What's in the news?

Envy wrote:

I haven't heard that, but I heard a load of uproar about a mosque being built in the US and Americans being against it or something?

I heard about that! I find it quite idiotic, all the negative against the mosque, I didn't even want to think more about it...

I believe they are against it because of how close it'd be to ground zero. Although that still seems idiotic since it just shows intolerance against a majority for what a minority done.

Kuroboshi wrote:

I believe they are against it because of how close it'd be to ground zero. Although that still seems idiotic since it just shows intolerance against a majority for what a minority done.

I read that Obama supported it and suddenly 18% of Americans believe he's Muslim as compared to a previous statistic of 11%! Ridiculous!

I was talking to my German acquaintance at work today and we were discussing travelling to America - I complained about the silly questions English people get asked upon entrance, e.g. \"Are you a terrorist?\". He said that Germans get a 'special' one of those sheets, with questions such as \"Have you partaken in war crimes before 1945?\"

Honestly!

Sometimes Americans really take it too far.

Actually, Obama's words were more along the lines of \"They have a right to build a place of worship, in a community centre on property in lower Manhattan\"

Which is true, if they are not breaking any laws or such, then they do have every right to build there, the same as any other religious institution. I don't interpret it to have any meaning outside of the law, as it doesn't exactly state that he supports it, although that could be one interpretation of it.

Ground zero is a place where an attack took place against the freedom of Americans. They're now limiting the freedoms of others in saying they a mosque shouldn't be built two blocks away from this place. It's pretty rotten how they blame an entire religion for what an extremist minority have done.

And I don't see the point in asking someone if they are a terrorist, of course they will deny it. What are you going to do? Admit you are a terrorist wanting to commit an attack against a country? Yeah right...

Kuroboshi wrote:

And I don't see the point in asking someone if they are a terrorist, of course they will deny it. What are you going to do? Admit you are a terrorist wanting to commit an attack against a country? Yeah right...

Exactly! Some of the other questions were even more ridiculous..\"Have you ever kidnapped or restrained a US child from its parents\" or along those lines.

Heard something else in the news - Israel to attempt peace talks with Palestinians?

It will never work. Israel is being coaxed into it by the US, esp. with arguments over 'the wall'..Which was meant to be taken down 10 years ago or so..Palestinians themselves are divided..Peace talks would lead to a split in land, whereas Hamas will always demand Jerusalem and probably all original land back..

Argh. It annoys me how they try. Years after yeaaars they've attempted, but the US doesn't get it.

I heard Tony Blair was in those talks too. I mean..What the hell? He's not even Prime Minister anymore.

There's been an item in the news recently that I've been following. The police in Vancouver, BC, are reviewing their handling (or should I say mishandling?) of the Robert Pickton case. He's a serial killer who was recently convicted of killing 6 women. He had originally been charged with 26 murders, but claims to have killed 49 women and was planning to stop at 50. I'd post links, but there are so many... easy to find in a search if you're interested though.

He was arrested in 2002, but apparently could have been nabbed a few years previously. However, due to overlapping police forces and jurisdictions, they \"missed\" him somehow. Most likely due to the fact that he was preying on prostitutes, in a really rough area of the city. Most of them were Natives as well, which makes the police even more likely to ignore them. Women had been going missing from that neighbourhood for years, and their families, and advocacy groups for prostitutes, really had to pressure the cops into even bothering to look for them. I'm sure if he'd been picking women off the streets in the nicer suburbs the cops would have been a hell of a lot quicker to catch him.

I lived there at the time he was arrested, and although I didn't know any of the victims personally, it just really makes me sad to hear of the way this has all been handled.