Saturday, March 17, 2012

The ugly: NASA scientist lost his job for believing in God and the Bible

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 Foto: AP-archivo.




The Bible open to the Book of Genesis.
The Book of Genesis tells the Christian creation story.
CREDIT: James E. KnopfShutterstock 


Opening statements are set for today (March 12) in the case of a NASA computer specialist who alleges that he was fired from his job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory because of his belief in intelligent design.
David Coppedge, who worked for 15 years on the Cassini mission exploring Saturn, also runs a website called Creative-Evolution headlines and serves on the board of Illustra Media, a company that produces videos on intelligent design, the idea that the universe is too complex not to involve an intelligent creator. Several of these videos play a role in Coppedge's wrongful termination lawsuit.
According to Coppedge's complaint first filed with the courts in April 2010, JPL supervisors reprimanded Coppedge for handing out intelligent design DVDs to coworkers and discussing his beliefs about intelligent design with them. Coppedge alleges that JPL stifled his right to free speech and created a hostile work environment, demoting him from his "team lead" position in 2009. Coppedge lost his job last year.
"Plaintiff contends that, as a direct and proximate result of Defendants' conduct and actions, he has been prejudiced and harmed as the result of Defendants' actions suppressing and constraining protected speech in the workplace on account of viewpoint, content and religion," reads Coppedge's complaint filed at the Los Angeles Superior Court in 2010. The complaint has since been updated to include Coppedge's termination.
According to JPL, it was not Coppedge's beliefs, but his conflicts with colleagues that led to his demotion. The lab also holds that Coppedge's firing was the result of planned budget cuts, not his intelligent design beliefs.
According to Coppedge's complaint, his supervisors told him that his discussions of intelligent design and distribution of DVDs "amounted to 'pushing religion' and were 'unwelcome' and 'disruptive.'" [8 Ways Religion Impacts Your Life]
According to the Gallup polling organization, as of 2010, 38 percent of Americans believed that humans evolved with God's guidance, a position roughly congruous with intelligent design. Forty percent said they believed that God created humans in their present form, while 16 percent said they believed that humans evolved without God's hand.
The Pew Research Center, which asked people about evolution and intelligent design using slightly different phrasing than Gallup, finds that people are often confused over origin-of-life issues, however. In 2005, the organization found that about 58 percent of Americans said the biblical account of creation was definitely or probably true, but the same percentage also said the same of evolution. In August 2005, a Gallup poll found that only 52 percent of Americans knew what the term "intelligent design" meant.
One study published in January found that people's acceptance of evolution depends ontheir gut feeling rather than a careful examination of the evidence.
Nonetheless, evolution, creationism and intelligent design remain hot political topics. Legislators in several states introduced legislation this year that would limit the teaching of evolution or promote instruction in creationism.

The bad, the evil: Bin Laden's 'ambassador in Europe' protected by human rights in the United Kingdom

