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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Fabled as a mecca for the health-conscious and fitness-obsessed, California is also one of only a few states that has not hiked its cigarette taxes in the last decade, meaning it is less expensive to light up in Los Angeles and San Francisco than many other places in the country....

MONTREAL (AP) -- The man killed in a videotaped attack that was discovered after body parts were mailed to Canada's top political parties was a Chinese student, police said Friday, as authorities in France searched for the suspect, a Canadian porn actor....

A Canadian woman whose common-law husband died in a plane crash after a drunken passenger allegedly kicked the pilot's seat forward, jamming him into the instrument panel, is suing the estate of the dead pilot in a British Columbia court.

The home secretary orders an independent review into the police inquiry into allegations of corruption in the Stephen Lawrence murder case.

Pak Tribune | India is concerned by recent NATO summit announcement that by 2014 a majority of combat troops will be pulled out of Afghanistan.

Infowars.com | Ongoing video coverage exposing the global elite and highlighting the demo in Virginia.

VOA News | NATO-led troops attempted to remove barricades in Northern Kosovo when protesters began pelting them with stones.

There’s no way for President Obama or his media allies to spin the apocalyptic May jobs report, released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as even the heavily massaged “official” unemployment rate rose to 8.2%.  That brings us to forty straight months of adjusted unemployment above 8 percent.

The only tiny glimmer of hope in this report is the one thing the media never wanted to report until now: the overall workforce participation rate nudged up a bit, showing a 0.2 percent gain, widely thought to represent students entering the workforce in search of summer jobs.  This leaves the American workforce considerably smaller than it was on the day Barack Obama took office.  For this reason, it would be extremely uncomfortable for the White House to suddenly discover the workforce participation rate it has been studiously ignoring for the past three years, and attempt to cite the May gain as a spot of good news.

Only 69,000 jobs were created in May.  That’s far, far below the rate needed to keep pace with population growth, and an astonishing failure to meet expectations of 150,000 jobs created – which would have given us a stagnant job market.

Furthermore, the already anemic April numbers were revised down by 38,000 jobs, which is a huge “adjustment.”  The old number was only 115,000 jobs created!  Now it’s down to 77,000, and even March was revised down by 11,000 jobs to 143,000.  Well north of 150,000 jobs are needed to keep up with population growth.

Think about the magnitude of those “adjustments” for a moment.  The three-month average just dropped from 113,000 per month to 96,000… and 113,000 was awful.  Construction took a big hit, losing 28,000 jobs in May.  It has long been known that the warm winter moved a lot of construction jobs ahead.  Also, those notorious “seasonal adjustments” are always positive during the winter, but they start becoming negative in May.  The bottom line is that the situation has always been worse than casual news consumers were led to believe.  The fudge is getting fire-hosed from these numbers.

Long-term unemployment is up, from 5.1 million to 5.4 million, making them 42.8 percent of the unemployed population.  The average duration of unemployment rose from 19.4 weeks to 20.1 weeks.  Part-time work is up, as the BLS finds people “working part time because their hours had been cut back, or because they were unable to find a full-time job.”  Average hourly earnings grew by an extremely weak 0.7 percent – another sign of the transition to an economy dominated by part-time and temporary jobs.

The population of discouraged workers, the “unemployables,” has held steady at 830,000 for a year.  The BLS defines discouraged workers as “persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.”  Just what America needs!  Let’s have four more years of it!

Among key voting demographics, Hispanic employment is up, while women, young people, and blacks remain hopelessly stagnant.

This awful jobs report comes in tandem with the downward revision of America’s GDP growth forecast, which the Commerce Department now estimates at a perilously weak 1.9 percent for the year.  Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan told CNBC on Friday that he attributes this sluggish growth to “a fear of the future” among investors and executives.  Taxmageddon, the largest tax increase ever to hit American businesses and families, is a thundercloud rumbling on the horizon, ready to rain almost half a trillion dollars in new taxes on the weak Obama economy in January 2013.  As the Heritage Foundation points out, Barack Obama is utterly silent about stopping this disaster, and actively opposed to efforts at stimulating the U.S. economy by increasing our energy reserves or trimming onerous regulations.

