12,297 Tickets Are Being Sent Out Because Of Those New Toll Lanes

http://laist.com/2012/11/28/12297_people_are_already_getting_ti.php

We've told you that if you want to ride in the new toll lanes on the 110 Freeway just south of downtown, you need to buy a transponder. But (unshockingly) not everyone has gotten the memo.

Since the new lanes opened up on November 10, Metro has sent out 12,297 tickets to drivers who were caught taking new toll lanes without using a transponder, according to Zev Yaroslavsky's website (h/t Curbed LA).

CHP Sergeant Terry Liu said, "A lot of [drivers] don't understand that every vehicle has to have a transponder regardless of whether or not you satisfy the car pool requirement. We are seeing people crossing over the double white lines, and then, when we pull them over, we notice they have no transponder."

For now, Metro is only charging drivers for whatever it would have cost them to pay the toll if they were solo drivers. Those 12,297 tickets will cost drivers $18,358, so it averages to about $1.50 a ticket. Along with a ticket, they're sending an application to get a transponder (here's more information about how much it costs).

Stephanie Wiggins, the project manager for Metro, said, "If they apply, they can get a waiver of the penalty. We want good customers, good transactions. It's partly a marketing tool."

‘Rednecks’ swamp TV as viewers seek grittier reality

Voice competitions, weight-loss battles and catfights over bachelors have their place on television, but viewers are turning to cable shows that give a whole nother meaning to the word “reality.”

“It’s amazing how many people I know are watching these shows,” says comedian and longtime observer of redneck culture Jeff Foxworthy. “My wife’s from Louisiana, andSwamp People is like a family reunion for her.”

And the sheer number of these shows is multiplying to accommodate viewers’ demand for more.

Why we’re staring agape at these shows, many of which pit craggy, bearded, beer-bellied and, at times, bare-chested hirsute men against nature’s bad boys — snakes, gators and big-teethed fish — could keep psychiatrists and popular culture observers busy for years.

Part of it, says Foxworthy, “is that you cannot believe that in 2012 somebody’s making a living in a jon boat pulling up alligators and shooting them in the head.”

And despite the sometimes-negative connotation of the terms, nobody — including the networks, the viewers and the stars of these shows who use the words to describe themselves — seems to be taking offense at titles such as Rocket City Rednecks, My Big Redneck Vacation or Hillbilly Handfishin’.

“Do I see myself as a hillbilly? No, I don’t think so. It’s a catchy little name,” says Bivins, who’s waiting to hear if Animal Planet has renewed Handfishin’ for a second season. “The way I look at it, if you’re a hillbilly, that just means you have the ability to adapt and overcome and make the best of any situation.”

The American Heritage Dictionary defines hillbilly as “a person from the backwoods or a remote mountain area,” and redneck as a disparaging term “for a member of the white rural laboring class, especially in the southern United States.”

But to Willie Robertson, CEO of the duck-call empire Duck Commander, “Redneck is a state of mind. I don’t know if redneck has ever been properly defined.” His West Monroe, La., family, which has made millions off the sales of the calls since father Phil started the business in 1970, is shown hunting, fishing and running their enterprise in A&E’s reality series Duck Dynasty, 

“Being a redneck is just cutting loose and getting out there, and for us, loving living off the land,” says Robertson, asked to explain how he and his dad can call themselves rednecks even though Phil has a master’s in education from Louisiana Tech and Willie has a bachelor’s in health/human performance with a business focus from the University of Louisiana-Monroe.

“I’ve had arguments whether we’re really rednecks,” Willie Robertson says. “We may look like it and sound like it and have jobs like it but have a little bit different mentality. Maybe ‘good ol’ boys’ is a better definition.”

There’s a lot more to the bayou-based Robertsons than their bandanna-wrapped flowing locks, camouflage clothing and beards of biblical promotions, says executive producer Scott Gurney. He calls the show “Modern Family in camo.”

“To watch these guys who look like they can’t count to 10 literally talk about politics and business management and sound like they’ve come out of Harvard — you’re shocked,” Gurney says. MORE

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U.S. overseeing mysterious construction project in Israel; as UN vote recognizes state of Palestine; US and Israel object.

