RadioActive with Steve Mitton: October 2010

Thursday, October 28, 2010

A Real-Life Back to the Future

Has someone already gone back from the future?

This week, the makers of Back To The Future kicked off celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the release of the original movie starring Michael J. Fox. In the same week, an Irish independent filmmaker has gone public with what he says is footage of a time traveller caught walking through a scene on a recent DVD release of Charlie Chaplin's 1928 film, The Circus.

"I believe I'm the first person to find something quite unusual from a bit of film footage from 1928," Clarke said. The scene can be found in the extras menu in Documents, under The Hollywood Premiere.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Environmentalists Re-Branding Global Warming Again, Now Want It Called “Climate Disruption”

Decades ago we were first introduced to the threat of “global warming” that would soon have our ice caps melting and flooding our cities with rising oceans. The problem? Well, the globe hasn’t really been warming all that much.

So the environmentalists switched tactics. You see, global warming was never just about warming. Global warming is about climate change, you see. This allowed them to claim that any long-term change in weather patterns was the result of human pollution.

Except, “climate change” hasn’t exactly been a winner either. So now Obama’s “science czar” John Holdren wants another branding change. This time the term is “climate disruption” which will no doubt have the environmentalists claiming that any odd weather at all is caused, at least in part, by your SUV:

Since Mother Nature hasn’t cooperated with their global warming predictions, and “climate change” is not exactly getting the traction in the media they desire, they’ve come up with a scary new term to explain changes in the weather, Goreham writes:

“Last month, John Holdren, director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, urged everyone to start using the term “global climate disruption.” Holdren claimed that the term “global warming” is a “dangerous misnomer” for a complicated problem.

The problem is that Mother Nature refuses to cooperate and run a fever, as Al Gore would say. The beauty of “global climate disruption” is that it’s so generic and ambiguous, cap-and-traders can cite virtually any unpredicted weather pattern as “proof” that humans are causing catastrophic changes to the Earth’s atmosphere.

It’s all about lowering the bar.

Congressional Report Casts Doubt on Constitutionality of Obamacare's Individual Mandate

A report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) casts doubt on the two main arguments used by the Obama administration to defend the individual insurance mandate that is the central component of the controversial health “reform” law.

Published on October 15, the CRS report examines the arguments both for and against the constitutionality of the individual mandate, which requires every American to purchase government-approved health insurance or else pay a fine. (Read the report here: Requiring Individuals to Obtain Health Insurance - A Constitutional Analysis.pdf)

The mandate, to be enforced by the Internal Revenue Service, has been challenged as an unconstitutional overreach of federal authority in a lawsuit filed by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

Blaming Religion for Homosexual Suicide

Can a waning phenomenon have a waxing effect? If a survey conducted on the relationship between religious messages and homosexual suicide is to be believed, the answer is yes. The survey, conducted jointly by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Religion News Service, found, writes Kirsten Moulton in The Salt Lake Tribune, “Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that messages from U.S. religious pulpits are connected to the rising rates of suicide among gay youths….”

This conclusion isn’t surprising, given how propaganda reigns today, but it makes no sense. After all, how can an increasing rate of homosexual suicide be caused by a message that is decreasing in frequency? The fact is that if this suicide rate was lower many years ago, it was so during a time when homosexuality was in the closet and stigmas against it were the default. Today, in contrast, “coming out” is lauded, we have open homosexuals in public office and sympathetically portrayed homosexual characters in film and on TV, and books such as Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate are childhood fare. As for churches, I can’t say I’ve heard many fire-and-brimstone denunciations of any sin — let alone homosexual behavior — from pulpits of late. So what are the messages to which the survey respondents refer? Are they perhaps indicting the clergy for not warning their flocks of the perils of indulging certain inclinations? (I can have my fantasies, can’t I?)

Obviously, the thesis here doesn’t hold water. And one possibility is that the rate of homosexual suicide hasn’t really increased, only the awareness of it. After all, given the reluctance to emerge from the closet in years past, if distress over homosexual feelings had driven someone to take his life, how likely is it that anyone would have known the reason? Another possible explanation is that the rate has increased, but it has nothing to do with religious messages.

Angle campaign attorney: Reid “intends to steal this election if he can’t win it outright”

UPDATE: Secretary of state's response, calling Mitchell's letter "conjecture and rumor," posted at right.

So says Cleta Mitchell, the same woman who tried to get Scott Ashjian, the Tea Party of Nevada candidate out of the race, in an astonishing fundraising letter:

As Sharron Angle's campaign attorney, I am sorry to report that the Democrats and their cronies are up to their same old tricks, of trying to manipulate the election in hopes of skewing the results in their favor.

Two days ago, the Democratic Secretary of State announced that voters can be provided "free food" at "voter turnout events." Harry Reid has been offering free food and, according to other reports, some Democratic allies such as teachers' unions are offering gift cards in return for a vote for Reid.

Before we were even able to document the reported infractions to report to the authorities, the Democrat Secretary of State slammed the door shut on preventing this behavior and issued a public statement permitting these ACORN-style tactics. THESE are the kinds of shenanigans that can turn this race.

Randy Quaid, wife claim Canada asylum, say fear for lives

American actor Randy Quaid and his wife Evi will Thursday claim asylum in Canada, saying they fled here in fear of their lives to escape a group they have dubbed the "Hollywood Star Whackers."

The couple's claim for asylum will be heard by the immigration and refugee board following their arrest in the western port city of Vancouver last week.

"The hearing will look at whether they can remain in Canada," board spokeswoman Melissa Anderson told AFP.

The couple claims they are at risk of being murdered by shadowy villains who they charge are killing American celebrities.

"We are requesting asylum from Hollywood Star Whackers," said a note signed by the couple shown to the media by a lawyer after a first hearing on Friday.

"Hollywood is murdering its movie stars for ad sales," Evi Quaid told reporters as she left the hearing. "Heath Ledger was murdered," she alleged.

