Tuesday, November 26, 2013
CONTACT ME AT: manessmorrison2@yahoo.com



News Clips For The Day


Independent Scotland would keep queen, pound and TV shows but create own military – NBC

By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News

Scotland will keep the United Kingdom's queen and currency but will create its own defense force and passports if the country votes for independence next year, the nationalist government pledged Tuesday.

A 600-page blueprint setting out detailed terms for Scotland’s possible separation from Britain was published by First Minister Alex Salmond.

It promises no overall tax increases and says the scrapping of nuclear defenses would help pay for policy pledges on welfare payments and public education.
The “Scotland’s Future” document [PDF link] aims to convince Scots they should vote to end a 306-year union with England in a referendum taking place on September 18, 2014.

“We, the people who live here, have the greatest stake in making Scotland a success,” it says in a preface. “With independence we can make Scotland the fairer and more successful country we all know it should be.”

The publication of the "white paper" will intensify a political campaign that has already begun over Scotland’s future.
With 10 months until the referendum vote, many of Scotland’s five million citizens remain undecided. The most recent opinion poll, published Sunday, suggests 38 percent are in favor of separation and 47 percent opposed, with 15 percent undecided.
Voters – including, for the first time, 16 and 17-year-olds - will be asked: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

Scotland's Future - a blueprint for a better country is published today at http://t.co/exeim2ktXE #indyplan
— Scottish Government (@scotgov) November 26, 2013
If they vote "Yes," negotiations will begin immediately with the U.K. government, the Bank of England and a host of other cross-border institutions so that Scotland would become fully independent by March 24, 2016, the document says.
Scotland would be able remain a member of the European Union but would create its own publicly owned postal service and a Scottish Broadcasting Service to replace the BBC, the document adds.

However, it even promises voters that the new broadcaster would still air popular BBC television shows such as "EastEnders" and "Doctor Who." 
Britain's three main U.K.-wide political parties are opposed to independence, saying Scotland would suffer economically and on the political stage if it separated from London.

Pro-independence supporters wearing kilts pose for photographs during a rally in Edinburgh on September 21.
Among the most contentious issues are access to oil reserves in the North Sea, how Britain’s national debt would be split and what would happens to Britain’s Trident nuclear defense system, which is currently based on Scotland’s River Clyde.
In providing detailed answers to the big “what if” questions, Salmond hopes to frame the referendum campaign as a policy debate for Scottish voters rather than a question of the future of United Kingdom.

Scottish citizens would get their own passport, but there would be no border controls with England because Scotland would remain inside the existing U.K. common travel zone which also includes Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. However, new Scottish border controls would be needed to replace the international checkpoints operated by the U.K. Border Agency, the document says.

However, Alistair Darling, the Scottish lawmaker and former U.K. government minister who is leading the “Better Together” campaign for a “No” vote in September’s referendum, dismissed the document as “absolute nonsense.” He said many of the post-referendum actions could only take place with negotiation from cross-border institutions.

He added: "It ducks most of the important questions, including what would happen if Scotland had to renegotiate its position within the European Union."
At SNPs launch of White Paper for Independence. I have been given a badge which says "international media". That's jumping the gun isn't it?

— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) November 26, 2013
There was also laughter after Tuesday’s news conference in Glasgow when it emerged that London-based news outlets had been issued with “International” credentials.
"We are nothing if not far-seeing,” Salmond joked to reporters. 


This is the first I have heard of a divided UK. The issues Scotland is interested in – welfare payments and public education – make it sound like they are like our liberals here in the US. It is surprising that they are polling 16 and 17 year olds and calling them “voters.” Our teenagers can't vote. They also want to get rid of the nuclear defense program, which is based in Scotland. Finally, they want access to the oil reserves in the North Sea.

It sounds like they wouldn't disrupt the life of the Scottish people too much – giving them more control over daily life, but keeping their favorite BBC shows, alongside their own Scottish broadcasting company. I wonder if Scotland has enough economic resources to maintain itself independently. The history of this goes back to 1853, according to Wikipedia, with the current campaign by the Scottish National Party being launched on May 25, 2012. Sean Connery along with some other Scottish celebrities has come out in favor of independence.

I saw a charming movie about a little Scottish seashore village whose people were simple and poor, associated with an option for the oil drilling in the town. The movie was called “Local Hero.” The local hero was an old man who was refusing to sell his property to the oil company. Finally the oil company agrees to drill offshore and set up an oceanographic research facility at the town. That movie is the only picture I have of the Scottish people in modern times. I should get a book from the library about them.




US to Afghanistan's Karzai: Sign security deal or we'll pull out all troops next year – NBC

By Aarne Heikkila and Alastair Jamieson

KABUL, Afghanistan –The White House threatened to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan next year, after President Hamid Karzai refused to sign a new bilateral security agreement.

