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POPSHow Advertising Manipulates Our “Caveman” Brains (& How to Resist) Fortunately, there are ways to go about PROOFING YOUR BRAIN. 1. Change your mindset to “postmore” by challenging culture’s ingrained assumption that “more” of everything is automatically better. 2. Grow your gratitude. Our poor, starved, frozen ancestors would cry tears of joy if they suddenly landed in our culture of abundance. Fostering our appreciation of this bounty can also block the consumerist “cool” pressure to deride so many of our fine, workable possessions as “so last year”. 3. Be enough. We’re constantly told that we aren’t rich enough, glam enough, cool enough, networked enough, etc. This has a powerful insidious effect on our primitive, socially competitive brain circuits. It’s like a toxic substance that turns rational brains into needy toddlers wanting “more, more, more!
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POPSThe Psychology of Denial in the Age of Consumerism A four-year analysis of the world's ecosystems sponsored by the Worldwatch Institute found that over-consumption has pushed 15 out of 24 ecosystems essential to human life "beyond their sustainable limits". Our insatiable desire for more is moving the planet toward a state of collapse that may be "abrupt and potentially irreversible".
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POPSUS like developing nations in income inequality USA more like Sri Lanka, Mali, and Russia in income inequality than it is like Sweden, Switzerland, or the UK. We're turning into a developing nation with huge differences between the very rich and the rest of us.
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POPSAfghanistan is “becoming a sort of surreal hunting estate" War Gone Bad There is no mystery as to why things have gone increasingly badly for the United States and its allies. As the United States steps up its air war, civilian casualties have climbed steadily over the past two years. Nearly 700 were killed in the first three months of 2008, a major increase over last year. In a recent incident, 47 members of a wedding party were killed in Helmand Province. In a society where clan, tribe, and blood feuds are a part of daily life, that single act sowed a generation of enmity. Anatol Lieven, a professor of war at King’s College London, says that a major impetus behind the growing resistance is anger over the death of family members and neighbors. Lieven says it is as if Afghanistan is “becoming a sort of surreal hunting estate, in which the U.S. and NATO breed the very terrorists they then track down.”
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POPSHow to abandon your God
and have taken up another one, or none at all, or maybe more than one because polytheism certainly sounds tasty and, you know, what the hell, right? It's not really all that shocking. People change religions. People swap denominations. People evolve, go to college, learn to think (and seek meaning) for themselves, change their minds or marry someone of a different belief or go through a personal revelation, or actually experience the spiritual/intellectual epiphany that reveals how all religions are one and God is not "out there" and you are not here to be its meek sinful guilty mindless servant. And maybe you go even further, as you realize that it's actually quite dangerous and small-minded to hew too closely to one narrow way of seeing/feeling/tasting the divine as you perhaps come to the slippery conclusion that it's all about co-creating God in your own way and, therefore, any religion that contains more than one person (that is to say, you) is deviously suspicious and apoc
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POPSNeo-cons on the failure of the neo-con project Invictus already clipped a related article ( link ), but I thought this deserved a clip of its own. Perle, Kenneth Adelman, David Frum and others on why Iraq's disastrous outcome is someone else's fault -- mainly Bush's.
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POPS A Large And Telling Obama Flip-Flop The campaign-finance laws have always been a monument to hypocrisy. Don't, however, expect the system's supporters in the nation's editorial pages or good-government groups to admit that Barack Obama has killed it. More likely they will express "disappointment" with his decision and suggest that he "fix" it – after he's President, most likely with more rules that will help incumbents and the well known or rich. The odds of Mr. McCain's friends from the McCain-Feingold crusade stepping forward to defend him against this Obama gambit are close to zero.
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POPSRich Dictator, Poor People Chávez imposes his Bolivarian curriculum, which intends to promote Chavista ideology and eliminate the democratic history of Venezuela. Instead of focusing on educational standards, schools today are becoming miniature military boot camps. It is no surprise that literacy rates are dropping.Children with green uniforms and red berets are handling guns and shouting, “Fatherland, Socialism or Death.” This horrifying phenomenon is fueled by Chávez’s determination to condition the Venezuelan youth into believing his own skewed interpretation of history, through which they will likely become little soldiers for his cause.