Obama By The Numbers

October 2010

Posted by: Research

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THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S RECORD FROM THE OUTRAGEOUS TO THE ABSURD

$26.2 Trillion: Projected Federal Debt In 2020 Due To Obama’s Binge Spending. (OMB, 7/23/10)

$13.6 Trillion: Current National Debt. (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 10/19/10)

$8.5 Trillion: Cumulative Deficits Caused By President Obama’s Proposed Budget, FY2011-2020. (OMB, 7/23/10)

$3.9 Trillion: Total Cost Of The Democrats’ Tax Hike To Taxpayers. (Joint Committee On Taxation, 8/6/10)

$3.0 Trillion: Amount Added To The National Debt Since Obama Took Office. (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 10/19/10)

$2.5 Trillion: True Cost Of ObamaCare Once Fully Implemented. (Sen. Max Baucus, Floor Remarks, 12/2/09)

A poalr bear is shown walking near the North Pole.

The Obama administration may soon be able to take another crack at listing the polar bear as an endangered species – a move that environmentalists hope will eventually lead to regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Endangered Species Act.

A federal judge said Wednesday he will likely send a George W. Bush-era decision to give a lesser protective designation back to the Interior Department, giving the Obama administration a chance to re-list the species.

Environmental groups are challenging the 2008 decision to list the polar bear as “threatened,” as a result of global warming, rather than the stronger “endangered” status.

Report: In Obama's Chicago, stimulus weatherization money buys shoddy work, widespread fraud Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washing

Projects to weatherize homes are a key part of the Obama administration's fusion of stimulus spending and the green agenda. But a new report by the Department of Energy has found serious problems in stimulus-funded weatherization work -- problems so severe that they have resulted in homes that are not only not more energy efficient but are actually dangerous for people to live in.

The study, by the Department's inspector general, examined the work of what's called the Weatherization Assistance Program, or WAP, in Illinois. Last year, the Department awarded Illinois $242 million, which was expected to pay for the weatherization of 27,000 homes. Specifically, Energy Department inspectors took a close look at the troubled operations of the Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County, known as CEDA, which is the largest recipient of weatherization money in Illinois with $91 million to weatherize 12,500 homes. (Cook County is, of course, home to Chicago.)

The findings are grim. "Our testing revealed substandard performance in weatherization workmanship, initial assessments, and contractor billing," the inspector general report says. "These problems were of such significance that they put the integrity of the entire program at risk."

Howard Dean: ‘Elections Are Not the Time to Educate People’

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean says Democrats campaigning for the Nov. 2 mid-term elections should wait until they win before “educating” constituents about the benefits they will derive from the health care law signed into law by President Barack Obama in March.

Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition, asked Dean on Saturday why Democrats are not touting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act while campaigning.

“I don't think we should be making the case right now,” Dean said. “Elections are not the time to educate people. You win the election, then you educate people afterwards,” Dean said.

“But the president's doing what he should be doing. This is a bare-knuckle fight. It's between the far right, which has taken over the Republican Party, and the rest of us.”

Gallup Finds U.S. Unemployment at 10.0% in Mid-October

PRINCETON, NJ -- Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, is at 10.0% in mid-October -- essentially the same as the 10.1% at the end of September but up sharply from 9.4% in mid-September and 9.3% at the end of August. This mid-month measurement confirms the late September surge in joblessness that should be reflected in the government's Nov. 5 unemployment report.

Gallup's U.S. Unemployment Rate, 30-Day Averages, January-October 15, 2010

Certain groups continue to fare worse than the national average. For example, 14.2% of Americans aged 18 to 29 and 13.8% of those with no college education were unemployed in mid-October.

Fewer Working Part Time Looking for Full-Time Employment

Opinion: Just How Lousy Is the Economic Recovery?

(Oct. 18) -- It's become conventional wisdom that the country has come through the worst recession since the Great Depression. President Obama has repeatedly made this claim -- during his campaign, just before his inauguration, at a town hall meeting this September, and many times in between. Lots of commentators have as well -- and, indeed, the term Great Recession is quickly becoming the accepted name for the 2007-09 downturn.

Whether that's true isn't exactly clear. At 18 months long, the recession did last longer than the previous record holders -- by all of two months. But in terms of unemployment, the 1981-82 recession was worse. The jobless rate peaked at 10.8 percent in Nov. 1982, compared with the peak this time around of 10.1 percent.

What is crystal clear, however, is that we are in the midst of the most pathetic economic recovery since the Great Depression. As John Lott put it recently: "The only records being broken are for the stubbornly slow recovery."

Corker: McConnell to Sabotage ObamaCare Repeal

Here we go.

With a mere 13 days to go in this election -- an election in which all things left are on the verge of being thoroughly repudiated if every poll out there is to believed -- a shocking story appears.

A story in LaborUnionReport.com has Tennessee GOP Senator Bob Corker telling "high dollar donors" at a GOP event something prospective Republican voters will be surprised to hear:

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and his GOP colleagues have no intention whatsoever to repeal ObamaCare. None. Zip.

According to what the story says are "multiple sources," here's the skinny:

Tater Nots: Gov’t Eyes School Lunch Potato Ban

Potato growers are fighting back against efforts to ban or limit potatoes in federal child nutrition programs, arguing the tuber is loaded with potassium and vitamin C and shouldn’t be considered junk food.

One Washington man is so exasperated by the proposals that he’s in the midst of a 60-day, all potato diet to demonstrate that potatoes are nutritious.

“We‘re just really concerned that this is a misconception to the public that potatoes aren’t healthy,” said Chris Voigt, head of the Washington Potato Commission. “The potato isn’t the scourge of the earth. It’s nutrition.”

Healthy food advocates said they’re not anti-potato, but they think children need a greater variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains to fight a tripling of child obesity rates in the past 30 years.

The Multicultural Cult

Somebody eventually had to say it -- and German chancellor Angela Merkel deserves credit for being the one who had the courage to say it out loud. Multiculturalism has "utterly failed."

Multiculturalism is not just a recognition that different groups have different cultures. We all knew that, long before multiculturalism became a cult that has spawned mindless rhapsodies about "diversity," without a speck of evidence to substantiate its supposed benefits.

In Germany, as in other countries in Europe, welcoming millions of foreign workers who insist on remaining foreign has created problems so obvious that only the intelligentsia could fail to see them. It takes a high IQ to evade the obvious.