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One of the world’s most dangerous fanatics will be freed from jail within days – with a judge’s permission to do the school run.
Notorious hate preacher Abu Qatada is considered such a threat that he will be permitted to roam the streets for only two hours a day.
But Mr Justice Mitting ruled that he must be allowed to walk his youngest child to school under his bail conditions.
It raises the prospect of parents at the school gates bumping into the radical cleric, who was known as Osama Bin Laden’s ambassador in Europe.
Abu Qatada is wanted in Jordan for links to a Millennium bomb plot
Preacher of hate Abu Qatada (left) can be released on bail after more than six years in prison, Mr Justice Mitting (right) ruled
Last night critics described the bail ruling as a ‘disgrace’. Former home secretary David Blunkett warned that Qatada was ‘extraordinarily dangerous and we don’t want him on our streets’.
Qatada has spent much of the past decade in a high-security prison and has cost taxpayers more than £1million in benefits, prison costs and legal fees.
Ministers are attempting to deport him to Jordan to stand trial on terror charges, but three weeks ago they were blocked by European human rights judges.
Yesterday Government lawyers argued the fanatic should remain in prison while they continue efforts to remove him and insisted he presented an ‘unusually significant risk to the UK’.
But the Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled he should be released on bail, to resume his life with his wife and five children.
Jordanian authorities released this picture of Qatada in 2008 under his name of Omar abu Omar
Long-standing issue: The Daily Mail's front page from January 27, 2005
Jordanian authorities released this picture of Qatada (left) in 2008 under his name of Omar abu Omar. Right, the Daily Mail's front page from January 27, 2005
Qatada is expected to walk free from Long Lartin high-security prison in Worcestershire on Monday.
Under his bail conditions, he will be forced to wear an electronic tag and comply with a 22-hour curfew within a defined zone around his home address, thought to be in Wembley, north London.
Meetings with anyone other than his immediate family will have to be approved by security officials. If he breaks the conditions, he could be back behind bars within hours. 
Officials do not consider it likely that Qatada will take part in the planning of a terrorist attack or other operational activities. 
However, it is feared he could use the internet to give justification for attacks overseas or in Britain.
Officials want to prevent this happening by banning him from having a mobile phone or access to the internet, where his sermons could be uploaded on to extremist websites.
Qatada is currently being held at the Category A Long Lartin prison, but after today's ruling will walk free next week
Qatada is currently being held at the Category A Long Lartin prison, but after a judge's ruling will walk free within days
In evidence it was claimed that Home Secretary Theresa May did not accept that Qatada's detention was unlawful.
In evidence it was claimed that Home Secretary Theresa May (pictured) does not accept that Qatada's detention was unlawful
Qatada’s strict curfew also reflects the fact that he has, in the past, been accused of terrorist fundraising. 
He was found to have £170,000 cash in his possession, including £805 in an envelope marked ‘For the mujahedin in Chechnya’.
The bail ruling came as the respected Royal United Services Institute think tank warned that ‘sources estimate that at least 200 would-be suicide bombers are actively planning attacks in the UK’.
In his ruling, Mr Justice Mitting said Qatada’s bail conditions could be relaxed within three months unless Britain makes ‘demonstrable progress’ in negotiations to send the 52-year-old home.
Last month, judges in Strasbourg ruled that Qatada could not be deported in case evidence obtained from torture was used against him at trial in Jordan. British diplomats are trying to extract assurances that this will not happen.
Attorney General Dominic Grieve said the Government was bound by the rule of law 'as much as anybody else'.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'The Government is obviously very concerned about this case and very much wishes to see Abu Qatada deported to Jordan and, when he is in Jordan, tried fairly if the Jordanian authorities wish to put him on trial.
'He cannot be deported unless the assurances which are required following the judgment in the European Court of Human Rights can be secured.'
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Qatada should remain in detention, our view has not changed. That is the argument we made to the court today and we disagree with its decision.
‘This is a dangerous man who we believe poses a real threat to our security and who has not changed in his views or attitude to the UK.’
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said most people would be ‘astonished by this decision considering Abu Qatada is wanted on terrorism charges in eight countries’.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: ‘The Home Secretary needs to explain urgently what action she is taking on the national security implications of this judgment.
‘Abu Qatada should face terror charges in Jordan, and the Home Secretary needs to urgently accelerate discussions to make that possible.’
Robin Simcox of the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy think tank, said: ‘Today’s decision is a disgrace. 
But, if Abu Qatada is to be released, the Government should place him under a Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measure, the successor to control orders. He is far too important an Al Qaeda ideologue not to be under surveillance.’
Qatada, also known as Omar Othman, featured in hate sermons found on videos in the flat of a September 11 bomber.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has overruled every court in Britain in ruling that Abu Qatada can stay in Britain
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has overruled every court in Britain in ruling that Abu Qatada can stay in Britain

