and weaknesses. Here is a link to part 4 (China) and you can find links to introduction as well as parts 1-3 (Brazil, US, Denmark) in the preamble of the article:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/putting-the-plan-into-action-how-china-s-leaders-steer-a-massive-nation-a-843593.html

550 goddamn votes in Florida and you'd see what difference not electing Bush the Lesser would have made, kemosabe.

Would we? Here are a couple of views:

The History of the U.S. – If Al Gore Became President
If Al Gore Had Won in 2000

Here are a few of mine:

Al Qaida was attacking United States embassies and the Cole under the Clinton administration.
It seems pretty certain that 9/11 would still have happened.
If 9/11 happens, it's pretty certain a global war against Al Qaida follows, and very likely war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Invasion? Probably.

Economic crashes? Of course. The internet-centric business meltdown is virtually certain to have occurred, and the housing bubble not much less so. The internet-centric business meltdown was the result of trends started in the Clinton administration. The actual wrong-doing for Enron occurred under the Clinton administration. The housing bubble was a result of policies with broad bi-partisan support.

Iraq? That is more of a wildcard. The US policy calling for regime change in Iraq was set under the Clinton administration. It is virtually certain that there would have been conflicts with Iraq, including armed action. Would it have lead to invasion and occupation of Iraq? Somewhere along the line of less likely to no. There almost certainly would have been bombings though, probably a lot more of them to compensate for the lack of ground forces. Saddams army in 2003 was strong enough to hold Iraq against rebellion that wasn't aided externally. It seems pretty certain that either Saddam or one of his sons would still be in power. They might even have thrown off sanctions due to the "Oil for Food" program bribes and the loss of interest in the world community in containing him. Saddam with no sanctions means a Saddam rearming and continuing to support terrorism (no, not Al Qaida). He might ever do it with a vengence. Would Iraqis be better off? Very unlikely. Saddam used the food money to build palaces and buy weapons while the infrastructure crumbled, and people perished. That is from simple neglect. Saddam's government filled Iraq with large numbers of mass graves. Had Saddam's regime not been overthrown, the killing would have continued.

You may recall that Saddam had to restrain his sons, they were crueler than he was.

How Bad Was Saddam’s Son?

. . . Latif’s first lesson was to learn how to not react in disgust or become sick at Hussein regime cruelty. He was taken to a viewing room holding thousands of videos of torture sessions.

Saddam’s son had learned the same way. “Uday told me whenever he seemed weak or squeamish as a child his father would beat him with an iron bar and then force him to watch videos of prisoners being tortured.”

It worked. “Just wait until I become president,” Uday promised, “I’ll be crueler than my father ever was. You mark my words. You’ll yearn for the days of Saddam
Hussein.”

Now, read this carefully. If there is no US invasion of Iraq, there is not the same opportunity for an Al Qaida supported and led insurgency in Iraq that drew Al Qaida members from around the world to Iraq. That movement generated intelligence and provided opport

You know nothing of what you speak. The Taliban just shoot the girls or the headmasters.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/taliban-kill-head-girls-school

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-taliban-advances-if-we-now-kill-schoolgirls-you-shouldn-t-be-surprised-a-627004.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/10/world/asia/pakistan-teen-activist-attack/index.html

So go ahead, try taking taxes from the Taliban to pay for girl schools...

He doesn't because this is wrong as well. The news is that the amount of plagiarism that had been detected has increased substantially since the original accusations. And even back then, several leading experts on plagiarism talked of "grave scientific misconduct", "scientifically worthless work", "suffcient for revoking her degree".

This story of SPIEGEL online is clearly marked with a date: "5.05.2012

So what? Do you think the additional instances of plagiarism will lead these guys to soften their judgement?

He doesn't because this is wrong as well. The news is that the amount of plagiarism that had been detected has increased substantially since the original accusations. And even back then, several leading experts on plagiarism talked of "grave scientific misconduct", "scientifically worthless work", "suffcient for revoking her degree".

This story of SPIEGEL online is clearly marked with a date: "5.05.2012

This is actually old news... And it has been quickly determined that the accusations are bogus.

Do you have a reference to this?

He doesn't because this is wrong as well. The news is that the amount of plagiarism that had been detected has increased substantially since the original accusations. And even back then, several leading experts on plagiarism talked of "grave scientific misconduct", "scientifically worthless work", "suffcient for revoking her degree".

OK, I "searched around." The evidence I've found suggests that the influence of religion on secular education is not a concern limited to either the USA or Christianity.

Those things fit within what I pointed: US cultural influence abroad.

The US is at fault for Muslim creationism? Crazy people from the US may be supporting Christian creationism in other countries, but do, say, the crazy Turkish Muslim creationists spring from US support?

