All posts by Tim Palin

THINGS DEMOCRATS HAVE FUNDED THAT COST MORE THAN THE BORDER WALL

After President Trump requested $5.7 billion to fund the border wall he campaigned on in 2016, Democrats have dug in, refusing to appropriate the funds that the administration says are needed to better manage the flow of immigration across the southern border.

Democrats are not traditionally known for their fiscal rectitude but are being particularly parsimonious over what ultimately amounts to a very small percentage of the federal budget. (In 2018, the feds spent $4.173 trillion overall, meaning the border wall would amount to just 1/10th of 1 percent of current annual federal spending.)

Indeed, these lawmakers have happily funded various projects over the years that cost far more than the border wall — many of which had very questionable value. Below are some examples of wasteful federal spending projects that individually cost more than the proposed border wall (some data courtesy of Citizens Against Government Waste):

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“Rural Utility Service.” This program costs taxpayers $8.2 billion/year and has no actual purpose after its original intent — bringing electricity to rural communities — was long ago achieved. It’s now being used to bring broadband access to small communities (usually with populations of less than 20,000). However there’s no indication the “beneficiaries” of this expensive government agency actually appreciate the program and the majority of its projects are not completed on time or within budget.
Sugar Subsidies. America, as Democrats frequently intone, faces a health crisis. What they don’t tell us is that it’s largely of their own making, as Congress subsidizes the production of unhealthy foods like sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. Eliminating sugar subsidies alone would save $6 billion, enough to fund the border wall; it would also have the added benefit of helping curb the nation’s obesity epidemic.

The feds spent $613,634 to boost “intimacy and trust” of transgender women and their male partners (The Washington Free Beason)

The feds spent $5 million paying hipsters to stop smoking and then blog about it (as well as use cool anti-smoking swag — like beer koozies). (Readers Digest)

Northwestern University has received more than $3 million in National Institutes of Health to watch hamster fights. “Some of those experiments involved injecting hamsters with steroids, then putting another hamster in the cage to see if the drugged rodents were more aggressive when protecting their territory. This program has since been halted following protests from animal rights activists,” Readers Digest reports.

The feds spend $1,009,762 training “social justice” math teachers (The Washington Free Beacon)

“The government spent at least $518,000 in federal grants to study how cocaine affects the sexual behavior of Japanese quails,” Readers Digest reports.

The Federal Register is legally required to be printed daily and distributed to Congressional offices despite most never being read and all of the information being available online. Stopping this unnecessary printing would save $1 million a year.

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The Truth About All Central Bank Controlled Nations: Here’s How The Financial System Really Works

The Federal Reserve, “the Fed”, is the central bank of the United States of America that was created in 1913 by Congress. It is a banking cartel that has a government-granted monopoly on the creation of money and credit. The Fed literally loans “money” (Federal Reserve Notes) into existence. Federal Reserve Notes are paper promises backed by nothing of intrinsic value and they are only functioning as money because the government forces them on the public through legal tender laws. Federal Reserve Notes are referred to as dollars but are not. The definition of a dollar is a weight of silver (371 grains). To put it simply, the Fed is a group of banks running a national counterfeiting operation with the protection of the government.

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Apple Removes App That Promotes Biblical View of Homosexuality

One terrifying implication of the attack on the free speech of Christians and the idea of “hate speech,” is that on the top of the list of language that is deemed hateful and worthy of censorship is often ripped right out of the pages of the Bible.

In short, as private companies and public organizations continually suppress the biblical view of homosexuality, we can visualize a full-on ban of the Bible in the not-too-distant future.

A recent app removal on the part of tech giant Apple is a great example, after a gay-rights organization lobbied for them to remove a Christian app that addresses homosexuality as a sin.

I don’t know about you, but every Bible app on my phone also addresses homosexuality as a sin. Will they be pulled next?

….

NBC REPORTS:
Apple has removed from its online store a religious app accused of falsely portraying being gay as an “addiction,” “sickness,” and “sin” after a national gay-rights organization petitioned to have it pulled.
Truth Wins Out, which says it fights “anti-gay religious extremism,” launched a petition Thursday urging Apple to remove the app…
Truth Wins Out alleged in its petition that the app sought for LGBT youth “to change from gay-to-straight through prayer and therapy.”
The petition had 356 supporters. Truth Wins Out said it will seek to have the Living Hope Ministries app removed from other platforms that still host it.

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Marriott Starwood hotel data breach FAQ: What 500 million hacked guests need to know

What was stolen?

Marriott is still sorting through the data it was able to recover, but for most customers, the following data may have been stolen: name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest (“SPG”) account information, date of birth, gender, and arrival and departure information, along with reservation dates and communication preferences.

It’s been a couple of months since a major company unveiled a data breach that affected millions of people, so it’s time for a new one. The Marriot hotel chain has announced a major database breach that could affect anyone who stayed at its 6,700 worldwide Starwood hotel properties since 2014—up to 500 million people in total.

That’s a lot of people an a long stretch of time, so check out our FAQ for all of the information:

What happened?

Marriott says it received an alert from an internal security tool on September 8 warning of an attempt to access the Starwood guest reservation database in the United States. In its investigation of the incident, Marriott learned that an unauthorized party gained access to the company’s customer database and “copied and encrypted information, and took steps toward removing it.”

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How Airbnb pushed Marriott to nab Starwood

The combination of two storied hotel brands announced this week creates the world’s largest lodging company, with more than a million rooms. But the $12.2 billion agreement by Marriott International (MAR) to acquire Starwood International (HOT) isn’t a mark of hotel industry triumph.