"We kidded ourselves for a while," Chancellor Merkel said, but now it was clear that the attempt to build a society where people of very different languages and cultures could "live side-by-side" and "enjoy each other" has "failed, utterly failed."

Parent Stews Over Son's Islamic Assignment

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. -- Some parents of a Morgan County middle school said they are outraged by an assignment that asks students to write about their experience on a Hajj.

A Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca and is one of the pillars of the Islamic faith.

Seventh-graders at Martinsville East Middle School were asked to write at least 125 words "as though you are on the journey to Mecca and are writing in your journal about what you see and experience," 6News' Joanna Massee reported.

"I feel strongly that if the same assignment was given from a Christian standpoint, whether it was your experience at the Passover or if you were there when Christ was crucified or anything like that, the ACLU or any other organization like that would be up in arms," said Ron Fletcher, a parent of one of the students.

Why Don’t Nanny State Liberals Treat Gays Like They Treat Fatties?

The nanny stater’s War on Obesity is in full effect.

So far, they forced restaurants in New York to post the calories of dishes on the menus, took the toys out of Happy Meals, and banned new fast food restaurants in certain areas.

Now, First Lady Michelle Obama wants to redesign menus across America:

The Democrat suggested that Americans are “programmed” by taste and advertising to eat many things that the government and health professionals know are not healthy for their bodies. So she wants to facilitate a nationwide re-programming of personal tastes by having restaurants start serving less of what customers ignorantly want and more of what they should have.

One idea Mrs. Obama had is to serve apple slices as the default side dish with, say, hamburgers, instead of French fries, which she confessed to liking.

Also she’d like less butter and cream in restaurant dinners, not enough to….
…ruin the flavor but enough to make them healthy. A difficult balance, millions have learned.

Her other suggestions: Substitute whole wheat pasta for white. Smaller portions (presumably for smaller prices). Less mac and cheese, chicken fingers and cheeseburgers on kids’ menus. More carrots.

Why such a concern about how fat Americans are getting?

Dems take in twice as much “foreign” money as Republicans

Over the weekend, some Democrats began questioning the White House strategy of demonizing third-party groups for potentially using foreign-raised money in political messaging. Now we know why. Apparently, the shrieking over foreign influence was yet another case of projection:

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate criticizing GOP groups for allegedly funneling foreign money into campaign ads have seen their party raise more than $1 million from political action committees affiliated with foreign companies.

House and Senate Democrats have received approximately $1.02 million this cycle from such PACs, according to an analysis compiled for The Hill by the Center for Responsive Politics. House and Senate GOP leaders have taken almost $510,000 from PACs on the same list.

This isn’t illegal. The money comes from American employees of the foreign corporations. But the companies control the PACs, and their contributions to political parties and campaigns “is about as close as you can get” to foreign-based money flowing into campaigns, as the Center for Responsive Politics notes.

The Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, has taken an incredibly bold move by openly and honestly admitting that the country of Germany is suffering because millions of Muslim immigrants refuse to learn the nation's language or properly assimilate into German culture. Her simple solution: Learn German and adopt Christian values.

In an article released this weekend by Audrey Kauffman, writer for AFP: ""Multikulti", the concept that "we are now living side by side and are happy about it," does not work, Merkel told a meeting of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party at Potsdam near Berlin.

"This approach has failed, totally," she said, adding that immigrants should integrate and adopt Germany's culture and values.

"We feel tied to Christian values. Those who don't accept them don't have a place here," said the chancellor.

THE SECRET OF A LONGER LIFE

Food that contains anti-oxidants, wholegrains and vital fatty acids can cut the risk of killer illnesses including heart disease, Alzheimer’s and diabetes, a study shows.

Scientists found that the diet could reduce cholesterol – a significant cause of heart disease – by a third and bring blood pressure down by nearly a tenth.

But rather than just a narrow range of foods being responsible for boosting health, the research showed that the answer was a widely varied diet that might include oily fish, porridge oats and blueberries.

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Nutritionist Angela Dowden said: “The key is definitely to introduce these kinds of foods into the diet. It is a very healthy diet and completely proves the point that it is about healthy eating as a whole, not just doing one thing.

“It is a lifestyle change instead of tweaks here and there. It could be that it is just one of the foods that is producing these effects but it is

Bacon attack on an American mosque: prank or hate crime?

Atlanta

When he first spotted the strange graffiti, Mushtaq Hussain thought it was a juvenile prank: Somebody had used bacon strips on a sidewalk in front of a Florence, S.C., mosque to spell out the words "PIG" and "CHUMP."

But as Mr. Hussain, a board member at the Islamic Center in Florence, gave it some thought, the incident last Sunday seemed less like an ill-advised gag and more like a cunning and cruel affront. "We thought seriously, and we thought, ‘You know, somebody doesn't like us,' " he told WMBF-TV news in Florence.

Nationwide, polls show a growing ambivalence – or even anger – toward Islam among Americans, which has in part explained the opposition to a mosque near ground zero and mosques elsewhere, as well as the aborted mass burning of Korans by a Florida preacher. But subtler, more psychological attacks against Muslims have also become prevalent, say Muslim groups.

Linda Chavez: Obama has no clue about entrepreneurship

President Obama has finally admitted that a core premise of his nearly trillion-dollar stimulus package was false. In an interview this week with The New York Times' Peter Baker, the president acknowledged that "there's no such thing as shovel-ready projects," despite the president's near-constant invocation of the term over a two-year period to explain how government spending was going to create jobs.

The president's admission is no minor matter; it goes to the heart of why his economic policies have been such a failure. Not since President Jimmy Carter's confession in 1980 that it took the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan for him to fully understand "what the Soviets' ultimate goals are" has a sitting president so fully exposed his ignorance.

Obama's admission might be refreshing if it meant he would rethink his economic assumptions, but the Baker interview gives no such indication. Instead, the president seems to think his biggest problem has been his failure to communicate his policies effectively.

Poll: Those craving for change now look to the GOP

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's winning coalition from 2008 has crumbled and his core backers are dispirited. It's now Republicans who stand to benefit from an electorate that's again craving change.

Nearly two years after putting Obama in the White House, one-quarter of those who voted for the Democrat are defecting to the GOP or considering voting against the party in power this fall. Just half of them say they definitely will show up Nov. 2, according to an Associated Press-Knowledge Networks poll released two weeks before Obama's first midterm elections.

