Saturday, September 22, 2018

In the news, Friday, August 31, 2018


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AUG 30      INDEX      SEP 01
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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

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from Asia Times Online
News & Media Website

Will there be a sea change in the Middle East?
It is true that the one thing we know nothing about is the future. It is also true that of all the regions of the world, that which is most unstable and thus unpredictable is the Middle East. What is true today was not true yesterday and will very likely not be true tomorrow. An extremely significant opportunity is emerging for Israel to create a sub-regional alliance with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and perhaps Kuwait.

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from BBC News (UK)
LEFT-CENTER BIAS

Clock changes: EU backs ending daylight saving time
The EU Commission is proposing to end the practice of adjusting clocks by an hour in spring and autumn after a survey found most Europeans opposed it. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said millions "believe that in future, summer time should be year-round, and that's what will happen".

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from BuzzFeedNews
[Information from this site may not be vetted.]

This Is How Russian Propaganda Actually Works In The 21st Century
The Russian government discreetly funded a group of seemingly independent news websites in Eastern Europe to pump out stories dictated to them by the Kremlin, BuzzFeed News and its reporting partners can reveal. Russian state media created secret companies in order to bankroll websites in the Baltic states — a key battleground between Russia and the West — and elsewhere in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Skype logs and other documents obtained by BuzzFeed News offer a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Kremlin’s propaganda machine.

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from Chronicle of Higher Education
News & Media Website

Confederate Statue Should Return to UNC Campus, Chancellor Says, but at a Different Location
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill should move Silent Sam, the controversial Confederate statue toppled by protesters this month, to a different spot on the campus, said Carol L. Folt, the university’s chancellor, in a written statement on Friday. This week the UNC system’s Board of Governors gave the Chapel Hill campus’s Board of Trustees a November 15 deadline to present a proposal for the future of Silent Sam, which is currently in storage. The Board of Governors would have the authority to make the final decision about the restoration of Silent Sam. Many on the campus were concerned that the statue could be returned to a spot at the campus entrance that it had occupied since 1913.

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from Competitive Enterprise Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS

No, One or Two Alcoholic Drinks a Day Is Not Unsafe or Unhealthy
Here we go again. A new round of news headlines implies any level of alcohol consumption is bad for you, based on the findings of a single study that contradicts decades of research. “No amount of alcohol is safe, health experts warn” as a CNBC headline put it, with others like CNN, CNBC, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, and many more repeating some variation on that theme. The problem, once again, is that the study on which these headlines are based found no such thing.

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from The Daily Caller
RIGHT BIAS

CHINA MOVES INTO AFGHANISTAN AS PART OF ITS GLOBAL EXPANSION MISSION
For many, it was a stunning development. China will build a brigade-size military training facility in the strategic Wakhan Corridor, the land bridge between Tajikistan and Pakistan, which is located in Afghanistan’s northeast Badakhshan province and borders China. Although Beijing denied the claim that hundreds of Chinese soldiers will be deployed to Afghanistan, a source close to the Chinese military stated, “Construction of the base has started, and China will send at least one battalion of troops, along with weapons and equipment, to be stationed there and provide training to their Afghan counterparts.” Control of Afghanistan will allow China to complete transportation corridors, power grids and oil and gas pipelines throughout Central and South Asia. China can then begin to exploit Afghanistan’s estimated $3 trillion in untapped mineral resources, in addition to Balochistan’s $1 trillion in gold, copper, oil, precious stones, coal, chromite and natural gas.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

The UN Gets Poverty All Wrong
hilip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, is coming to the UK soon to tell us all how meanly we treat the less fortunate in our society. He’s got a bit of a record on such matters, as his report on poverty in the US showed. In his initial report, he tried to measure poverty without taking into account all the things the US government does do to reduce it, which really is not the way to do it. His second stab at it made a different mistake—it didn’t try to measure poverty at all, it measured inequality. Inequality is doubtless an interesting thing, but it’s important not to get the two concepts confused with each other. Inequality isn’t poverty and poverty ain’t inequality.

The Economic Benefits of Legalized Sports Betting in the U.S. Would Be Huge
A 2017 Oxford University report found that the legalization of sports betting would contribute between $11.6 billion and $14.2 billion to U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) annually, depending on which states legalize it and their specific tax rates. Additionally, a legal sports gambling system would create 125,000 to 152,000 jobs paying between $6 billion and $7.5 billion in total wages. That’s an average salary of roughly $48,000 for a typical worker in a new sports betting industry.

Tucker Carlson Feeling the Bern Illustrates Conservatism’s Hostility to Free Markets
Conservatism shares the same hostility to laissez-faire markets as modern liberalism. Both are ultimately collectivist philosophies, hostile to liberty in general, albeit for slightly different reasons, and prone to economic fallacy to rationalize that hostility.

Guilt-Based Giving Is False Philanthropy
If you have an obligation to share your wealth, then you also have an obligation to treat the wealth you’re sharing as if it’s actually a good thing. After all, if you believe that wealth is evil, then why would you want to heap any of that evil upon someone else? If you truly want to help people become successful, then help yourself become the kind of person who’s genuinely excited about success. When you treat success as if it’s something you need to apologize for, you misrepresent the spirit of goodwill and you teach others to be ashamed of the very thing you’re trying to help them achieve.

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from Investor's Business Daily

First in a series on America's needed regulatory reforms
According to one Mercatus Center study, each of us must obey over 1 million regulatory dictates, vastly more than the statutes written by our elected lawmakers in Congress. But the sheer number is not the only, or even the worst, problem. The more troubling issue is the unconstitutional nature of the federal rulemaking and regulatory enforcement process. This process makes regulations more onerous, numerous, and inflexible — and their enforcement more arbitrary and unreasonable — than if constitutional principles were followed.

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from KXLY 4 News (ABC Spokane)

Mr. Peanut arrives in Spokane
Mr. Peanut has arrived in Spokane! His ride is 26 feet long, weighs 3 million peanuts, and "rides as smooth as peanut butter." The crew calls themselves the Peanutters, and help to spread smiles across the country. The nutmobile will also make an appearance at the Spokane County Fair, where people can sample products and meet the crew.

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from Psephizo  (Blog)

What can we preach in moments of crisis?
There are moments in life when everything suddenly stands still—moments when an item of news or something we have witnessed changes everything in us and around us for the worse, perhaps for a short time, perhaps forever. Some of these moments are inevitable, yet are still traumatic, such as illness and death, and others are more unexpected—such as a terrorist attack ripping through the fabric of a community, or a tragic event that cuts a life short. There was a time when our awareness of such events would have been limited, but now our phones and televisions sear these moments into our consciousness with a frequency and ferocity that can be overwhelming. And still, in moments such as these, the people of God gather to worship, waiting to hear what the preacher has to say. We as preachers are called to get up and speak despite ourown confusion and con icting emotions.

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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

Sue Lani Madsen: Underground economy discussion brings out the hypocrites on both sides
It’s a great conversation nonstarter for Labor Day, but a good way to begin an argument. Mention how the complex web of labor regulations is driving the underground economy and you’ll be accused of wanting a return to sweatshops and child labor. Explain how President Franklin Roosevelt felt about public sector unions (he was against them) and clearly you support 18-hour workdays and unsafe working conditions.

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