Frank Skinner Autobiography.
Forget You Had a Daughter (Hardcover)
Sandra Gregory.
Morfiy / Morfine by Mikhail Bulgakov.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 14 youths have been stoned to death in Baghdad in the past three weeks inwhat appears to be a campaign by Shi'ite militants against youths wearing Western-style "emo" clothes and haircuts, security and hospital sources say.
Militants in Shi'ite neighborhoods where the stonings have taken place circulated lists on Saturday naming more youths targeted to be killed if they do notchange the way they dress.
The killings have taken place since Iraq's interior ministry drew attention to the"emo" subculture last month, labelingit "Satanism" and ordering a community police force to stamp it out.
"Emo" is a form of punk music developed in the United States. Fans are known for theirdistinctive dress, often including tight jeans, T-shirts with logos and distinctive long or spiky haircuts.
At least 14 bodies of youths have been brought to three hospitals in eastern Baghdad bearing signs of having been beatento death with rocks or bricks, security and hospital sources told Reuters under condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Nine bodies were brought to hospitals in Sadr City, a vast, poor Shi'ite neighborhood, three were broughtto East Baghdad's main al-Kindi hospital and two were brought to the central morgue,medical sources said.
Six other young people, including two girls, were wounded in beatings intended as warnings, the security sources said.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/6559026/Emo-killings-raise-alarms-in-Iraq
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE8290CY20120310?irpc=932
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/9137051/Iraq-religious-militias-target-emo-youths.html

Nackedeis radeln für mehr Rechte
dpa, vom 11.03.2012 13:43 Uhr
Nackte Radler haben sich in mehreren Ländern - wie hier in Südafrika - für mehr Rechte von Fahrradfahrern eingesetzt. Foto: Nic Bothma Foto: dpa
Lima/Berlin - Mit blankem Po auf dem Sattel: Nackte Radler haben sich am Wochenende in mehreren Ländern für mehr Rechte von Fahrradfahrern eingesetzt.
In der peruanischen Hauptstadt Lima demonstrierten mehrere Hundert Nackte, Halbnackte und Verkleidete für mehr Radwege und warben für das Fahrrad als umweltfreundliches Transportmittel, wie die Zeitung "El Comercio" am Sonntag berichtete. Ein Sprecher der Initiative "Cicloaxion"sagte, mit dem Nackt-Protest solle gezeigt werden, wie schutzlos Radler im Straßenverkehr seien.
In Kapstadt in Südafrika oder in Santiago de Chile traten zum World Naked Bike Ride (Weltnacktradeltag) einige Wagemutige komplett hüllenlos indie Pedale. Wer er weniger aufsehenerregend mochte, griff zum Bikini, zu Unterhose oder zum Tanga. Ziel der Nakedeis: Gegen die Abhängigkeit vonÖl und Autos zu demonstrieren.
http://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/inhalt.peru-nackedeis-radeln-fuer-mehr-rechte.c0a06f35-4c5f-458a-ad59-65893d22f6a2.html

STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) – The city of Stocktonin California's crop-abundant Central Valley has the second-highest foreclosure rate in the nation and one of the highest crime and unemployment rates. It was named America's most miserable city in a national magazine —twice.And now, officials saythis river port city of 290,000 is on the brink of insolvency and could become the nation's largest city to fall into Chapter 9 bankruptcyprotection.
The City Council was still debating the issue late Tuesday, and deciding whether to vote on a proposal to continue the city's fiscal emergency for a thirdyear and use a new California law to enter mediation withits creditors.
Stockton would be the first city to test the law, Assembly Bill506, which is less than two months old.It requires local government agenciesto undergo mediation or hold a public hearing and declare a fiscal emergency before filing for bankruptcy.
In 2008, Vallejo became the biggest California city to file for bankruptcy, and itemerged from bankruptcy last year.
In recent years, thousands of new homes mushroomed in Stockton, part of a housing boom in suburban development that attracted buyers from the Bay area and beyond.
But when the economy crashed andthe construction bubble burst, Stockton was battered by foreclosures and lost income from property taxes and other fees. Multi-yearlabor contracts with escalating costs added to the burden,forcing officials to make deep emergency cuts to the city payroll, including its police department.
"It's been so challenging. Since 2008, the whole market was essentially turned upside down," said Randy Thomas , a Stockton real estate broker with the Cornerstone Real Estate Group. "A lot of folks were losing their homes. A lot of people were getting evicted, and it's beentough on a lot of people."
City leaders say Stockton could soon be unable to pay its debts. The city has a$15 million deficit 7/8— $6.6 million from the last fiscal year and $8.7 million expected for the current fiscal year, according to documents.
Forecasts also show deficits ranging from$20 million to $38 million for the fiscal year 2012-2013 and increasing in subsequent years.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-02-29/stockton-california-bankruptcy/53296106/1
Stockton would not be the first city to filefor bankruptcy for having to many public union liabilities. Its a given that each side is going to point to the other and no one takes or even shares responsibility for this.
Forget about assigning blame, like a bad marriage that ends in divorce, Stockton now has the opportunity to move forward and get out of these same costly contracts.
Having watched so many cities across the country contract out municipal governments functions, in the end,Stockton will save big when they do this. Especially police costs.
Perhaps the larger lesson here is andrthat nothing goes boom forever. We seem to have thisillusions that things will always get better, the economy will always expand, that it will always get bigger and better, more and more revenues. Oftenthe opposite happens.
City managers and councils need to plan for these downturns by not giving away the store (City) and being good prudent stewards of the public trust. Many cities are hanging on by a thread and will announce there inability to pay their public pension obligations.