Yet in a reflection of broad dissatisfaction with politics, just as many people who backed Republican presidential nominee John McCain are either supporting Democrats now or still considering how to vote.

Still, McCain voters — to borrow Obama's campaign rallying cry — are far more "fired up, ready to go." Two-thirds say they are certain to vote next month.

Why Liberals Don't Get the Tea Party Movement

Highly educated people say the darndest things, these days particularly about the tea party movement. Vast numbers of other highly educated people read and hear these dubious pronouncements, smile knowingly, and nod their heads in agreement. University educations and advanced degrees notwithstanding, they lack a basic understanding of the contours of American constitutional government.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman got the ball rolling in April 2009, just ahead of the first major tea party rallies on April 15, by falsely asserting that "the tea parties don't represent a spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment. They're AstroTurf (fake grass-roots) events."

Having learned next to nothing in the intervening 16 months about one of the most spectacular grass-roots political movements in American history, fellow Times columnist Frank Rich denied in August of this year that the tea party movement is "spontaneous and leaderless," insisting instead that it is the instrument of billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch.

Dem ads against GOP not accurate on crux of FairTax proposal

Democratic lawmakers struggling to find support from a skeptical electorate are using a Republican tactic to win votes by claiming their opponents will raise taxes if elected into office.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) is just one of several Democratic candidates saying the FairTax — a levy that replaces the federal income tax with a 23 percent sales tax on everything, including the purchase of a new home or car — is backed by Republicans and will bust family budgets if enacted into law.

Research supplied by FairTax.org shows Democrats in 16 districts have run at least 31 ads blasting Republicans for supporting the tax. But many of these ads neglect to mention the levy is essentially a national sales tax that would replace the current federal tax system.

Baby snatched for dad's politics back with parents Reunited! Newborn returned to family where father accused of bei

A tiny baby girl snatched from her parents' custody a week ago when her father was accused of being an "Oath Keeper" was returned to her parents today.

According to WND sources close to the case, the accusations against the father, Johnathon Irish, whose fiancée, Stephanie Taylor, is the mother of Cheyenne, have been dropped.

WND originally reported on the case last weekend when the state took the baby, ordering the father to stand with his hands behind his back and frisking him while social workers took the child. The affidavit supporting the actions cited the father's affiliation with the patriotic organization Oath Keepers.

Irish, reached today by telephone by WND, said New Hampshire state law prevents disclosure of details of family court disputes. But the WND source confirmed that the little girl had been returned to the family and there were no future court dates scheduled in the case.

Officials with the state Family Court system could not be reached by WND.

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Just hours earlier a protest was held outside the court where the hearing was going on, and as WND reported, officials with Oath Keepers submitted a demand letter to the state's social services agency to remove the reference in the affidavit in the Irish case.

Leaders deny Iraqi Awakening Council members defecting to al Qaeda

The leaders of Awakening Councils in two Iraqi provinces Sunday denied a report that hundreds of council members have defected to al Qaeda.

"There is no way that my fighters would join al Qaeda, no matter what, because their principles and their goals are to hunt down al Qaeda members in Iraq," said Sheikh Hussam al-Majmaei, leader of the Awakening Council in Diyala province, who has more than 13,000 fighters under his command.

The New York Times reported Sunday that hundreds of fighters appear to have rejoined al Qaeda in recent months, many of them after gaining extensive knowledge of the U.S. military. The report cited unnamed Iraqi government officials, current and former Awakening Council members and insurgents.

Ahmadinejad: Iran ready for talks, won't yield nuclear rights

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is taking a hard line ahead of nuclear talks scheduled for next month with world powers skeptical of his government's intentions, local media reported Sunday.

Ahmadinejad said that Iran is ready to hold talks, but warned that his country won't yield any of its international rights to peaceful nuclear energy development, according to the reports.

"Holding talks with Iran is the best choice for you," Ahmadinejad was quoted by state-run Press TV as saying at a rally in Ardebil in northwestern Iran Sunday. "You have no other option. All the other ways are closed. You know the fact very well,"

The United States and other world powers fear Iran is developing a nuclear program for military purposes. Iran has denied those allegations.

SAN FRANCISCO-- The U.S. government will "vigorously enforce" federal laws against marijuana even if voters next month make California the first state to legalize pot, Attorney General Eric Holder says.

Holder's warning, contained in a letter to ex-federal drug enforcement chiefs, was his most direct statement yet against Proposition 19, a ballot measure which would legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana in the most populous U.S. state. It sets up another showdown with California over marijuana if the measure passes.

With Prop 19 leading in the polls, the letter also raised questions about the extent to which federal drug agents would go into communities across the state to catch small-time users and dealers, or whether they even had the resources to do it.

Released Sept. 30: Kim Jong Un, left, the youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, right, poses with newly elected members of the Workers' Party of Korea. (Best quality available)

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's media on Saturday threatened "1,000-fold" military buildup as the United States ruled out lifting sanctions to try to coax Pyongyang into resuming talks aimed at its nuclear weapons programs.

Last year, North Korea quit the nuclear disarmament talks and later tested an atomic device that drew tightened U.N. sanctions. But the North has recently expressed willingness to rejoin the negotiations, which include the U.S., South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said this week that his country will not return to the disarmament-for-aid talks unless sanctions are lifted, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Federal Agents Urged to 'Friend' People on Social Networks, Memo Reveals

A privacy watchdog has uncovered a government memo that encourages federal agents to befriend people on a variety of social networks, to take advantage of their readiness to share -- and to spy on them. In response to a Freedom of Information request, the government released a handful of documents, including a May 2008 memo detailing how social-networking sites are exploited by the Office of Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS).

As of Thursday morning, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Digg had not commented on the report, which details the official government program to spy via social networking. Other websites the government is spying on include Twitter, MySpace, Craigslist and Wikipedia, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which filed the FOIA request.

"Narcissistic tendencies in many people fuel a need to have a large group of 'friends' link to their pages, and many of these people accept cyber-friends that they don't even know," stated one of the documents obtained by the EFF. "This provides an excellent vantage point for FDNS to observe the daily life of beneficiaries and petitioners who are suspected of fraudulent activities," it said.