The two countries remain deadlocked over future military involvement after an unsuccessful working dinner between Ambassador Susan Rice and Karzai at his palace in Kabul on Monday night.

In a statement, the White House said Karzai had outlined new conditions for a deal “and indicated he is not prepared to sign the BSA promptly.”

“Ambassador Rice reiterated that, without a prompt signature, the U.S. would have no choice but to initiate planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no U.S. or NATO troop presence in Afghanistan,” the statement said.

The dinner meeting came at the end of Rice’s three-day trip to Afghanistan to visit American troops and civilians and to assess conditions in the country.
On Sunday, a grand council of Afghan tribal leaders - the Loya Jirga – voted to accept the BSA, but Karzai has since indicated he may not sign it until Afghanistan has elected a new president in March. 

The White House statement added: “Ambassador Rice conveyed the overwhelming and moving support she found among all the Afghans with whom she met for an enduring U.S.-Afghan partnership and for the prompt signing of the BSA.

“In closing, Rice highlighted the American people's friendship and support for the people of Afghanistan as embodied in the extraordinary sacrifices of our service-men and women and the unprecedented investment Americans have made in Afghanistan.”
In Afghanistan, there are still 47,000 American forces. The U.S. has been in discussions with Afghan officials about keeping a small residual force of about 8,000 troops there after it winds down operations next year.

U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, have said the BSA must be signed by year-end to begin preparations for a post-2014 presence.

Karzai spokesman Aimal Faizi said the Afghan leader laid out several conditions for his signature to the deal in the meeting, including a U.S. pledge to immediately halt all military raids on, or searches of, Afghan homes.

The agreement includes a provision allowing raids in exceptional circumstances - when an American life is directly under threat - but it would not take effect until 2015.

"It is vitally important that there is no more killing of Afghan civilians by U.S. forces and Afghans want to see this practically," Faizi said, according to Reuters.
Karzai also called on Washington to send remaining Afghan detainees at the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, back to Afghanistan, saying that the Loya Jirga had endorsed the pact with this condition.


I very much want to see the US close Guantanamo Bay, as Obama promised to do in his first term, and I think it is against a respectful treatment of the Afghans when we go into their homes, especially if there is no “exceptional circumstances.” That is one of the ways that innocent people have been killed by our soldiers. I hope we comply with those conditions – it is only fair.





Pope Francis attacks 'tyranny' of unfettered capitalism, 'idolatory of money' – NBC

By Naomi O'Leary, Reuters

Pope Francis called for renewal of the Roman Catholic Church and attacked unfettered capitalism as "a new tyranny," urging global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality in the first major work he has authored alone as pontiff.
The 84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, amounted to an official platform for his papacy, building on views he has aired in sermons and remarks since he became the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years in March.

In it, Francis went further than previous comments criticizing the global economic system, attacking the "idolatry of money" and beseeching politicians to guarantee all citizens "dignified work, education and healthcare."

He also called on rich people to share their wealth. "Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills," Francis wrote in the document issued on Tuesday.

"How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses 2 points?"
The pope said renewal of the Church could not be put off and said the Vatican and its entrenched hierarchy "also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion."
"I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security," he wrote.

In July, Francis finished an encyclical begun by Pope Benedict but he made clear that it was largely the work of his predecessor, who resigned in February.
Called "Evangelii Gaudium" (The Joy of the Gospel), the exhortation is presented in Francis' simple and warm preaching style, distinct from the more academic writings of former popes, and stresses the Church's central mission of preaching "the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ."

In it, he reiterated earlier statements that the Church cannot ordain women or accept abortion. The male-only priesthood, he said, "is not a question open to discussion" but women must have more influence in Church leadership.

A meditation on how to revitalize a Church suffering from encroaching secularization in Western countries, the exhortation echoed the missionary zeal more often heard from the evangelical Protestants who have won over many disaffected Catholics in the pope's native Latin America.

In it, economic inequality features as one of the issues Francis is most concerned about, and the 76-year-old pontiff calls for an overhaul of the financial system and warns that unequal distribution of wealth inevitably leads to violence.
"As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world's problems or, for that matter, to any problems," he wrote.

Denying this was simple populism, he called for action "beyond a simple welfare mentality" and added: "I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor."
Since his election, Francis has set an example for austerity in the Church, living in a Vatican guesthouse rather than the ornate Apostolic Palace, travelling in a Ford Focus, and last month suspending a bishop who spent millions of euros on his luxurious residence.

He chose to be called "Francis" after the medieval Italian saint of the same name famed for choosing a life of poverty.
Stressing cooperation among religions, Francis quoted the late Pope John Paul II's idea that the papacy might be reshaped to promote closer ties with other Christian churches and noted lessons Rome could learn from the Orthodox such as "synodality" or decentralized leadership.

