IF AMERICA WANTS COMPASSION IT SHOULD ALSO SHOW SOME
Posted by Caledonian Jim in Daily Posts
Pictured above is Amanda Knox, the young American girl convicted over the weekend of murdering British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy. Since that verdict was handed down, there has been an increasingly concerted effort by first her family, then the US media, to imply that the evidence against her was flawed and that the Italian legal system was pre-disposed to convict her. We’ve even now got a US Senator, Maria Cantwell, asking US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to intervene, saying that there are “serious questions” about the Italian legal system and that the verdict was “anti-American”. So to sum up, there are voices in America calling for reason, “justice” and compassion. But wait….
Pictured above is British citizen Gary McKinnon. Despite various entreaties and appeals, he’s due to be extradited to America soon, where he could face a much bigger sentence than given to convicted murderer Foxy Knoxy. And his crime ? He is a UFO nut who hacked into NASA and US security websites looking for information on things like aliens, Roswell and Area 51. In doing so he exposed American security weaknesses and doubtless caused major embarrassment in certain circles. But to claim that he was some kind of rabid cyber-terrorist, as the US authorities have done, is ludicrous. So maybe before senior American officials start impuning the Italian authorities and calling for “justice”, they might consider cutting Gary McKinnon some slack first.
Economic gloom (above). A new report predicts that Britain will slide alarmingly down the economic global league table in the coming years. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) says the UK, which was the world’s 4th largest economy as recently as 2005, has since slipped to 7th this year behind America, China, Japan, Germany, France and Italy. By 2015, the report predicts, Britain will be outside the world’s top 10, behind Russia, Brazil, India and Canada. Slow growth and a weak pound will be responsible for the slide. “Public opinion in the UK has not yet caught up with the potential impact of this change,” said Doug McWilliams, chief executive of the CEBR. Well if that means we won’t have to attend and pay for junkets like the G8 conferences – and not have to suffer the excruciating, puerile and irrelevant news coverage that goes with these pointless events, maybe public opinion won’t give a toss.
Pictured above is a very ordinary, unimpressive and unprepossessing office entrance in the city of Tomsk in Siberia, Russia. But suspicions are growing that the Russian security services were behind the leaking of the notorious British “ClimateGate” emails which threaten to undermine the Copenhagen global warming summit. An investigation has reportedly revealed that the explosive hacked emails from the University of East Anglia were leaked via a small web server in the formerly closed Siberian city. The leaks scandal has left the scientific community in disarray after claims that key climate change data was manipulated in the run-up to the climate change summit of world leaders. Now frankly I don’t care how the e-mails were leaked. But what I do care about is whether they prove that we’re being lied to and ripped off over climate change. And considering the integrity of UK politicians, I’m pretty sure I know the answer to THAT question already.
Climate change (above) is of course in the news all the time at present, what with Copenhagen and the “ClimateGate” e-mails calling the whole issue into question. But according to a new opinion poll, almost half of people in Britain believe there is no proof that global warming is caused by humans. The survey revealed that 46% of those quizzed did not believe mankind was responsible for the global temperature rises. Some 39% cent of those questioned said climate change was not proven to be man-made – and a further 7% of those polled believe that climate change is not taking place at all. And despite a contrasting message from many governments, less than 1 in 4 voters believe climate change is the most serious problem faced by mankind. Those polled were all agreed on one thing though – the issue is being used a very convenient tax raising scam by the government.
According to banking sources, more than 1,000 investment bankers have quit the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, above) to join rival banks which will pay guaranteed cash bonuses and big salary increases. The staff exodus, which has cut a swathe through the senior ranks of RBS, has been gathering pace since the government first ordered it to clamp down on bonuses this year. Although they account for less than 5% of staff in RBS’s investment division, the traders and corporate financiers who have been lured away are estimated to have earned it between £600 million and £700 million last year. A stand-off with the government over the payment of bonuses for 2009 threatens to spark a fresh wave of resignations in the new year, according to the same banking sources. Tough luck, because the last time I looked, RBS was owned by the UK taxpayer and profits should be benefiting the country by encouraging RBS to lend to business and paying back the taxpayer, not indulging a small group of City spivs. So fine – if the greedy sods want to leave, let them piss off, because if it hadn’t been for us, they wouldn’t have had jobs last year..
In the UK the Queen (pictured above) has “warned” newspapers against publishing paparazzi photos of members of the royal family. The threat comes amid reportedly growing frustration within the dysfunctional Windsor brood about alleged intrusion into the their private lives and those of their friends. The monarch’s lawyers are said to have contacted newspapers, informing them of privacy obligations under their own code of practice. The move is thought to have the full backing of high-profile members of the publicly funded royal family including the Prince of Wales and his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry Hewitt. Well I’ve got a better idea, which will reassure her majesty about her own privacy and also the privacy of her extended family and hangers-on that don’t want their squalid little private lives exposed by the press. Let’s abolish the whole royal pantomime – in the current economic climate, that will be cheap as well as unobtrusive.
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I’d never heard about the hacker who was looking for info about Area 51, etc. That is so interesting, I’m going to go look up more info.
And the media over here in the U.S. is certainly trying to make Knox look innocent.
Jennie