Masonic Symbols Everywhere...

He's the talk of the town in Braunschweig, Germany.
An anonymous donor— affectionately called Germany's Robin Hood by the media — is leaving envelopes filled with euro notes to local good causes .
Envelopes have been discovered behind hymn books in a church, under a doormat on a well-lit porch and at the reception desk of thelocal newspaper.
The money is often accompanied with a newspaper clipping. In one case , an article about a boy paralyzed in a swimming accident was paired with the cash, the boy's name underlined.
"I was driving when Iheard the news. I had to park on the side of the road. I was speechless. For someone to act so selflessly…was astonishing," said theinjured boy's mother.
The donor has yet to be spotted.
"All the people of the town know is that heor she (or perhaps even they) are very generous, having left190,000 euros (£158,480) so far. Themystery donor may have given even more — they leave the bundles of money (20 x 500 euronotes each time) where they are not certain of being found," the BBC reports .
The Canadian-dollar equivalent of the donations thus far is almost $250,000.
While everyone has their theories as to who he/she may be, the newspaper refuses to put reporters on the case:
"He or she wishes to remain anonymous and we have to respect it. So it's anonymous, anonymous, anonymous as far as we are concerned," Henning Noske, editor of Braunschweiger Zeitung, explained. Nor will he give charities newspaper coverage merely as an attempt to gain the good Samaritan'sattention .

An Israeli attack on Iran to halt its nuclear program is not in the immediateoffing, but will also not – if necessary – be pushed off for years, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu intimated in interviews he gave on Thursday to the country’s three television networks.
“I don’t have a stop watch in hand,” Netanyahu said in a segment of the interview to Channel 2 aired on Thursday evening. “This is not a matter of days or weeks. It is also not amatter of years. The result has to be that the threat of a nuclear weapon in Iran’s hands is removed.”

Terrorism Research - What is Terrorism ?
http://www.terrorism-research.com/

http://gulfnews.com/news/region/palestinian-territories/israeli-airstrike-kills-group-commander-in-gaza-1.992263
Israel kills Palestinian militant commander
Zuhair al-Qaissi was the top commander of the armed wing ofthe Popular Resistance Committee, a large militant group aligned with Hamas. Photograph: Hatem Moussa/AP
An Israeli air strike has killed a top Palestinian militant commander and a second militant in Gaza in the highest-profile attack in the terrority in months.
The Israeli military confirmed Friday's strike, saying the killed commander, Zuhair al-Qaissi, was plotting an attack on Israel similar to one his group carried out in August that killed eight people. In a statement, the Israelimilitary warned Gaza's Hamas rulers against any retaliation.
Palestinian witnessessaid Israeli drones were seen hovering above moments before a vehicle exploded into flames just outside of Gaza City.
Qaissi was the top commander of the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committee, a large militant group aligned with Hamas. The group's spokesman confirmed his death as well as identifyinganother casualty, Mahmoud Hanini, who had previously been deported to Gaza after being released from an Israeli prison. Another peron was seriously wounded inthe attack. His identity remains unclear.
"The coward Zionists have committed an ugly crime and they know the price that they are going to pay," said the spokesman, who goes by the pseudonym Abu Mujahid.
Israel often targets Gaza militants it says are preparing attacks, but relations have been relatively calm in recent months, with Israel mostly targeting smuggling tunnels from Egypt and refraining from targeting individuals.Qaissi, 55, is also known as Abu Ibrahim.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/09/israel-kills-palestinian-militant-commander?newsfeed=true
Popular Resistance Committees - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Resistance_Committees

Where is the line between genius and madness? How does madness influence art? How has the relationship betweenart and madness changed throughout the centuries? These are the questions visitors are asked to consider at an exhibitin Siena's Santa Maria della Scala Museum: Genio e Follia: Il giorno e la notte dell'artista (‘Art, genius and folly: The Day and Night of the Artist').
Running until May 25,2009, the exhibit wascurated by one of Italy's most authoritative art critics, Vittorio Sgarbi, and gathers some 400 works probing the link between artistic production and mental state. The exhibit considers the often ambiguous anddifficult experience of ‘living in the real world' for those who are mentally ill.
Ranging from sculptures, paintings and drawings to video and art installations, the vastselection of works was meticulously chosen to illustrate the link between art and madness throughout the history of art.
The expressive force of the works showcased is indeed poignant, and at times, distressing. The viewer must be prepared to delve into the psyches of some of the world's most talented, yet unstable artists. It is a unique experience that will inform one'sview of the experience of mental illness, not only in artbut also in life.
Among the artists whose works are included are Vincent Van Gogh, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Edvard Munch, Max Ernst, Otto Dix, George Grosz, RenatoGuttuso, Mario Mafai and Antonio Ligabue.The works are on loan from some of Europe's most famous museums, including Musee d'Orsay, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, the Prado, Kirchner Museum, the National Gallery for Modern Art in Rome, as well as the Brera and the Braidense National Library in Milan.
In nine sections, the exhibit opens with an exploration of the many ways in which the mentally ill were treated from the middle ages to today,including medical instruments, descriptions of daily life in psychiatric hospitals, the advent of the positivist culture in the eighteenth century, and the psychologicaltheories advanced byfamed scholar Cesare Lambroso.
http://www.theflorentine.net/articles/article-view.asp?issuetocId=4311

