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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Can you pass this 101-year-old test for 8th graders? Find out if you are smarter than your Great grandparents, or the system has been dumbed down

Back by popular demand (well, I like it) here's a 1912 eighth-grade exam that was used in schools in Bullitt County, Ky. This test, which I first published more than a year ago, is now in the Bullitt County History Museum, a service of the Bullitt County Genealogical Society.
If you like this one, you can try this one too, an exam from 1931 by the West Virginia education department for students seeking graduation from eighth grade. That test was sent to me a few years ago by John N. Beall of Wilmington, N.C., who received it from his father, the teacher who administered the exam in a one-room school in Gilmer County.
Here's the 1912 Bullitt County test for eighth graders:

Ireland denies US arrest warrant for Edward Snowden, citing incomplete request

On Saturday, the High Court of Ireland refused to grant a provisional arrest warrant for Edward Snowden, citing an inadequately written request from the United States. The judgment appears to have been published publicly for the first time on Monday.
The NSA leaker remains holed up in a Moscow airport, and he has filed a flurry of asylum requests. This includes paperwork with Ireland—but Irish authorities have said that Snowden can only be considered if he arrives in Ireland. In recent days, Snowden has been granted asylum in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.
Justice Colm Mac Eochaidh outlined the four primary elements of the Extradition Act of 1965 between Ireland and the United States. This document details that the extradition request must include the circumstances of the alleged crimes, when such offenses are alleged to have been committed, where they are alleged to have been committed, and the alleged degree of involvement of the suspect.
The Irish justice cited specifically that he is satisfied with the American details concerning the first and fourth points, but he still has problems with precisely when and where Snowden’s crimes are alleged to have taken place:
The difficulty with this is that we have a timeframe within which Mr. Snowden was definitely in the United States of America and that is between March 2013 and May 19, 2013. Thereafter, Mr. Snowden, on the information available to this court, was outside of the United States of America. I am told that he was in Japan and in Hong Kong.
It is of note that the offences with which Mr. Snowden is charged relate, not to the publication of the information, but to its unauthorized disclosure. The question for this court is whether the request for the provisional warrant tells this court where the unauthorized disclosure took place. It seems to me that there are a number of possibilities.
(i) That the information was disclosed in the United States of America;
(ii) That the disclosure took place in Japan some time on or after May 19, 2013 or in Hong Kong some time after May 20, 2013.
The question of where the offense took place is not a minor detail but is a matter which could have very serious consequences in any further stage that might be reached in an extradition process. That is because if it is the case that the offenses took place outside of the territory of the United States of America, the question will arise as to whether there is extraterritorial effect in respect of the US offenses, but more importantly, whether the Irish equivalent offenses have an extraterritorial effect or aspect to them. There would need to be sufficient similarity between the two offenses in order for there to be an extradition. That is a matter that is not before the court now and is of no concern. I am simply referring to that as to why I think it is important that the place where the commission of the offences be indicated.
My conclusion in this matter is that the request made on July 5, 2013 by the United States of America through its Embassy in Dublin fails to indicate the place where any of the offenses took place.
Therefore, I am compelled to refuse the application by the United States of America for a provisional Arrest Warrant in respect of Mr. Edward J. Snowden.
However, Irish Justice Minister Alan Shatter said in a statement that there is nothing to prevent the US from making a second application to the courts in Dublin with respect to Snowden.
"The determination of the court does not in any way prevent a fresh application being made for a provisional arrest warrant, taking into account the findings of the court," he wrote. "It should be noted that what the court in its judgment today addressed was the issuing of an arrest warrant on the basis of specific information rather than a determination as to whether an individual should or should not be extradited.”

Israel accused of false flag terror car bomb in Beirut by Lebanon’s former PM

A violent blast from a car bomb wounded 50 today in a southern suburb of Beirut populated mainly by Shi’ite muslims. Many already believe this was a provocateured event, designed to cause a sectarian reaction in Lebanon, and one that is politically tied to the Syrian conflict.
In response to the horrific terrorist attack, Future Movement and March 14 Alliance political voice, former Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri - seen by many as an agent of Washington DC foreign interests, has seemingly done the improbable – issuing a statement which will surely create problems for Washington DC and anger the Israeli Lobby. 

Hariri has come out to directly implicate Israel in today’s attack – accusing the Jewish state of staging a grotesque bombing in order to inflame an already simmering political divide between Sunnis and Shias in Lebanon. The Daily Star reported Hariri’s bold statement today:

“[The blast] requires the highest level of awareness and vigilance in the face of dangers that surround the country and the entire region, especially while facing attempts by the Israeli enemy to push [Lebanon] to strife by organizing terrorist attacks, as happened today”.

Israel is expected to deny any knowledge of this terrorist event, and will certainly be expected to condemn its accuser in Hariri. Normally, this would be a viable move for the Israeli lobby providing that it’s ally the US is providing full political cover, but Israel can no longer count of the sort of unflinching political cover and support at every turn by Washington DC. Unfortunately for Israel, the US has since compromised its international political standing by its commitment to arming and training jihadists and Saudi/Qatari paid foreign insurgents in Syria, and is currently standing on shaky ground at home and abroad for its role in the planned destabilisation of Syria.US Congressional committees are already announcing that they will be holding up plans to send U.S. weapons to rebels, a situation which indicates that the policy is not viable anymore at home.

In addition, recent events in Sidon, Lebanon have demonstrated how cautious and collected the Lebanese have become in not rushing for the sectarian exits at the sound the gun. All this is bad news for western central planning, if indeed the goal is to drag Lebanon down into another civil war, as punishment for not disarming Hezbollah.

Today’s car bomb in Beirut arrives on the back of the tragic shootout only two weeks earlier in Sidon where radical Sunni Cleric Ahmed Al-Assir’s small army of jihadist  gunmen fired on Lebanese army checkpoints, prompting the army to raid Assir’s compound in a bloody battle that cost dozens of lives, including at least 12 Lebanese soldiers. This too, appeared to be a provocation by radical Sunni elements to push Lebanon into another sectarian crisis – with an aim to further politically isolate Shi’ite organisation, Hezbollah, over their role in assisting the Syrian government in dealing with the mostly foreign insurgency which has ravaged Lebanon’s neighbor Syria for over two years now. The stated intention of this violent attack by Sunni gunmen in Sidon was to punish the Lebanese government for not condemning Hezbollah for their paramilitary support of Bashar Al Assad’s government. In the end, it back-fired from a public relations standpoint, as the majority of Lebanese – rather than retreat into their sectarian corners, instead overwhelmingly rallied together in support of the government’s stand against this unwelcome radical terrorism. Continue reading...



Syria: Nobel Peace Laureate Tells Her Account of What She Witnessed (we are change)

Nobel Peace Prize laurete, Mairead Maguire tells her account of her visit to Syria. While Maguire was in Syria she discovered that the people the U.S. are funding are violent groups and do not want peace in Syria. Her her view is that Syria is being used as a proxy war by the U.S., Great Britain, Saudi Arabia and Katar.

London Real:Immortal Tech on Snowden and Government Surveillance

Fox News Laughs At The Idea That Government Should Fear The People

GASLANDPart 1 (2010) (HBO Documentary)



Check out GASLAND Part II Official Trailer, Premieres July 8th 2013 on your local HBO listings