19 July 2011. RIA-Novosti Infographics. Which Country has the Most Expensive Petrol?

15 July 2011

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20110715/165209695.html

Editor’s Note:

The price listed is per litre, four litres equals 1.05 US gallon, so, to convert the above list to US measurements and prices, it roughly takes 3.8 litres to equal 1 US gallon. The currency conversion is as of 16.00 EDT 19 July 2011:

Average price of a litre of A95 petrol in Europe:

53.8 Roubles. 1.91 USD. 1.36 Euro. 1.19 UK Pound.

	Roubles	USD	Euros	UK Pounds	Rank
1. Kazakhstan	22.3	0.79	0.56	0.49	78
2. Belarus	25.4	0.90	0.64	0.56	89
3. Russia	27.3	0.97	0.69	0.61	96
X. USA (Albany NY)	28.6	1.01	0.72	0.63	100
4. The Ukraine	36.2	1.29	0.92	0.80	127
5. Italy	60.2	2.14	1.52	1.33	211
6. Ireland	61.5	2.18	1.55	1.36	215
7. Portugal	61.9	2.20	1.56	1.37	217
8. Belgium	62.4	2.22	1.58	1.38	218
9. Finland	63.1	2.24	1.59	1.39	221
10. Denmark	63.9	2.27	1.61	1.41	224
11. The Netherlands	65.2	2.31	1.64	1.44	228
12. Greece	66.9	2.37	1.68	1.47	234
13. Great Britain	68.2	2.42	1.72	1.50	239
14. Norway	72.9	2.59	1.84	1.61	255

“Rank” is the percentage of the US base price

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8.6 percent average price rise in Europe since December 2010:

	Raw Change	Actual National Change vs. European Average Change
1. Kazakhstan	+14.8	172
2. Belarus	+38.9	453
3. Russia	+8.0	93
X. USA (Albany NY)	+20.0	233
4. The Ukraine	+27.2	317
5. Italy	+6.3	74
6. Ireland	+16.3	190
7. Portugal	+6.8	79
8. Belgium	+6.5	76
9. Finland	+6.6	77
10. Denmark	+5.8	68
11. The Netherlands	+3.8	45
12. Greece	+5.8	68
13. Great Britain	+4.9	57
14. Norway	+8.1	95

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Countries Listed by Size of Increase in Price of a Litre of Petrol between December 2010 and June 2010:

	Actual National Change vs. Average European Change
1. Belarus	453
2. The Ukraine	317
X. USA (Albany NY)	233
3. Ireland	190
4. Kazakhstan	172
5. Norway	95
6. Russia	93
7. Portugal	79
8. Finland	77
9. Belgium	76
10. Italy	74
11. Denmark	68
12. Greece	68
13. Great Britain	57
14. The Netherlands	45

Note the US figure… it’s over twice the European average. In December 2010, in Albany NY, a US gallon of petrol cost 3.20 USD (0.85 USD/litre), in June 2011, it cost 3.82 USD (1.01 USD/litre), an increase of 20 percent over the earlier figure, which is higher than all European percentages of increase, save for the Ukraine and Belarus. That means that the increase is probably NOT due to “market factors”… it’s probably an even split between money-grubbing speculation on the futures market by reckless Five Percenter gamblers and shameless price gouging by the transnationals… which is smiled at by the US political duopoly (both the New GOP and Internationalist Democrats LOVE Big Oil). To be blunt, “market forces” can’t explain such a discrepancy away… the oil cartels own the US political duopoly as surely as the trusts “owned” most levels of US government at the time of TR… if it’s the same situation, it merits the same remedy. Who’ll have the courage to take on the transnationals? If we don’t, the coming crash will make our present fix seem childish. Most of the countries reporting higher-than-average price spikes had either currency instability or political problems (or, in the case of the USA, both). The US currency instability is completely due to New GOP attempts to sabotage an increase in the debt ceiling and their concurrent efforts to slash the tax rates of the Five Percenters still further (and rip down the social safety net to do so)… that is, it’s completely avoidable, and a grievous self-inflicted wound to the economy, as Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz warned recently.