Published: November 28

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to supervise construction of a five-story underground facility for an Israel Defense Forces complex, oddly named “Site 911,” at an Israeli Air Force base near Tel Aviv.

Expected to take more than two years to build, at a cost of up to $100 million, the facility is to have classrooms on Level 1, an auditorium on Level 3, a laboratory, shock-resistant doors, protection from nonionizing radiation and very tight security. Clearances will be required for all construction workers, guards will be at the fence and barriers will separate it from the rest of the base.  

Only U.S. construction firms are being allowed to bid on the contract and proposals are due Dec. 3, according to the latest Corps of Engineers notice.

Site 911 is the latest in a long history of military construction projects the United States has undertaken for the IDF under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program. The 1998 Wye River Memorandum between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has led to about $500 million in U.S. construction of military facilities for the Israelis, most of them initially in an undeveloped part of the Negev Desert. It was done to ensure there were bases to which IDF forces stationed in the West Bank could be redeployed.

Site 911, which will be built at another base, appears to be one of the largest projects. Each of the first three underground floors is to be roughly 41,000 square feet, according to the Corps notice. The lower two floors are much smaller and hold equipment.

Security concerns are so great that non-Israeli employees hired by the builder can come only from “the U.S., Canada, Western Europe countries, Poland, Moldavia, Thailand, Philippines, Venezuela, Romania and China,” according to the Corps notice. “The employment of Palestinians is also forbidden,” it says.

Palestinians win de facto U.N. recognition of sovereign state

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the world body to issue its long overdue “birth certificate.”

The U.N. victory for the Palestinians was a diplomatic setback forthe United States and Israel, which were joined by only a handful of countries in voting against the move to upgrade the Palestinian Authority’s observer status at the United Nations to “non-member state” from “entity,” like the Vatican.

Britain called on the United States to use its influence to help break the long impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Washington also called for a revival of direct negotiations.

There were 138 votes in favor, nine against and 41 abstentions. Three countries did not take part in the vote, held on the 65th anniversary of the adoption of U.N. resolution 181 that partitioned Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.

Thousands of flag-waving Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip set off fireworks and danced in the streets to celebrate the vote.

The assembly approved the upgrade despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinians by withholding funds for the West Bank government. U.N. envoys said Israel might not retaliate harshly against the Palestinians over the vote as long as they do not seek to join the International Criminal Court.

Jewish groups struggle for Holocaust restitution; as Hungarian Leader wants a list of names.

Associated Press – American lawyer and IPRC (Immovable Property Review Conference) co-chairman Stuart E. Eizenstat talks to journalists in Prague, on Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012.

PRAGUE (AP) — More than 67 years after the Holocaust, Jirina Novakova refuses to give up her battle to regain property confiscated from her family.

Her hopes got a boost two years ago when 43 countries vowed at a Prague conference to back global guidelines for the restitution of property confiscated from Jews during World War II to their rightful owners or heirs. The nations pledged to try harder to return real estate stolen by the Nazis, open archives that might help those dispossessed and to process claims for restitution faster. She thought that show of international determination would pressure her country, the Czech Republic, and help her finally win a court battle to get back a button factory seized from her family by the Nazis.

But the 62-year-old is still waiting.      

This week, Novakova was among 200 people from 41 countries attending another international conference in Prague to review the progress made and put renewed pressure on European governments to restitute such property or provide fair compensation.

The two-day conference in Prague ended Wednesday with new calls for restitution.

“While progress has taken place since the fall of Communism and the subsequent breakup of the Soviet Union, there remains an urgent need to help the tens of thousands of elderly Holocaust victims and their heirs whose property claims remain unsatisfied,” Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, said in a statement.

Hungarian Leader Asks His Government for a List of Jews

With the conflict in Gaza at a tenuous point, a Holocaust-denying Hungarian lawmaker thought the next logical thing to do would be to ask the government to draw up a list of Jews who pose a national security threat. Because, really, what could go wrong with that?

