Around the World

There are a lot of news items today, coming from around the world:

1. The Middle East:

Terrorist Rocket Explodes South of Ashkelon

Terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza attacked with a rocket south of Ashkelon Wednesday morning as missiles strikes increase. Twenty rocket and missile explosions were aimed at Israeli civilians in July, four times the number in the previous month.

August started out with a continuing escalation in violence from Gaza...

The Lie of the Arab 'Calm'

“Calm” is a favorite word of mainstream media to describe “quiet” from Arab terror. The “calm” in July included 25 terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria.

An Israeli military report Wednesday stated that there were 20 attacks from Gaza, four times as many than in June.

The favorite weapon of the terrorists in Judea and Samaria, ruled by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, was firebombs, also known as Molotov cocktails. However, the IDF report does not include nearly two dozen incidents of arson by Arabs trying to burn dozen Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

As Kassams Fall, Israel Hands Water, "Gestures" Over to Gaza

In a “gesture” to Gaza Arabs on the occasion of the month of Ramadan, which began this week, Israel will transfer to Gaza an additional 3 million cubic meters of water. The decision on the allocation increase was made Tuesday by Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Israel announced a host of other “gestures” for Gaza Arabs Tuesday as well. Ten new factories will be built by private contractors in Gaza, with building standards and materials meeting European Union requirements

Barak also authorized the expansion of exports from Gaza, authorizing the export of furniture and textiles.

And in return for these Israeli efforts?

On Monday night, Gaza Arab terrorists fired two Kassam rockets at Israel, the latest in the unending series of attacks from Gaza against Israel. One woman was moderately injured by shrapnel from the attack. In response, the IDF attacked several terrorist positions in Gaza early Tuesday.

Business as usual.

2. Europe and the EU:

Europe's money markets freeze as crisis escalates in Italy and Spain

The European money markets have begun to seize up as pressure mounts on the Italian and Spanish banking systems, tracking the pattern seen during the build-up towards the financial crisis in 2008.

"The eurozone faces a very big decision: it either creates a central fiscal authority or accepts reality and starts to think the unthinkable, which is to cut the currency union into workable pieces."

The political ferment behind the scenes points to a major policy shift, though it is unclear what the EU authorities can do without the full backing of EU leaders.

I am betting that the correct call here is the option of "creates fiscal authority". We shall see.

Mad march of political correctness

MARK Twain knew a thing or two about political correctness when he said: "Sometimes I wonder whether the world is run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it."

Over the past few weeks, some on the Left have claimed that those of us who have raised questions about multiculturalism, immigration and the relationship between Islam and modernity have blood on our hands for the mass murder in Oslo. Here, murder is used as a muzzle to close down free speech. And this is just the latest addition to a growing list of tactics to curb free speech, and even worse, to stifle genuine inquiry.

Consider the other tricks in recent years. To close down discussion about, say, immigration or border control, you call your opponents racists and point to xenophobia in the community. Opponents are not just wrong, they're evil. Their views should not be aired in a civilised society.

The PC crowd is clever. They know there are no useful legal tests about hurt feelings and inciting hate. They enact nice-sounding laws, build bureaucracies and wait for them to blossom and bludgeon free speech. They have effectively co-opted Islamic-style oppression to prohibit debate; be it about Islam or anything else they wish to fence off from free speech.

3. The Continuing Fall of the U.S.:

Agenda 21 Targets Family Farms

Americans have been paying closer attention to the United Nation’s Agenda 21, a plan for global management of people and resources, and rightfully so. The plan virtually micromanages every aspect of human life, violating several Constitutional rights in the process.

A number of agencies in the United States have already signed on to efforts to enforce Agenda 21, including the Department of Transportation, which has recently proposed a rule change for farm equipment that exhibits greater government control.

Agenda 21 is defined by the United Nations as a “comprehensive plan for action to be taken globally, nationally, and locally by organizations of the United Nations system, governments and major groups in every area in which humans impact the environment.”

The New American’s William Jasper wrote of Agenda 21 in February, explaining that the plan is virtually all encompassing:

The UN’s Agenda 21 is definitely comprehensive and global — breathtakingly so. Agenda 21 proposes a global regime that will monitor, oversee, and strictly regulate our planet’s oceans, lakes, streams, rivers, aquifers, sea beds, coastlands, wetlands, forests, jungles, grasslands, farmland, deserts, tundra, and mountains. It even has a whole section on regulating and “protecting” the atmosphere. It proposes plans for cities, towns, suburbs, villages, and rural areas. It envisions a global scheme for healthcare, education, nutrition, agriculture, labor, production, and consumption — in short, everything; there is nothing on, in, over, or under the Earth that doesn’t fall within the purview of some part of Agenda 21.

Now we can see specifically how this agenda is working its way into American daily life:

Evidence of Jasper’s assertions has already begun to take form. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a component of the Department of Transportation, has proposed implementing new standards that require farmers and all those who work on a farm to obtain a license to operate farming machinery. To do this, the agency will be reclassifying all farm vehicles and equipment as Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMVs).

As noted by The Blaze, “if this allowed to take effect, it will place significant regulatory pressure on small farms and family farms all across America — costing them thousands of dollars and possibly forcing many of them out of business.” It explains:

The move by the DOT appears to be “legislation through regulation.” By reclassifying all farm vehicles and implements as Commercial Vehicles, the federal government will now be able to claim regulatory control over the estimated 800,000 farm workers in America, at the same time, overriding the rights of the states.

