http://www.liveleak.com/browse?channel_token=dcb_1344976127 Items in channel 'Moron Watch' Mon, 20 May 2013 08:56:04 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?channel_token=dcb_1344976127 Sun, 19 May 2013 10:10:55 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=20e_1368972464 Moron Watch His response: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=20e_1368972464 Moron Watch American homeowners association told man he couldn't fly the American flag in his yard. USA, Home owner asserting his rights, Equality for all Fri, 17 May 2013 06:32:41 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cbe_1368786020 Moron Watch It's an interviewers job to push politicians hard during an interview. In the UK there's none of this Fox type cosying up to an interviewee - you push them hard in order to draw out their opinions. Here Farage shows us that he's not up to the task, and is a failure as a politician; but of course we all know that anyway. LMAO!! The backdrop says it all! http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cbe_1368786020 Moron Watch Farage can't take questioning & hangs up on radio interview UK, Scotland, Farage, Can't take some questions, Failure Mon, 13 May 2013 13:15:40 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c80_1368464897 Moron Watch A convicted Palestinian terrorist who once hijacked an airliner in Greece has been deported from Canada -- 26 years after he first arrived under an alias. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced Monday that Issa Mohammad, 70, was deported to Lebanon on Sunday. "He is a convicted terrorist and killer. He tried to hijack a plane, he threw grenades and fired live rounds at innocent civilians," Kenney said in Ottawa. He added: "If you're a convicted terrorist you don't get to come to Canada because you pose a security risk." According to a statement from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Mohammad first joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLO) in 1968. That same year he and another person hijacked an Israeli aircraft in Athens, Greece, firing 83 rounds of ammunition and six grenades, and killing one passenger. Mohammad was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in a Greek prison following the attack, but was released in 1970 after six other Palestinian terrorists hijacked another plane, and threatened to blow it up unless he was released. He then came to Canada in 1987 under a false identity, Kenney said. "He lied about his identity, he lied about not having a criminal past, he lied about not having ties to criminal organizations," Kenney said. Federal officials began trying to deport him in 1988, but Mohammad filed appeal after appeal -- which was within his rights under Canada's immigration laws but resulted in "almost a comedy of errors," Kenney said. Meanwhile, Mohammad lived free in Canada, making his home in Burlington, Ont. "Since becoming minister of immigration and learning of this case I have worked with my colleague Vic Toews, minister of public safety, and officials to do everything we could to secure his deportation," Kenney said. Kenney said the Canada Border Service Agency had planned to deport Mohammad two weeks ago, but he reported health problems and was taken to hospital. When he was finally deported Sunday, it was aboard a charter plane equipped with medical equipment in case something went wrong en route, Kenney said. He said he wasn't aware of the type of work, if any, Mohammad had been doing during his long stay in Canada, saying "we don't track people's personal activities." Though he is not a Lebanese citizen, Mohammad has "standing" in that country and had married a Lebanese woman, Kenney said. Lebanon agreed to allow him to return, but did not provide any assurances about his treatment, Kenney said, noting that it is "not a requirement." Under current immigration laws brought in by the Conservatives, Kenney said someone in Mohammad's situation would be allowed to file one appeal, and then would be "subject to removal." http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/convicted-terrorist-deported-to-lebanon-after-26-year-fight-1.1279121 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c80_1368464897 Moron Watch Convicted terrorist deported to Lebanon after 26-year fight. Abu Qatada? Nope! Canada, Deporting terrorist, 26 Years, No EU law here! Sat, 11 May 2013 02:51:34 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e4c_1368254556 Moron Watch Yesterday, the GOP-led U.S. House of Representatives approved the Full Faith And Credit Act ( HR 807 ) - also derisively called the "Bankruptcy Bill" and the "Pay China First" Act. And, as with many Republican initiatives, it sounds all fair, responsible, and grown-up, while actually being quite the opposite. Because, it's time - once again! - for the GOP to hold America's government hostage in yet another destructive and pointless " debt ceiling debate ." Or, as Paul Krugman, the economist, more accurately calls it, economic " hostage taking ." Bloomberg's Roxena Tiron reports that the "Bankruptcy Bill" would "exempt federal payments to creditors from a borrowing-limit cap," has little chance of passing through the Senate, and would be vetoed by President Barack Obama, even if it did. Nonetheless, the GOP will use the "logic" behind this nasty bit of legislation as a cudgel to force more cuts from the Democrats. And you know things are getting scary, when even the GOP's leadership can't spin it in a way that sounds even remotely appealing. Did U.S. House Speaker