The Bottom Line:  Even the usual-skeptics are deeply worried.

       Maryland (NewsTarget) - "Following the State of Maryland's threats against parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated, children were herded into a Price George County courthouse being guarded by armed personnel with attack dogs. Inside, the children were forcibly vaccinated, many against their will, under orders from the State Attorney General, various State Judges and the local School Board Director, all of whom illegally conspired to threaten parents with imprisonment if they did not submit their children to vaccinations.

      The State of Maryland has now turned to Gestapo tactics to force its medical will upon the People, stripping parents of any right to decide how they wish to protect their own children from infectious disease. Health authorities there have already announced their intent to essentially kidnap parents and throw them in jail, removing them from their children for up to thirty days if they continue to refuse to have their children vaccinated. This will all be conducted at gunpoint, with armed personnel and attack dogs at the ready, making sure nobody steps out of line, and suppressing any attempt at public dissent against the Orwellian vaccination policies.

      The entire campaign against these parents is blatantly illegal. There is no law in Maryland requiring the vaccination of children, thus parents who refuse to do so may not be legally charged with violating any law. Instead, Maryland health and school authorities are using Gestapo-like tactics, threatening to charge the parents with child truancy violations, criminalizing them for daring to protect their children from the dangerous chemicals found in vaccines (including thimerosal, a chemical additive containing a neurotoxic form of mercury).

      The desperation of organized medicine is becoming increasingly apparent.

      As more and more parents are becoming informed about the dangers of vaccinations and their link to autism, state health authorities are increasingly turning to "Gunpoint Medicine" to force the People to submit to the poisons of conventional medicine. Parents who attempt to save their children from deadly chemotherapy chemicals are being arrested and having their children kidnapped by Child Protective Services (see http://www.newstarget.com/Abraham_Cherrix.html ), and oncologists who used to be armed only with radiation machines and chemotherapy injectors and now arming themselves with U.S. Marshals and other local law enforcement authorities who are using loaded firearms to enforce "the will of the State" against parents who resist..."

More:

Massachusetts Proposal Would Outlaw Spanking

      SINGAPORE (Reuters) - "Oil extended losses to below $94 on Wednesday, after falling 3 percent a day ago, dragged lower by hopes of a rise in OPEC production and negative U.S. economic data.

      U.S. oil  fell 63 cents to $93.79 a barrel by 11:07 p.m. EST, after tumbling $3.28 on Tuesday. London Brent  crude shed 58 cents to $91.94 a barrel.

      "It's difficult to buy oil when you know that the market is worrying about a recession in the world economy, especially in the United States," said Ken Hasegawa, commodity derivatives sales manager of Fimat Japan Inc.

      U.S. consumer confidence fell for a fourth-straight month in November to a two-year low, on concerns about rising gasoline prices and financial market volatility.

      Market concerns that a slowdown in U.S. economic growth could crimp oil demand in the world's top energy consuming nation have weighed on crude's record rally, as have prospects that OPEC could agree to ramp up output at a meeting next week.

      Iran will put forward "new initiatives" at its talks in London on Friday on the country's atomic plans, also helping oil prices to ease.

      After years of living happily beyond their means, Americans are finally facing financial reality. A persistent rise in energy prices will mean bigger heating bills this winter and heftier tabs at the gas pump. Job growth is slowing and wage gains have been anemic. House prices are sliding, diminishing the value of the asset that's the biggest factor in Americans' personal wealth. Even the stock market, which has been resilient for so long in the face of eroding consumer sentiment, has begun pulling back amid signs of deep distress in the financial sector.

      The latest evidence of the long-awaited consumer retrenchment: Chic discounter Target (Charts, Fortune 500) last week reported a weaker-than-expected third quarter, as sales of higher-margin apparel and home goods slowed. Starbucks (Charts, Fortune 500) reported for the first time that customer traffic in its stores declined in its latest quarter compared to a year earlier. Wal-Mart (Charts, Fortune 500) shares hit a six-year low in September after the retail giant posted another wan sales increase.

      The Bottom Line:  The economy is making some funny noises.

       New York (National Geography) - "The intensities of strange, long-lasting tremors in North America's Pacific Northwest ramp up and quiet down with the rise and fall of the ocean's tides, according to a new study. These so-called nonvolcanic tremors are very faint seismic signals that were not discovered until 2002. Their exact cause remains a mystery.

      Although the new study does not reveal how the tremors are triggered, it does suggest that the tides—forces controlled by the gravitational tugs of the sun and the moon—play a key role in how intensely they vibrate.