It’s more of an anti-Airbnb defensive maneuver. If you listen closely, you can hear the ominous hoof beats of online competition closing in on the traditional hospitality business. Hotels want to bulk up against threats from the likes of Airbnb, a digital service that allows travelers to book private homes for stays.

The hotel industry is doing well, for now. Since the recession, business has been great, and mergers also give it scale to take advantage of that. Revenue per available room (the sector’s main metric) will grow a health 6.8 percent this year, research firm STR estimates, followed by a similar expansion next year.

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Defaming Muhammad does not fall under purview of free speech, European court rules

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that insulting the Prophet Muhammad does not fall under the purview of free speech. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

The freedom of speech does not extend to include defaming the prophet of Islam, the European Court of Human rights ruled Thursday.

The Strasbourg-based ECHR ruled that insulting Islamic prophet Muhammad “goes beyond the permissible limits of an objective debate” and “could stir up prejudice and put at risk religious peace.”

The court’s decision comes after it rejected an Austrian woman’s claim that her previous conviction for calling Muhammad a pedophile, due to his marriage to a 6-year-old girl, violated her freedom of speech.

The ECHR ruled Austrian courts had “carefully balanced her right to freedom of expression with the right of others to have their religious feelings protected.”

The woman, in her late 40s and identified only as E.S., claimed during two public seminars in 2009 that Muhammad’s marriage to a young girl was akin to “pedophilia.”

According to Islamic tradition, the marriage between Muhammad and a 6-year-old girl was consummated when she was 9 years old and he was about 50.

The Austrian woman stated in her seminars that Muhammad “liked to do it with children” and “… A 56-year-old and a 6-year-old? … What do we call it, if it is not pedophilia?”

A Vienna court convicted her in 2011 of disparaging religious doctrines, ordering her to pay a $547 fine, plus legal costs. The ruling was later upheld by an Austrian appeals court.

The woman argued her comments fell within her right of freedom of expression and that religious groups must tolerate criticism. She also argued her comments were intended to contribute to public debate and not designed to defame Muhammad.

The ECHR said the Austrian court’s decision “served the legitimate aim of preserving religious peace.”

The court also said the woman’s comments were not objective, failed to provide historical background and had no intention of promoting public debate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ORIGIONAL

Liberals knocked out of power by François Legault’s right-of-centre party

Benjamin Shingler · CBC News · Posted: Oct 01, 2018 7:14 PM ET | Last Updated: 7 minutes ago

CBC’s election night special with Debra Arbec, Nancy Wood, Eric Grenier and Sean Henry. Results, analysis and live reports from our journalists across the province. Begins when polls close at 8 p.m. ET. 0:00
Coalition Avenir Québec will form a majority government in Quebec, according to a CBC News projection — issued just 33 minutes after polls closed across the province.

“We did it!” CAQ candidate Geneviève Guilbeault exclaimed, beaming, as news of the majority was broadcast on a giant screen behind her at the party’s Quebec City headquarters.

“We have been working so hard, for so much time,” said Guilbeault, the candidate for Louis-Hébert, who may become deputy premier under CAQ Leader François Legault.

“This is finally happening, this big change for all Quebecers,” Guilbeault told CBC News.

The CAQ needs 63 seats for a majority. As of 9 p.m., ET it was leading or elected in 78 ridings. The Liberals were leading or elected in 31.

Appetite for change

The right-of-centre party, which promises to lower taxes, privatize some aspects of the health-care system, and cut the number of immigrants, capitalized on an appetite for change among Quebec voters.

The party, founded in 2011, was the favourite heading into the campaign, thought Legault stumbled badly at times, particularly when pressed to explain his party’s immigration policy.

But he regained momentum in the final week of the campaign, much of which he spent in the regions outside Montreal, where he enjoys broad support among key francophone voters.

The Liberals, led by Philippe Couillard, campaigned on their strong economic record and a promise to improve the everyday lives of Quebecers.

But they were subject to criticism for the deep cuts to education and health care made in the first two years of their mandate as they wrestled to balance the budget.

Scant talk of sovereignty

For the first time in decades, the question of whether Quebec should become independent didn’t figure prominently in the campaign.

Either the federalist Liberals or the pro-independence Parti Québécois have held power in the province since the defeat of Union Nationale in 1970.

But with support for sovereignty waning, the PQ, led by Jean-François Lisée, said it would put off holding a referendum until a second mandate.

The PQ lost votes to another sovereigntist party, the smaller, left-wing Québec Solidaire​, led by two popular “co-spokespeople,” Manon Massé and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.

The Parti Québécois and Québec Solidaire were tied with eight seats each as of 9 p.m.

Québec Solidaire’s platform, which includes a series of bold environmental proposals, is particularly popular among young voters.

When the election was called, the Liberals held 68 seats, the PQ held 28, the CAQ 21 and Québec Solidaire​ three, along with five independents in the province’s 125-seat National Assembly.

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London loses top spot in global financial centre rankings

Closely-watched rankings suggest uncertainty over Brexit has had a short-term impact on the City of London’s status.

London has lost its status as the world’s top financial centre, according to rankings showing gains for post-Brexit rivals.

The latest Z/Yen Global Financial Centres Index showed New York overtaking the UK’s capital for the first time since 2015.

The City think tank, which compiles its lists using data from international bodies such as the World Bank and responses to a survey, said there was evidence London had been knocked, but only slightly, by uncertainty over Brexit.

:: Why Brexit may not spell end of London

Rivals within the EU for financial services business currently in the UK were among the cities making the greatest strides, the report said, though Asian centres stood out.

“Zurich, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Vienna, and Milan moved up the rankings significantly.

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