He praised cooperation with Jews and Muslims and urged Islamic countries to guarantee their Christian minorities the same religious freedom as Muslims enjoy in the West.


"Evangelii Gaudium" (The Joy of the Gospel), is an attempt to return the Catholic Church to the teachings of Jesus. He speaks of the power structure of the church and a “decentralized leadership.” The document is an “exhortation,” not a mandate of change, but hopefully will affect Catholic public opinion. His recommendations are “liberal” rather than radical, not including the ordination of women or the acceptance of abortion. Still, if world societies were to follow the recommendations, the lives of the less powerful and wealthy people would be changed greatly for the better.






10,000-year-old house among amazing finds unearthed in Israel
Megan Gannon LiveScience


Video: A thousands-year-old settlement was accidentally discovered by workers widening a roadway in Estaol, Israel.
Archaeologists say they've uncovered some stunning finds while digging at a construction site in Israel, including stone axes, a "cultic" temple and traces of a 10,000-year-old house.

The discoveries provide a "broad picture" of human development over thousands of years, from the time when people first started settling in homes to the early days of urban planning, officials with the Israel Antiquities Authority said.
The excavation took place at Eshtaol, located about 15 miles (25 kilometers) west of Jerusalem, in preparation of the widening of an Israeli road. The oldest discovery at the site was a building from the eighth millennium B.C., during the Neolithic period. [See Photos of the Excavations at Eshtaol]

"This is the first time that such an ancient structure has been discovered in the Judean Shephelah," archaeologists with the IAA said, referring to the plains west of Jerusalem.
This image shows the 10,000-year-old house, the oldest dwelling to be unearthed to date in the Judean Shephelah.

The building seems to have undergone a number of renovations and represents a time when humans were first starting to live in permanent settlements rather than constantly migrating in search of food, the researchers said. Near this house, the team found a cluster of abandoned flint and limestone axes.

"Here we have evidence of man's transition to permanent dwellings and that in fact is the beginning of the domestication of animals and plants; instead of searching out wild sheep, ancient man started raising them near the house," the archaeologists said in a statement.

The excavators also say they found the remains of a possible "cultic" temple that's more than 6,000 years old. The researchers think this structure, built in the second half of the fifth millennium B.C., was used for ritual purposes, because it contains a heavy, 4-foot-tall (1.3 meters) standing stone that is smoothed on all six of its sides and was erected facing east.

"The large excavation affords us a broad picture of the progression and development of the society in the settlement throughout the ages," said Amir Golani, one of the excavation directors for the IAA. Golani added there is evidence at Eshtaol of the rural society making the transition to an urban one during the early Bronze Age, 5,000 years ago.

Archaeologists think this standing stone, which is worked on all of its sides, is evidence of cultic activity in the Chalcolithic period.

"We can see distinctly a settlement that gradually became planned, which included alleys and buildings that were extremely impressive from the standpoint of their size and the manner of their construction," Golani explained in a statement. "We can clearly trace the urban planning and see the guiding hand of the settlement's leadership that chose to regulate the construction in the crowded regions in the center of the settlement and allowed less planning along its periphery."
The buildings and artifacts were discovered ahead of the widening of Highway 38, which runs north-south through the city of Beit Shemesh.

Throughout Israel, construction projects often lead to new archaeological discoveries. For example, during recent expansions of Highway 1, the main road connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, excavators discovered 9,500-year-old animal figurines, a carving of a phallus from the Stone Age and a ritual building from the First Temple era.


Standing stones like the one mentioned here dating from the Neolithic are all over Europe and the UK. It doesn't seem likely that the same cult would have been in all those places, but the quarrying and transportation of large boulders to create monuments may have become popular, as the new ideas of neolithic life spread across Europe. It seems to have been a period of great wealth and cultural unity to have included such growth and city development. We have lost many civilizations and, I feel sure, much knowledge over the last 10,000 years. Maybe this site will yield many new relics and treasures, fleshing out the picture of human development.



Supreme Court will take up religious objection to Obamacare – CBS

The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to referee another dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law, whether businesses can use religious objections to escape a requirement to cover birth control for employees.

The justices said they will take up an issue that has divided the lower courts in the face of roughly 40 lawsuits from for-profit companies asking to be spared from having to cover some or all forms of contraception.

The court will consider two cases. One involves Hobby Lobby Inc., an Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts chain with 13,000 full-time employees. Hobby Lobby won in the lower courts.

The other case is an appeal from Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp., a Pennsylvania company that employs 950 people in making wood cabinets. Lower courts rejected the company's claims.