John Boehner really say he wants to haul the U.S. government to bankruptcy court and force us to pay off Chinese bondholders? Before we even send checks to our soldiers and veterans? It sure sounded that way, when Bloomberg TV's Peter Cook interviewed him: Peter Cook: Doesn't it mean, as Democrats have suggested, that you're basically choosing to pay China before you pay U.S. Troops? John Boehner: Listen. Those who have loaned us money, like in any proceeding, if you will, court proceeding, the bondholders usually get paid first. Same thing here. The discussion also covered a wide range of topics, including the bill, the debt ceiling, the economy, and the newly-passed Internet sales tax law . Click here for the complete interview. Yet delaying payments to U.S. troops so we can pay off bondholders from China - as the above snippet clearly states is the intention - is unlikely to poll well with voters. http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/10/boehner-bankruptcy-bill-china-veterans-soldiers-no-pay/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e4c_1368254556 Moron Watch GOP 'Bankruptcy Bill' Would Pay China Before U.S. Troops USA, Gop, China priority over US troops Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:07:57 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=577_1367323421 Moron Watch Disgraced Pennsylvania judge Mark Ciavarella Jr has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for conspiring with private prisons to sentence juvenile offenders to maximum sentences for bribes and kickbacks which totaled millions of dollars. He was also ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution. In the private prison industry the more time an inmate spends in a facility, the more of a profit is reaped from the state. Ciavearella was a figurehead in a conspiracy in the state of Pennsylvania which saw thousands of young men and women unjustly punished and penalized in the name of corporate profit. According to allgov.com Ciavearella's cases from 2003 - 2008 were reviewed by a special investigative panel and later by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and it was found that upwards of 5,000 young men and women were denied their constitutional rights, and therefore all of their convictions were dismissed and were summarily released. During his sentencing Ciavarella was defiant, claiming he had broken no laws and claimed the money he received was a legitimate 'finders fee.' Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod said comments such as these were typical of Ciavarella, according to the local reporting of citizensvoice.com . He said: 'I think that's his way of doing things. Never retreat. Always go on the attack. Always blame somebody else. Always get them to back off. He tried it with the judge. It didn't work.' http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=577_1367323421 Moron Watch Pennsylvania judge sentenced to 28 years in prison for selling teens to prisons USA, Corrupt Judge, Private Prisons, Disgrace Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:44:31 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=341_1367235555 Moron Watch Why would you want someone who can't even use the English language properly running the country - especially when they claim to put 'us' first? Vote UKIP? No thanks! http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=341_1367235555 Moron Watch 'Sorry We're Are Full' Appalling grammar on UKIP election leaflet UK, UKIP, Morons Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:06:05 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=820_1366902103 Moron Watch A University of Arizona student sparked outrage on Tuesday for preaching against women while holding a sign proclaiming, "You deserve rape." Dean Saxton, a junior, is notorious for giving inflammatory sermons in the middle of campus. This time, he argued that women are responsible for their rapes because of the way they dress and act. Saxton's stunt may have been planned in response to the "Take Back the Night" protest against sexual violence scheduled Tuesday night. Saxton cut right to the chase, bluntly stating that girls who dress like "a whore" have it coming: Saxton, a junior studying classics and religious studies, said his sermon was meant to convey that "if you dress like a whore, act like a whore, you're probably going to get raped." "I think that girls that dress and act like it," Saxton said, "they should realize that they do have partial responsibility, because I believe that they're pretty much asking for it." According to the Daily Wildcat, the Dean of Students received "stacks of written complaints, emails and multiple phone calls regarding Saxton's sermon about women." Many students directly confronted Saxton, even trying to pull down his sign. Saxton embraced the attention on his Twitter account, posting a screenshot of an article about the Take Back the Night with the comment, "The whores are out." In other sermons, Saxton has cursed people who are gay, have pre-marital sex, masturbate or have lustful thoughts. His Twitter account is rife with anti-Muslim sentiment, as well; last month he tweeted , "There will come a time when the sword will be put to the heathen." However hateful his speech may be, university attorneys told angry students that Saxton is exercising his right to free speech, and has yet to violate the student code of conduct. While Saxton's language is more incendiary than the norm, victim-blaming is very much a mainstream habit. The string of recently publicized