Amsterdam unveiled plans Saturday to close brothels, sex shops and marijuana cafes in its ancient city center as part of a major effort to drive organized crime out of the tourist haven.
The city is targeting businesses that “generate criminality,” including gambling parlors, and the so-called “coffee shops” where marijuana is sold openly. Also targeted are peep shows, massage parlors and souvenir shops used by drug dealers for money-laundering.
“I think that the new reality will be more in line with our image as a tolerant and crazy place, rather than a free zone for criminals” said Lodewijk Asscher, a city council member and one of the main proponents of the plan.
Interesting article….however you get down to this quote here:
“It’ll be a place with 200 windows (for prostitutes) and 30 coffee shops, which you can’t find anywhere else in the world — very exciting, but also with cultural attractions,” he said. “And you won’t have to be embarrassed to say you came.”
A dispute has erupted in Caledon, Ont., over whether a family with a child with cerebral palsy should be allowed to keep a pony.
Three-year-old Sam Spiteri was born with a form of cerebral palsy that makes it hard for him to do ordinary tasks such as walk, hold toys, eat or speak.
The youngster has been riding his miniature pony, Emily, since he was an infant.
“Taking her away would be devastating to Sam. It is his best friend,” said his mother Antonia Spiteri.
He’s so attached to the animal that his rides usually end in tears because he doesn’t want to leave Emily.
But a neighbour’s complaint about the animal’s smell is now being handled by the Town of Caledon, whose bylaw enforcement manager has ruled the Spiteris’ half-hectare property is zoned rural-residential, meaning they cannot keep livestock.
The Spiteri family, however, argues Emily shouldn’t be classified as livestock because she was bought as a form of therapy.
“We only want the exception for Emily herself to remain on the property for therapeutic purposes,” said Antonia Spiteri.
Sam’s grandfather bought him the pony because the youngster experiences seizures, making it almost impossible to take him on long car trips to a riding facility elsewhere.
According to the Ontario Cerebral Palsy Foundation, equestrian therapy “improves balance, co-ordination, strength and muscle tone, while gently mobilizing the joints.”
Antonia Spiteri says Sam’s pediatrician suggested the riding therapy, and they have seen an improvement in his posture.
“Bouncing from riding her triggers the muscles to stiffen and contract, so that when he rides her, he gets better posture and makes it easier for those muscles to learn those types of things. And then he is better with possibly walking in the future,” she said.
“When his posture is better, it’s easier for him to perform simple tasks such as feeding himself. It also helps with speech.”
The debate over whether Emily can stay on the property will now go before a committee of adjustment.
Well, I happen to believe that this is just wrong, Period. If you agree with this. Please contact the officials in this town:
Mayor Marolyn Morrison
Town of Caledon
6311 Old Church Road, Caledon ON L7C 1J6 Office: (905) 584-2272 Fax: (905) 584-4325 marolyn.morrison@caledon.ca
As always, Be polite and tell her that you think that taking this pony from this boy is wrong.
While it is certainly possible that the group is taking credit for another’s handiwork, the Indian Mujahideen has been implicated as being behind several recent attacks in India.
The group claimed credit for the July 25 and 26 bombings in Ahmedabad and Bangalore. At least 36 Indians were killed and more than 120 were wounded in the attacks. The Indian Mujahideen took credit for the Sept. 13 attacks in New Delhi that resulted in 18 killed and more than 90 wounded. The group also claimed credit for the July 25 and 26 bombings in Ahmedabad and Bangalore that killed 36 wounded 120, the bombings in Jaipur last May (60 killed, more than 200 wounded), and bombings in Uttar Pradesh in November 2007 (14 killed, 50 wounded).
Indian intelligence believes the Indian Mujahideen is a front group created by Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Harkat ul Jihad al Islami to confuse investigators and cover the tracks of the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, or SIMI, a radical Islamist movement. The groups receive support from Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence and are al Qaeda affiliates.
I tend to believe that more information is going to come to light, as a result of this event. Something tells me that Pakistan’s hand is in this. Perhaps they are not as friendly as we thought.
A sad, but realistic look at World affairs from an outside source. There are many things to blame; Bush, Neo-Conservatism, and the like. There are some that would say that the BBC is liberally biased. But I disagree, I think it is a real-world view of things. Our world in changing, we, as Americans ought to embrace it, but be prepared.
But the inventory glut in Long Beach is not limited to imported cars. There has also been a sharp drop in demand for the port’s single largest export: recycled cardboard and paper products.
This material typically goes to China, where it is used to make boxes for new electronics and other products that are sent back to the United States. But Chinese factories reacting to sharply falling demand are slowing production, so they need less cardboard. Tons of paper are piling up recycling businesses around the port, the detritus of economies on hold.
Long Beach is an important port, particularly for the West. It is where imported products arrive and filter through the tributary of trucks, trains and retailers into the hands of consumers. But now, products are just sitting.
“We’re supposed to move things, not store them,” Mr. Wong said.
Roughly 20 percent of the nation’s container imports last year came through Long Beach, putting it close behind the largest container port, Los Angeles. This year, shipping volume at Long Beach is down 10 percent from 2007, and nearly all major ports around the country have seen similar declines. Veteran port workers say the slowdown since mid-October is like nothing they have ever seen. And it is having a cascading impact on other businesses and workers. – Read the rest
Go read the rest of the story. But it’s not only cars, it’s everything. I think Obama might just come; too little, too late. 🙁
Israeli police rushed into one of Christianity’s holiest churches Sunday and arrested two clergyman after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to the site of Jesus’ tomb.
The clash between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks broke out in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and resurrection.
The brawling began during a procession of Armenian clergymen commemorating the 4th-century discovery of the cross believed to have been used to crucify Jesus.
The Greeks objected to the march without one of their monks present, fearing that otherwise, the procession would subvert their own claim to the Edicule – the ancient structure built on what is believed to be the tomb of Jesus – and give the Armenians a claim to the site.
The Armenians refused, and when they tried to march the Greek Orthodox monks blocked their way, sparking the brawl.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police were forced to intervene after fighting was reported. They arrested two monks, one from each side, he said.
My Thoughts:
For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD. We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble! (Jeremiah 8:11-15 KJV)
The Final solution:
Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. (Revelation 1:7 KJV)
The Israeli news site Israel Insider reported exclusively Thursday that a seismic event that occurred in Iran October 25 may have been a massive underground nuclear bomb test and not an earthquake.
Israel Insider cited an Iranian nuclear scientist who claims to be working in uranium enrichment for the project.
According to the news site, the “quake” was the second one in “a series” – the first having occurred just four days ago, and less than 5 km from the epicenter of last weekend’s tremor.
If nuclear tests are taking place then the area appears to have been carefully chosen to disguise the fact. It is reportedly exposed to significant seismic activity but a recent spike there reportedly deviates from historical trends.
Israeli leaders across the board have vowed that Iran will never be allowed to get its hands on a nuclear weapon. Analysts believe the Jewish state will not wait much longer before it strikes.
The Iranians have defiantly insisted that they will pursue nukes even as they openly declare their support for the destruction of Israel.
Like I said above, I hope like the dickens that this just is not true and that it is some sort of B.S. Propaganda or something. I will monitor the situation and see what I can come up with.
Stay Tuned….
Update: So far the only other place, that this is popping up, is on another Pro-Israel website called Israel National News. At this point, I think it would be best to just take this with a grain of salt, because it could be just anti-Iranian propaganda being pushed to start a war or just to raise suspicions or tensions. So, at this point I’d advise any Blogger, with any common sense, to show some restraint.
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