Assassination by cancer?

Is the United States's government trying to assassinate left wing Latin American leaders by infecting them with cancer?

According to Hugo Chavez, the answer is maybe.  In a recent article by the BBC , Chavez conjectured that it was "difficult to explain using the law of probabilities" that while he was fighting cancer, according to the BBC, "Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and her predecessor Lula have also had cancer.".  Chavez noted that the fact that the U.S. infected Guatemalan prisoners with syphilis in the 1940's shows the United States has the means and motives to use weaponized infectious diseases to kill off her political enemies.

Rejection happens...

A message to budding authors by writer J.W. Bouchard:  Reject Pile.

Non-news of the day: GOP rhetoric and supposed new threat from Iran

Apparently GOP presidential hopefuls are outraged at President Obama's choice of vacationing in Hawaii at the expense of taxpayers instead of hosting a parade to welcome home troops returning from Iraq, also presumably at tax payer's expense.  According to FOXnews, republican candidate for POTUS and current Texas governor Rick Perry said "It really disturbs me that after 9-years of war in Iraq that this president wouldn't welcome home our many heroes with a simple parade in their honor ... Maybe it's because this war is unpopular with the Democrats, I don't know, but mister president, our soldiers come first."  So far, Iraqi veterans have been welcomed home in local and low-key ceremonies at community centers, schools, and churches.

Satellite image of Strait of Hormuz

 

According to Reuters and several other western news outlets, Iranian vice president Mohammad Reza Rahimi has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, effectively blocking Middle Eastern oil exports, should the EU and United States impose more sanctions on the Islamic republic.  The statement was a minor news item on the Iranian state run media outlet Islamic Republic News Agency's website, most likely because the office of vice president is a mid-level executive position.  The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is Iran's ultimate authority, followed by President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and no less than ten vice presidents.  All final decisions regarding military actions, which is what a closure of the Strait of Hormuz would require, are made by the Supreme Leader.
Iran's highest ranking military officer, Admiral Habibollah Sayari, claimed that closing the Strait would be "really easy -- or as we say (in Iran) easier than drinking a glass of water", according to Yahoo!.  However, the admiral stated "But today, we don't need (to shut) the strait because we have the Sea of Oman under control, and can control the transit".  Australian blogger Ali Omidi did outline in an editorial piece for http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/ potential Iranian strategies and use of military hardware to undertake a closure of the valuable shipping lane, though doing so would be the equivalent of self-imposed economic sanctions, not to mention swift military retaliation from Western nations and damage to fragile relations with powerful allies Russia and China.

Omaha World Herald and Des Moines Register: Occupy group to ramp up in Iowa

 
The Occupy Wall Street movement plans on protesting the Iowan Republican caucus.  According to an article in the Omaha World Herald, OWS will be conducting a "People's Caucus", beginning January 3rd.  Starting on December 28th, OWS protesters will also stage demonstrations at Mitt Romney's campaign offices and the Wells Fargo bank.  According to the Des Moines Register, the purpose of the protests are to draw attention to Wells Fargo's donations to the Romney campaign.  Wells Fargo has been a target of OWS because of their sub-prime lending practices prior to the housing crash of 2007 which forced thousands of home owners into foreclosure.

Germany's latest push to ban hard-line nationalist NPD party amid Zwickau murders

Connections between the Zwickau neo-Nazi group and the controversial National Democratic Party (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands) are proving difficult to verify, especially in light of accusations by German authorities who accuse the right wing political party of orchestrating racially motivated murders.

Tracing it's lineage back to the National Socialist (Nazi) party through its predecessors the
Deutsche Reichpartei (German Reich Party, an offshoot of the post WW II Deutsche Rechtspartei, or German Right Party), the NPD has faced strong opposition from modern day Germany's liberal political establishment.  The attempt to banish the NPD from German politics came in 2003, but was shut down.  The NPD's controversial politics can be summed up by their message to Americans on their English language website:

"We would like to start getting the word out about our political message in foreign languages, also, because the enemies of the world's peoples, these enemies including capitalism, globalism, and even Islam, operate on an international level. Isolated individual peoples have barely a chance against the power of the one-world strategists. It is high time that nationalist forces of free peoples around the world link up with one another and join forces. More than ever the peoples of the world recognize that they have a critical question before them which they must answer, whether they want to live in a “multi-cultural conglomerate” or in individual and culturally unique countries. One-Worldism is a system that is hostile towards people and destructive to our cultures. We see that happening in Germany and you see that happening in the USA as well, comrades. The United States are well known for freedom of expression and freedom to live as one chooses. We don't know this kind of freedom in Germany. Nationalist patriots in Germany are actually hunted down by leftist politicians and the left-wing press. Yet, freedom is exploited in the USA, also. Massive immigration, Islam, and globalism, in violation of international law, have almost completely destroyed the culture of your beautiful country. What were the intentions of the founding fathers of the United States? Likewise, the German founding fathers, Otto von Bismark at the helm, wanted to establish Germany for the German people, only, not for Islamists from all over the world."

However, due to the string of murders committed by the Zwickau group (aka the National Socialist underground, accused of committing 10 murders over a period of about 10 years), who are accused of being a neo-Nazi wing of the NPD, the right wing party is facing a possible end to their organization which has stood since 1967.  According to articles by Der Spiegel, an outright ban of the NPD would have to be based upon proof that the Zwickau murders were behavior "typical for the party" (Der Spiegel article Germany Faces Tough Battle to Ban Far-Right NPD).  Several party members and members of the Zwickau group have been connected according to German intelligence sources (Der Spiegel article Spotted at a Neo-Nazi Demo Photographs Link Far-Right Party to Terror Cell).