rapes of high school and college students have exposed how communities shame victims rather than condemn the perpetrators. Dartmouth College is currently dealing with a similar backlash to anti-sexual violence protesters, who received rape and death threats amid a slew of misogynistic and ignorant comments posted online. University of Arizona, while hardly condoning Saxton's extremist display, has struggled with its own rape culture. Last year, fraternity brothers were indicted for sexual abuse, sexual assault and kidnapping of another UA student, but the charges were later dismissed . Many other students have reported abuse - 29 reports of sexual abuse and 53 reports of rape in one year - to the on-campus sexual assault crisis center. http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/04/25/1920021/arizona-student-deserve-rape/?mobile=nc http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=820_1366902103 Moron Watch University Of Arizona Student Tells Women: 'You Deserve Rape' USA, Arizona, University of Arozona, Insane moron, Religious fanatic Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:30:22 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b44_1366899716 Moron Watch Ukip is facing calls to sack one of its candidates who apparently denied the Holocaust and promoted wild conspiracy theories online. A Facebook profile in the name of Anna-Marie Crampton, who is standing for the Eurosceptic party in the local elections in East Sussex next week, posted that the Second World War had been "engineered by the Zionist jews", adding: "Only the Zionists could sacrifice their own in the gas chambers." On Twitter, there were references to the 'false flag' conspiracy theory about the Boston Marathon bombings and links to UFO sites. The Jewish comments, revealed by Brighton's Argus newspaper , were posted by Crampton's Facebook account - which includes photos of her with Ukip leader Nigel Farage - on an online forum entitled 'Was Pope Benedict fired by the Knights of Malta?' The entry in Crampton's name said: "Of coure he was" and went on to say "The Rothschilds are Zionists... there is a difference between Jews and Zionists. These Psychopaths hide behind and use the Jews. It was thanks to them that 6 million Jews were murdered in the War (along with 26 million Russians!)" Ukip told The Argus it would not comment until it had contacted Crampton. And Sam Westrop, director of interfaith organisation Stand For Peace, told the paper: "UKIP, to its credit, has expelled extremist and bigoted members in the past. "They must also expel Anna-Marie Crampton. Such hatred must be fought at all times." http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/25/ukip-candidates-antisemitic-comments-posted-online_n_3153505.html?utm_hp_ref=uk http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b44_1366899716 Moron Watch Anna-Marie Crampton, Ukip Candidate, In Storm Over 'Anti-Semitic Comments' Posted Online Nigel Farage, UK Politics, Anna Marie Crampton, Anti Semitism, Boston Marathon Bombing, Conspiracy Theories, Local Elections 2013, UK NEWS, UKIP, UK News Thu, 25 Apr 2013 07:34:59 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=26d_1366889561 Moron Watch Appearing on Fox News Republican talk show "Hannity" Monday night, right-wing columnist Ann Coulter said she's sad that not only does she think the Boston bombing should shut down the nation's immigration reform debate, she would like to see the alleged bomber's widow in jail too, not for committing a crime but for "wearing a hijab." "I don't care if she knew about this," Coulter said . "She ought to be in prison for wearing a hijab. This immigration policy of us, you know, assimilating immigrants into our culture isn't really working. They're assimilating us into their culture. Did she get a clitorectomy too?" Hannity seemed momentarily puzzled at the sudden citation of female genital mutilation, stammering his reply. "I, uh, I don't know the answer to that," he said before confidently adding: "But your point is well taken." Hannity went on to say that he believes people who immigrated "from countries where perhaps they grew up under Sharia law" are definitely a threat and "I think we can make a safe assumption that they have been radicalized." He added that even foreign students should be subjected to greater scrutiny, lest they too pose a threat. "Our immigration policy has nothing to do with helping America," Coulter insisted. "It has to do with solving the internal problems of other countries. We'll take Russia's radicals. We'll take the illiterate, unskilled, low-skill workers from all these countries. We'll take their old people and put them on our supplemental security and Medicare. No, immigration policies are supposed to make your country better, not to make it worse and to create all these problems." "Lindsey Graham was on some show this week saying this shows we need better tracking," she continued. "I'm thinking this means we need better immigrants." Coulter and Hannity are just the latest conservatives to jump on the idea that because the Boston bombing suspects were born overseas, the nation's whole immigration reform debate must shift gears into more regressive policy proposals, or just shut down in Congress altogether, as it did on Monday . Fellow Republican talker Laura Ingraham said as much on Monday afternoon , suggesting that the U.S. shut down all immigration from majority Muslim nations. "I would submit that people shouldn't be coming here as tourists from Chechnya after 9/11," she said. "Dagistan, Checnya, Kergystan, uh-uh. As George Bush would say, 'None of them stans.'" Both Boston bombing suspects came to the U.S. legally as children. Authorities say there is not yet any evidence linking them to any foreign terrorist organizations, but an investigation is still ongoing. Additionally, the Partnership for a New American Economy said last year that about one in 10 Americans worked for an immigrant-owned business in 2012, which contributed more than $775 billion to the U.S. economy and over $125 billion in payroll. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=26d_1366889561 Moron Watch Moron Coulter: Boston suspect's widow 'ought to be in prison for wearing a hijab' USA, Coulter, Insane Moron Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:49:45 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=538_1366814700 Moron Watch After the September 11th attacks, many Americans wondered, "why do they hate us?" President George Bush gave his now famous explanation: "They hate our freedoms." Radical Islam, we are told, is to blame . When someone dares counter this argument by pointing out that "Muslim rage" is due to U.S. foreign policy, accusations of disloyalty quickly abound. We all remember what happened to Ron Paul when he had the audacity to claim that they didn't hate us for our freedoms, but rather "they attack us because we've been over there ." In other words, they terrorize us because we've been terrorizing them. Ron Paul was booed and his explanation was dubbed "absurd," to the glee of the audience. Yet, the terrorists themselves consistently explain why they attack us. Osama bin Laden himself responded to George Bush: Contrary to what Bush says and claims -- that we hate freedom --let him tell us then, "Why did we not attack Sweden?" ... Bush is...misleading you and not telling you the true reason. The real reason, explained Bin Laden, was that we had to destroy the towers in America so that they taste what we tasted, and they stop killing our women and children ... Your security is in your own hands. Any nation that does not attack us will not be attacked. Subsequent terrorists have consistently confessed similar motivations, whether it be the Times Square bomber or the Fort Hood shooter. Time and time again, the terrorists give the same explanations: they attack the United States because the United States is attacking Muslims. With the Boston Marathon bombings, once again Americans repeat Bushian explanations. The vapid radio personality Adam Carolla explained: They hate our culture. They hate our way of life. Why Americans simply can't fathom that it is U.S. foreign policy that motivates terrorists is understandable: it would be too difficult on the American psyche to admit fault--to admit that our own foreign policy is criminal and the source of the legitimate grievance. It is far easier to lay the blame on another religion. So, once again, we are told that the Boston Marathon bombers were "motivated by religion." This is what "anonymous U.S. officials" told the media, who then unthinkingly regurgitated it: Two U.S. officials say preliminary evidence from an interrogation suggests the suspects in the Boston Marathon attack were motivated by their religious views but were apparently not tied to any Islamic terrorist groups. The two brothers, from southern Russia, practiced Islam. The U.S. officials spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation. Notice that the U.S. officials "were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation"--but they discussed it with reporters anyways. This is typical of the U.S. government-media relationship: journalists grant anonymity to government officials, who can then freely spread their propaganda while at the same time hiding behind the wall of anonymity when challenged. ( Glenn Greenwald has written extensively on this practice.) And so, Americans will continue to believe the myth that the terrorists attack us simply because of their religious views. This successfully shrouds the real underlying reason: U.S. foreign policy. "Muslim rage" toward the United States has to do with the fact that the United States has been continuously bombing, invading, and occupying multiple Muslim countries. This is a process that began in the early 1990's--over two decades of U.S. warmongering in the region. (And actually, U.S. interference in the Middle East begins way before that.) The Tsaernev brothers may well have been becoming more religious. But, that's only half the story--and it's the half that's less important. The more important half is what the government and media isn't telling. The Tsaernev brothers were ethnically Chechen. As has been pointed out by many in the media, Chechens don't necessarily have a particularly antagonistic view towards the United States. Why should they? Their "beef" is with the Russians. However, the Tsaernev brothers were becoming more religious. As such, it is only natural that their affiliation and self-identity became closer tied to Muslim. Once they started identifying themselves more as Muslims, they naturally grew closer in affiliation to the Muslim community worldwide (the Ummah). This sensitized them to conflicts in the Muslim majority world, including the U.S.