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One of the world's most prominent scientific figures to be sceptical about climate change has admitted to being paid more than $1m in the past decade by major US oil and coal companies. Dr Willie Soon, an astrophysicist at the Solar, Stellar and Planetary Sciences Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, is known for his view that global warming and the melting of the arctic sea ice is caused by solar variation rather than human-caused CO2 emissions, and that polar bears are not primarily threatened by climate change. But according to a Greenpeace US investigation, he has been heavily funded by coal and oil industry interests since 2001, receiving money from ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Insitute and Koch Industries along with Southern, one of the world's largest coal-burning utility companies. Since 2002, it is alleged, every new grant he has received has been from either oil or coal interests. link where is slim shady to put this into perspective?

i think they do their best not to think about the consequences and only keep their eyes and mind on the ultimate goal, profit. in order for these systems to work, there needs to be thousands of people involved in making it work. it's not just one or two people.

there is no 'bad' person. it's a system made up of bankers and policy makers who do not think about the consequences of their actions unless it has to do with profits for their company. they're not in the business to think about the consequences their actions may have on the people or on the environment. their job is to make money for the company and watch the shares go up.

hitchens is quite honest and candid. here he is a year ago talking about obama's policy towards israel:

i guess it's always easiest to blame 'the people' (or the lefties like the simpleton shady likes to do) and not look at why greece is where it's at right now. Periods of frenzied speculative lending are inexorably followed by government or sovereign debt defaults, or near defaults. Like the Third World debt crisis of the early 1980s and the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, the so-called sovereign debt problem of countries like Greece, Spain, and Portugal is principally a supply-driven crisis, not a demand-driven one. Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs showed Greek financial authorities how financial instruments known as derivatives could be used to make large chunks of Greek debt ‘disappear,’ thus making the national accounts look good to bankers eager to lend more. Then the very same agency turned around, and, through a kind of derivatives trading known as ‘credit default swaps,’ bet on the possibility that Greece would default, raising the country’s cost of borrowing from the banks but making a tidy profit for itself." http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/greek-mythology-the-real-story-of-the-european-debt-crisis

so? the reason is what? the jews want the land nothing else matters? even the people who have been living there for centuries? removing them from their homes and replacing them with jews from other parts of the world is okay because that's how you roll? by removing people who live there and calling for the ethnic cleansing of them because you are desperately holding onto a racist and failing notion that you can keep the jews from assimilating? the zionists ended up choosing palestine over argentina for a place to call their own country. the whole process was unfair and unjust to begin with. however, it happened and we have to deal with what's in front of us, which are agreements and specified borders for two separate states. the palestinians, for the most part, have finally accepted that the state of israel is here to stay. however, the extremists such as bibi, his coalition and the mouthpieces such as yourself don't think that's good enough. you'll lie and use any excuse and falsely use terms like 'because of security' or 'self defense' to excuse an ongoing, systematic theft of another people's land. that's great. i hope israel flourishes. but you seem to have a hard time differentiating between what is israel (with the recognized borders) and what is greater israel (which includes palestinian land). yes. you're ugly because you keep promoting ethnic cleansing. you and the ugly aryan nations are no different. holding onto some sort of notion that you can keep things the way they are. what are you talking about? jewish enough? russian jews have no tie to the region. an arab has more connection to the israelites than the russian jews do. from now on, if you make stupid comments about what i'd 'prefer', even though i have never made any comment or reference to what you're spewing, i'll just respond with stfu. stfu. you're typing irresponsibly and just spewing bs. the mid-east is not 100% muslim. you tell me how many societies and cultures became extinct because of spread of islam. then tell us about the crusades. perhaps you should tell me if the christians have a claim to europe and have a right to kick all the muslims, jews and other non-christians out of europe? because that is what your stupid argument boils down to even though the population of palestine was less than 10% jews (who happened to live peacefully with their arab neighbours.) on queue, the racist pig ends his justification for ethnic cleansing, war crimes and an all around being an ugly person by using the victim card. here is my best impression of you and the rest of the jewish extremists: omg omg, the muslims are out to get us and that's why we're taking their land and will not allow a palestinian state. omg. never forget. except maybe that it wasn't okay for the nazis to try to ethnically cleanse, but it's okay for us. we're different. we're special. we're above criticism. we're above the normal standard. tell me if you like it.

