A lot of news information references at Find News 360, from different cities local, national, sports and business news and information.

Life Insurance Explained, finally

Universal Life? Term Life? Whole Life? Endowment? Finally an article explaining in understandable terms life insurance, life insurance quotes and how premiums are figured.



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Do You Like a News or Poltics WebSite? Online News Directory

An online news directory specifically asking users to submit good popular news and politics sites to their listings.



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Top 5 Reasons To Go Hybrid

Explanation of what a hybrid car is, and giving some reasons to go hybrid. Listing of hybrid related sites. Not to mention energy independence from unreliable and often hostile sources of oil.



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Top 5 Reasons To Go Hybrid

Finally an explanation of what a hybrid car is, and giving some reasons to go hybrid. Good article and listing of hybrid related sites.



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France Explodes After Socialist Defeat

After repeatedly threatening violence if she lost the election, Socialist Segolene Royal conceded defeat tonight as France decisively turned down her message of fear. As she promiced, France burned as she lost as well.



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Russian Military intelligence sees U.S. military buildup on Iran border.

Sounds like the sabre rattling is beginning over the Iranian Hostage crisis.Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran's borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday. Russia contributing by lending credibility to the build up by an "adverse" power.



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Sen. Resigns from Committee for Giving Contracts to her Husband's Companies

The corruption radar is now beeping out of control on the new Senate. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has abruptly walked away from her responsibilities with the Senate Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee after a report linked her votes to the financial well-being of her husband's companies, which received billions of dollars worth of military construction contracts she approved.



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Mel Gibson Says -- "Lady, F**k Off!"

Mel Gibson exploded in anger last night on a college campus after an expert on Mayan culture accussed him of racially stereotyping the Mayans in the movie "Apocalypto."



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Map Of Iran Hostage Capture

Map Showing Original Iranian Position on Location of British Sailors Capture and their "Corrected" Position. Source: Brietbart

Ironically, the initial map coordinates provided by Iran locating their capture of the British sailors was outside Iranian territorial waters. If that was correct, they committed an act of war, rather than purported self-defense as they have claimed. Of course Iranian diplomats scurried to change, or correct as they say, their initial report, to place the map location within Iranian territorial waters. It is pretty obvious what was going on.

Look at the huge HMS Cornwall in the map inset. Why did it allow the British sailors to go captured? It was within range and could have opened fire as seen on the map of the Iran hostage capture. The Brits were trying to avoid a confrontation. However that lapse of judgment now has led to a greater confrontation, which feasibly could result in open war with Iran, since the Iranian capture of the sailors was itself an act of war - if the map is correct. The choice was open fire and have a small battle, or not open fire and risk an even bigger one. At this point Iran is leaving no option open on a bigger battle particularly as it trots out coerced confessions from the mistreated sailors, especially Faye Turney.

Iran TV Shows Spliced Clips of Capture of UK Sailors

From Breitbart - "Iran TV Shows Clip of Britons' Arrest"

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian state television on Thursday broadcast a few seconds of footage it said was of the operation that seized the 15 British soldiers in Iranian territorial waters.

In the five-seconds long footage, gunshots were heard and a helicopter is shown hovering above inflatable boats in choppy seas. Iranian guard boats are shown cruising around while a couple of Iranian guardsmen shoot into the air. Then, some of the British sailors—including the captured British woman, Leading Seaman Faye Turney—appear seated in a boat with an Iranian flag, presumably after their capture.

Iran also now is demanding UK withdrwal from Iraq - after UK already announced its withdrawal. They are demonstrating their strategy of making the withdrawal as painful as possible. Something the United States needs to ponder as the Democrat controlled Congress debates unilateral withdrawal.

Iran Raises Stakes in Hostage Drama

From the Guardian - Tehran Raises Stakes in Hostage Crisis:

The Iranian hostage crisis took a sinister turn last night when Tehran withdrew an earlier offer to release one of the 15 captive sailors and marines and issued a second, strangely-worded letter in her name calling for Britain to withdraw from Iraq.

Nifong Duke Scandal

Op Ed: Nifong Resigns, End of Story?

Now that Mike Nifong has quit as prosecutor in the Duke University Lacrosse team rape scandal case, does that resolve the question of his conduct as a prosecutor in the case?

First, who is Mike Nifong? That’s easy. He was appointed by the Governor of North Carolina – Democrat Mike Easley - to fill a vacancy that came up in Durham, North Carolina to be the local District Attorney.

What! “I thought he got elected”. WRONG. Originally Nifong was appointed – after DA Jim Hardin resigned. He was a political appointee - until the next election - to the post of District Attorney in Durham, North Carolina, evidently quite unqualified for anything not a routine prosecution.