This is an apocalyptic disaster for the Obama re-election campaign – which, you may recall, was recently trying to criticize Mitt Romney for achieving a 4.7 percent unemployment rate in Massachusetts.  That’s a level this failed President cannot even dream of.  Nevertheless, Obama promptly jetted off to an incredible six fundraisers in one day.  (Hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fool.)  Just think of all the jobs that could be created if people invested that money instead of pouring it into Barack Obama’s pointless re-election effort.

Update: Corrected a typo on the April job numbers, which should have said “revised down to 77,00 jobs,” not “revised down by 77,000 jobs.”  Since I had the 77k figure later in the paragraph, I thought it would be most efficient to edit the line to read “revised down by 38,000 jobs.”

There’s no way for President Obama or his media allies to spin the apocalyptic May jobs report, released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as even the heavily massaged “official” unemployment rate rose to 8.2%.  That brings us to forty straight months of adjusted unemployment above 8 percent.

The only tiny glimmer of hope in this report is the one thing the media never wanted to report until now: the overall workforce participation rate nudged up a bit, showing a 0.2 percent gain, widely thought to represent students entering the workforce in search of summer jobs.  This leaves the American workforce considerably smaller than it was on the day Barack Obama took office.  For this reason, it would be extremely uncomfortable for the White House to suddenly discover the workforce participation rate it has been studiously ignoring for the past three years, and attempt to cite the May gain as a spot of good news.

Only 69,000 jobs were created in May.  That’s far, far below the rate needed to keep pace with population growth, and an astonishing failure to meet expectations of 150,000 jobs created – which would have given us a stagnant job market.

Furthermore, the already anemic April numbers were revised down by 38,000 jobs, which is a huge “adjustment.”  The old number was only 115,000 jobs created!  Now it’s down to 77,000, and even March was revised down by 11,000 jobs to 143,000.  Well north of 150,000 jobs are needed to keep up with population growth.

Think about the magnitude of those “adjustments” for a moment.  The three-month average just dropped from 113,000 per month to 96,000… and 113,000 was awful.  Construction took a big hit, losing 28,000 jobs in May.  It has long been known that the warm winter moved a lot of construction jobs ahead.  Also, those notorious “seasonal adjustments” are always positive during the winter, but they start becoming negative in May.  The bottom line is that the situation has always been worse than casual news consumers were led to believe.  The fudge is getting fire-hosed from these numbers.

Long-term unemployment is up, from 5.1 million to 5.4 million, making them 42.8 percent of the unemployed population.  The average duration of unemployment rose from 19.4 weeks to 20.1 weeks.  Part-time work is up, as the BLS finds people “working part time because their hours had been cut back, or because they were unable to find a full-time job.”  Average hourly earnings grew by an extremely weak 0.7 percent – another sign of the transition to an economy dominated by part-time and temporary jobs.

The population of discouraged workers, the “unemployables,” has held steady at 830,000 for a year.  The BLS defines discouraged workers as “persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.”  Just what America needs!  Let’s have four more years of it!

Among key voting demographics, Hispanic employment is up, while women, young people, and blacks remain hopelessly stagnant.

This awful jobs report comes in tandem with the downward revision of America’s GDP growth forecast, which the Commerce Department now estimates at a perilously weak 1.9 percent for the year.  Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan told CNBC on Friday that he attributes this sluggish growth to “a fear of the future” among investors and executives.  Taxmageddon, the largest tax increase ever to hit American businesses and families, is a thundercloud rumbling on the horizon, ready to rain almost half a trillion dollars in new taxes on the weak Obama economy in January 2013.  As the Heritage Foundation points out, Barack Obama is utterly silent about stopping this disaster, and actively opposed to efforts at stimulating the U.S. economy by increasing our energy reserves or trimming onerous regulations.

This is an apocalyptic disaster for the Obama re-election campaign – which, you may recall, was recently trying to criticize Mitt Romney for achieving a 4.7 percent unemployment rate in Massachusetts.  That’s a level this failed President cannot even dream of.  Nevertheless, Obama promptly jetted off to an incredible six fundraisers in one day.  (Hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fool.)  Just think of all the jobs that could be created if people invested that money instead of pouring it into Barack Obama’s pointless re-election effort.

Update: Corrected a typo on the April job numbers, which should have said “revised down to 77,00 jobs,” not “revised down by 77,000 jobs.”  Since I had the 77k figure later in the paragraph, I thought it would be most efficient to edit the line to read “revised down by 38,000 jobs.”