Democrats Lure Voters to Polls With Free Food and Rides

In Appalachia democrats buy votes with pork rinds. In West Virginia democrats buy votes with booze. In East St. Louis democrats buy votes with crack.

Here’s the latest… In South Dakota democrats are luring potential voters to the polls with free food and rides.
The Argus Leader reported:

Democrats in South Dakota are holding three early-vote rallies on reservations this week that will feature “feeds” to attract potential voters.

That activity continues a long tradition of pairing food with voter rallies in areas of the state where Democrats garner as much as 95 percent of the vote.

Strong Native American turnout has been the difference in statewide races in past years, and it could be critical in upcoming races. The emergence of early voting has only intensified efforts to get out the vote in Indian Country.

The 70 Percent Rule

With less than three weeks to go before Election Day, prognosticators are all over the map on how many seats the GOP will gain. Everyone has his own proprietary model, but I’m going to let you in on the simple model that has proven to work with great regularity in recent years — the 70 percent solution.

This approach relies on the observation that, in wave years like this one (i.e., years in which one party wins by a large margin), approximately 70 percent of the seats in play on Election Day are usually carried by the victorious party. This holds true whether one looks at the Senate or the House.

For the Senate, every wave election going back to 1980 has seen the winning party pick up between 66 and 80 percent of the seats in play, defined as seats where one party has a potential or certain chance of picking up a seat held by the other party. According to the Rothenberg Political Report, there are currently 14 Senate seats in play: eleven rated as either toss-ups or leaning toward one party, plus the three Democratic seats that are rated as sure GOP gains — North Dakota, Indiana, and Arkansas. Only two of the 14, Kentucky and Missouri, are currently held by Republicans. Apply the historical-range factor to that total: The rule predicts that the GOP will win between nine and eleven of these seats, yielding a net gain of between seven and nine seats.

Obama-Care Played Role In Hospitals Sale

SCRANTON, Pennsylvania, October 12, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A potentially explosive scandal has arisen after it became public that the sale of several Catholic hospitals in Pennsylvania was due in part to increased burdens imposed by the federal health reform legislation, according to the hospitals’ director. However, that message was quickly combated by the Catholic Health Association (CHA), an organization infamous for its role in helping pass the bill despite U.S. bishops’ opposition, which attempted to dismiss the health law’s role in the matter.

Mercy Health Partners CEO Kevin Cook announced earlier this month that three hospitals, Mercy Hospital in Scranton, Mercy Special Care Hospital in Nanticoke, and Mercy Tyler Hospital in Tunkhannock, would be up for sale. Mercy Hospital boasts a venerable history in the Catholic town of Scranton, where it was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1917.

Cook revealed in an October 6 WNEP TV report that the sales were "absolutely" related to the higher cost and lesser federal reimbursement ushered in by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare.

"Health care reform is absolutely playing a role. Was it the precipitating factor in this decision? No. But was it a factor in our planning over the next five years? Absolutely," he said.

However, Sr. Carol Keehan, CEO of the Catholic Health Association, issued a press release two days after Cook’s statement entitled "Alarmist News Reports About Catholic Hospitals Are False."

"Reports that health reform is the primary motive behind the sale are completely false, misleading and politically motivated," stated Keehan. "Deliberations to sell the facilities began well before the Affordable Care Act became law and did not hinge on enactment of the legislation."

As Views of Big Gov Go, So Go Dems (Out the Door?)

It's no coincidence that the public has turned on government at the same time it has turned on Democrats. This is not because Democrats are in power. It's a matter of how Americans believe Democrats' wielded their power.

The share of Americans who believe the government is doing "too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses" has returned to historic levels, as Gallup reported this morning. Nearly six in 10 Americans are now on the small (or smaller) government side of this perennial American debate.

These are 1990s levels. And that was a decade consumed by debates over the role of government, eventually culminating with welfare reform. As Gallup's astute analyst Lydia Saad has noted, the share of Americans who say Republicans represent their "attitude about the role of government" (52 percent) precisely matches sentiment on the eve of Republicans 1994 landslide.

Gay rights should not conflict with natural law

Should homosexuals have the same rights as everyone else? Absolutely. Should these rights be based on immoral homosexual activity? Absolutely not. South Bend Common Council Bill 30-10 would establish homosexual activity as a protected class in the city's non-discrimination code.

There is a dramatic difference between the civil rights movement and the homosexual rights movement. The Rev. Martin Luther King wrote, "A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God ... An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law."

Homosexual relations violate natural law. No language exists that can "fix" Bill 30-10 because it attempts to reconcile conflicting principles. The civil rights movement affirms natural law — the equality of the races. The homosexual rights movement rejects natural law and falsely claims that homosexual relations are natural. Because the principles are opposite, the effects are opposite. The civil rights movement freed the African-Americans from oppression and the white man from false beliefs about blacks.

World War III linked to Biblical manifesto and possible November 2010 pivotal event

There have been a variety of predictions linking early November 2010 to a pivotal event which spirals into a global nuclear holocaust. Such a prediction is horrific. But should those of us humans who seek to be socially conscious, dismiss considering the credibility of such a scenario without further consideration because such a scenario is so unthinkable?

Notradamus has been attributed to have predicted a pivotal event in early November 2010 which leads to the outbreak of World War III. Nostradamus who had apparently forecasted with relative accuracy the outbreak of the previous two World Wars among many other occurrences. That also includes JFK's assassination.

This World War III prediction has been further reinforced by Clif High's technical analysis of data which he has used in "Web Bot" to predict the financial crisis. Albert Rosales on Ufoinfo.com, also documents accounts of humans who have been abducted by hostile aliens that have shown an Earth ravaged by nuclear war.

Alleged Alien contactee, Vanga, had also predicted that World War III would begin in early November 2010.

Obama’s related to WHO? You betcha!

NEW YORK (AP) — And you thought it was strange to hear that Barack Obama was related to Dick Cheney. Well, betcha can’t guess who he’s related to now!

Yup — the president has family ties to none other than Sarah Palin, according to the genealogists at Ancestry.com, a discovery the family history site made when looking for connections between political foes.

