civilisationReview

A 20-year-old Greek footballer has been banned for life from playing for his national team after a controversial goal celebration in which he appeared to give a Nazi salute. The player says he hadn't understood the meaning of the gesture - but is it possible, in 2013, for a European to be so poorly informed? On Saturday, Giorgos Katidis gestured with his right arm extended and hand straightened, to celebrate scoring the winning goal for his team AEK Athens in a Super League game at the Olympic Stadium in Athens. After the match, the former captain of the Greek under-19 team turned to Twitter to explain his actions. "I am not a fascist and I would not have done it if I had known what it means," he wrote. His team's German coach also said his player was ignorant of what the salute signified. "He is a young kid who does not have any political ideas. He most likely saw such a salute on the internet or somewhere else and did it, without knowing what it means," he...

Labour has accused the government of "weak leadership" after it emerged plans for minimum pricing of alcohol in England and Wales may be dropped. Conservative ministers are understood to be split over a proposed 45p per unit price to tackle problem drinking. Tory MP and ex-GP Sarah Wollaston said: "We have to set a minimum below which it's unsafe to sell alcohol." Labour said it was a "humiliating climbdown". - bbc (Conversations below extracted from Facebook BBC ) Andy: On principle, why should I have to pay more for alcohol just because other people don't know when to stop? Pete: why should the responsible have to pay for the mindless minority? Ed: I don't think we should be dividing ourselves between those who 'drink sensibly' and the 'irresponsible drunks', and arguing that the former should not be paying for the latter. That's exactly what the 'divide and conquer' strategists want. Instead, lets talk about ho...

The danger posed by growing resistance to antibiotics should be ranked along with terrorism on a list of threats to the nation, the government's chief medical officer for England has said. Professor Dame Sally Davies described it as a "ticking time bomb". She warned that routine operations could become deadly in just 20 years if we lose the ability to fight infection. Dame Sally urged the government to raise the issue during next month's G8 Summit in London. Dame Sally said: "If we don't take action, then we may all be back in an almost 19th Century environment where infections kill us as a result of routine operations. We won't be able to do a lot of our cancer treatments or organ transplants." She said pharmaceutical companies needed to be encouraged to develop new drugs, because the manufacture of antibiotics was not viewed as profitable. - bbc I try to stay off antibiotics, flu jabs, and the like by substituting them with a chopped clove of garli...

Viewpoint: What if Women Ruled the World Not so long ago, the idea that women might rule the world seemed slightly ridiculous - like something out of science fiction. But in an essay to mark International Women's Day, political analyst and former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers argues it's now a topic that can be seriously discussed. - bbc (the following are comments by ed placed beneath the aforelinked bbc article) Certainly not. Women, having become as bad or worse than men, will not have a 'fairer' sex to possibly emulate as did men in the past. Hence, the evil of men will be perpetuated in 'women' whom have become the latest incarnation of the patriarchal and exploitative character. Anyone watch the unfortunately and highly popular 'Big Bang Theory'? ... Madeline Albright, a woman, who said that the killing of close to half a million children in Iraq via medical embargoes 'was worth the price'.  I bet feminists were thrilled tha...