      "When the water level is up from tides, we see that the tremor is about 30 percent stronger than average," said study co-author Justin Rubinstein, a seismologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

      "And when the tides are out, it's about 30 percent weaker than average."

      SINGAPORE (Reuters) - "Gold jumped to a two-week high on Monday on speculative buying driven by the prospect of further U.S. interest rates cuts, while platinum hit record highs on supply concerns in South Africa -- the world's main producer.

      Spot gold rose as high as $828.70 an ounce, the highest since November 12, before dipping to $825.60/826.30 an ounce, still higher than $821.20/821.90 late in New York on Friday and within sight of a 28-year high of $845.40 hit earlier this month.

      Gold has rebounded more than 7 percent since falling to its lowest level in nearly a month at $772.60 on November 20, when weak stock markets encouraged investors to book profits from bullion's multi-year highs.

      "One has to suspect we're going to look to test the highs again at $845 in the days ahead," said Darren Heathcote of Investec Australia in Sydney.

      "The only caveat being should the stock markets turn down sharply again, I imagine gold will be sold again to cover margin calls."

      Asian stocks bounced after four straight weeks of losses, with investors buyingbeaten-down banks as well as some of the region's top exporters,encouraged by a robust start to the U.S. holiday shopping period..."

      The Bottom Line:  The U.S. Economy is out of chips, and is holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights.

      SINGAPORE (Reuters) - "Oil rose to a near record high on Monday, as colder U.S. weather and sustained weakness in the dollar drove prices once again toward the $100 a barrel mark.

      U.S. light, sweet crude for January delivery rose 67 cents to $98.85 by 0120 GMT, building on last week's late gains and nearing the all-time high of $99.29 from last Wednesday.

      London Brent crude rose 62 cents to $96.38.

      "It could be through $100 at any moment, it looks like it has the horsepower to get there," said Peter MacGuire, managing director of Commodity Warrants Australia in Sydney.

      "The questions are: where does the U.S. dollar go, and are we going to see more demand out of the U.S. as it starts to get cooler."

      The dollar's decline to a series of record lows versus the euro -- the latest on Friday -- has spurred buying in oil. The greenback hovered near that low on Monday as investors kept faith in further Federal Reserve rate cuts.

      The onset of colder weather in the U.S. Northeast, a major consumer of heating oil for household use, has also aided the upswing in prices as traders bet higher demand will strain inventories that remain below seasonal norms..."

      NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - "Gold rose sharply on Friday in volatile trading, with prices spiking above $825 an ounce as bulls focused on poor dollar sentiment for a fresh assault on recent 28-year highs.

      Platinum prices also perked up, with a planned national safety strike in key producer South Africa and further shaft closures due to accidents boosting prices near to record highs hit earlier this month.

      Activity remained thin, amplifying volatility, after the U.S. market closure for Thanksgiving Day on Thursday and a national holiday in Japan on Friday.

      Spot gold rose about 3 percent to an intraday high of $825.70, which marked the loftiest level since Nov 12. It was last quoted in New York at $821.20/821.90 per troy ounce by 1:26 p.m. EST from $802.70/803.50 quoted late in London on Thursday.

      "I don't think we are getting anywhere close to the peak in this gold market," said Graham Birch head of BlackRock's London-based Natural Resources Equity team in a briefing on Friday.

      The market hit a 28-year high in early November at $845.50, just shy of a record $850 hit in January 1980.

      The euro set fresh record highs versus the dollar, moving closer to the landmark $1.50 level, on raised bets for the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates next month.

      The Bottom Line:  Gone are the years of fat; now begins the lean.

      GENEVA (Reuters) - "Health officials have failed to reach agreement on a new system to ensure developing countries benefit more from sharing bird flu virus samples used to develop vaccines, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

      Developing states like Indonesia -- which with 91 of the 206 human bird flu deaths since 2003 is the hardest hit country -- want guarantees from richer nations and drugmakers that they will have access to cheap vaccines if they share samples.

      Sharing samples is deemed vital to see if viruses have mutated, become drug resistant or grown more transmissible.

      The WHO agreed last May to revamp its 50-year-old system for sharing flu virus samples with researchers and drug firms. It had wanted its 191 member states to adopt an agreement by May but divisions remain.

      "Nobody can fault you for not trying... It is so close yet so far away," WHO director-general Margaret Chan told the final session of the four-day talks.

      The next step was not yet clear, but it was likely officials would meet in a smaller working group ahead of the WHO's annual assembly in May, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said. But a fuller session would be needed afterwards to clinch a deal.

      Experts fear the constantly mutating H5N1 virus could change into a form easily transmissible among humans and sweep the world in months, killing millions of people.