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POPSOver 400 Coastal Zones Are Dying Like carbon, the nitrogen cycle is all out of whack. The Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Mexico are two examples close to home of systems whose dead zones are well documented, but not greatly improved, even despite millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on the problem. The Red dots are the Hypoxic Areas (short of oxygen) and the Yellow dots are the Areas of Concern (at risk of becoming hypoxic)
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POPSHow to bring America back from its Hell. We definatly need to make changes in this country. Our Government is becoming more corrupt then some of these third world countries. And our working class is being used by these mega rich fools. One day we will wake up and find we are living in the garbage heap. And the rich will be in the cities locked behind their security gate. Can you picture Brazil?
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POPSIncome Mobility "Unfortunately, because so many Americans buy into the politics of envy, politicians have a leg up in enacting measures that cripple economic growth."
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POPSEconomy: How much proof do we need... Iconic glass/china maker Wedgwood is basically bankrupt. Note the number of employees that make living wages (those IN England/Ireland) and those that make pennies an hour/day. Our economy is crashing because over the past couple decades the world's best CUSTOMERS have lost living-wage paying jobs. Our middle class existence has been offshored. Our rich have gotten richer, we have given our futures to third world countries. Jokes on the experts. The world's best customers are unemployed, credit denied and becoming homeless. Buy local, the job you save may be your own
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POPS Failed suicide bomber turns on al Qaeda This mother fucker joined Al Qaeda to KILL AMERICANS!!!!. Then he didn't die in the blast so now its not his fault.?!?!?! But the Iraqi officials just took him back home to Saudi Arabia where most of these freedom fighters are from to "re-educate him" that means teach him how to die the next time. They don't want to stop the violence. The Iraqis,Saudis (their Governments) or our great Commander in Chief DW "I went to Iraq with Saudi men because jihad is a duty for every Muslim," he said. "I went to Iraq to fight the jihad and kill Americans." He was hoping to take up arms against Americans, but said he never envisioned himself as a suicide bomber. After his truck bomb exploded, al Shayea was captured and paraded on Iraqi TV. Burned and bandaged, he was blamed for the death of 12 bystanders. He confessed.
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POPSMoney Won't Buy Happiness Still...... I wonder if I could get a grant large enough to become one of the rich test subjects? For the complete article see Newsweek .
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POPSFeeling insecure and rich? Hire a MySpace consultant I clipped this for sheer weirdness value. It was on Netscape.com and Reddit. The site now seems to be swamped. This is the cached version. This is the line that really got me. A mother comments that this consultant's services help her daughter stay "focused": “My daughter is so proud of her webpages” says the mother of one of her clients. “Without Michelle she couldn't focus on her popularity” Then there's this: “What's in can change so quickly” says Mich, “it's important the pages reflect these changes ASAP”.
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POPSIt's The Neoconomy, Dammit! In other words, the few enjoy a rich lifestyle while the many share subpar incomes and poverty. Another characteristic of Third World countries is that a major portion of their fiscal expenditures is allocated to the military. In many Third World countries, the military is controlled by an elite or a small collection of the wealthy. Finally, in many Third World countries one finds that leadership is passed from one generation to the next, often via a close relative. Guess what country we are talking about now? Be thoughtful when casting your ballots! Only one candidate has a clear grasp of what needs to be done to return us to a sound economy, and they are being pushed aside by the elitist CFR members (both Dem and Rep) who will further our push into third world economy and dictator style governing.
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POPSPresidential Priorities vs. Public Concerns Do we need any more proof that yesterday's big announcement by the former governor of Texas was really nothing more than a cheap political ploy to galvanize the bigots in his core constituency? If the numbers are bad, just role out t he hate. That'll cure everything.
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