The changes would ultimately infringe upon the operation of family farms by imposing loads of paperwork, such as detailed logs to be kept by all drivers, and regulations, which include a physical and drug test to be administered every two years on all drivers.

And this quote from the article must be bolded:

It may be worth noting that the Secretary for the Department of Transportation, Ray LaHood, is also a member of President Obama’s newly created White House Rural Council, which some contend has been created for the single purpose of implementing Agenda 21.

Also see:

Welcome to the U.N.'s Agenda 21's 'Walkability'

Just when you thought you might sleep better at night, with only worries about feeding your family, keeping your job and home in a terrible economy, the debt ceiling just raised to $2.8 trillion, the United Nation’s “Sustainability” Agenda 21 marches on with the help of a myriad of private and governmental organizations nationwide dedicated to the “fundamental change” of America as we know it.

Mixed-use development is part of Agenda 21’s plan for walkability, taking people out of their cars, placing them in high-rise complexes where their jobs and businesses will be on the ground floors and their homes will be above. No more driving, no need for parking garages, mass transit use if available, or just plain moving only within walking or biking distance, while giving the land back to its intended wilderness.

Absurd need of returning land to wilderness:

To put this absurd need of returning land to wilderness into proper perspective, consider that 77-84 percent of Americans live on 3 percent of United States’ land mass. Sixteen percent of Americans live in rural areas. Ninety-five percent of America’s land is rural.

Fifty percent of private land in the country is slated to be conserved or protected—that may include your land, your home, or your farm

This article is worth reading in full. The tragic conclusion is worth repeating:

When are Americans going to wake up that ignorant or purposefully Marxist state and local representatives paid by the United Nations umbrella of Agenda 21 are going to “fundamentally change America” and the way we live without Congressional approval, without our approval? It is law at all federal levels through executive orders that are forcing Agenda 21 at the national level. Local and state politicians cannot enforce ICLEI’s agenda, they are violating our Constitution.

U.S. Less Than 3 Years Away From Being Greece

The US is only a few years away from reaching the same debt levels that pushed Greece to the brink of ruin, former comptroller general and head of the Comeback America Initiative David Walker said.

When tolling up all the US debts, including huge unfunded liabilities to Social Security and Medicare, the US is on dangerous ground, Walker said in a CNBC interview.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Poor House

Two-point-four trillion dollars:

$2,400,000,000,000.

Take a minute to visualize it. You can’t, you know: it’s simply too big a number. But take a minute to try.

Dazzled yet? You should be. Two-point-four trillion dollars: It’s the largest hike of the debt ceiling in history, but, hey, that’s no reason for the House not to celebrate and cheer. They passed the buck. President Obama, too, can breathe a sigh of release: he doesn’t have to think about raising the “debt ceiling” again until 2013, after the next election. (Query: what does the word “ceiling” add to the word “debt”? Intrinsically, nothing; but by adding a neutral word to a negative you accomplish an important psychological feat: you soften, mellow, calm people who might otherwise concentrate exclusively on the nasty word “debt.”)

Secret Patriot Act

The secret Patriot Act is staying secret.

Two Senators have been warning for months that the government has a secret legal interpretation of the Patriot Act so broad that it amounts to an entirely different law — one that gives the feds massive domestic surveillance powers, and keeps the rest of us in the dark about the snooping.

“There is a significant discrepancy between what most Americans – including many members of Congress – think the Patriot Act allows the government to do and how government officials interpret that same law,” wrote the Senators, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall. “We believe that most members of the American public would be very surprised to learn how federal surveillance law is being interpreted in secret. ”

GOA Chief: Super Congress 'Will Lead Us Into Dictatorship"

Gun Owners of America chief Larry Pratt warns that the new “Super Congress” created by the debt deal will lead America into dictatorship, labeling the move a “coup d’état” by the political class aimed at transforming the entire structure of government in the United States.

Comparing the super committee to Plato’s council, Pratt pointed out that it would take just 34 Senate votes to sustain a bill put forward by the group, noting that it has been set up specifically to prevent lawmakers getting in the way of its agenda by necessitating a super majority to overturn anything introduced by the committee.

“This is a game changer, they’ve decided that we don’t need the House of Representatives to originate revenue bills, we’ll just have the ‘super 12′ do that,” said Pratt, adding that Barack Obama would become the de facto deciding 13th member.

Legislation decided on by the Super Congress would be immune from amendment and lawmakers would only be able to register an up or down vote, eliminating the ability to filibuster.

Lets not forget that the U.S. has FEMA camps set up all around the country:

The FEMA Camps Video That Was Never Allowed To Air

4. Quakes

El Hierro Earthquake Swarm Enters Third Week

The total number of tremors recorded during the past two weeks has now exceeded 1,050, according to the Instituto Geografico Nacional (IGN).

The majority of the earth tremors ranged between 1-2 magnitude, but during the past 24 hours there have been least five tremors measuring in excess of 2.0 magnitude on the Richter Scale. A 2.4 magnitude earthquake was recorded at 4:56 p.m. local time on Sunday (31 July 2011).

The earthquake swarm, prompted the Canary Islands Government to convene the first ever meeting on 22 July of the Steering Committee and Volcanic Monitoring, reflected in the Specific Plan Protection Civil and Emergency for Volcanic Risk, given what it described “the significant increase in seismic activity”. The Committee met again on Friday 29 July to discuss the low magnitude seismic activity. It reported that it had stepped up its seismic monitoring operations to identify the source of the earthquakes.

The concerning aspect of these quakes is the fact that there are significant fears of a tsunami created if/when a land mass slides into the ocean in this region.

Today's Earthquake Activity