Random Politics & Religion #00

I think your friend was taken in by the Doomsday Boogeyman.

Oil and gas companies pretty much run the works, and you think they're going to just stop before full depletion?

That is a very impressive optimism and faith in the future replacement's profitability señor

would already be working on developing alternative ways to make money and stay in business.

I know what you meant. I just don't think something that profitable would ever stop; creating a use and demand for energy like that will be easy. Even if most of the world stops using crude oil completely.

Just like some companies now are really getting into refurbishing old equipment instead of buying new digital age stuff and having to retrain all their staff on all the new systems for example. Avoiding change and real investment to an unrealistic unsustainable degree.

Police and CPS investigate Maryland couple for not being helicopter parents


I don't know about the rest of you, but I spent my entire childhood from about 6 years old+ walking home at least half a mile from school, depending where I lived (I moved several times), along with about 30 other kids, at minimum, who lived "too close" for the bus systems.

We were taught not to speak to strangers, to never get in a vehicle with a stranger or take gifts or food from them. Etc.

Yet -- somehow -- CPS has a hard time managing to investigate and remove children from actual dangerous, neglectful, abusive situations.

Child services has serious issues in this country where if you aren't being an overbearing parent turning your child into a codependant headcase, you're somehow engaging in neglect.

A friend of mine today explained how humanity is *** and we'll never be able to repair the earth; and when fossil fuels run out it'll be the end of our way of life completely.

I said no, the minute fossil fuels are gone (and likely decades before) all that money and energy will be focused on finding the next exploitable fuel source we can renew or come up with to make it lucridly profitable. Humanity will adapt and nothing will really change behaviour wise on a large scale; On that precipice we'll come up with amazing things to replace necessity.

Do you guys agree with him?

Ramyrez is not in fault for what happens in Maryland.

He is only responsible for the idiots elected in Pennsylvania.

Like how I am only responsible for the idiots elected in Texas.

Ramyrez is not in fault for what happens in Maryland.

He is only responsible for the idiots elected in Pennsylvania.

Like how I am only responsible for the idiots elected in Texas.

Was said in the greater sense.
Vote for people who want more government control, and you'll get it.

Oil and gas companies pretty much run the works, and you think they're going to just stop before full depletion?

The veteran CNN anchor Jim Clancy has left the network after a series of Twitter messages he wrote about the terrorist attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead.

In the tweets, which were sent on the day of the attack, Mr. Clancy wrote about the cartoons the paper had published depicting the Prophet Muhammad, but he then began criticizing supporters of Israel and sparring with other Twitter users. Mr. Clancy’s Twitter account has since been deleted, but the tweets were published on several websites, including Gawker, Twitchy and Mediaite.

CNN confirmed on Saturday that Mr. Clancy had left the network but declined to comment on whether his departure was related to the Twitter messages. Mr. Clancy declined to comment.

On Jan. 7, Mr. Clancy posted a message about cartoons Charlie Hebdo published before the massacre at its Paris office. “The cartoons NEVER mocked the Prophet,” he said. “They mocked how the COWARDS tried to distort his word.” The message was retweeted more than 600 times.

Some called Mr. Clancy’s statement untrue. One was Oren Kessler, a research director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which studies international terrorism. He responded with a tweet that said, “The magazine was targeted in the past over an issue in which Muhammad was listed as guest editor.”

Mr. Clancy then posted a series of tweets including one that said, “These accounts are part of a campaign to do PR for #Israel @JewsMakingNews @elderofziyon Nothing illegal - but PR not HR: Human Rights.”

Mr. Clancy, who anchored the global news show “The Brief,” had worked at CNN for more than 30 years, covering the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Rwandan genocide and the Iraq wars, according to a biography that has since has been deleted from CNN’s website.

CNN's Jim Clancy resigns after anti-Israel tweets
Anchor leaves Cable News Network after 34 years following controversial Twitter debate with pro-Israel activists over terror attack on Charlie Hebdo.
Ynet
Published: 01.17.15, 17:47 / Israel News
Veteran CNN anchor Jim Clancy issued a statement Friday saying he is leaving the network, where he has worked for 34 years, one week after he was involved in a controversial debate on Twitter with pro-Israeli activists over the attack on satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

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On January 7, Clancy posted a tweet claiming that the caricature of Muhammad published by the French magazine did not mock the Muslim prophet. "They mocked how the COWARDS tried to distort his word. Pay attention,” he wrote.

CNN's Jim Clancy resigns after harsh statements made against Israelis on Twitter.
CNN's Jim Clancy resigns after harsh statements made against Israelis on Twitter.

The tweet led to a number of responses from his followers. "Absolutely untrue. The magazine was targeted in the past over an issue in which Muhammad was listed as guest editor," Oren Kessler, a deputy director of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies wrote, challenging Clancy's interpretation.

The CNN reporter then tweeted “Hasbara?,” in response, implying that Kessler was engaging in public diplomacy on Israel's behalf.

Clancy's tweets.
Clancy's tweets.

“These accounts are part of a campaign to do PR for Israel," Clancy wrote, adding that a “pro-Israel voice" was attempting to "convince us that cartoonists were really anti-Muslim and that’s why they were attacked. FALSE.”

After the online debate, Clancy deleted his Twitter account.

Clancy's tweets.
Clancy's tweets.

n his resignation statement, the CNN anchor did not mention the reason for his departure. He posted the following message: "After nearly 34 years with Cable News Network, the time has come to say farewell! It has been my honor to work alongside all of you for all of these years."