BMD

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For my American readers, here’s a comparison using US Standard Units.

Average price of a US gallon of A95 petrol in Europe:

203.6 Roubles. 7.22 USD. 5.12 Euros. 4.48 UK Pounds

	Roubles	USD	Euros	UK Pounds
1. Kazakhstan	84.4	2.99	2.12	1.86
2. Belarus	96.2	3.41	2.43	2.12
3. Russia	103.4	3.67	2.62	2.31
X. USA (Albany NY)	107.9	3.82	2.71	2.37
4. The Ukraine	137.2	4.89	3.49	3.03
5. Italy	227.9	8.10	5.76	5.04
6. Ireland	232.8	8.25	5.84	5.12
7. Portugal	234.3	8.30	5.88	5.15
8. Belgium	236.2	8.37	5.93	5.19
9. Finland	238.9	8.47	6.00	5.26
10. Denmark	241.9	8.57	6.07	5.32
11. The Netherlands	246.8	8.75	6.20	5.43
12. Greece	253.3	8.98	6.36	5.57
13. Great Britain	258.2	9.15	6.48	5.68
14. Norway	276.0	9.78	6.93	6.07

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19 July 2011. JP and Michelle Bachmann… Two Peas in a Single Diseased Pod

You don’t need Social Security, Medicaid/Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, welfare cash payments, bank deposit insurance, public schools, or workplace regulations… Michelle Bachmann and Jonas Paffhausen say so! What you really need are foreign wars, more tax cuts for the wealthy, more givebacks from you, more TSA agents to grope you as you board your plane, bus, or train, and more overseas torture centres. The Invisible Hand of the Market will take care of you (in more ways than one)!

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Who’s the greedy man? One for whom plenty does not suffice. Who defrauds others? One who keeps for himself what belongs to everyone. Aren’t you greedy, don’t you defraud, when you keep for yourself what was given to give away? When someone steals a man’s clothes, we call him a thief. Shouldn’t we give the same name to one who could clothe the naked but doesn’t?

St Basil the Great

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I’ve experienced two dictatorships in my life, those of Hitler and the Communists. I don’t wish to experience a third, from America.

A Russian Orthodox bishop

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More and more I pray for the Prodigal Son’s brother. A persistent contemplation prods me… the Prodigal awoke from his life of sin… as for his elder brother, will he awake from his life of virtue?

Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara

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In such a Church, the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, it’s a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God.

Dietrich Bonhöffer

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Read this:

http://theweek.com/article/index/217387/michele-bachmanns-hardline-stance-on-gays-a-boon-in-2012

Note this:

Oliver Duggan at Britain’s Independent said, “For every politician and pundit who shuns Bachmann’s front for religious proselytising, and every Republican who looks to distance themselves, there’s a handful of powerful and unacknowledged voters that rejoice in it”. Last week’s ABC News expose actually validated these voters’ feelings about homosexuality, and Bachmann’s “ultra-conservative, ultra-Christian” base “will coagulate around her as her candidacy is bloodied from all directions” over her views on homosexuality. 

