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POPSChange you can believe in - change for the worse Do you like paying taxes, then watch government become bigger and more incompetent? Do you like discovering your family doesn't have enough income and start looking for a second job, only to find there are none? Do you really want a health care system like Canada's (ask any Canadian what they think of their health care - they wait over a year for an MRI, for example..) Did you like Carter's sky high inflation with a downward spiraling productivity? Then you will LOVE the change Obama brings you.
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POPSNarcissistic People Most Likely To Emerge As Leaders It is important not to confuse narcissism with high self-esteem, she said. “A person with high self-esteem is confident and charming, but they also have a caring component and they want to develop intimacy with others,” Brunell explained. “Narcissists have an inflated view of their talents and abilities and are all about themselves. They don’t care as much about others.”
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POPSToo Little, Too Late The comment by the woman who claimed that Obama was an Arab was the clinching justification that a large segment of the McCain supporters are deluded, gullible, and ignorant. It concerned me that people could be so easily manipulated into believing such fantastic claims. In some was it reminded me of the frenzy I was told about in 1930's Germany against the already hated Jews and Gypsies. We've come too far in 50 years to allow this type of hate to enter back into American discourse.
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POPSAmerica, Love It or Leave It Wherever that is, there will probably be a few American tanks and some bombers and things, but at least you won't be keeping the rest of us awake with your shrill cries over phantoms of lost liberty. There may be other countries with higher standards of living, with better governments more responsive to the wishes of their electorate. Sure, there may be countries where freedom and human rights are more than just catchphrases to be tossed out the window the minute it's inconvenient, such as I admit does happen in the United States now and then (especially now). ----- Indeed, with poverty, racism, inequality, a disintegrating infrastructure, corporate control of the government, and the spiralling degradation of the environment, some crybabies could claim that America is no longer the greatest nation in the world. ------ If you look on the bright side of things, if you see the ass as half-full instead of half-empty, you realize we've never had it so good.
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POPSHuge Weapons Cache Found West Of Baghdad The pic looks like a bunch of .50 barrels. BFD… comment by thebronze “The cache included 269 122 mm rocket rounds and 200,000 heavy machine-gun rounds.” “The cache included 269 122 mm rocket rounds.” Those rockets would be great IEDs. Or if they have a launcher they could use them against other areas. I take heavy machine gun rounds to mean at least .50. It is something of a big deal. comment by Hard Right
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POPSHe's Being Judged On The Content Of His Character....
just now finally focusing on the details of Barack Obama. To the extent that his being black was ever supposed by anyone to be "scary" to white voters, that's now disappeared for all but the most entrenched, most irredeemable outright racists. Here's my message, then: America, you need not feel guilty for being afraid of Barack Obama. It's not racist to doubt his character and experience and judgment. It's not racist to conclude that they're lacking. He has already proved that a black man can run an entirely viable campaign for the presidency of the United States. Every one of us who looks forward to a post-racist, post-racial society — one in which we've ended racial discrimination because we've stopped discriminating on the basis of race — can be proud. But we can also refuse to vote for Barack Obama for reasons unrelated to race, and we can do so without feeling any guilt whatsoever. In his own mangled metaphor from the second debate, Barack Obama is still "green behind the ea
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POPSBranchflower Report: Contradicts Itself: Ignores Facts and Law
No, indeed, Sen. French and Mr. Branchflower dearly hope most Americans won't look past the headlines generated by this ridiculous farce of a report. French and Branchflower hope that Americans will be misled into thinking this report is from someone whose judgment or opinions actually count for something — instead of being from a hitman hired to complete a political hatchet job, as it actually is. This report changes absolutely nothing, except that it will be manipulated politically by Obama supporters and Palin haters in an attempt to drive more potential voters into taking sides with Trooper Mike Wooten — a proven child abuser (Tasered his own 10-year-old stepson on a lark) . . . . UPDATE Even the Anchorage Daily News is misrepresenting I just received an email update from it in which it claims that "Today Alaska legislators found Palin did abuse her power in the 'Troopergate' controversy." That's absolutely false — the Alaska Legislature is not in session
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POPSAdvanced Style: fashion inspiration from the silver-haired set The blogger says We have started a blog of our own that documents street style and fashion of the mature and wizened. Our aim is to take photos of elders with a unique sense of personal style that has developed with age. We noticed so many amazingly dressed older people in New York and are having a great time getting to know them, hearing their stories and capturing a bit of their style to share with others. There are some great stories, too. What do you call a union between a Tasmanian man and a French woman? Devilishly chic , of course! :-)
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POPSLong-shot races closing the gap as Repubs slip Surprises in WV GA, KY: West Virginia - the 2nd closest race in the nation, McCain up only 1.1 points! Kentucky: incumbent Senate Repub Leader Mitch McConnell now has less than 50% of the vote Georgia: Repub Saxby Chambliss up by less than two
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POPSBoing Boing: How I learned to love my persimmon tree Lots of good discussion in the comments - how to choose a persimmon, how to ripen them, things to do with them, why you do not want to eat underripe persimmons, and much more. Persimmons are a family favorite, and I guess we must just have dumb luck with ripening them - the problems people describe here with being unable to ripen them are all new to me. (For the record, the family persimmon-ripening method: Place persimmon stem-side down on the kitchen counter, not in direct sun. Leave it there. Pick up once or twice a day to check whether it's getting soft yet. *shrug* It's always worked for us - we've never needed any of the tricks people mention in this post's comments.)
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POPSCan human consciousness survive without a brain? Why do you think there is such resistance to studies like yours? Because we're pushing through the boundaries of science, working against assumptions and perceptions that have been fixed. A lot of people hold this idea that, well, when you die, you die; that's it. Death is a moment — you know you're either dead or alive. All these things are not scientifically valid, but they're social perceptions.How is technology challenging the perception that death is a moment?
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POPSFree Concerts from l'Ancienne Belgique I just discovered the 'Ancienne Belgique' - one of the most famous concert halls in Belgium - puts some of its concerts freely & fully available online. I clipped a few bands (mostly Belgian) I know are good, but there's lots more at the site (208 for now). Have fun, I know I will!
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POPSLearning How Not To Be Afraid When Kandel's team used radiation to blunt the birth of new cells in the dentate gyrus, they discovered that their interventions both slowed safety learning and stunted the antidepressant effects of learned safety. Another study that points to the origin of fear as a biological entity. the glitch is it turning into anxiety.
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POPSBush Denounces 'Dungeon' of Cuba You'd think Bush was speaking of his own dictatorial reign, eh? "Our great nation that believes in human rights and human dignity, blah, blah, blah..." Hahahaha! What a joke! Tell that to the people of Iraq or Afghanistan or the people wasting away in Gitmo! I'd bet Castro's popularity ratings are higher than yours! Bush, why don't you just STFU? Fix your own country, who is "being repressed by a handful of elites" first, before trying to impose your twisted version of "freedom", on everyone else! Lift the embargo. The age of the red scare is dead and gone. It's the red, white and blue scare, most of the world is concerned about these days...SIR!
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POPSStates' Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal For all the conservatives out there foaming at the mouth about faulty registrations, let me hear your outrage about this. Hmmm, bet I'll be waiting for a while. Who am I kidding? Conservatives HATE it when people vote.