Then kaboom. The story everyone knows – race + Duke University + Lacrosse + rape allegation = big news. Nifong made a series of calculated moves (or were they missteps as some say?) in which he went public with various accusations that later turned out to be untrue, he stoked racial tensions as part of the election for "permanent" DA, he decided to influence the Durham police investigation, he refused to hear exculpatory evidence prior to indicting the Duke lacrosse players. The alleged victim has had a difficult life for which we should have sympathy, and if her allegations true, there could have been a terrible crime against her that should be punished.

The details of the Duke rape case scandal are well known and widely published. Briefly, stripper hired to perform at a party by Duke lacrosse team, she leaves and makes rape allegations. DA indicts. Duke lacrosse players suspended from school. Then the whole case falls apart, as lacking evidence. The North Carolina bar files an ethics complaint for conduct involving fraud, dishonesty, deceit or misrepresentation. Nifong resigns from the case.

Is Nifong's resignation enough, or must he be punished? As our regular readers know, the Unfiltered News community believes that society must create incentives against future Nifongs. But, how do we deter race pandering politicians like Nifong? We create a cause of action for the people wronged. Nifong must not escape a civil suit. What about prosecutorial immunity? It does not and should not apply to abuse of power for reelection. Al Sharpton and his attorneys were ordered to pay around $300,000 related to their statements during the Tawana Brawley scandal. Now is time for a reminder.

Somalia, Part II

Somalia, The Real Story Behind the C-130 Gunships

Is the United States really bogged down in the war on terror, like nearly every news outlet is reporting? After all Iraq looks like a quagmire. Every day the news seems to show sectarian strife between Iranian backed radical Shiite Islamicists and Al Qaida backed radical Sunni Islamicists. The U.S. and the small democratic middle caught in the crossfire. But is that the reality?

Overnight, the answer came out with a resounding NO - at least until the next militia atrocity in Iraq.

George Bush is looking like the big winner, for this week. The U.S. spy network on the ground in Somalia got wind that the retreating radical Al Qaida islamicists were cornered in a remote area in the southern tip of Somalia. In swooped C-130 gunships in the dark of night, catching their massed troops by surprise.

Now let's think about this a moment. Isn't Al Qaida a guerilla network, not an army? Yes and no. In Somalia, financed by like-minded radical Salafi or "Wahhabi" Sunni Muslims largely in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, Al Qaida managed to stage a coup and take over the capital city of Mogadishu. They set up the "Islamic courts union" that started enforcing their brand of justice ... you know the routine (remember Afghanistan?). Lot's of hangings, assassinations and compelled interrogation. And we are not talking about the fluff-puff Guantanimo type of interrogations. They are really serious.

They set up an armed force to rule the country. But finally, the Somali warlords and UN backed government got some Ethiopian backing and commenced an offensive.

When the Somali government started its offensive, the Al Qaida islamicists found themselves in hostile territory as the local warlords who had laid low after the coup forced them out as the Somali forces swept in. So the "courts" did a tactical retreat out of the capital Mogadishu to the south where they thought they could be resupplied by sea from friendly supporters in the Arab world, as they had been during their rise to power.

In swoops Uncle Sam and chalk one up for the good guys for a change.

Now, that's the common story being put out by all the media outlets. But what really was going on in Somalia these few weeks? In reality the Somali government has been begging for assistance in fighting back against the radical al Qaida islamicists who had taken over their country. After months of wrangling they got it. The U.S. undoubtedly has provided tactical but not military support. However, when a mass of al-Qaida bigwigs was spotted, time to call in the U.S. air force and navy. Who were these guys? Rumor has it they were the plotters of bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that murdered over 200 Kenyans, Tanzanians and Americans, and an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya that killed more Kenyans and three Israelis. Whether the top al-Qaida masterminds were hit is subject to conjecture, but the point was made nevertheless.

The moral of this story is: Regardless of how bogged down the U.S. might appear in Iraq, it remembers and accounts for all attacks on its territory. If you commit crimes against humanity expect justice to catch up eventually, whether from legitimate courts or eagles swooping in from the sky.

Oh, why did we call this article Somalia, Part II? Part I was the battle glamourized in the film watched over and over by Saddam Hussein, Black Hawk Down, where some 15 U.S. soldiers were killed in a street battle in Mogadishu, Somalia. The U.S. no longer underestimates the Somalis.

Cruise Ship Settlement - High Seas Justice

The wife of George Allen Smith now has settled the lawsuit arising from his disappearance on his honeymoon cruise. The amount seems affected by relatively unpublicized laws limiting cruise ship damages.