Firstly, in the above quote, “Christian” means “Radical Sectarian”, and “conservative” means “Radical Neoliberal”… these slimers bear no relationship to real Christians and real Conservatives. They’re certainly not like Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara, Dietrich Bonhöffer, or Aleksei Rediger, nor are they akin to Disraeli, Bismarck, Stolypin, Dief, or Ike. Yet, both JP and Bachmann style themselves “Christians” and “Conservatives”. Neither one is the latter, nor is JP the former save in the most formal sense (it’s clear that he never converted in his heart-of-hearts from Broad Church Anglicanism). DO reread the quotes I placed at the head of this post… they prove that JP and Ms Bachmann are enemies of the Lord Christ, no question on it (especially, the quote by Bonhöffer… it’s a classic description of the godless and anti-Christian Sectarian conventicle). The diseased credo pushed by Michelle Bachmann is the most common one found amongst Orthodox konvertsy, and they don’t care that it’s against the true social teaching of the Church, and they don’t care that they spit on His Holiness every time that they repeat any of the Tea Party/New GOP nonsense. In fact, they want to contaminate the Church with this corrosive ideology… both rightwing political Corporatism and Radical Sectarian heresy. I don’t care whether Sectarians do this or that… we’re the Church, we’re different from them, so, we don’t do things the same way that they do. Most particularly, we don’t do “mission” as the “born-againers” do… Our Lord Christ isn’t a box of soap powder that we market using the latest methods of Madison Avenue. Like it or no, God DOES “give the increase”… and He does so only if we’re faithful to our roots (and don’t use slimy and false Sectarian methods).

Yet, the most important thing to take away from all of this is that not only are Michelle Bachmann and Jonas Paffhausen total strangers to True Christianity and True Conservatism, they’re purveyors of pure and undiluted hate and bigotry. That tells us volumes about all the konvertsy… Whiteford, Nelson, Freddie M-G, Mattingly, Reardon, Dreher, et al. HATRED motivates what passes for “religion” amongst them… they’re “culture warriors” attempting to use Christ’s Church for their petty and narrow-minded fanatical ends. Not all converts are konvertsy… Frank Schaeffer comes to mind, for one. Unfortunately, you can smell the rank ordure of undisguised Anglicanism and Sectarianism in most konvertsy… they refuse to take the time necessary to convert in their souls, and, then, they have the damned gall to sit in judgement of Orthodoxy! Don’t argue with them… know that they applaud such bigots as Ms Bachmann, and simply let them be. Oppose them, don’t let them run rampant, but don’t argue with them… they’ll refuse to listen, ESPECIALLY if you inform them of the actual teachings of the Church as they’re spoken by our leaders (JP doesn’t count as such… he’s only an incredibly minor and mud-ignorant backwoods bishop of no standing whatsoever). They’ll block their ears and keep shouting their rightwing shibboleths at you. Don’t frustrate yourself… pray for them; it may do them some good. Arguing with such sorts won’t do them… or you… any good at all.

It’s certainly not boring… pass me the jug, yes, I know that the world’s crook, but must it be SO crook? Have a friendly swaller, yourself…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Tuesday 19 November 2011 Albany NY

19 July 2011. Here’s Proof from a Quasi-Official MP Source Showing that the MP Does NOT Support the NATO Aggression in Libya… The Loudmouth Konvertsy on the Internet are LYING to You

Some loudmouthed konvertsy elements are claiming on the internet that the Mother Church supports the NATO aggression against Libya. Here’s a piece from pravoslavie.ru… a quasi-official source, the website of the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow, whose abbot, Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, is the confessor for the Putin family. In short, the MP doesn’t support NATO’s warmongering and intrigue… it never has… it doesn’t now… it never shall.

Read this:

http://02varvara.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/liberal-fascism/

Note this:

An independent-minded Libya gives the peoples of the world an impetus to organise their own political space according to their own discretion and weltanschauung. For Russia, this is especially important. In Russia, as in Libya, Iran, and Venezuela, hydrocarbon resources are largely state-owned, not in the hands of private individuals. In the eyes of some, that’s a “crime”. Russia is a multiethnic country with serious inter-ethnic tensions at present; constantly, it must fight for its territorial integrity. As we saw in Libya and Kosovo, the West may support any outbreak of separatism. Of course, they wouldn’t bomb us, as they do to the Libyans, our arsenal is a deterrent to that; however, the modern world has many other forms of pressure at its disposal.