The court said the cases will be combined for arguments, probably in late March. A decision should come by late June.
The cases center on a provision of the health care law that requires most employers that offer health insurance to their workers to provide a range of preventive health benefits, including contraception.

In both instances, the Christian families that own the companies say that insuring some forms of contraception violates their religious beliefs.
In a statement, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the White House does not comment on specifics of a case pending before the Court. However, he said the administration's policies are generally designed to ensure that health care decisions are made between a woman and her doctor.  

"The President believes that no one, including the government or for-profit corporations, should be able to dictate those decisions to women," he said. "The Administration has already acted to ensure no church or similar religious institution will be forced to provide contraception coverage and has made a commonsense accommodation for non-profit religious organizations that object to contraception on religious grounds.  These steps protect both women’s health and religious beliefs, and seek to ensure that women and families--not their bosses or corporate CEOs--can make personal health decisions based on their needs and their budgets."

The Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide full health care coverage for contraception, though the rule exempts houses of worship like churches or synagogues. The administration proposed a rule earlier this year, which said that non-profit religious organizations would have to ensure that enrollees of their health care plans get full contraception coverage, but they would not have to pay for it.

The key issue before the Supreme Court is whether profit-making corporations can assert religious beliefs under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act or the First Amendment provision guaranteeing Americans the right to believe and worship as they choose. Nearly four years ago, the justices expanded the concept of corporate "personhood," saying in the Citizens United case that corporations have the right to participate in the political process the same way that individuals do.

Hobby Lobby calls itself a "biblically founded business" and is closed on Sundays. Founded in 1972, the company now operates more than 500 stores in 41 states. The Green family, Hobby Lobby's owners, also owns the Mardel Christian bookstore chain.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said corporations can be protected by the 1993 law in the same manner as individuals, and "that the contraceptive-coverage requirement substantially burdens Hobby Lobby and Mardel's rights under" the law.
In its Supreme Court brief, the administration said the appeals court ruling was wrong and, if allowed to stand would make the law "a sword used to deny employees of for-profit commercial enterprises the benefits and protections of generally applicable laws."

Conestoga Wood is owned by a Mennonite family who "object as a matter of conscience to facilitating contraception that may prevent the implantation of a humsan embryo in the womb."

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the company on its claims under the 1993 law and the Constitution, saying "for profit, secular corporations cannot engage in religious exercise."

The Supreme Court will have to confront several questions - can these businesses hold religious beliefs, does the health care provision significantly infringe on those beliefs and, even if the answer to the first two questions is "yes," does the government still have a sufficient interest in guaranteeing women who work for the companies access to contraception.

The companies that have sued over the mandate have objections to different forms of birth control. Conestoga Wood objects to the coverage of Plan B and Ella, two emergency contraceptives that work mostly by preventing ovulation. The FDA says on its website that Plan B "may also work by preventing fertilization of an egg ... or by preventing attachment (implantation) to the womb (uterus)," while Ella also may work by changing of the lining of the uterus so as to prevent implantation.

Hobby Lobby objects to those two forms of contraception as well as two types of intrauterine devices (IUDs). Its owners say they believe life begins at conception, and they oppose only birth control methods that can prevent implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus, but not other forms of contraception.

In a third case in which the court took no action Tuesday, Michigan-based Autocam Corp. doesn't want to pay for any contraception for its employees because of its owners' Roman Catholic beliefs.

Physicians for Reproductive Health, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other medical groups tell the court that the scientific and legal definition of a pregnancy begins with implantation, not fertilization. Contraceptives that prevent fertilization from occurring, or even prevent implantation, do not cause abortion "regardless of an individual's personal or religious beliefs or mores," the groups said.

But another brief from the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Catholic Medical Association and others say in a separate filing that "it is scientifically undisputed that a new human organism begins at fertilization." Emergency contraception that works after fertilization "can end the life of an already developing human organism," regardless of the definition of pregnancy, they said.


I don't like any law that depends on viewing corporations as persons. Their very size gives them enough power in our country, without the courts protecting them. I can see lots of corporations that are not in any way linked to a church claiming this religious objection to a covered medical issue, just because they can get away with it. If they prevent their workers from getting their contraception costs covered, they should have to prove a link with a church.

In the end, birth control is not the most expensive of medical costs, though the birth control pills may cost more than I realize. The birth control pills are the most effective birth control, however, and therefore are probably preferable among people who absolutely can't afford to pay for a new child.

Not only does a baby disrupt a family's budget, there are quite a few couples who don't really want a baby at all, and as a result won't give the child loving and attentive care. That is the root cause of a lot of cases of parental abuse of children – the parents are resentful of their children for the extra care that they require. It can be said that such parents are immature, but that won't stop them from having babies and then neglecting or damaging them physically and mentally. Good birth control is a simple way out of the problem. Our government should support it, if only for the benefits to our society.