Laughter is certainly a better offensive weapon than violence, right?

If only your minority group laughs while the huge majority around just looks at you confused wondering what you're talking about, I'd say it's at best ineffective.

OK, I "searched around." The evidence I've found suggests that the influence of religion on secular education is not a concern limited to either the USA or Christianity.

Those things fit within what I pointed: US cultural influence abroad. Creationism vs. Evolutionism is pretty much like Hollywood movies, spreading from the same cultural powerhouse with the same intensity.

Did you have a point you'd like to make with respect to these findings? Do you believe that it's healthy for civilization to see these beliefs growing in influence over the course of the 21st century, rather than diminishing as any sane person would have expected?

Oh, I'd say I'm indifferent. As a non-US person observing from far away, I find it all fascinating, but it really doesn't bothers me either way. It doesn't matter what you teach in school, most people will glance over biology teaching, memory whatever is required of them to pass exams, promptly forget it all the next day, and move on. As for the very few remaining ones that happen to develop an interest in the subject up to the point of entering college, they learn better anyway, be it better evolutionism, as no matter what you do it'll be badly taught in schools, or simply evolutionism at all. So, what's really the problem? Be this or be that, the end result is the same.

The sane approach then, for me, is quite simple: whoever is paying decides what their money will be used for. If in a region the paying people want teachers teaching a subject, so be it.

Nope, because that alienates non-crazy religious individuals, who end up despising both the crazy ones as well as rationalists.

If that were true, we'd all be Scientologists or Moonies. I believe (but can't immediately prove) that the main reason why people remain superstitious in an age of scientific enlightenment is because of superstition's longstanding social value. As a result, I also believe that making fun of people's superstitions is a very good way to drive those superstitions underground and lessen their influence on secular society. Laughter is certainly a better offensive weapon than violence, right?

Americans have this bad habit of thinking the world is like their country,

As an American citizen and voter, I'm not the least bit concerned with countries other than the US. I'm not responsible for the government in those countries. They can do what they want. However, that being said....

Do this: search around. You won't find a single country other than the USA where creationists have either the political power or the infiltration within Christian branches as they do over there

OK, I "searched around." The evidence I've found suggests that the influence of religion on secular education is not a concern limited to either the USA or Christianity. Did you have a point you'd like to make with respect to these findings? Do you believe that it's healthy for civilization to see these beliefs growing in influence over the course of the 21st century, rather than diminishing as any sane person would have expected?

If you don't believe that, then chances are, we agree more than we disagree.

People react to the culture in which they're brought up. And even in the Middle East, it's a small proportion of Muslims acting in the way rightists here want to depict all Muslims as.

Yes, this is clearly a problem of "rightest" depiction of the actions of Islamists.

Bounty on Salman Rushdie increased to $3.3 million - Iran will pursue makers of anti-Islam film: vice-presidenthor

Pakistani minister puts bounty on anti-Islam filmmaker's head

Egypt's president elect Mohammed Morsi says he will try to free Blind Sheikh

Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's president elect, on Friday appealed for the release of one of Osama bin Laden's closest associates, a call sure to alarm critics worried about the direction he will take the country

Interview with Father Zakaria Botros, 'Radical Islam's Bane' - An interview with the Coptic Orthodox Priest with a 60 million dollar bounty on his head from al Qaeda.
More: Michael Coren Interviews Father Zakaria Botros 'Radical Islam's Bane'

Allied Menace

"Here are two brother countries, united like a single fist," said socialist Hugo Chávez during a visit to Tehran last November, celebrating his alliance with Islamist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Che Guevara's son Camilo, who also visited Tehran last year, declared that his father would have "supported the country in its current struggle against the United States." They followed in the footsteps of Fidel Castro, who in a 2001 visit told his hosts that "Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees." For his part, Ilich Ramírez Sánchez ("Carlos the Jackal") wrote in his book L'islam révolutionnaire ("Revolutionary Islam") that "only a coalition of Marxists and Islamists can destroy the United States."

As an atheist, I have no dog in this fight, except one: I want to live in a peaceful world.

You want to live in a peaceful world, and al-Qaida and assorted Islamists want you to live in a Muslim world. I expect that neither of you will get your wish unless enough people prefer any peace, even the peace of the graveyard, or the "peace" of slavery, to the long term struggle to defense genuine peace a freedom.

It's also a bit late, on the International Aircraft Expo in Germany this year they demonstrated a working passive radar system that will make this technology obsolete.

(link is in German)
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/technik/passivradar-nimmt-stealth-jets-die-tarnkappe-a-855711.html

Has no one else been wondering why Germany is being seen as a utopia with all of the answers, recently?

