Thursday, April 26, 2018

In the news, Wednesday, April 11, 2018


________

APR 10      INDEX      APR 12
________


________

from Competitive Enterprise Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS

Facebook Privacy Critics Ignore Benefits of Social Media
Facebook is not a tool designed to violate privacy nor fan the flames of hate. It and other social media platforms have been some of the most transformative innovations in recent memory. Neglect of the benefits that Facebook has conferred may lead to the “danger that Congress will rush in and over-regulate” as mentioned by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) yesterday. Huge amounts of value have been created by allowing people to reconnect with old friends and relatives. The fostering of these rekindled relationships, and the maintenance of new ones, was unthinkable before the global interconnectivity that social media has enabled. International telephone calling on demand was introduced 50 years ago in 1968, at exorbitant cost by current standards. The widespread adoption of commercial email systems only began in 1995. Less than 10 years later, Facebook was brought into the world, decreasing the cost of communication to negligible levels, and contributing significantly to relationships without barriers.


________

from Conciliar Post

THE NON-DENOMINATIONAL REFORMATION
“The spread of non-denominational churches shows no signs of stopping (or slowing down) even as North American culture moves away from treating Christian identity as normative.”

________

from EUobserver
Media/News Company in Brussels, Belgium

We need a firewall against vested interests in climate policy-making
From Brussels, civil society is leading the EU-level call for a conflict of interest policy at the UN climate talks. With environment ministers now preparing for the UN climate change conference in May, it's time for the EU to back efforts tackling the vested interests that continue to undermine these negotiations. There are very few decision makers on the international stage who would deny the urgency of halting disastrous climate change. After all, our very survival depends on it. But one blind spot has remained, and it's a big one: despite their large contribution to climate change and resulting conflicts of interest, fossil fuel corporations and their lobby groups continue to be heavily involved in the UN climate change negotiations, where they keep pushing for false solutions and obstruct effective action.

Merkel: Nord Stream 2 is 'political'
Germany has for the first time acknowledged allies' concerns on the "political" and "strategic" aspects of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. German chancellor Angela Merkel made the statement after meeting Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko in Berlin on Tuesday (10 April). "It cannot be the case that Nord Stream 2 means Ukraine no longer has any significance with regard to the transit of natural gas," she said. "It has strategic importance for Ukraine," she added.

________

from LifeZette (& PoliZette)
Media/News Company in Washington, D. C.

Jordan Blasts ‘Pathetic’ Document Response by DOJ, FBI
The Ohio Republican said he is skeptical that U.S. Attorney John Lausch can speed up the subpoena compliance process ahead of looming deadlines. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials’ response to congressional subpoenas “has been pathetic” and “terrible,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Wednesday on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.” Jordan, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chastised DOJ and the FBI for failing to deliver thousands of documents “we’re entitled to as a separate and equal branch of government,” and in the process preventing lawmakers from doing their jobs.

With White House Visit, Alabama Football Team Leads by Example
Crimson Tide players bucked the trend of pouty athletes protesting visits to America's most important house — more should follow in their footsteps

Why Conservatives Better Think Twice Before Regulating Facebook
Republican senators joined the pile-on during the Mark Zuckerberg hearing, but former campaign adviser for Ted Cruz urges caution

________

from Mises Institute
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

"Ability to Pay" Is a Lousy Way to Judge Tax Policy
The ability-to-pay rationale has been elevated as unquestioned dogma in the realm of taxation justice. Indeed, progressives are so enamored of the ability to pay principle of taxation, one Daily Beast article last year described it as “the basic principle of all successful income and wealth tax systems going back nearly 2,500 years to ancient Athens where democracy and progressive taxation were invented as foundational twins of Western civilization.” But the ability-to-pay doctrine falls short of providing a logical or ethical justification for progressive tax rates, for multiple reasons.

Governments Have Been Corrupt Since Before Christ
How prevalent has political corruption been over recorded history—and how did it originate? Quite an inkling as to its prevalence and origin can be found in a book written by H. J. Haskell and published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1939. The book is The New Deal in Old Rome.

________

from Reuters
International news agency headquartered in London, England

Trump signs law to punish websites for sex trafficking
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed legislation aimed at penalizing website operators that facilitate online sex trafficking and chipping away at a legal protection for the technology industry. The law is intended to make it easier for state prosecutors and sex-trafficking victims to sue social media networks, advertisers and others that kept exploitative material on their platforms, although victims would be required to show websites knowingly facilitated sex trafficking.

________

from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

________


No comments:

Post a Comment