We view this settlement as providing inadequate monetary incentives to the cruise ship industry. Here's why:

First, who is George Allen Smith? According to Wikipedia:

In July of 2005, Royal Caribbean was plagued by a controversy that involved the disappearance of one of the passengers, George Allen Smith. Although the cruise line claims that his death was the result of an accident, evidence has shown that there may have been foul play involved. Blood was found in his cabin and on the side of the ship where he allegedly fell overboard and drowned.

This is not just about the bizarre disappearance of Mr. Smith on his honeymoon cruise.

It is about the limitation on liability of cruise ship lines to their passengers. Isn't $1,000,000 a lot of dough?

Well yes it is, but not relatively speaking. It is nowhere near the amount necessary to make a noticeable financial impact on a billion dollar company. In our opinion, it does not create a large enough incentive for cruise ship operators to fully ensure the complete well-being of their passengers, and to pay if they fail - whether by inadvertence, negligence or recklessness.

It makes you wonder, why take a vacation on a cruise ship, if they do not have full incentives to keep you 100% safe - even from inadvertence? According to a Fox News quote, full lawsuit damages cannot be used against cruise ship lines. In particular, "Maritime law limits settlements to economic damages such as lost wages, rather than other damages such as pain and suffering".

Generally speaking, we prefer to reduce the damages awarded in personal injury lawsuits. However, such limitations are not generally imposed. Why would we disagree with a limitation on cruise ships? If anything, we feel they should have a higher duty of care to their passengers than most other companies. Yet instead, the law evidently gives special limitations.

If you've ever taken a cruise (and stayed sober for at least part of it!), you know that you really are in the care of the cruise line. You can't just get off the boat whenever you want. After all, when you are 100 miles offshore, where do you go?

• Hop on a seagull and leave? No.
  
• Take the life raft? No.
  
• Call a helicopter? No.

So you are stuck and at the mercy of the crew of the ship. Now usually you are fine, except in some of those highly publicized cases of illnesses.

But what happens if you become unsafe? The cruise line has competing interests. On the one hand, they have their public and marketing image to maintain. If people get robbed or become ill on their ships - it's bad PR. However, if they can limit the news, they can manage the PR. If you get murdered or disappear. Again bad PR. So the marketing gurus may want to manage that news too.

But what about loved ones left behind? They can sue the cruise line.

According to Fox News, Mr. Smith's relatives had a lot of trouble making headway in court - even getting discovery like door security logs, finally provided only after they agreed to drop the case and settle. Also, the damages the cruise line faces are limited. If you get mugged or murdered in Wal-Mart, the store generally can face a full panoply of discovery and damages. So they are highly incentivized to keep customers in their care secure. The cruise lines' liability is severely restricted - even though their passengers are far more dependent on the ship crew than Wal-Mart customers might be on the staff. After all, if you feel unsafe at Wal-Mart, you just walk out of the store and go to Target or Sears. On the cruise ship, you can't just walk away, and are encouraged to have a good time, whether that means recreation, eating, drinking or gambling.

So, what is the solution to this dilemma? The cruise lines want the limitations on their liability for the very reasons made evident in the situation with the disappearance of George Allen Smith. They want to be able to limit their monetary risk. On the other hand, for passengers this could become disastrous - for the very same reasons. The cruise lines are not fully incentivized to maintain 100% security and safety on their ships. Our opinion is that the problems of food poisonings and safety issues will keep recurring on cruise ships until the monetary risks are balanced.

How do we balance the monetary risks? Do not count on Congress enacting laws repealing the liability limitations. The cruise industry has a lot of interest in lobbying to maintain the status quo. There is no similarly funded counter-lobby. Accordingly there is no viable political pressure to change the damages limitations.

The only way security will improve on cruise ships is for passengers to stay away until the law is changed. Only then will the cruise lines have the proper monetary incentives to get a bill through Congress and improve.

Send a message to the cruise industry in 2007 in honor of George Allen Smith. Drive or fly.




Ship photo by Jordgubbe.

Saddam Execution Video

As the dictator was hanged, cheers of Moqtada Moqtada filled the room.

Who would have imagined that the Iraqis could make the execution of Saddam Hussein publicly embarrassing? Predictably the anti-death penalty lobby now is using the Butcher of Baghdad as their newest poster-boy. So how did the Iraqis create this situation?

After painstaking negotiations, the American military finally agreed to turn over Saddam to the Iraqis, knowing they would immediately carry out the death sentence and execute the man who murdered so many. What the American military demanded, and the Iraqis agreed to, was a civilized execution. No filming, no taunting ... just a noose and pull the lever. The purpose was not to give Saddam dignity in death, which surely he did not deserve. The purpose was to give the Iraqi government dignity through conduct of the execution.