No. Germany is a prosperous western nation. Germany has its budget deficit under control. Germany has its trade balance under control. Germany financial laws minimized exposure to toxic debt. As a result, the effects of collapse of the debt bubble in '07-08, the so-called financial crisis, were much more limited in Germany, amounting to a total bailout liability of only about 5.5% of GDP. The costs to other western nations was/is much higher.

Among the many effects of this is that Germany still has the luxury of indulging new social programs. It is also the go-to repository of wealth whenever one of the unproductive and misgoverned PIGS needs to be propped up which gives Germany a great deal of influence in the EU.

In my opinion Germany has all of these things for three basic reasons;

First, Germany has managed to keep its spending under control. There are many public benefits and a great deal of wealth redistribution in Germany, but the Germans don't tolerate large accumulations of debt; if the revenue of the German treasury can't fund it the dependents don't get it. That includes the medical system and the education system.

Second, Germany has an industrial policy that isn't subject to certain veto by pressure groups and their civil lawsuits. This means Germany can make choices, like replacing nuclear reactors with renewable, coal or anything else they decide to use and it doesn't get killed by some judge. This attracts capital.

Finally, Germany protects its domestic industry and workers from unrestrained competition with Asia. Trade unions, businesses and governments can all, independently, pursue importers in court to enforce Germany's sovereign trade laws, and they do so with high frequency. This all somehow happens without statist punditry crying 'oh noes trade war!' The result is Germany has a fully developed industrial base and workforce that is very attractive to capital.

Wealth is important. Germany has consistently sustained real wealth creation since the end of of the Second World War through hard nosed trade policy, credible industrial policy and sound fiscal governance. It doesn't surprise me that Germany has earned some respect.

That, plus OpenLeaks was vaporware and Daniel Domscheit-Berg was kicked out of CCC ('I Doubt Domscheit-Berg's Integrity' - Top German Hacker Slams OpenLeaks Founder) for his self serving behaviour.

If your going to leak something anonymously, why settle for anyone who has not also demonstrated commitment to protecting you as a source in the face of overwhelming international pressure by powerful players, like Wikileaks has and continues to do?

I think you should both read something like this: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-pizkuny-wall-an-iron-curtain-in-the-east-a-780803.html (AFAIK, Spiegel is a centre-right publication in Germany).

(I've moderated a lot, so I'm posting anonymously.)

Assange is Wikileak's best enemy. The Guardian did not leak the key. Wikileaks was signing multiple files using the same key. You're supposed to use the key once for Mitra's sake! See here and here

Again if Assange wasn't being an asshole with various girls, he would have never ended up in this extradition scenario.

Wikileaks should be forked and Assange should answer to the charges. If he is not guilty as claimed, excellent. All of that "but he is not charged with anything" bullshit is just misinformation (fnord) and not understanding how an other country's due process works.

The European aerospace industry seems to see the recent US ban on cooperation with the Chinese space program as an opportunity, and is stepping up cooperation.

Here in Germany every single "terrorist" put on trial since the German Autumn has been revealed to have had contact to at least one state agency, from state and federal police to the Verfassungsschutz (part of the intelligence conglomerate) to our two secret services, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (foreign intelligence) and Militärischer Abschirmdienst (domestic intelligence), including being funded, trained, "led".

That is really quite a fantastic claim given the following item, and just a small sample of arrests below. I would think you must have some substantial proof of this? And yes, terrorism is probably not the most likely thing to kill you, but it can in fact be a serious problem for a country if not held in check. You might have a very different opinion if Islamists in Germany achieve a similar attack rate there that they do in Iraq or Pakistan. The total killed by the National Socialist Underground isn't even a busy morning's work for Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Homegrown Terror Takes on New Dimensions

Surge in Volunteers

Never before have as many volunteers from Germany attended terrorist training camps as in the last two years. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, 138 people from Germany planned to travel to a training camp in 2009 alone. Since then, five volunteers leave the country on average each month to go to one of the camps in Pakistan. In the last decade, at least 220 people from Germany have completed terrorist training, with about half returning to Germany.

The Radical Islamist Roots of the Frankfurt Attack - 03/03/2011
Two Terror Suspects Arrested in Berlin - 09/08/2011
From the Rhine River to the Jihad - 09/29/2008
German Police Arrest 3 in Terrorist Plot - 09/06/2007

Here in Germany every single "terrorist" put on trial since the German Autumn has been revealed to have had contact to at least one state agency, from state and federal police to the Verfassungsschutz (part of the intelligence conglomerate) to our two secret services, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (foreign intelligence) and Militärischer Abschirmdienst (domestic intelligence), including being funded, trained, "led".

