Miscellaneous News Update

I guess I'm having a hard time letting go of the TSA story - but as a physician I feel obligated to post the following story (and I completely agree with the content):

Doctors sound TSA germ alert

Syphilis, lice, gonorrhea, ringworm, chlamydia, staph, strep, noro and papilloma viruses all are part of the possible fringe benefits when airline passengers next go through a full hands-on pat-down by agents of the federal government's Transportation Security Administration, according to doctors.

WND reported two days ago on alarmed passengers who noted that TSA agents doing the pat-downs that have been described by critics as molestation since they include touching private body parts were not changing gloves between passengers. In fact, some apparently were patting down dozens of passengers or more wearing the same gloves.

"There is no doubt that bacteria (staph, strep, v.cholerae etc.) and viruses (noro, enteroviruses, herpes, hepatitis A and papilloma viruses) can be spread by contaminated vinyl or latex gloves," Dr. Thomas Warner of Wisconsin told WND in a letter to the editor.

Added a pulmonary critical care physician from Connecticut who did not want to be identified by name, "That doesn't make sense that they're not changing gloves."

"Anything can be transmitted. If there are open wounds and they [TSA agents] are not aware, there's syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes, chlamydia, lice, ringworm."

Worse yet would be for people whose immune systems are compromised by treatments they may be having, including cancer patients, she said.

Warner told WND some of the infections are "a tough little beast" and easily would be spread through the contact being used by the TSA.

"Staphylococci are also tough and can be spread on fomites (eg . towels, tampons or gloves ) and survive in dry conditions. Methicillin resistant staph creates havoc in hospitals AND in those awaiting surgery (eg. traveling for a transplant ) when the 'carrier' patient must be clear of the bacterium before elective surgery," he said.

"Emerging infectious and tropical agents create another wild scenario," he said.

He said at a minimum gloves should be changed between pat-downs, "especially if the gloved hand is inside clothes or in the genital ... area even if clothed. Travelers should be advised of this and hand-wash and change clothes ASAP after these intimate examinations."

In other news:

China, Russia quit dollar

St. Petersburg, Russia - China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.

Putin made his remarks after a meeting with Wen. They also officiated at a signing ceremony for 12 documents, including energy cooperation.

The documents covered cooperation on aviation, railroad construction, customs, protecting intellectual property, culture and a joint communiqu. Details of the documents have yet to be released.

The demographic secret about Jerusalem the NY Times refuses to reveal to its readers

In 1967, when Israel captured the eastern part of Jerusalem and put an end to 19 years of illegal Jordanian occupation, there were 72,000 Arabs in the unified city and they comprised 27 percent of its total population. Today, 43 years later, there are 264,000 Arabs living in Jerusalem and their portion of the population has risen to 34 percent, according to the latest figures of Israel's census bureau.

In the last several decades, Arab construction has consistently outpaced Jewish construction in Israel's capital. And demographers see no end to the trend of Arabs comprising an ever growing portion of Jerusalem's population -- up to 38 percent by 2020 and close to parity with Jews by mid-century.

However, this history, along with overall population figures and trends, continues to be ignored by the New York Times, which instead swallows the Palestinian myth -- in the words of Mahmoud Abbas -- that the very opposite is happening in Jerusalem, that Israel's capital somehow is in the throes of unrelenting "Judaization."

In the upside-down world of Kershner and the New York Times, only Jews purchasing homes in eastern Jersualem are "settlers." But actual Palestinian "settlers," who in far greater numbers occupy illegally built homes in Jerusalem, are totally absent from the demographic radar of the New York Times.

So, Kershner simply cherry-picks a few isolated instances of Jews buying or building residential property in eastern Jerusalem, while she totally ignores the far larger and more determinative picture of a much faster rise in Arab population in Israel's capital.

The paragraphs below go straight to heart of the matter:

Selective and thus distorted journalism also is reflected by how Kershner and other Times correspondents report the history of Jerusalem. As is their wont, it all started at the end of the Six-Day War in 1967, when Israel -- victorious against half a dozen Arab armies intent on eliminating the Jewish state -- captured the eastern part of the city from Jordanian occupation. The clear implication is that Jews, as late arrivals in East Jerusalem by force of arms, have no rights whatsoever in that part of the capital, including the Old City with its revered Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious shrines. They don't belong there.

To bolster this false impression, Kershner and the Times have to turn a blind eye to the fact that from the middle of the 19th Century through the early years of the 20th Century, the preponderant population of Jerusalem was Jewish. Jerusalem in those years comprised basically the Old City and a few adjacent neighborhoods -- all of which now are in what has come to be known as East Jerusalem.

It was only when Arab pogroms began in earnest in the 1920s leaving Jews as unprotected targets during the British Mandate that the Jewish population of the city began to shrink. And it was cleansed altogether throughout the Old City and other sectors of East Jerusalem during the brutal Jordanian occupation from 1948 until 1967 when synagogues were systematicaly destroyed throughout Old Jerusalem and Jews were barred from praying at their holiest site, the Western Wall.

That history -- along with real, not mythical, demographic trends -- will not appear in the "news" pages of the New York Times, which values Palestinian myths over firmly grounded Jewish claims to the city.

As for recent and current demographic trends, they clearly point to Jerusalem as actually being "Islamicized," not "Judaized."

As mentioned so many times in the past - the truth is very elusive in these last days. Lies and distortions rule the day. Lies and distortions which seem to come from every angle - the MSM as the main culprit but also politicians and other "world leaders" who propagate lies and distortions to meet their political agenda.

Fortunately, we are approaching the end of human government forever. Once Jesus returns, He will establish HIS "government" and it will be full of nothing but truth and love.

Quite a contrast to what we see now every day from government leaders around the world.