What is the real goal of these “humanitarian interventions?” In fact, in Libya, we saw how the opposition actually asked the Western countries to start the bombing campaign. Perhaps, if American soldiers occupy the country, there’ll be wealth for some (to tell the truth, under Gaddafi, no one went hungry), “democracy”, “freedom”, and “security!” In this respect, many point up the examples of Germany and Japan… they really believe that the high level of development in these countries is a direct result of the American occupation. Some of the Russian activists of the 90s held similar ideas… if the Americans hadn’t intervened, the spirit of Hitler would still be afoot in Germany. In fact, history shows otherwise. Look at the examples of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo… you can readily see the results of “humanitarian intervention” at the beginning of the 21st century. Why isn’t it possible to build democracy and stability in these occupied countries, just as was done in Europe after the Second World War?

In short, the Neocon “conservative” “Orthodox” konvertsy bloggers lie… they lie without measure… they lie to you knowing that what they say is false. They’re that wedded to their crank beliefs, both political and religious. Make no mistake… their political crankishness feeds their religious cultishness, and vice versa. Don’t argue with them… refute them, and move on. These people were crook malcontents and disgrunts in the TEC and Sectarianism, and they’ve not changed their spots in the least. Take comfort in this… they won’t be with us for long… we’re not PURE enough for them. Until they leave, though, do avoid their company… they won’t change their minds and you’ll not convince them even if you were to bring God Himself on your side. They’ll pass… they’re not substantial… they’ll leave us the same way that they left the TEC and their other former confessions. Good riddance to bad rubbish…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Albany NY

19 July 2011. America’s Space Programme is Now Dependent on… RUSSIA!

Read this:

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-relishes-chances-created-end-shuttle-104338692.html

Let’s keep this one focused… the USA is full of boasts… but it fails to deliver. Why? One reason is that the rapacity of the Five Percenters starves NASA of funds. If there were a Bush-era level of taxation on the Five Percenters in the ‘60s, there’d have been no landing on the moon… full stop. This coddling of the rich has had many effects… all of them crank and disabling… but the fact that American cosmonauts must now ride into space on Russian craft is a vivid illustration of what the Five Percenters want to do to the USA. They’ll have their McMansions, their wetback Mexican gardeners and nannies, their Beamers, and their gated housing development set behind a high berm (I’ve such in my area… friends tell me that they exist in their parts, too), and to hell with everyone else, and to hell with everything that’s not personally profitable to them. They want a world of self-centred unrepentant Scrooges… they have no ideals, no compassion, and no soul. Reflect well that the Sectarians defend the Five Percenters without measure… that tells you something about them.

Whaddaya want? Do you want to reach for the stars, or, do you want to stuff the bulging boodle bags of the Five Percenters still further? If you want the former, don’t vote for the New GOP, for you’ll get a “government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich” (you’ll get a junta that’ll totally reject the visionary legacy of Lincoln, TR, Ike, and Nixon)… I think that many of you are as tired of the dreary duopoly as I am. God willing, we shall be able to control the coming political crash… if not…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Albany NY

19 July 2011. B16 Forces Bishop Covering Up Paedophilia to Resign Openly in Shame… Fathausen Defends Faygeler Bishops and His Gay Guru… There’s a Difference

Look very carefully at this image… Fathausen served openly with Benjamin Peterson, a known alcoholic (he was arrested for DUI in Nevada) and reputed homosexual, and Isidore Brittain, the reputed gay paramour of Nikolai Soraich (at the least, it means that he secretly supports Soraich… he’s in contact with him by letter). He’s NOT skulking around and hiding his support of the gay cabal in the OCA. THIS is why I believe that all of JP’s overblown fulminations against homosexuality are a crude attempt to draw attention away from his reputed proclivities…

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Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

Psalm 126

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Read this:

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-accepts-philadelphia-archbishops-resignation-100618730.html

Firstly, before proceeding, let’s be clear. The Church’s position is unambiguous… it has mercy on lay homosexuals (pastoral oikonomia towards discreet lay homosexuals is of long standing and ancient), but it bans homosexuality amongst its clergy and monastics. Mark Stokoe isn’t a clergyman… ergo, people should get off his back regarding his sexual orientation. If you don’t like his priest’s oikonomia, take it up with Fr Ted or with Fr Ted’s bishop… or, shut up. JP, Nikolai Soraich, Isidore Brittain, Benjamin Peterson, Feodosy Lazor, Herman Swaiko, Gleb Podmoshensky (GP), Seraphim Storheim, and the late Pierre l’Huillier are (or were) clergy; therefore, not only can one raise such questions, there’s a positive obligation to find the truth of the matter.