And that’s not all — Obama also is apparently related to radio host and relentless critic Rush Limbaugh. Might you want to reconsider some of your recent comments, Mr. Limbaugh, now that you’re apparently family?

EPA Funnels Taxpayer Money to Dozens of Liberal Community Activist Groups

The Environmental Protection Agency recently listed 76 community groups and government agencies that will share almost 2 million taxpayer dollars in the form of "environmental justice grants."

The grants – around $25,000 each -- will fund projects that help people living in poor, minority communities increase recycling, avoid heat stroke, improve indoor air quality, "reduce carbon emissions through weatherization," and participate in "green jobs" training programs.

But beyond the EPA's mission of protecting human health and the environment, the grant money will boost the coffers, and perhaps the influence, of some far-left groups.

Is there a doctor in the house? Obamacare will worsen the physician shortage Congress helped create

There is a new disease spreading like a cancer in doctors' offices and hospitals throughout the U.S. I have named it Doctor Unavailability Syndrome (DUS). It is characterized by a rising shortage of doctors, both specialists and primary care, as well as the growing inability of the doctors we do have to take care of patient needs.

What good is a shiny new insurance card if there is not a physician available to see you?

This disease can be traced back to 1997, when Congress, anticipating a doctor surplus, included a section in its budget-balancing law that froze the number of Medicare-sponsored residency positions.

But instead of a surplus, a shortage soon developed, and has worsened over the years, now reaching epidemic proportions. The Association of American Medical Colleges Center for Workforce Studies just reported an anticipated shortage of 90,000 doctors of all kinds over the next decade, with half of them being primary care physicians and the other half surgeons and specialists.

Is there a doctor in the house? Obamacare will worsen the physician shortage Congress helped create Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/20

What good is a shiny new insurance card if there is not a physician available to see you?

This disease can be traced back to 1997, when Congress, anticipating a doctor surplus, included a section in its budget-balancing law that froze the number of Medicare-sponsored residency positions.

Job Creation: Bush vs. Obama

According to Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, President Obama is on pace to create more jobs in 2010 than President Bush did in his eight years of office.

“On the pace that we’re on with job creation in the last four months — if we continue on that pace — all the leading economists say it is likely that we will — we will have created more jobs in this year than in the entire Bush Presidency,” Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Weston, said on FOX News.

Let’s look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

During the Bush presidency, net total employment went up by 1.08 million jobs. So far, during the Obama presidency, total employment has been reduced by 3.3 million jobs.

Under Bush, private employment shrank by 673,000 jobs, federal employment grew by 50,000 jobs, and government employment grew by 1,753,000 jobs.

Under Obama, the private sector has shed some 2.9 million jobs while the federal government has grown by 40,000 (after growing massively, the federal workforce shrank throughout the summer). Total government jobs, however, shrank by 357,000 jobs, mainly because of cuts at the state and local levels.

Boehner's 'Plan B' for ObamaCare

When it comes to repealing ObamaCare, plan B for John Boehner (R., Ohio) will be more important than plan A.

Plan A, of course, is to repeal the new health-care law whole hog. If Republicans take the House in next month's elections, they will surely introduce—and pass—a bill to do so. The question is: What happens when that bill then goes nowhere in the Senate, where even a Republican majority will not be large enough to rebuff a filibuster, much less override a presidential veto?

That's where plan B comes in. Republicans would do exactly what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi so memorably predicted would happen once the health-care bill passed: find out what's inside it. Mr. Boehner says his priority is full repeal. But he also knows he is in for a fight. In this fight, hearings would help Republicans accomplish several things.

House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R., Ohio) (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

First, they would help define the law's problems for the American people.

Second, by defining the problems, Republicans would be in a better position to define and sell their more market-friendly fixes.

Third, by doing the first two, Republicans might get enough votes here and there to kick out key rungs of ObamaCare.

Even if Republicans could not get the president to sign anything into law, by forcing votes and vetoes Republicans would drive home an important point: If the American people really want repeal, they will need to vote for a Republican president in 2012.

Celebrating American greatness…in Chile; Update: Live rescue video link added; brief Obama statement; 10:45pm ET 1st rescuer in the mine; 1st miner se

9:30pm ET 10/13 All miners out and safe. Rejoice! Rescuers still need to return to surface…Video of the last miner and group leader joining in on Chilean national anthem here…

10:42am ET 14 now out. More unforgettable words of faith from 2nd miner Mario Sepulveda: “I was with God and I was with the Devil, they fought me but God won. He took me by my best hand, the hand of God and I held on to him,” Sepulveda said in an interview just one hour after he was extracted from the mine. “I never thought for one minute that God wouldn’t get me out of there,” he added….

2:16am ET Miner 4 Carlos Mamani Soliz is out and safe!

1:14am Eastern Miner 3 Juan Illanes Palma is out and safe!

12:15am ET Second miner Mario Sepúlveda Espinace is out of the mine, safe, and whooping it up! Brought rocks from mine to give to President Pinera and other officials. Hugged everyone in sight. Raised fist in triumph. Joy of life. Thrilling.

5 Reasons the Environmentalists’ 1010 Fantasy Film of Blowing Up Non-Conformists Is Bigger Than You Think

Have you seen the new video from 1010Global.org? The one where they push a red button and blow up anyone that questions their agenda for environmental change? Due to an outraged public reaction, they removed it themselves, but it is still readily available all over the internet.

On the surface, you might think this is just another bunch of green wackos using poor taste; so what? But there is much more to it than that. The “Green religion” and its thousands of devoted supporters are a lot closer to this little video than you might want to know.

To start with, who is behind the 1010 group and their upcoming 10-10 event? The 1010Global organization is promoting their big October 10 (10-10-10) event this weekend, a day of global work known as the “Global Work Party.” They have promoted it heavily, including promotion to community groups, schools, and universities. They have an interesting list online of their supporters which makes it clear that this is not just some crazy little Green group in the UK.

The Soros Web and the Spiders Within

Barack Obama's latest straw-man style of attack is focused on the United States Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has earned his ire by being a free-enterprise group, and one that is practicing its First Amendment rights to criticize an administration bereft of officials with real-world experience but chockablock with animus toward capitalism. Obama's latest claim is that the ads run by the Chamber are funded by foreign sources.