“I think such a conflict makes it timely to tally up people of Jewish ancestry who live here, especially in the Hungarian Parliament and the Hungarian government, who, indeed, pose a national security risk to Hungary,”  Márton Gyöngyösi, deputy group leader of the radical-nationalist party, told Hungarian parliament yesterday. Which of course sounds an awful lot like Hitler in the Holocaust, when he said that Jewish people were the biggest enemy of the German people, often referring to Jewish people as the “Jewish Enemy.” Gyöngyösi, according to Politics.hu, a self-described Hungarian non-partisan daily, is sort of into sounding a lot like a Nazi apologist — as in July, when he lashed out at the idea of investigators searching for Nazi war criminals in Hungary, and in January, when he was accused of being one of those whackadoodles who believes the Holocaust did not exist.

Needless to say, that did not go over well, as Reuters points out that 500,000-600,000 Hungarian Jews died in the Holocaust. And Politics.Hu reports that Gyöngyösi’s latest comments came on the day before a “major conference on hate speech organized by the Council of Europe was scheduled to open in Budapest” where billionaire George Soros will be speaking.

“The government strictly rejects extremist, racist, anti-Semitic voices of any kind and does everything to suppress such voices,” the Hungarian government’s spokesman said in the Reuters report, apologizing for Gyöngyösi .

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Tougher standards sought for ‘Made in America’ label; be prepared for a ‘Made in World’ label coming to a product near you!

This process, which critics call deeply deceptive, can leave American consumers assuming they are buying from primarily domestic sources, when, in fact, most of their money is going overseas.

“Companies are gaming these rules,” said Alan Uke, owner of a specialty lighting manufacturer and author of “Buying America Back,” which lays out a strategy that he is hoping lawmakers on Capitol Hill will consider.

Under his proposal, American manufacturers would be able to distinguish genuine “Made in America” products – which are produced entirely in the U.S. – from those that are not. He proposes a redesigned country-of-origin label on all consumer goods listing where its components originate, what is the balance of trade between that country and the United States, and the location of the main offices of the company that sells the product.

Currently, U.S.-made parts and content must be disclosed for only a few specific categories of goods, including automobiles and textile, wool and fur products. There is no law that other products disclose the amount of U.S. content, but those that want to be labeled “Made in USA” must meet standards set forth by the Federal Trade Commission.

The agency in the 1990s considered a regulation that would have set a standard that U.S. manufacturing costs equal at least 75 percent of the total manufacturing cost and that final work to prepare the product for market be done in the United States, but the proposal did not become part of the final guidelines.

Mr. Uke is working with Rep. Brian P. Bilbray, California Republican, to update the label laws, so consumers have a much better sense where their products come from. He expects the legislation to be introduced early next year.

“The whole idea is to help U.S. businesses by helping consumers make an informed decision,” Mr. Bilbray said. “I think there are a lot of consumers who would be willing to pay more, but they wouldn’t necessarily have to.”

This isn’t the first time Mr. Uke and Mr. Bilbray have worked together. In the 1990s, they pioneered a plan, known as the Smog Index, that required auto manufacturers to list emissions the same way they informed drivers of the mileage rates. The idea became law as an amendment to the Clean Air Act.Read more: 

ARE YOU READY FOR ‘MADE IN THE WORLD’?

Country-of-origin labels being targeted by World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization is moving closer to eliminating country-of-origin labels and replacing them with “Made in the World” initiative labels because they say we need to “reduce public opposition to free trade” and “re-engineer global governance.”

An America that prides itself on independence and celebrates that independence every year on July 4 should want absolutely no part in allowing the advancement of global governance that aims to eliminate the one thing that allows American consumers to know from where the products they buy originate: The “Made in USA” label.MORE

“Made in the World”

The “Made in the World” initiative has been launched by the WTO to support the exchange of projects, experiences and practical approaches in measuring and analysing trade in value added.

Today, companies divide their operations across the world, from the design of the product and manufacturing of components to assembly and marketing, creating international production chains. More and more products are “Made in the World” rather than “Made in the UK” or “Made in France”. The statistical bias created by attributing the full commercial value to the last country of origin can pervert the political debate on the origin of the imbalances and lead to misguided, and hence counter-productive, decisions. The challenge is to find the right statistical bridges between the different statistical frameworks and national accounting systems to ensure that international interactions resulting from globalization are properly reflected and to facilitate cross border dialogue between national decision makers.