Note this:

The grand jury accused church officials of keeping 37 clergy in active ministry despite credible claims that they had sexually abused young people. The allegations came nine years after US bishops promised at the height of the clergy abuse crisis to oust all predators from ministry.

Note well that Fathausen kept an intimate and friendly relationship with GP, even after credible reports of paedophilia on GP’s part surfaced. Fathausen kept up a disciple-guru relationship with GP, even after the very public suspension and defrocking of GP by the ROCOR Holy Synod. JP went to post-Soviet Russia under GP’s auspices (probably, he paid for the junket with his daddy’s money… GP hasn’t a pot to piss in). JP was an advocate of the HOOMie pals of GP (there are credible reports of abuse amongst them, too), he spoke for their uncritical reception by the OCA (the gay blade Feodosy Lazor was still First Hierarch) at the time. All of this leads many to believe that Fathausen’s as queer as GP is. Fathausen is full of windy ad hominem attacks on gay people… they’re rather more strident than they need to be. It DOES make one wonder… such vociferous attacks are typical of closeted homosexuals, after all. One of my gay friends said, “They’re punks hiding their homosexuality… they should ‘come out’ and shut up”.

Please, do keep things straight (oh, dear, that’s a PUN… let it stand, kids)… no one is saying that we should run all of the named individuals out of the Church… no, that’s not right. What we should do is defrock them, and defrock all those who “enabled” them, such as Behr, RSK, Kishkovsky, Garklavs, Hopko père et fils, Wheeler, Tosi, and Hatfield. There’s a reeking cesspit of open and unashamed immorality in the OCA hierarchy and clergy… God only knows why the ROCOR is making excuses for them, and why it’s standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them (it’s of a piece with the New ROCOR’s excessive coddling of extremist ecumaniacs such as Andrei Psaryov and Vassa Larina). One wonders what Averky Taushev, Antony Bartoshevich, and St John Maksimovich would’ve said of such a move… indeed, one wonders what the pre-2001 ROCOR First Families would’ve said of it (do note that they made a 180-degree volte-face in order to hold their current position). The rot is as equally settled in the upper reaches of the ROCOR as it is in the upper reaches of the OCA. The leading elements of both bodies are equally insolvent… thank God, the parishes are independent bodies for all intents and purposes legally… our very disorganisation is going to save us in the end. Yes, Virginia, being hutsky-klutsky has its GOOD side… when the national structures collapse, the parishes would carry on as before… only they’d ask for the Mother Church’s intervention or spin off into schismatic irrelevancy.

Yes… we’ve an obligation to follow the papists’ example… they’re right in this, after all. Not only are homosexual bishops taboo… covering up for homosexual clergy is equally proscribed. However, the Church can’t kick these men out of its communion… it allows all sorts of sinners to commune. On the other hand, it has the DUTY to defrock not only them, but their conniving allies and supporters as well. If we don’t do so expeditiously, we’ll grind the credibility of the Church into the dust… and it’ll take far longer to rebuild after the collapse. Mind you, we have two generations of work (at least 50 years) facing us now… trust DOES take that long to regenerate after being broken. Anyone who says otherwise is a goddamn fool and wishful-thinking Pollyanna, and I say such openly. Either we “do the right thing” or we die. It’s quite that simple. I know what I’d do… I’ve the baroque notion that most of you reading this agree with me. Let’s do it… the sooner the crook present structures die, the sooner that we can start building a new house on solid foundations with our Mother Church’s aid and guidance. Unless the Lord builds the house…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Albany NY