A CNN spokesperson issued the following statement in response: “Jim Clancy is no longer with CNN. We thank him for more than three decades of distinguished service, and wish him nothing but the best."

The Islamic State group threatened to kill two Japanese hostages Tuesday unless they receive $200 million in 72 hours, directly demanding the ransom from Japan's premier during his visit to the Middle East. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to save the men, saying: "Their lives are the top priority."

However, Abe and other Japanese officials declined to discuss whether they'd pay the ransom for the captives, identified in an extremist video as Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa. Their kidnapping immediately recalled the 2004 beheading of a Japanese backpacker in Iraq, carried out by the Islamic State group's predecessor over Japan's involvement in the U.S.-led war there.

Tuesday's video, identified as being made by the Islamic State group's al-Furqan media arm and posted on militant websites associated with the extremist group, mirrored other hostage threats it has made. Japanese officials said they would analyze the tape to verify its authenticity, though Abe offered no hesitation as he pledged to free the men while speaking to journalists in Jerusalem.

"It is unforgivable," said Abe, now on a six-day visit to the Middle East with more than 100 government officials and presidents of Japanese companies. He added: "Extremism and Islam are completely different things."

In the video, the two men appear in orange jumpsuits with a rocky hill in the background, a masked militant dressed in black standing between them. The scene resembles others featuring the five hostages previously beheaded by the Islamic State group, which controls a third of Iraq and Syria.

"To the prime minister of Japan: Although you are more than 8,000 and 500 kilometers (5,280 miles) from the Islamic State, you willingly have volunteered to take part in this crusade," says the knife-brandishing militant, who resembles and sounds like a British militant involved in other filmed beheadings. "You have proudly donated $100 million to kill our women and children, to destroy the homes of the Muslims ... and in an attempt to stop the expansion of the Islamic State, you have also donated another $100 million to train the (apostates)."

The militant's comments likely refer to money Abe pledged while in Egypt to help Iraq's government and aid Syrian refugees.

Abe said he would send Yasuhide Nakayama, a deputy foreign minister, to Jordan to seek the country's support and to resolve the hostage crisis. The premier also said the Israeli government, which Japan promised Sunday to cooperate with on counterterrorism, are sharing information to aid in the hostage crisis. The Israeli prime minister's office declined to comment.

Speaking in Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga also declined to say whether Japan would pay the ransom.

"If true, the act of threat in exchange of people's lives is unforgivable and we feel strong indignation," Suga told journalists. "We will make our utmost effort to win their release as soon as possible."

Yukawa, a 42-year-old private military company operator, was kidnapped in Syria in August after going there to train with militants, according to a post on a blog he kept. Pictures on his Facebook page show him in Iraq and Syria in July. One video on his page showed him holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle with the caption: "Syria war in Aleppo 2014."

"I cannot identify the destination," Yukawa wrote in his last blog post. "But the next one could be the most dangerous." He added: "I hope to film my fighting scenes during an upcoming visit."

Nobuo Kimoto, an adviser to Yukawa's company, told Japanese public television station NHK that he had worried "something like this could happen sooner or later."

"I was afraid that they could use Yukawa as a card," Kimoto said.

Goto, 47, is a respected Japanese freelance journalist who went to report on Syria's civil war last year.

"I'm in Syria for reporting," Goto wrote in an email to an Associated Press journalist in October. "I hope I can convey the atmosphere from where I am and share it."

The Islamic State group has beheaded and shot dead hundreds of captives — mainly Syrian and Iraqi soldiers — during its sweep across the two countries, and has celebrated its mass killings in extremely graphic videos. The group also beheaded American hostages James Foley and Peter Kassig, Israeli-American Steven Sotloff, and British captives David Haines and Alan Henning.

The group still holds British photojournalist John Cantlie, who has appeared in other extremist propaganda videos, and a 26-year-old American woman captured last year in Syria while working for aid groups. U.S. officials have asked that the woman not be identified out of fears for her safety.

Tuesday's video marks the first time an Islamic State group message publicly has demanded cash. The extremists requested $132.5 million (100 million euros) from Foley's parents and political concessions from Washington, though neither granted them during months of negotiations before his killing, U.S. authorities say.

The Islamic State group has suffered recent losses in airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition, and with global oil prices being down, their revenue from selling stolen oil likely has dropped as well. The extremists also have made money from extortion, illicit businesses and other gangland-style criminal activity.

Its militants also recently released some 200 mostly elderly Yazidi hostages in Iraq, fueling speculation by Iraqi officials that the group didn't have the money to care for them.

Japan relies on the Middle East for most of the crude oil it needs to run the world's third-largest economy. It also has been working to build wider economic ties in the region, like with Abe's current Mideast tour.

This is Abe's second Mideast hostage crisis since becoming prime minister. Two years ago, al-Qaida-affiliated militants attacked an Algerian natural gas plant and the ensuing four-day hostage crisis killed 29 insurgents and 37 foreigners, including 10 Japanese who were working for a Yokohama-based engineering company, JCG Corp. Seven Japanese survived.

In 2004, followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq beheaded Japanese backpacker Shosei Koda and wrapped his body in an American flag over Japan having troops in Iraq doing humanitarian work. A video by al-Zarqawi's group, which later became the Islamic State group, showed Koda begging Japan's then-prime minister to save him.