ABU QATADA: THE 'PREACHER OF HATE' WE CANNOT DEPORT

Abu Qatada has variously been described as 'Al Qaeda's spiritual leader in Europe', 'Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe', 'the most significant extremist preacher in the UK' and 'a truly dangerous individual'.
The Jordanian father of five, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, claimed asylum when he arrived in Britain in September 1993 on a forged passport.
He was allowed to stay and preach his extremism, and was accused of calling on British Muslims to martyr themselves in a holy war on 'oppression'.
A 1995 'fatwa' he issued justified the killing of converts from Islam, their wives and children in Algeria. In October 1999 a sermon in London called for the killing of Jews and praised attacks on Americans. And the same year he was convicted in his absence of planning terror attacks in Jordan.
When he was arrested in February 2001 he was found in possession of £170,000 in cash, including £805 in an envelope marked 'For the mujahedin in Chechnya'.
Videos of his sermons were found in the Hamburg flat used by some of the 9/11 hijackers.
As fears of a domestic terror threat grew after those attacks, he thwarted every attempt by the Government to detain and deport him; he went on the run to avoid being detained without trial or charged under new anti-terror laws.
After 10 months on the run he was discovered in a council house in south London, arrested and taken to Belmarsh high-security prison.
Qatada was released in March 2005 and put under a 22-hour home curfew designed to limit contact with other extremists.
He was rearrested months later but ministers were thwarted in their efforts to deport him because of fears he would be tortured if he returned to Jordan.
As the court battle continued, Qatada was released in June 2008 to live in his £800,000 council house in west London before being rearrested that November over fears he would breach his bail conditions.
In 2008, the Court of Appeal ruled in Qatada's favour, saying there were reasonable grounds for believing he would be denied a fair trial in Jordan because evidence against him could have been extracted through torture.
But in a landmark judgment in February 2009, five Law Lords unanimously backed the Government's policy of removing terror suspects from Britain on the basis of assurances from foreign governments.
Lord Phillips, now president of the Supreme Court, went further, saying that evidence of torture in another country 'does not require the UK to retain in this country, to the detriment of national security, a terrorist suspect'.
Qatada has always denied claims that he is al Qaeda's European ambassador, and insists he never met Osama bin Laden.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097108/Abu-Qatada-release-Osama-Bin-Ladens-ambassador-Europe-free-days.html#ixzz1pOBHqrdY

Friday, March 9, 2012

The ugly: Justice in Ecuador and Rafael Correa

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The bad, the evil: Palestinian terrorist academic hails 'martyrdom' U.K. event


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Palestinian terrorist academic hails 'martyrdom' U.K. event






British-Palestinian activist Azzam Tamimi reiterated his strong connections to Hamas and his willingness to become a “martyr” at a student event on Tuesday night, which drew controversy due to his advertised appearance.


Tamimi, an academic who lives in London, sparked outrage when he said during a BBC interview in 2004 that sacrificing oneself was a "noble cause," adding that it was "the straight way to pleasing my God and I would do it if I had the opportunity."
"I’d be a martyr for my country, of course," he said. "If you’re not prepared to die for your country then you are not a patriot."


Regarding his connections to Hamas, which is banned in the EU over its status as a terror organization, he said: “I have a great honor to be close to Hamas,” adding that it was only unfortunate that he himself did not have a leadership role within the group.


Having described Hamas chief Khaled Meshal as a close childhood friend, and saying that “all the leaders of Hamas are my friends,” Tamimi added: “I am not ashamed of my association with Hamas. Hamas, in my view, is the true representative of the Palestinian people.”


Thursday, February 23, 2012

the bad, the satanic: muslim gang sexually abusing of young girls.