US offered Israel advanced weaponry in exchange for delaying Iran ...
http://m.nypost.com/p/news/international/attack_offered_israel_advanced_weaponry_vJzadL8Qw5XoQ7akSRO9yK
Report: US offered Israel new arms to delay Iran attack
http://www.dawn.com/2012/03/08/report-us-offered-israel-new-arms-to-delay-iran-attack.html

Top administration source says Obama instructed Defense Secretary to work with Defense Minister Barak, to give all due consideration to the request for purchasing GBU-28 bombs, advanced refueling aircraft.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requestedthe United States approve the sale of advanced refueling aircraft as well as GBU-28 bunker-piercing bombs to Israel during a recentmeeting with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, a top U.S. official said on Tuesday.
The American official said that U.S. President Barack Obama instructed Panetta to work directly with Defense Minister Ehud Barak on the matter, indicating that the U.S. administration was inclined to look favorably upon the request as soon as possible.
During the administration of former U.S. President George Bush, the U.S. refused to sell bunker-penetrating bombs and refueling aircrafts to Israel, as a result of American estimates that Israel would then use themto strike Iran's nuclear facilities.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-asked-panetta-to-approve-sale-of-bunker-busting-bombs-u-s-official-says-1.416900

I sincerely believe thetruth will set you free, but following the false promises and lies of people who promise you things they cannot deliver will lead to nothing but darknessand disappointment.

Will Israel strike Iran in 2012? It’s a simple question, but with extremely complicated answers.Everyone you ask hasa different opinion. But most people don’t have sources like my guest this past weekend on GPS, Ronen Bergman.Bergman is the senior political and military analyst for Israel’s most widely read daily newspaper. He joined me from Tel Aviv. Here’s an excerpt of our conversation:
Fareed Zakaria : Let’s start with the bottom line. You believe that it is likely that there will be an Israeli strike onIran?
Ronen Bergman : Yes.After speaking with many of the Israeli leaders and chiefs of the intelligence and the military, I have come to the conclusion that there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran during 2012, because Iran is getting too close to what was coined by Minister of Defense Ehud Barak as the “zone of immunity.”
This is this specific point on the timeline, after which Iran nuclear sites are going to become immune to an Israeli strike. According to Israeli latest intelligence assessment, Iran is something like nine months away from entering this so-called zone of immunity.
Therefore, there are many in Israel who believe that Israel should take the initiative and strike before, because sanctions do not yield the results that Israel hoped they would result in.
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/04/will-israel-will-strike-iran-in-2012/
While both the United States and Israel now agree that Iran is covertly working towards developing a nuclearweapon, they disagree about where is the point ofno return, i.e., at what time an outside power will be able to militarily prevent Iran from “going nuclear.” For Israel, there are two red lines. The first is when the Iranians develop the necessary know-howand enriched uranium to develop a nuclear weapon. The second is when Iran is able to successfully move its nuclear program into bunkers deep enough to prevent Israeli weaponry from being able to feasibly destroy it.
For the Americans, these red lines are different. For one, the Obama administration has been wishy-washy about whether it will accept an Iran with the capability to assemble a nuclear weapon, as long as it does not actually build one. Japan is one such country capable of doing so, and many EU nations have at least privately declared that they would be willing to accept such a situation if the Iranians agreed not to go “all the way.” Secondly, the United States has greater military capabilities than Israel. With its more powerful “bunker buster” missiles , stealth fighters, aircraft carriers, and refueling capabilities, it has the ability to strike more hardened Iranian targets.
And herein lies the major debate taking place in Israel, the United States, and around the world: how long will the Jewish state be willing to wait for alldiplomatic options to be exhausted before it takes the unwanted, but in its eyes necessary decision to launch a preemptive strike onIran’s nuclear program? According to Netanyahu’s AIPACspeech this week, he will not wait much longer.

"So there's a robber outside your house that says he wants to rob you, and he's putting together a gun," McCain. "You wait until he gets the gun? So what we need to do is make it clear to the Iranians that if they reach a certain point, a red line, and we agree with the Israelis on that red line."

"The longer this goes out, the worse our chances are," McCain said of the Republican primary. "I have to tell you, it makes me very worried about our chances to win in November."

The five-term senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate noted that the longer a hard-fought race continues, the more a candidate's unfavorable ratings are driven up. It leaves a candidate vulnerable to making more gaffes and creating a negative impression in voters' minds.

"You know that every single day of a campaign is a day you can't do over," he said.

Agreed.