Who is helping perpetuating this claim -- for which there is no evidence? George Soros: Obama's pal and donor, and a man who wielded his power over his 527 groups to help power Obama to the Oval Office.

The New York Times charts the path of the "foreign money" charge:

The issue of the chamber's funding first gained notice this week when ThinkProgress, a blog affiliated with the Center for American Progress, an influential liberal advocacy group, posted a lengthy piece with the headline "Exclusive: Foreign-Funded ‘U.S.' Chamber of Commerce Running Partisan Attack Ads."

Will Obama get away with his towering hypocrisy regarding foreign political donations?

Despite evidence that the Chamber of Commerce political donations that come from abroad are from dues paying members, the Obama-Axelrod dishonest assault on this issue has continued.

The White House intensified its attacks Sunday on the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce for its alleged ties to foreign donors, part of an escalating Democratic effort to link Republican allies with corporate and overseas interests ahead of the November midterm elections.

The chamber adamantly denies that foreign funds are used in its U.S. election efforts, accusing Democrats of orchestrating a speculative smear campaign during a desperate political year.
President Obama, speaking at a rally in Philadelphia, said "the American people deserve to know who is trying to sway their elections" and raised the possibility that foreigners could be funding his opponents.
"You don't know," Obama said at the rally for Senate candidate Joe Sestak and other Democrats. "It could be the oil industry. It could even be foreign-owned corporations. You don't know because they don't have to disclose."

420 banks demand 1-world currency

The Institute of International Finance, a group that represents 420 of the world's largest banks and finance houses, has issued yet another call for a one-world global currency, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.

"A core group of the world's leading economies need to come together and hammer out an understanding," Charles Dallara, the Institute of International Finance's managing director, told the Financial Times.

An IIF policy letter authored by Dallara and dated Oct. 4 made clear that global currency coordination was needed, in the group's view, to prevent a looming currency war.

"The narrowly focused unilateral and bilateral policy actions seen in recent months – including many proposed and actual measures on trade, currency intervention and monetary policy – have contributed to worsening underlying macroeconomic imbalances," Dallara wrote. "They have also led to growing protectionist pressures as countries scramble for export markets as a source of growth."

Dallard encouraged a return to the G-20 commitment to utilize International Monetary Fund special drawing rights to create an international one-world currency alternative to the U.S. dollar as a new standard of foreign-exchange reserves.

Likewise, a July United Nations report called for the replacement of the dollar as the standard for holding foreign-exchange reserves in international trade with a new one-world currency issued by the International Monetary Fund.

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America is overwhelmed by the amount of law governing everyday decisions, and the constant threat of legal action by everyone from patients to employees.

Government is broken and the economy is gasping. The reason is the same: Americans no longer feel free to roll up their sleeves and make the choices needed to fix things. Governors come to office and find that 90% of the budget is pre-committed to entitlements and mandates enacted by politicians long dead. Teachers no longer have authority to maintain order in the classroom.

Legal mandates and entitlements have accumulated, like sediment in the harbor, until it is almost impossible for Americans to get anywhere without trudging through a treacherous legal swamp. Only big businesses, not small entrepreneurs, have the size (and legal staffs) to power through the legal sludge.

Al-Qaeda magazine published 'tips on how to kill Americans'

"A random hit at a crowded restaurant in Washington, DC at lunch ... might end up knocking out a few government employees," one article reads, according to the private SITE Intelligence Group, which studies, tracks and analyses the global jihadist network and terrorism financing.

The edition also includes "The Ultimate Mowing Machine," which describes how to use a pickup truck "as a mowing machine, not to mow grass, but mow down the enemies of Allah." It says "to achieve maximum carnage, you need to pick up as much speed as you can while still retaining good control . . . to strike as many people as possible in your first run."

Let No Crisis Go To Waste

Those of a certain age -- meaning we recall where we were when Kennedy was shot and the size of Jerry Lee Lewis' pompadour -- know the venerability of the question of how much government is too much government and how much the answers vary over time. It depends for one thing on how much government you've got when the question gets asked.

And yet recent polls on this urgent topic are of eye-popping caliber. The liberal exponent of "Big Government Now, Big Government Forever" has to feel chills ascending his spine. He would have to have on insulated underwear not to.

A USA TODAY/Gallup poll finds six in 10 of us are concerned that government has grown too powerful. Nearly half agree with the statement: "The federal government poses an immediate threat to the rights and needs of ordinary citizens."

How Obama is invading your home

The Obama administration isn't satis fied giving the American public vast things we don't want — from stimu lus packages to bailouts to ObamaCare: It's a small-scale nuisance, too — witness its attempt to redesign home appliances.

In the pipeline are dumb regulations for almost everything that plugs in or fires up in your home.

Just weeks after taking office, the president ordered the Energy Department to speed up the process of issuing harsh new energy-efficiency standards for appliances. Since then, the agency boasts, it "has issued or codified new efficiency standards for more than 20 different products," and still more are on the way.

These regulations are sure to raise the price of appliances — often by more than consumers are ever likely to earn back in the form of energy savings. And some will make the product perform well.

The administration is meddling with every room in the house:

I Can Afford Higher Taxes. But They’ll Make Me Work Less.

AN important issue dividing the political parties is whether to raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000 a year. Democrats say these taxpayers can afford to chip in a bit more. Republicans say raising taxes on those who already face the highest marginal tax rates will hurt the economy.

So I thought it might be useful to do a case study on one of these high-income taxpayers. Fortunately, I have one handy: me.

As a professor at Harvard and the author of some popular textbooks, I am comfortably in the income range that would be hit by this tax increase. I have been thinking — narcissistically, to be sure — about how higher taxes would affect me. Maybe these thoughts can shed some light on some of the broader policy issues.

Bad news for Harry

Photo: Getty Images

A recent Rasmussen poll found that 62 percent (up six points from October 2009) of likely U.S. voters believe that federal policies are actually encouraging illegal immigration, only 23 percent disagree, with another 16 percent not sure.

That same poll found that 63 percent (up four points from July 2010) of voters favor passage of an immigration law similar to Arizona’s SB1070 in their own state, while only 26 percent would oppose such a law.