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Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2104360/Girl-15-gives-harrowing-account-plied-alcohol-passed-Asian-gang-sex.html#ixzz1nCp9ZO00


A court yesterday heard harrowing testimony from a 15-year-old girl who was repeatedly plied with alcohol before being passed around a group of men to be used for sex.
The teenager was driven to houses where she was forced to have sex with various men and was later paid money to keep quiet.
Yesterday a jury was played a video of a police interview in which the girl described the first time she was plied with vodka before being raped in a room above a takeaway.
Kabeer Hassan arriving at Liverpool crown court
Qamar Shahzad
Kabeer Hassan (left), from Oldham, and Qamar Shazad (right), from Rochdale, both deny rape
The teenager told the 59-year-old man she did not want to have sex with him, but he replied: ‘That’s the deal - I give you something and you do something for me.’
Throughout her ordeal on a bare mattress in the bedroom, the girl cried and pleaded with him to stop but her abuser told her ‘Don’t cry - I love you.’
A gang of 11 men are on trial accused of a variety of sex offences against children including rape, trafficking and sexual assault.
The girl told police she was left depressed and disgusted by her ordeal.
She said the abuse first began when she and friends went to a takeaway in Rochdale, Greater Manchester to get some food.
They were taken round the back of the restaurant and were talking to a man they called ‘chef’ when a 59-year-old man arrived.
Mohammed Amin
Abdul Qayyum
Mohammed Amin (left), who denies sexual assault, was among the defendants on trial along with Abdul Qayyum (right) 
The jury at Liverpool Crown Court heard the man handed a bottle of vodka to the girls before inviting the 15-year-old upstairs to a room above the takeaway.
The teenager said: ‘He told me to get on the bed and told me to have sex with him. I said ‘No’ but he said ‘I have just given you vodka so it is part of the deal - I have done something for you so you have to do something for me. He pulled his pants down and I said I don’t want to do it but he just carried on.’
She said: ‘He was just saying ‘Please, please we are good friends’ I was crying while he was doing it but he just ignored me. He started saying ‘Don’t cry, I love you’ and all this.
‘Afterwards I went downstairs and he said ‘Have you been crying?’ and I said ‘Yes’. He said: ‘I love you, when can I make love to you again?’ and I said ‘Never’’
The teenager told the court the 59-year-old then raped her again and began to pass her round his friends and acquaintances.
The court heard she and her friend had accepted a lift home from the man but instead of taking her back to her own house he took her to a property in Oldham.
Once there he told the girl: ‘You have to have sex with me before I take you home’ before raping her and then inviting a second man into the room.
Abdul Rauf
Mohammed Sajid
Abdul Rauf (left) denies trafficking for sexual exploitation while Mohamed Sajid denies trafficking, two counts of rape and one allegation of sexual activity with a child
The girl told police: ‘The other man came in and he said I have to have sex with him as well. I just let him do it because I thought I had to or I wouldn’t be able to go home.’
When she was finally allowed home the 59-year-old gave her £40 saying: ‘Don’t tell anyone - I’ll give you money, anything you want.’
Liquat Shah denies two counts of rape
Liquat Shah denies two counts of rape
The court heard that on another occasion the 59-year-old forced the schoolgirl to have sex with another man despite her pleading: ‘I am only 15.’
In a video interview she said: ‘He said it didn’t matter and I had to have sex with him as well. Then after that he gave me £20 to keep my mouth shut and he kept bringing people and making me have sex with them and then gave me money to shut up about it.
‘I said I didn’t want to do it anymore and he said: ‘You have to.’
I said: ‘You will get done for this if I tell the police’ and he said: ‘I won’t get done’ because in his country you are allowed to have sex with people from the age of 11.’
She went on to tell police about an occasion when he raped her in his car before buying her cigarettes and telling her ‘It’s the deal. Every time we have sex I’ll buy you things.’
The girl said the man told her ‘I’ll get someone to kill you’ and threatened to tell her mother if she didn’t get into the car and comply with his demands.
The rape claims came to light in 2008 when the girl was arrested following a disturbance at a takeaway but the jury was told yesterday that Greater Manchester Police did not take her allegation further and the girl fell back into the hands of abusers.
Rachel Smith, prosecuting, said: ‘Regrettably the police officers who looked into the matter didn’t take the investigation further at that stage.’
Abdul Aziz, 41, Abdul Rauf, 43, Mohammed Sajid, 35, Adil Khan, 42, Abdul Qayyum, 43, Mohammed Amin, 44, Qamar Shahzad, 29, Liaquat Shah, 41, Kabeer Hassan, 24, and Hamid Safi, 22, along with the 59-year-old man have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The case continues. 
A bomb alert at Liverpool Crown Court brought proceedings to a halt during the trial of the eleven men accused of grooming young children
A bomb alert at Liverpool Crown Court earlier this week brought proceedings to a halt during the trial of the eleven men accused of grooming young children