This week, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced that he will outlaw the sale of sodas, sports drinks and other sugary beverages that exceed 16 ounces. Don’t worry. There are numerous exemptions to this petty interference. Feel free to indulge in high-caloric milkshakes, fruit juices or just head to the convenience store and grab a Big Gulp, a Slurpee, or buy large bottles of Diet Coke.

When you act like a petty tyrant, making arbitrary decisions with absolutely no basis in science or common sense is your prerogative. In the Bloomberg’s vernacular this is referred to as “leadership.” “I think that’s what the public wants the mayor to do,” he explained. The public’s loathing for large-sized soda is so high, evidently, that they need a billionaire technocrat to force them to stop buying more of it.

This is nothing new in New York. Bloomberg, who embodies C.S. Lewis’ observation that “those who torment us for our own good torment us without end,” has banned smoking in bars and restaurants, public parks and on private terraces. He has gone after salt and he has banned trans fats in restaurants. He is America’s leading proponent of using punitive measures to dictate perfectly legal habits. “We’re not taking away anybody’s right to do things,” the mayor explains, “we’re simply forcing you to understand that you have to make the conscious decision to go from one cup to another cup.”

One might wonder what business a mayor has forcing free citizens to “understand” what the mayor thinks about sugary drink or what quantities he thinks we should drink it in? Or you may wonder who in New York – or the world, for that matter — doesn’t understand that gulping down a 16 oz soda every day is insalubrious? If you don’t, you’re beyond the help of Nanny State regulations. And if you do know, an intrusive new law won’t stop you from continuing your bad habits. Study after study says so.

Bloomberg and others argue that obesity costs society a lot of money so we all have a stake. In New York City, supposedly half of all adults are obese or overweight. According to Dr. Thomas Farley, Bloomberg’s health commissioner, sweetened drinks are responsible for “up to” half of the increase in obesity in the city over the last 30 years. There is no way to quantify this sort of thing, of course, no matter what scaremongering bureaucrats tell you. But even if it were true, there is an array of costly externalities associated with behavior – take promiscuity, for instance. Using Bloomberg’s logic everything we do can come under the purview of government’s paternalistic guidance.

Moreover, New York’s Big Soda law is collective punishment. First, those who aren’t obese may occasionally enjoy a gigantic Mountain Dew or — who knows? — a couple might want to share a big drink in a movie theatre. Second, companies that would lose money from laws will certainly pass along the cost to you. If you’ve followed the leading lights of Nanny State policy, you already understand that driving up the cost of unhealthy products is the very point of regulation. So those who drink responsibly — as it were — are punished with those who don’t.

In the end, Bloomberg shows a deep ignorance about human nature, as well. The vast majority of Americans understand that portion control is one of the only ways to lose weight. But if we don’t choose to be healthy, no regulation can coerce us into good health.

This week, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced that he will outlaw the sale of sodas, sports drinks and other sugary beverages that exceed 16 ounces. Don’t worry. There are numerous exemptions to this petty interference. Feel free to indulge in high-caloric milkshakes, fruit juices or just head to the convenience store and grab a Big Gulp, a Slurpee, or buy large bottles of Diet Coke.

When you act like a petty tyrant, making arbitrary decisions with absolutely no basis in science or common sense is your prerogative. In the Bloomberg’s vernacular this is referred to as “leadership.” “I think that’s what the public wants the mayor to do,” he explained. The public’s loathing for large-sized soda is so high, evidently, that they need a billionaire technocrat to force them to stop buying more of it.

This is nothing new in New York. Bloomberg, who embodies C.S. Lewis’ observation that “those who torment us for our own good torment us without end,” has banned smoking in bars and restaurants, public parks and on private terraces. He has gone after salt and he has banned trans fats in restaurants. He is America’s leading proponent of using punitive measures to dictate perfectly legal habits. “We’re not taking away anybody’s right to do things,” the mayor explains, “we’re simply forcing you to understand that you have to make the conscious decision to go from one cup to another cup.”