That is really quite a fantastic claim given the following item, and just a small sample of arrests below. I would think you must have some substantial proof of this? And yes, terrorism is probably not the most likely thing to kill you, but it can in fact be a serious problem for a country if not held in check. You might have a very different opinion if Islamists in Germany achieve a similar attack rate there that they do in Iraq or Pakistan. The total killed by the National Socialist Underground isn't even a busy morning's work for Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Homegrown Terror Takes on New Dimensions

Surge in Volunteers

Never before have as many volunteers from Germany attended terrorist training camps as in the last two years. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, 138 people from Germany planned to travel to a training camp in 2009 alone. Since then, five volunteers leave the country on average each month to go to one of the camps in Pakistan. In the last decade, at least 220 people from Germany have completed terrorist training, with about half returning to Germany.

The Radical Islamist Roots of the Frankfurt Attack - 03/03/2011
Two Terror Suspects Arrested in Berlin - 09/08/2011
From the Rhine River to the Jihad - 09/29/2008
German Police Arrest 3 in Terrorist Plot - 09/06/2007

Here in Germany every single "terrorist" put on trial since the German Autumn has been revealed to have had contact to at least one state agency, from state and federal police to the Verfassungsschutz (part of the intelligence conglomerate) to our two secret services, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (foreign intelligence) and Militärischer Abschirmdienst (domestic intelligence), including being funded, trained, "led".

That is really quite a fantastic claim given the following item, and just a small sample of arrests below. I would think you must have some substantial proof of this? And yes, terrorism is probably not the most likely thing to kill you, but it can in fact be a serious problem for a country if not held in check. You might have a very different opinion if Islamists in Germany achieve a similar attack rate there that they do in Iraq or Pakistan. The total killed by the National Socialist Underground isn't even a busy morning's work for Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Homegrown Terror Takes on New Dimensions

Surge in Volunteers

Never before have as many volunteers from Germany attended terrorist training camps as in the last two years. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, 138 people from Germany planned to travel to a training camp in 2009 alone. Since then, five volunteers leave the country on average each month to go to one of the camps in Pakistan. In the last decade, at least 220 people from Germany have completed terrorist training, with about half returning to Germany.

The Radical Islamist Roots of the Frankfurt Attack - 03/03/2011
Two Terror Suspects Arrested in Berlin - 09/08/2011
From the Rhine River to the Jihad - 09/29/2008
German Police Arrest 3 in Terrorist Plot - 09/06/2007

Here in Germany every single "terrorist" put on trial since the German Autumn has been revealed to have had contact to at least one state agency, from state and federal police to the Verfassungsschutz (part of the intelligence conglomerate) to our two secret services, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (foreign intelligence) and Militärischer Abschirmdienst (domestic intelligence), including being funded, trained, "led".

That is really quite a fantastic claim given the following item, and just a small sample of arrests below. I would think you must have some substantial proof of this? And yes, terrorism is probably not the most likely thing to kill you, but it can in fact be a serious problem for a country if not held in check. You might have a very different opinion if Islamists in Germany achieve a similar attack rate there that they do in Iraq or Pakistan. The total killed by the National Socialist Underground isn't even a busy morning's work for Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Homegrown Terror Takes on New Dimensions

Surge in Volunteers

Never before have as many volunteers from Germany attended terrorist training camps as in the last two years. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, 138 people from Germany planned to travel to a training camp in 2009 alone. Since then, five volunteers leave the country on average each month to go to one of the camps in Pakistan. In the last decade, at least 220 people from Germany have completed terrorist training, with about half returning to Germany.

The Radical Islamist Roots of the Frankfurt Attack - 03/03/2011
Two Terror Suspects Arrested in Berlin - 09/08/2011
From the Rhine River to the Jihad - 09/29/2008
German Police Arrest 3 in Terrorist Plot - 09/06/2007

Taking care of peoples basic needs would stop a lot of bad behavior. Prostitution is negatively correlated with rape. Heroin maintenance programs reduce the damage caused by drug seeking addicts. A guaranteed basic income can dramatically reduce the problems associated with poverty.

Too bad our society cares more about appearing "tough on crime" than effective solutions to our problems.

So, if I am a shopkeeper and I have 30 bags of rice that people can barely afford that I sell at $1 each. Now, say you come and give everyone in the town $1. Now I have 30 bags of rice that I will sell for $2 apiece.

Taking care of peoples basic needs would stop a lot of bad behavior. Prostitution is negatively correlated with rape. Heroin maintenance programs reduce the damage caused by drug seeking addicts. A guaranteed basic income can dramatically reduce the problems associated with poverty.

Too bad our society cares more about appearing "tough on crime" than effective solutions to our problems.