while you claim all the land belongs to jews because it's in the bible. even though less than 10% of the population of region was jewish before the zionist immigration started a century ago. not only that, many of those who have migrated to the region have no real tie to the region. the only tie is that they follow the same religion. stop pretending and trying to create an atmosphere where expecting people to follow international law and agreements is some sort of illegitimate way of looking at the situation, while claiming that all of the land belongs to jews because thousands of years ago, it was claimed as the land of jews. you and anyone who thinks like you are ridiculous.

not that your comparison between the situations has any merit, but who said i'm okay with canada's role in afghanistan or canada's treatment of the aboriginals? i'm not here propagating ethnically cleansing the aboriginals or refusing to follow treaties and agreements. it would be better to think about your comparisons, blanket statements and assumptions before you decide to type them.

you may not have a problem with people who call for ethnic cleansing, but many others do.

a racist such as bob who calls for ethnic cleansing of a people should be treated like any other racist and fascist. his ideas should not be given any legitimacy.

yes. he's quite the fanatic and extremist. he calls for the ethnic cleansing of palestinians because he sees all of the land as jewish land. meanwhile, we have jbg, porch dog, dancer, AW and many others staying silent while bob the fanatic spews his extremism.

of course. the process of creating new states is a mixture of fact and law, involving the establishment of particular factual conditions and compliance with relevant rules. that's what israel went through before becoming a state 60 years ago. okay. i understand that you're not a fan of international law and human rights. run along to your calls for ethnic cleansing.

how did israel come to be accepted as a country then?

why can't they live where they, their parents, their grandparents, their great grand parents, etc. have lived for centuries? they have more claim to the land than most jews who started immigrating to the region less than a century ago.

stop trying to be so dramatic. it's not international law's job to do all those things. international law is a guideline. it's something that should be followed by all those who are signatory to.

ethnic cleansing anyone?

what are you babbling about? international law created israel.

logic, reality and international law doesn't give a shit about what the bible says. it's time that people like you are marginalized and to move towards a real and just palestinian state without your consideration. because when you say, "it's our land and they live here", then you deem yourself useless.

the palestinian arabs have lived in the region for centuries, so they have more of a claim to that land than most jews whose only connection is what is written in the old testament which was compiled in the 5th century BC. you have a lot of nerve claiming that these people have no right or less right to the land than the jews who started immigrating to the region 100 years ago.

well said.

that's a very powerful image.

of course we should. should we 'accept' palestinian's right to have a state?

it used to be accept "the state of israel". now it's accept it as "a jewish state". the neverending stalling tactics while israel continues to annex more palestinian land in the west bank and east jerusalem. the current israeli regime and most of the people in power are not interested in moving forward. they're only interested in the status quo.

stand on my head in.. right. okay. here is what ilan pappé had to say on the comparison between the two: There are similarities and dissimilarities. The colonialist history has many chapters in common and some of the features of the Apartheid system can be found in the Israeli policies towards its own Palestinian minority and towards those in the occupied territories. Some aspects of the occupation, however, are worse then the apartheid reality of South Africa and some aspects in the lives of Palestinian citizens in Israel, are not as bad as they were in the hey days of Apartheid. The main point of comparison to my mind is political inspiration. The anti-Apartheid movement, the ANC, the solidarity networks developed throughout the years in the West, should inspire a more focused and effect pro-Palestinian campaign. This is why there is a need to learn the history of the struggle against Apartheid, much more than dwell too long on comparing the Zionist and Apartheid systems. it matters what people in other parts of the world think. if it didn't matter, israel would not spend millions a year on PR and in lobbying foreign governments. as i've said before, the momentum has become a difficult issue for israel. too many eyes are on israel and western governments that back israel's violations. the trend is similar to the apartheid, where the cultural boycott and divestment kicked off the beginning of the end of the criminal system. both are wrong, but a rapist is worse than the person who stays silent while it happens. plus, how do you know that the artists are not engaged in some sort of protest against their government's support of a human rights violator? besides artists, you also have the divestments which work by people putting pressure on organizations not to carry israeli products and or to putt out of israeli funds or products made in the occupied terroritories by israeli companies. there are a lot more examples of the success of the boycott, divestment sanctions campaign can be seen here. the two dozens ships sailing to gaza is going to be a huge news. more attention will be given to the plight of the palestinians right ahead of a recognition of a palestinian state. these actions make a difference.

i can and i will. they are very much comparable. a palestinian state will not endanger the existence of israel. it will do the opposite. no one buys that excuse anymore. you miss the point. this is not about an individual. this is a collective effort from these artists and their fans from around the world to bring attention and to show that they can't support a state that has been violating a group of people's rights for decades.