-led incursions in the region. Therefore, the turn to religion did facilitate their eventual commission of the terrorist attacks, but only because it caused them to identify with the people who are being attacked by the United States. It is true that the Koran commands believers to come to the defense of other Muslims: And why should you not fight in God's cause when defenseless men, women, and children are being oppressed and cry out, "Lord, rescue us from this land whose people are oppressors! By Your Grace, give us a protector and give us a helper." (Koran, 4:75) But, is this not a universal moral principle? Few people, aside from extreme pacifists, would argue that it is immoral to defend "defenseless men, women, and children who are being oppressed." That the Tsaernev brothers would respond to this call means that they identify the United States as the oppressor. It is less that the religion itself caused the Tsaernev brothers to plan these attacks, and more the fact that the U.S. is bombing, invading, and occupying Muslim lands. If this weren't the case, the Tsaernev brothers would hardly have identified the U.S. with the oppressors mentioned in the Koranic verse. Islam does advocate fighting oppressors to save the oppressed, but this is hardly something immoral. Rather, it would be immoral to deny the right of the oppressed to defend themselves against the oppressors. Where the Tsaernev brothers left the Koranic injunctions and Islamic tradition was in their targeting of civilians instead of military targets. The Koran declares: Fight in God's cause against those who wage war against you, but do not commit aggression, for surely, God does not love aggressors. (Koran, 2:190) The Prophet Muhammad is said to have explicitly forbidden the targeting of non-combatants, specifically women and children. Islamic extremists like the Tsaernev brothers are not following the Koran or Islamic teachings when they commit acts of terrorism against innocents. Rather, they areflouting long-held Islamic prohibitions against targeting non-combatants. The extremists justify this departure from Koranic and Islamic law by claiming that the times are so exigent that an emergency suspension of this prohibition must be declared, i.e. the only way to stop them from killing our civilians is by killing theirs. This twisted logic is the same used by many in the West to justify nuclear warfare. Other Muslims counter the Islamic extremists by invoking Koranic and Islamic injunction, declaring such suspension of the religious law to be religiously baseless. So, it is misleading to say that the Tsaernev brothers were motivated by religion and just leave it at that. Islamic extremists like the Tsaernev brothers follow the Koranic injunction to come to the defense of the innocents (at least in their minds that's what they are doing), but they suspend and flout the religious laws regarding the conduct of such defensive war. In other words, they uphold (part of) the Islamic jus ad bellum (right to wage war) but refuse to follow the Islamic jus in bello (conduct of war). It is thus important to remember that: (1) the right to wage war that these Islamic extremists invoke is rooted in not just Koranic scripture, but is part of universal moral principles (and is enshrined in the Just War Theory). (2) The U.S.'s actions, not religious scripture (since, as discussed in point #1, it is a shared universal moral principle), are the ultimate cause of inspiration for terrorists. If, for example, the Koran still existed but the U.S. hadn't been continuously bombing, invading, and occupying Muslim lands, it is very unlikely that the Islamic extremists would have selected the U.S. to target. (As Osama bin Laden asked, "Why did we not attack Sweden?") On the other hand, if the Koran and Islam never existed, the people in the Muslim world would still seek to defend themselves against U.S. aggression, the only difference being that their resistance would be colored in national or ethnic instead of religious colors. (One could reasonably argue that religious motivation instills greater fanaticism to resistance movements, but nonetheless, people of any or no religion would seek to defend themselves against invaders.) (3) The Tsaernev brothers may have been motivated by religion, but they ignored that same religion when it came to the conduct of war, which reinforces point #2: resistance is colored by religion only, but really it is a universal human desire to fight back against invaders. Of course, it's more reassuring to Americans to think that these terrorists keep attacking us because of their religion. It's far easier to point the finger at some other extrinsic cause rather than at oneself. This makes us feel good about ourselves: we are the good guys being attacked by the bad guys. It's hard to accept that the pan-ultimate motivator for why they attack us is our own actions in their lands: bombing, invading, and occupying them for over two decades. One could argue that I don't know for certain that U.S. foreign policy is the ultimate motivator for the Tsaernev brothers because this information has yet to be released, but it's a matter of such obviousness--and it has been proven over and over again once the motivations of previous Muslim terrorists were revealed--that I say it with utmost certainty. It's a simple answer to the question "why do they attack us", as opposed to the simplistic answer that they hate us for our freedoms or because of their religion. The Boston Globe declared: " It doesn't matter why they hate us, they just do ." If fellow Americans really don't think it matters why they hate us--or think "they just do" for no legitimate reason at all--we shouldn't expect an end to such horrific terrorist attacks, and we can't just keep claiming to be absolutely flabbergasted when the next attack comes. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=538_1366814700 Moron Watch Bomber Motivated by Religion?: Media Regurgitates Government Propaganda US, Islamic Attacks, Causes Wed, 24 Apr 2013 02:49:20 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=189_1366785674 Moron Watch Rates of murder and violent crime have fallen more rapidly in the UK in the past decade than anywhere else in Western Europe, researchers say. The UK Peace Index , from the Institute for Economics and Peace, found UK homicides per 100,000 people had fallen from 1.99 in 2003, to one in 2012. The UK was more peaceful overall, it said, with the reasons for it varied. The index found Broadland, Norfolk, to be the most peaceful local council area but Lewisham, London, to be the least. The research comes as a separate study by Cardiff University suggests the number of people treated in hospital in England and Wales after violent incidents fell by 14% in 2012 . Some 267,291 people required care - 40,706 fewer than in 2011 - according to a sample of 54 hospital units, its report said. For its inaugural index, the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), which defined peace as "the absence of violence or fear of violence", used Home Office data on crime, such as public disorder offences and weapons crime, and police officer numbers. It found the violent crime rate in the UK was down by about one quarter - from 1,255 per 100,000 people in 2003, to 933 in 2012. Gang violence These reductions came despite a 6% drop in the number of police officers per 100,000 people, it said. In Broadland, which has a population of about 125,000 people, only eight violent crimes were recorded for 2012. Its average overall crime rate for the decade was 323 per 100,000 people - about a third of the national average. The five most peaceful local authority areas, which also included Three Rivers, in Hertfordshire, South Cambridgeshire, East Dorset and Maldon, in Essex, recorded a combined total of 24 homicides over the decade. Lewisham, meanwhile, had a homicide rate of 2.5 in 2012 - two-and-a-half times the national average. The year 2011 was the borough's worst in the decade for the actual number of homicides - defined by researchers as murder, manslaughter and infanticide - with 11. All five of the least peaceful local authority areas were London boroughs - the others being Lambeth, Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets. BBC home editor Mark Easton said that while Lewisham, an area scarred by gang violence, was found to be the least peaceful area, overall the capital was markedly more peaceful than it was 10 years ago, with some of the biggest drops in some types of violent crime. The capital's rate of homicides was far lower than in New York, Amsterdam, Brussels and Prague, he added. Of the UK's "urban areas", the index found Glasgow, with a murder rate of double the national average, to be the least peaceful and Cardiff, with 60% less violent crime than Glasgow, the most peaceful. Sheffield, Nottingham and Leeds came 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively behind Cardiff in the urban areas peacefulness ranking. Minimum wage The IEP's report said that 80% of the 343 local authority areas it had evaluated had seen at least a 10% improvement in their peace over the past decade. "This is the fastest decline in violence of any country in Europe," it said. "Cross-checking Home Office and Eurostat data against a number of metrics, such as hospital admissions, the UKPI shows that this dramatic fall is not a blip in police reporting - the UK really is becoming more peaceful. "Reasons for this fall in violence are varied, however one of the more likely reasons, often overlooked, is the substantial improvement in police practices particularly related to the adoption of advanced technologies. "Other factors which have had an impact in reducing violence include an aging population, decreasing alcohol consumption and, finally, rising real wages, supported by the introduction of the minimum wage." Other findings include: Extreme poverty is the factor most closely associated with violence The number of police officers had no correlation to levels of peace Fear of crime is greater than the reality: 25% of Britons think they will be a victim of crime, but only 4% will experience crime The UK homicide rate is now roughly equivalent to the Western European average and at its lowest level since 1978 But UK violent crime rate is significantly higher than the European average The research follows the IEP's US Peace Index published last year. IEP chairman Steve Killelea said the increased level of peace in the UK "cannot be narrowed down to any single factor". But he added: "The findings of the UK Peace Index show that poverty and economic opportunity are significantly associated with peace, as supported by other international studies, including the US Peace Index. "This suggests greater emphasis needs to be placed on programmes that tackle poverty and related issues, such as access to education and economic opportunity." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22275280 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=189_1366785674 Moron Watch UK Peace Index highlights rate of fall in violent crime UK, Violent Crime Down Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:45:00 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=753_1366735318 Moron Watch I knew he wasn't English! http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=753_1366735318 Moron Watch Nigel Farage admits his roots are French UK, Bulgaria, Farage, Liar