President Nixon Didn’t Consider Himself ‘Prejudiced,’ He Just Found Jews ‘Insecure’

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Fresh off their WikiLeaks cable dump, the Timesunleashed the text of new recordings from Nixon's presidency, released this week by the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. While previously released recordings have detailed Nixon’s well-known animosity toward Jews and black people, these tapes "suggest an added layer of complexity to Nixon’s feeling," according to the Times. For example, "He and his aides seem to make a distinction between Israeli Jews, whom Nixon admired, and American Jews." And those Italians! He has real mixed feelings on them. But he doesn't call it prejudice:

In a conversation Feb. 13, 1973, with Charles W. Colson, a senior adviser who had just told Nixon that he had always had "a little prejudice," Nixon said he was not prejudiced but continued: "I’ve just recognized that, you know, all people have certain traits."

"For example, the Irish can’t drink. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks. Particularly the real Irish. The Italians, of course, those people course don’t have their heads screwed on tight. They are wonderful people, but," and his voice trailed off.

A moment later, Nixon returned to Jews: "The Jews are just a very aggressive and abrasive and obnoxious personality. What it is, it’s the latent insecurity. Most Jewish people are insecure. And that’s why they have to prove things."

And, finally, on black people:

"Bill Rogers has got — to his credit it's a decent feeling — but somewhat sort of a blind spot on the black thing because he's been in New York," Nixon said. "He says well, ‘They are coming along, and that after all they are going to strengthen our country in the end because they are strong physically and some of them are smart.' So forth and so on.

"My own view is I think he's right if you're talking in terms of 500 years," he said. "I think it's wrong if you're talking in terms of 50 years. What has to happen is they have be, frankly, inbred. And, you just, that's the only thing that's going to do it, Rose."source

Embryo survival gene may fight range of diseases: study

HONG KONG (Reuters) – A gene that keeps embryos alive appears to control the immune system and determine how it fights chronic diseases like hepatitis and HIV, and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, scientists said on Monday.

Although the experts have only conducted studies on the gene Arih2 using mice, they hope it can be used as a target for drugs eventually to fight a spectrum of incurable diseases.

Optimal Somatstatin (SRIF) activation of the Gene ARIH2 subunit transverse tubules via intermediate filament SRIF retinal circuitry aspartic triad

Lead author Marc Pellegrini at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia said the gene appears to act like a switch, flipping the immune system on and off.

“If the gene is on, it dampens … the immune response. And if you switch it off, it greatly enhances immune responses,” Pellegrini said in a telephone interview.

“It is probably one of the few genes and pathways that is very targetable and could lead to a drug very quickly.”

Arih2 was first identified by another group of scientists in the fruit fly but it drew the interest of Pellegrini’s team because of its suspected links to the immune system.

In a paper published in Nature Immunology, Pellegrini and his team described how mice embryos died when the gene was removed.

“The mice survived for six weeks quite well. Then they started developing this very hyperactive immune responses and if you leave it for too long, it starts reacting against the body itself,” Pellegrini said.

Pellegrini and his colleagues hope that scientists can study the gene further and use it as a drug target to fight a large spectrum of diseases.

“It’s like an accelerator. In infectious diseases, you want to slam on the brakes on this gene, and for autoimmune diseases, you want to push the accelerator to make it work much harder to stop the whole immune response,” said Pellegrini.

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Genetically Modified Humans? New Gene-Altering Drug Paves Way for Mass Modification

Mike Barrett  NOVEMBER 27, 2012

We’ve seen genetically modified mosquitoes,genetically modified plants, and genetically modified cows, but could we soon be dealing with our own genetic alterations – genetically modified humans? As the months and years pass, scientistsseem to be getting closer to ‘manufacturing’ humankind, with some of the most recent ‘advancements’ revolving around a new approved drug therapy that is designed to ‘correct genetic errors’.