Beate Zschäpe at a demonstration in 1996.

The last surviving member of the group, Beate Zschäpe, is refusing to speak to authorities, though her defense attourney spoke to Der Spiegel on her behalf:  Alleged Neo-Nazi Terrorist's Lawyer 'I See No Convincing Reason to Suspect Her'.

Slate.com's worst jargon and slang of 2011

How many of these terms have you been guilty of saying or typing into you blog posts and status updates?

Catchphrase Executioner Bad sex jargon, horrible “occupy” jokes, and other terrible things we said this year.

China developing futuristic bullet trains w/ latest round of stimulus spending

Did you know that there was stimulus spending in China this past year?

In response to the world-wide fiscal crisis of 2008, China spent 4 trillion yuan (about $632 billion) on stimulus, much like the United States, despite an annual growth rate at 10% or slightly below for 30 years running.  So what did the Chinese get with all this luxurious pork spending?  Bullet trains that connect the major cities of  Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and the now development of a new train that can travel at a blistering speed of 500 km/h (approximately 310 mph).  If this new bullet train, as shown on Pravda's website, proves to be as fast as reported, it would be the world's fastest commercial passenger train.
Information sources:  http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/, http://english.pravda.ru/

Happy Holidays With Funny Pictures!

Some great images to celebrate the Yule with:

The Tin Foil Hat: Wierd Blog Posts of the Week (12/18/11 - 12/23/11)

Here's some of the best of the weird of the blogosphere from the week before X-mas.

The following are from Alex Jones's InfoWars:
Congress To Fund Massive Expansion Of TSA Checkpoints
Discover the doomsday seed vault’s secrets
IBM predicts it will be making ‘mind-controlled’ PC’s within five years

The following are from Disinformation:
Mystery Metal ‘Space Ball’
Earth (Usually) Has Two Moons
The Citigroup Plutonomy Memos: Bombshell Documents That Detail the Rule of the 1 Percent

From YouTube:

Product Placement Continues On Local News With Nike Jordan Shoes Release

 

Perhaps you have seen the chaos that ensued late last night with the release of the Nike Jordan Concord shoes.  According to various local news reports nationwide, there were scuffles between shoppers and in some cases police and private security guards, sometimes involving pepper spray and physical assault.  The story behind the story here is the use of local news outlets as advertising for Nike.  The fact that local news outlets nationwide covered this story while national news organizations such as the cable news networks largely ignored this event (as shown in the above image from a Google search) illustrates this.  This advertising strategy is exposed in an article from 7/22/08 on The Huffington Post:  Product Placement Comes To TV News.

J. Frederick, Editor

Nebraska's Environmental Consultant Was Former TransCanada Client

HDR, the firm that was commissioned by the state of Nebraska to research the environmental impact of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline had apparently done design work for the Canadian oil company TransCanada.  Governor Dave Heineman and other members of the Nebraskan unicameral legislature had promised to work out a route with TransCanada that would bypass the fragile Ogalla Aquifer.  Here is the full story regarding the revelations about the connection between TransCanada and HDR according to the Omaha World Herald.:  HDR ties to TransCanada questioned.
J. Frederick, Editor

Supposed proof of Ron Paul's white supremacist past?

12/23/2011:  American politics is buzzing today Ron Paul's alleged racist newsletters from the 1990's.  As reported on CNN and other news outlets, pundits claim that the news letters call for a nation-wide "race war", while the Paul campaign claim that these letters were written by a ghostwriter who is no longer associated with Ron Paul.  This is not actually a new story, as this topic was also covered during Ron Paul's previous bid for president in 2008.  Today Unofficial Version Magazine will show copies of the actual pages of the newsletter that are in question.  While in this writer's opinion, there are no specific references to white supremacist rhetoric (the implication of non-Aryan races as being physically and intellectually inferior), the newsletters are, at worst, conspiratorial and paranoid ramblings.  These images of the newsletter, taken from an anti-Paul blog (Ron Paul Survivial Report) were posted to reinforce the argument that Paul is a racist.  While not irrefutable proof, and the writings are quite open to interpretation, the term "race war" is used.  Whether it is used to incite violence against minorities is strictly a matter of opinion.  Below are the writings in question:

"Race war" comment. A "federal homosexual cover-up on AIDS" is also mentioned.
Could "race war" pertain to the conspiratorial idea that the government promotes racism and polarization to distract the populace from the real pressing issues of the day?

Classical conspiracy theorist rhetoric
Assertions that Martin Luther King was a rapist and pedophile and a mention of "Trilateralists".  See also headings "Executive Orders", "Our Public Schools", and "Government Promoted Promiscuity".

Ron Paul's Signature
The bottom of the page shows what appears to be the signature of the Texas congressman and Republican presidential candidate.

Speculation from the Paul campaign suggests that this is a smear campaign from either the Obama campaign or one of his republican rivals.  Unofficial Version Magazine leaves it to the reader to decide whether or not this is proof that Ron Paul is a white supremacist.  We will present our opinions, when appropriate, but leave it ultimately to the reader to decide.  Our coverage of news and politics will be handled with an unwavering policy of non-partisanship and objectivity, and this policy will remain a centerpiece to all issues to come.
J. Frederick, Editor

Issue #1

The first issue of Unofficial Version Magazine will be available on amazon.com February 1st, 2012!

Why atheists should not be statists: an old editorial

In an age of reason in which the need for a personal god is deemed unnecessary and the probability of his/hers/its existence is incredibly small, it is not without irony that many atheists support statism, namely strong central government....