The Ugly: Zach Avery: the boy, 5, who wanted to be a girl (irresponsible parents)

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Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9094439/Zach-Avery-the-boy-5-who-wanted-to-be-a-girl.html

When three-year-old Zach Avery told his mother that he thought he was a girl, she assumed it was only a phase.

Zach Avery: the boy, 5, who wanted to be a girl


But as her son became increasingly upset at being referred to as a boy, and expressed a desire to wear girl’s clothes, she decided to seek the guidance of experts.
After months of consultations, doctors diagnosed Zachary with gender identity disorder, making him one of the youngest children in Britain to have the belief that they were born the wrong sex acknowledged by medics.
One year on, five-year-old Zach is almost unrecognisable. With his long hair tied back in pigtails, pink glasses and a collection of dolls, his parents have acknowledged that Zachy, as he is now known, is happier than he ever was.
His primary school has supported the family, informing other pupils that Zach felt he was a girl trapped in a boy’s body and even converting some lavatories to gender-neutral unisex.
His mother Theresa Avery, 32, made the difficult decision to speak out to raise awareness of gender dysphoria, which is classed as a psychiatric condition.
She admitted: “I would love to have my son back, but I want him to be happy. If this is the route he wants to take, if this is what makes him happy, then so be it. I would rather him have my full support.
“People need to be aware of this condition because it’s very common but even many family support workers have never heard of cases in children.”
She said Zach had been a “normal” little boy who loved Thomas the Tank Engine. But towards the end of 2010, he became obsessed with the children’s television character Dora the Explorer and started dressing in girls’ clothes.

Mrs Avery said: “He just turned round to me one day when he was three and said: 'Mummy, I’m a girl’. I assumed he was just going through a phase and just left it at that. But then it got serious and he would become upset if anyone referred to him as a boy.”
She said Zach, who has three siblings, used to cry and tried to cut off his penis out of frustration. Mrs Avery and her husband Darren, 41,took their son to an NHS specialist at Tavistock and Patman Foundation Trust in London and after several months of consultations and observations, a child psychologist diagnosed gender identity disorder.
They said the local primary school in Purfleet, Essex, had been “really supportive” and that pupils had been told that Zach, who wears a girl’s trouser uniform, was simply happier being female.
“He likes playing with his sister’s old toys but he still loves Dr Who too and playing with his brother. And we still put some neutral clothes in his wardrobe if he ever decides he wants to wear them.
“We leave it up to him to decide what he wants to do. If he changes his mind and wants to be a boy again then he does, but if he doesn’t, he doesn’t.”
Earlier this year a couple from Cambridgeshire attracted widespread attention when they announced that they had raised their child as “gender neutral” for five years so the infant’s “real personality” could shine through.
Beck Laxton, 46, and her partner Kieran Cooper, 44, from Sawston, decided not to disclose baby Sasha’s gender to the world so he would not be influenced by society’s prejudices and preconceptions.
The Tavistock and Patman Foundation Trust, the national body for gender identity disorder, said the number of children diagnosed with the condition had steadily risen from 97 in 2009-10 to 165 so far this academic year, which it said may reflect greater awareness. Only seven children under the age of five were diagnosed last year.
A spokesman said the groups’s aim was “to support the young person in their general development as well as develop a trusting collaborative therapeutic relationship in which it is possible to openly explore their feelings about their gender. We remain in contact with young people often for many years”.