One might wonder what business a mayor has forcing free citizens to “understand” what the mayor thinks about sugary drink or what quantities he thinks we should drink it in? Or you may wonder who in New York – or the world, for that matter — doesn’t understand that gulping down a 16 oz soda every day is insalubrious? If you don’t, you’re beyond the help of Nanny State regulations. And if you do know, an intrusive new law won’t stop you from continuing your bad habits. Study after study says so.

Bloomberg and others argue that obesity costs society a lot of money so we all have a stake. In New York City, supposedly half of all adults are obese or overweight. According to Dr. Thomas Farley, Bloomberg’s health commissioner, sweetened drinks are responsible for “up to” half of the increase in obesity in the city over the last 30 years. There is no way to quantify this sort of thing, of course, no matter what scaremongering bureaucrats tell you. But even if it were true, there is an array of costly externalities associated with behavior – take promiscuity, for instance. Using Bloomberg’s logic everything we do can come under the purview of government’s paternalistic guidance.

Moreover, New York’s Big Soda law is collective punishment. First, those who aren’t obese may occasionally enjoy a gigantic Mountain Dew or — who knows? — a couple might want to share a big drink in a movie theatre. Second, companies that would lose money from laws will certainly pass along the cost to you. If you’ve followed the leading lights of Nanny State policy, you already understand that driving up the cost of unhealthy products is the very point of regulation. So those who drink responsibly — as it were — are punished with those who don’t.

In the end, Bloomberg shows a deep ignorance about human nature, as well. The vast majority of Americans understand that portion control is one of the only ways to lose weight. But if we don’t choose to be healthy, no regulation can coerce us into good health.

Mike Barrett | Raising Vitamin D levels may be a simple, not to mention cost-effective, method of battling cancer.

After pointlessly and needlessly dragging out an international crisis for three days, presumably to install sufficient padding around his ego to absorb the shock, President Obama finally got around to apologizing to Poland for his thoughtless comment about “Polish death camps.”

He made this “gaffe” while reading a prepared speech from a teleprompter to honor Polish hero Jan Karski, who risked life and limb to infiltrate Nazi death camps built on Polish soil by German occupiers during World War II, helping expose the horror of the Holocaust to the world.

It is absolutely incomprehensible that the President waited three days to issue a simple apology for this.  Poland was furious, as were Polish-Americans.  Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, as far back as Wednesday, that “we always react in the same way when ignorance, lack of knowledge, or bad intentions lead to such a distortion of history, so painful for us here in Poland, which suffered like no other in Europe during World War II.”

The whole crisis could have been instantly defused with a simple apology, tendered by the President himself, in either verbal or written form.  It would have been the work of moments.  Instead, the Obama Administration tried sending out a spokesman to clarify the comments: “The President was referring to Nazi death camps operated in Poland.  The President has demonstrated in word and deed his rock-solid commitment to our close alliance with Poland.”

That is most certainly not an “apology.”  It’s not difficult to construe it as an insult.  The Poles were told it was silly for them to become upset, because they should have understood the magnificent Barack Obama is incapable of malice or error.  Just check his record, and try not to think about the way he canceled your missile shield, or all that “transmission to Vladimir” stuff.

The actual apology was finally extracted by Polish president Bronislaw Komorowski, who wrote to Obama and got a reply on Friday.  As reported by the Associated Press:

“In referring to ‘a Polish death camp’ rather than ‘a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland,’ I inadvertently used a phrase that has caused many Poles anguish over the years and that Poland has rightly campaigned to eliminate from public discourse around the world,” Obama wrote. “I regret the error and agree that this moment is an opportunity to ensure that this and future generations know the truth.”

[…] In his response, Obama noted that “the Polish people suffered terribly under the brutal Nazi occupation during World War II.”

“In pursuit of their goals of destroying the Polish nation and Polish culture and exterminating European Jewry, the Nazis killed some six million Polish citizens, including three million Polish Jews during the Holocaust,” Obama wrote. “The bravery of Poles in the underground resistance is one of history’s great stories of heroism and courage.”

The Polish government graciously accepted the apology.  Komorowski said, “The events of the past few days and the U.S. president’s reply may, in my opinion, mark a very important moment in the struggle for historical truth.”

Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski added via Twitter, “Thank you, President Obama. Truth, honor and the legacy of Karski satisfied. Please feel free to send us your staffers for re-education.”  Sorry, Mr. Sikorski, but we’re flat broke after financing wild parties in Las Vegas for government bureaucrats, to reward them for helping to rack up a $16 trilion national debt, so I don’t think we can afford to send Obama’s gigantic staff to Poland for training.

Besides, no one with even the most cursory knowledge of Poland, or interest in the sensibilities of the Polish people, would ever speak of “Polish death camps.”  The true history of those camps can be learned in the same amount of time it would have taken to issue a simple, heartfelt apology for an honest mistake.

After pointlessly and needlessly dragging out an international crisis for three days, presumably to install sufficient padding around his ego to absorb the shock, President Obama finally got around to apologizing to Poland for his thoughtless comment about “Polish death camps.”

He made this “gaffe” while reading a prepared speech from a teleprompter to honor Polish hero Jan Karski, who risked life and limb to infiltrate Nazi death camps built on Polish soil by German occupiers during World War II, helping expose the horror of the Holocaust to the world.

It is absolutely incomprehensible that the President waited three days to issue a simple apology for this.  Poland was furious, as were Polish-Americans.  Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, as far back as Wednesday, that “we always react in the same way when ignorance, lack of knowledge, or bad intentions lead to such a distortion of history, so painful for us here in Poland, which suffered like no other in Europe during World War II.”

The whole crisis could have been instantly defused with a simple apology, tendered by the President himself, in either verbal or written form.  It would have been the work of moments.  Instead, the Obama Administration tried sending out a spokesman to clarify the comments: “The President was referring to Nazi death camps operated in Poland.  The President has demonstrated in word and deed his rock-solid commitment to our close alliance with Poland.”

That is most certainly not an “apology.”  It’s not difficult to construe it as an insult.  The Poles were told it was silly for them to become upset, because they should have understood the magnificent Barack Obama is incapable of malice or error.  Just check his record, and try not to think about the way he canceled your missile shield, or all that “transmission to Vladimir” stuff.

The actual apology was finally extracted by Polish president Bronislaw Komorowski, who wrote to Obama and got a reply on Friday.  As reported by the Associated Press:

“In referring to ‘a Polish death camp’ rather than ‘a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland,’ I inadvertently used a phrase that has caused many Poles anguish over the years and that Poland has rightly campaigned to eliminate from public discourse around the world,” Obama wrote. “I regret the error and agree that this moment is an opportunity to ensure that this and future generations know the truth.”

[…] In his response, Obama noted that “the Polish people suffered terribly under the brutal Nazi occupation during World War II.”

“In pursuit of their goals of destroying the Polish nation and Polish culture and exterminating European Jewry, the Nazis killed some six million Polish citizens, including three million Polish Jews during the Holocaust,” Obama wrote. “The bravery of Poles in the underground resistance is one of history’s great stories of heroism and courage.”

The Polish government graciously accepted the apology.  Komorowski said, “The events of the past few days and the U.S. president’s reply may, in my opinion, mark a very important moment in the struggle for historical truth.”

Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski added via Twitter, “Thank you, President Obama. Truth, honor and the legacy of Karski satisfied. Please feel free to send us your staffers for re-education.”  Sorry, Mr. Sikorski, but we’re flat broke after financing wild parties in Las Vegas for government bureaucrats, to reward them for helping to rack up a $16 trilion national debt, so I don’t think we can afford to send Obama’s gigantic staff to Poland for training.

Besides, no one with even the most cursory knowledge of Poland, or interest in the sensibilities of the Polish people, would ever speak of “Polish death camps.”  The true history of those camps can be learned in the same amount of time it would have taken to issue a simple, heartfelt apology for an honest mistake.

The Olympic flame is carried on a TT motorcycle , a train and tram as the torch relay hits the Isle of Man.

The Olympic flame will be carried by TT motorcycle sidecar, a train and tram as the torch relay hits the Isle of Man.

Hussein Gomaa Hussein was only 31 when he died. It was 2 in the afternoon on a late January day. A bullet pierced his chest as he protested the regime of Hosni Mubarak on the streets of Cairo.

The largest US organisation of Catholic nuns rejects a Vatican review criticising the group as "the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency".

A Labour MP apologises for making false allegations about a Palestinian human rights group.

Natural News | Oops! False-positive HIV test results had army sergeant in pretrial custody for 240 days.