October 31, 2011

Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics Ends Glybera Development, Halves Workforce

Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics BV‘s potential gene therapy, Glybera (alipogene tiparvovec), may have been rejected for approval by Europe’s top scientific advisory panel, CHMP, on Oct. 21, but the closeness of the vote – there was only one dissenting voice – suggests it won’t be long before a gene therapy product clears the committee and reaches the European market.

But that product is not expected to be Glybera, because its development is being terminated by AMT. The company says it has come to the end of CHMP’s appeal procedure, and a refiling would be too expensive.

There is a glimmer of hope for Glybera from the U.S. and Canada, however. AMT is to hold meetings with FDA and the Canadian regulatory authorities in mid-November, when it will ask their views on Glybera and gene therapy. If the regulatory agencies are positive about the drug, then project funding could be sought to support filing of marketing authorizations in North America in the second half of 2012, Aldag said.

Glybera, the drug which was approved in Europe on November 1, was created to combat against a raredisorder leading to disrupted fat production. Those suffering this rare disease possess what scientistsdescribe as a damaged gene; the drug is meant to repair the damaged gene.

While the drug is only meant to be given to 1 or 2 out of every million people, it paves way for further experimentation into the field of biotechnology and human alteration. Soon, doctors may be giving out drugs to treat any ‘defects’ in genes, whether it be for the so-called ‘fat’ gene or another instance where a damaged gene is present.

It could even apply to purported ‘criminal’ genes that are said to predict an individual’s future ‘life of crime’.  It may sound crazy, but scientists are already making even more serious moves that will alter or ‘create’ humankind.

Further Genetically Modifying Humanity

Although gene-altering drugs are indeed helping to pave the way for further human genetic modification, it is only a single move in the game. Just a few months ago, we reported on the very first group of genetically modified babies being ‘created’ in the United States. The scientists stated that 30 babies were born usinggenetic modification techniques. In addition, 2 of the babies tested were found to contain genes from a total of 3 different parents. Geneticists state that this genetic modification method may one day be used to create genetically modified babies “with extra, desired characteristics such as strength or high intelligence.”

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Thanksgiving: George Washington’s 1789 Proclamation

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor — and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be — That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks — for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation — for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed — for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted — for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.  More from BFA

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US: we initiate terrorism to create terrorists to overthrow governments

Wesley Clark, Supreme Allied Commander NATO, testifies in this 2-minute video that the US planned to overthrow seven countries after 9/11: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.

The Pentagon admitted a strategy to do so (here, here, here):

1. 1.  the US conducts acts of terrorism in nations they want to control,
2. 2.  the US continues terrorism to provoke an act of reprisal,
3. the US labels the reprisal “terrorism” to justify covert and overt military operations to overthrow targeted governments.

Therefore, the US caused the “war on terror” as a policy choice; 9/11 was pretense and not the cause.

Indeed, war law and two UN Security Council Resolutions provided international cooperation for factual discovery of the 9/11 terrorists, arrests, and trial for lawful justice all nations supported.

The US rejects the rule of law, violates treaty obligations, killed over a million human beings from armed attacks since 9/11, and so far has long-term costs of $4 to $6 trillion to US taxpayers ($40 – $60,000 per household).  MORE

“More Law?” – Pure Sociology Gets It Wrong

There are different kinds of law. Some law is statutory, created by legislators or rulers with legislative authority. When most people think of laws, they’re thinking of statutes. Some law is regulatory, created not by a legislative authority but by a governmental agency or ministry.

The law may have more or less effect on a given society, depending on how much it adheres to the rule of law. A society that gives greater precedence to familial, tribal or commercial ties than it gives to the law is going to behave differently than one where the law is expected to apply to everyone regardless.

Punishment is also different from law. Punishment is a severe form of governmental intrusion depriving a citizen or subject of life, liberty or property, or inflicting pain or distress, as a consequence for violating certain laws. Not just any laws, but those laws deemed so necessary for public safety and security and decency that violation requires just such extreme measures — either to dissuade that person or others from doing the same, to remove the threat from society, to otherwise make the criminal less likely to reoffend, or to satisfy a visceral desire for vengeance. Imposing more punishment does not create more law, but is instead a function of the application of existing law to individual circumstances.
 

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