Europe

Does This Make America Less Free Than Slovakia?

"Would your grandparents have ever said that Slovakia is freer than America? Most likely not, but today the story is a little different. Decent Americans have their lives ruined, their business closed, their property confiscated, and often wind up in jail simply because they want to produce clean milk for people who realize what a load of rubbish pasteurized 'milk' is. In Slovakia, a country that has been little more than two decades out of authoritarian rule, we see a very different picture and boy does that make me scratch my head, because the country I grew up considering the freest country in the world really doesn’t sound like it in this example." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDoes This Make America Less Free Than Slovakia?

Dutch firm Eliantie offers staff holiday pay in bitcoins

"An ICT recruitment firm based in the Netherlands is offering its employees holiday pay in the form of bitcoins, according to Dutch news sources. Eliantie announced in a press release today that staff members will receive their vacation pay in bitcoins, the news site NU reported. The company has reportedly been mining bitcoins since 2010, and has now amassed enough of the digital currency to begin using it for holiday pay. Eliantie employees were initially reluctant to accept bitcoins, reported the Dutch-language publication Automation Guide. Following several informational meetings, however, 'they are almost all convinced of the benefits,' it reported." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDutch firm Eliantie offers staff holiday pay in bitcoins

Anger over East German medical ‘human guinea pigs’

"Germany is confronting another chapter from its past — allegations that Western drug companies used more than 50,000 people in the former communist East as 'human guinea pigs' in 1980s medical trials. Several people were known to have died during trials, and some tests involved infants and delirious alcoholics, said the report on the agreements with the police state that collapsed with the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. Calls have grown for full transparency into the agreements overseen by the State Security (Stasi) secret police to earn the communist state tens of millions in hard-currency Deutschmarks." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAnger over East German medical ‘human guinea pigs’

Merkel Admits She Was “Responsible for Brainwashing in the Favour of Marxism”

"A new book is out that claims current German Chancellor Angela Merkel, while living in the 1980's in then East Germany, was a physicist and also member of the communist youth organisation 'Freie Deutsche Jugend' at the Academy of Sciences in Eastern Berlin and was in charge of 'agitation and propaganda', the journalists Ralf Georg Reuth and Günther Lachmann claim in their book. 'I never concealed anything', she said at a Berlin cinema on Sunday night. Ms Merkel admitted that she was not only a member of the FDJ but also of the workers’ union and the German-Soviet friendship society, both organisations with strong ties to the ruling Communist party." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMerkel Admits She Was “Responsible for Brainwashing in the Favour of Marxism”

Cables reveal American diplomats lobbied aggressively overseas for genetically modified food crops

"The review of more than 900 diplomatic cables by the campaign group Food and Water Watch showed a carefully crafted campaign to break down resistance to GM products in Europe and other countries, and so help promote the bottom line of big American agricultural businesses. The cables, which first surfaced with the Wikileaks disclosures two years ago, described a series of separate public relations strategies, unrolled at dozens of press junkets and biotech conferences, aimed at convincing scientists, media, industry, farmers, elected officials and others of the safety and benefits of GM products." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCables reveal American diplomats lobbied aggressively overseas for genetically modified food crops

Youth Without Hope: 60% Unemployment

"Greece has a 60% unemployment rate for people in the 18-25 age bracket. Think of this. This is a generation that is unlikely ever to save their career plans out of the recession that has overtaken Greece and is getting worse. It will mar them for the rest of their lives. The experts said this was impossible in 2007. The bankers in northern Europe believed the hype. They lent money to Greece’s government and businesses. Now they need bailouts from the European Union — the government — and the central bank, and the IMF. They care nothing about Greece. They just want someone to pay interest on their loans. They are getting what they ask for. Greece isn’t." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYouth Without Hope: 60% Unemployment

Internet giant Amazon hit by first strike in Germany

"German employees of Amazon staged their first-ever walkouts on Tuesday as the US Internet retail giant was hit by a dispute over pay. Employees at two logistics centres in Bad Hersfeld and Leipzig launched a strike with the start of the early shift at 6:00 am (0400 GMT), the giant services sector union Verdi said. In Bad Hersfeld, strikers planned to march to a rally in the city centre at around 11:00 am (0900 GMT), while employees in Leipzig rallied in front of the warehouse. Verdi is demanding that Amazon’s 9,000 employees in Germany be paid according to a sector-wide wage deal for the retail and mail-order industries." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingInternet giant Amazon hit by first strike in Germany

Editorial-Page Fiction at the New York Times

"They want us to believe that 'slashed' budgets and inadequate spending have caused 'worse health outcomes' in nations such as Greece, Italy, and Spain, particularly when compared to Germany, Iceland, and Spain. But if government spending is the key to good health, how do they explain away this OECD data, which shows that government is actually bigger in the three supposed 'austerity' nations than it is in the three so-called 'stimulus' countries." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEditorial-Page Fiction at the New York Times

Revealed: Big Pharma tested dangerous new drugs on unknowing East Germans

"Western drug companies tested pharmaceuticals on more than 50,000 people in the former communist East Germany, often without the knowledge of patients, several of whom died. Some 600 clinical trials were carried out in more than 50 hospitals until the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, the report said, citing previously unpublished documents of the East German health ministry, pharmaceutical institute and Stasi secret police. Many major drug companies from Germany, Switzerland and the United States took part, offering up to 800,000 West German marks per study, a boost for East Germany’s underfunded health care system, Spiegel said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRevealed: Big Pharma tested dangerous new drugs on unknowing East Germans