New Lame Duck Threat to Bailout Union Pensions

Democrats in the Senate on Thursday held a recess hearing covering a taxpayer bailout of union pensions and a plan to seize private 401(k) plans to more "fairly" distribute taxpayer-funded pensions to everyone.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee heard from hand-picked witnesses advocating the infamous "Guaranteed Retirement Account" (GRA) authored by Theresa Guilarducci.

(You can find the blistering interview with Guilarducci by radio talk show host Mark Levin in 2007 at the link).

In a nutshell, under the GRA system government would seize private 401(k) accounts, setting up an additional 5% mandatory payroll tax to dole out a "fair" pension to everyone using that confiscated money coupled with the mandated contributions. This would, of course, be a sister government ponzi scheme working in tandem with Social Security, the primary purpose being to give big government politicians additional taxpayer funds to raid to pay for their out-of-control spending

FBI allegedly caught using GPS to spy on student

(Wired) -- A California student got a visit from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online.

The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do.

It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted their expensive device back, the student told Wired.com in an interview Wednesday.

The answer came when half-a-dozen FBI agents and police officers appeared at Yasir Afifi's apartment complex in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday demanding he return the device.

His discovery comes in the wake of a recent ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals saying it's legal for law enforcement to secretly place a tracking device on a suspect's car without getting a warrant, even if the car is parked in a private driveway.

BLANKLEY: Which party dies?

The New York Times has written in explaining why the political parties have lost the confidence of the public: "Their machinery of intrigue, their shuffling evasions, the dodges, the chicanery and the deception of their leaders have excited universal disgust, and have created a general readiness in the public mind for any new organization that shall promise to shun their vices."

The New York Evening Post, in explaining the same condition has written that the people "saw parties without any difference contending for power, for the sake of power. They saw politics made a profession, and public plunder an employment. ... They beheld our public works the plaything of a rotten dynasty, enriching gamblers, and purchasing power at our expense."

The dates of those articles were November and December 1855 (See "The Origins of the Republican Party" by William E. Gienapp, Oxford University Press, 1987).

Repent for Your Environmental Sins!

All societies and ideologies need a purpose, a comprehensive metaphor that explains the role of man in the universe. For the left, the calls for social justice have to be attached to a larger understanding of who we are and why we are here for them to have a mission that is about more than just band aids and sociological surveys. Social justice provides a social argument, and for those on the left who still believe in a creator deity, even a theological justification. But as the left largely trends secular, it needs a secular theology that lays out its mission. Environmentalism provides that theology.

Environmentalism replaces the individual transcendence of death found in conventional spiritual religions, with a materialistic creed of subsumption within a biological metaphor. Immortality is not achieved through a community of faith, but an ecosystem. Gaia replaces God as the source of all life, the central relationship for man and the keystone of his morality. Eco-morality replaces human-centered morality. People become just another species in a vast collection of them, no more worthy of respect or protection, than the badger or the snake. Less worthy even, because humanity has overstepped its bounds, through the “original sin” of fire, capitalism and innovation. This time around the “apple” is actually a diesel fueled engine and if we smash enough of them, the spirits of the earth will let us back into the garden where we can all go around naked, live in caves and die at the ripe old age of thirty.

Gallup Delivers a Stunner

As Election Day draws closer, every major public opinion poll shifts from interviewing registered voters to those whom it identifies as "likely" voters. Gallup, the oldest U.S. polling company, first developed the model it uses for identifying likely voters back in 1950 and its final election polls have proven highly accurate.

Yesterday, Gallup delivered its first 2010 "likely voter" poll and the results floored the political community. In the generic ballot question, which asks which party a voter would favor in a generic House contest, Gallup gave the GOP a 46% to 42% edge. But then Gallup applied two versions of its "likely voter" turnout model. In its "high turnout model," Republicans led Democrats by 53% to 40%. In its "low turnout model," the GOP edge was a stunning 56% to 38%. That kind of margin in favor of Republicans has never been seen in Gallup surveys.

What should worry Democrats most is that the "low turnout model" is typical of recent midterm elections. If the Gallup numbers hold up (and the firm cautions that "the race often tightens in the final month of the campaign"), some word more cataclysmic than "tsunami" would be needed for the Democratic losses.

Columnist John Fund on the latest election polls. Also, Editorial Board Member Brian Carney on the U.K. cutting child benefits.

Michael Barone, co-author of the Almanac of American Politics, says either of the Gallup turnout models would produce "a Republican House majority the likes of which we have not seen since the election cycles of 1946 or even 1928." Mr. Barone says the historical parallel might no longer be 1994, when the GOP gained 54 House seats, but instead 1894, when Republicans gained more than 100 House seats in the middle of the economic downturn that engulfed Democratic President Grover Cleveland.

Coldest winter in 1,000 years on its way

After the record heat wave this summer, Russia's weather seems to have acquired a taste for the extreme.

Forecasters say this winter could be the coldest Europe has seen in the last 1,000 years.

The change is reportedly connected with the speed of the Gulf Stream, which has shrunk in half in just the last couple of years. Polish scientists say that it means the stream will not be able to compensate for the cold from the Arctic winds. According to them, when the stream is completely stopped, a new Ice Age will begin in Europe.

So far, the results have been lower temperatures: for example, in Central Russia, they are a couple of degrees below the norm.

“Although the forecast for the next month is only 70 percent accurate, I find the cold winter scenario quite likely,” Vadim Zavodchenkov, a leading specialist at the Fobos weather center, told RT. “We will be able to judge with more certainty come November. As for last summer's heat, the statistical models that meteorologists use to draw up long-term forecasts aren't able to predict an anomaly like that.”

In order to meet the harsh winter head on, Moscow authorities are drawing up measures to help Muscovites survive the extreme cold.

Super-rich investors buy gold by ton

Reuters) - The world's wealthiest people have responded to economic worries by buying gold by the bar -- and sometimes by the ton -- and by moving assets out of the financial system, bankers catering to the very rich said on Monday.

Fears of a double-dip downturn have boosted the appetite for physical bullion as well as for mining company shares and exchange-traded funds, UBS executive Josef Stadler told the Reuters Global Private Banking Summit.