By now most people who want have seen the film of the execution. Members of the radical Badr Brigade militia, followers of Shiite Islamic cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, infiltrated the hanging as they have infiltrated the Iraqi government. They verbally chanted Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada, as if at a football game. He didn't even show up, but they still were chanting their leader's name.

Then, a couple of reputedly "high ranking" Iraqi officials serving as "witnesses", but also apparently aligned with al Sadr took their cell phone cameras out and were permitted to film the whole thing. Quite fuzzy and unsteady shooting, as if they were nervous. Arab TV stations promptly took all the video and broadcast it repeatedly. Anyone who wants can watch it on dozens of Internet websites.

What does this say about whether other countries should continue supporting this Iraqi government? Well, what option is there really? If the rest of the world pulls support, who is there to move in? Only radicalized Iranian Shiite islamicists or Osama style Sunni islamicists. There is no democratic middle ground other than provided by the rest of the world.

Apocalypto Plunge

Previously I promised more on the shocking box office collapse of Mel Gibson 's Apocalypto movie. I still am perplexed by it. After all, the common belief is that Mel Gibson has a huge and quite fanatical fan base, he is a charismatic leader, he is a proven box office superstar and Apocalypto had almost uniformly fawning reviews from critics focusing on the "action" aspects of the film.

Apocalypto started out like a mega-blockbuster. Number one at the box-office beating out Blood Diamond.

So what happened? Just two weeks out- total collapse. According to boxofficemojo.com, it is not in the top ten anymore, eclipsed by the likes of Happy Feet, The Holiday and Rocky Balboa.

Here is an analysis of the situation, and it goes way beyond general disgust with Mel Gibson the man.

Most importantly, it seems all the assumptions were wrong. It was generally assumed Mel Gibson has a large following of like-minded bigots. It turns out not true. The "Passion" crowd actually was made up of a lot of decent religious people duped by Mel Gibson to make a fortune. They did not turn out in droves for Apocalypto as everyone, especially Mel Gibson, expected. What happened it seems is that there is only a small number of Mel Gibson "true believers" left out there. Even they went out the first weekend and came home pretty disappointed with Apocalypto. Their friends therefore did not turn out.

So Mel Gibson Lesson #1 is, Mel Gibson's like-minded following is not as huge as commonly believed.

Secondly, the movie just was not all that good. It had a lot of action and fake blood spurts. However, nobody wants that for a holiday movie. What was Mel Gibson thinking? There is a theory that he thought it was a Jesus allegory, hence Christmas release. Nobody else saw his vision though. Most people saw it as a mere slasher flick.

So Mel Gibson Lesson #2 is, people want to be entertained at the theater, not shamelessly exploited.

Thirdly, Mel Gibson has immense success in the past by stirring up ethnic tensions as a PR technique. This is what makes decent people uncomfortable with Mel Gibson the man. It is not just a small inner demon, it is just who this man is. He tried workin' it again with his famous August 2006 "I own Malibu" tirade. He also was counting on the Native American community resisting the film as demeaning. As for his ethnic exploitation tactic, didn't work this time ... fool me once, not twice. Native American leaders, having learned from how resisting Mel's PR machine backfired last time with Passion, simply didn't fall into the trap.

So Mel Gibson lesson #3 is: Mel Gibson "We Won't be Fooled Again"... and again ... and again. Outa here with you.

The bottom line actually is a tragedy: Mel Gibson got so rich off his nastiness before that even though he and his distributor are losing money on Apocalypto, this villain will not die. Two years from now when his next film is in the same old PR spin zone, we'll be back too :).

Iraq Study Group - Zucker Parody

A key finding of the Iraq Study Group was that the United States needed to initiate a diplomatic gambit with the present Iranian strongman. Many have characterized this as appeasement on the par with Neville Chamberlain's "peace in our time" deal with Germany's strongman Adolf Hitler, which constituted British capitulation on destruction Czechoslovakia. Appeasement makes you feel good for a little while, but has a terrible hangover. Action then consequence.

The Iraq Study group was made up of 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans and was supposed to work out a consensus on victory in Iraq, or something like it anyway. The report they came up with seemed highly disconnected from real world - actions have consequences. The action - appease the present Iranian regime, the consequence - this is easy, they want more, they do not just go away.

A hugely popular parody video called "David Zucker Iraq Study Group AD" - is winding its way through the viral Internet - over 160,000 downloads on YouTube alone. Running time: about 2 1/2 minutes.

12/23/06 Update: Now 280,000 downloads on YouTube alone.

1/9/07 Update: Now 320,000 downloads on YouTube alone.