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POPSExploring the Sinister Catacombs of the City of Light Popularly called the catacombs, the Mines of Paris comprise tunnels running for literally hundreds of kilometers, spread over several levels in a maze of echoing mystery. Out of bounds to the public since 1955, for decades the cataphiles have claimed it as their own.
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POPSObama's Malignant Narcissism
When Obama runs into brick walls, he seems to reflexively go into a state of rage. The same thing will happen to Obama if and when he loses the election in 2012. Since narcissists in power keep people around them in a constant state of fear -- everybody gets targeted and feels insecure -- you can expect a ton of dirty tricks in elections to come. But then Democrats constantly use dirty tricks. I fear two things with Obama. One is if the GOP fails to elect a House majority in 2010 to keep Obama within the bounds of sanity. A GOP majority is essential for the safety of the country and the world. But even if Obama is defeated in 2012, he will just turn into an angrier version of Al Gore and Jimmy Carter. He will haunt the political future of this country as long as he is alive, because that famished ego never gets enough. Malignant narcissism often gets worse over time. So even if the voters throw out this very dangerous cult-like administration, you can expect Obama to be poppi
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POPSThe new, free speech, gatekeepers "Given their clashing and sometimes self-contradictory missions — to obey local laws, repressive or not, and to ensure that information knows no bounds; to do no evil and to be everywhere in a sometimes evil world — Wong and her colleagues at Google seem to be working impressively to put the company’s long-term commitment to free expression above its short-term financial interests. But they won’t be at Google forever, and if history is any guide, they may eventually be replaced with lawyers who are more concerned about corporate profits than about free expression. “We’re at the dawn of a new technology,” Walker told me, referring not simply to Google but also to the many different ways we now interact online. “And when people try to come up with the best metaphors to describe it, all the metaphors run out. We’ve built this spaceship, but we really don’t know where it will take us.”
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POPSDifferent conflicts demand different resolutions The first interesting result was that offering money or material goods in exchange for sacred ones did not make the sacred goods less valuable but more. Expressions of anger and disgust and of the willingness to use violence actually rose among moral absolutists when a deal involving giving up some sacred value was sweetened with material incitements, the second, more optimistic, result was that the absolutists who rejected with contumely the offer of profane money (or peace) for sacred landwould accept deals that involved their enemies giving up things that they considered sacred . The paper cites both Israeli and Hamas leaders saying that they could make peace if only the other side would apologise for 1948, or recognise formally Israel's right to exist. Demanding this kind of wholly intangible mutual surrender of pride makes no sense on a utilitarian calculus, and yet it may be the only thing to unlock the situation.
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POPSIs There a Privacy Risk in Google Flu Trends? From the article: "But he insisted that, by highlighting the unresolved problem, Google Flu Trends made things worse. “I think this does change the game,” he said. “Google is inviting public health officials to make more of search information. In doing so, it has heightened the privacy risk to people who search for health information online.” Or perhaps it has just let people know that if they are concerned about the privacy of those searches, they should use a computer at their local library or some other place where tracking them would be harder." Maybe, it is our notion of privacy that is ought to change? after all whenever we use a new technology it bounds to use the user as well..
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POPSPastor's abortion dream inflames bushfire tragedy The pastor is not really in touch with reality, me thinks. Not that that is a great surprise, given this extremists track record. Close ties to the Liberal Party. The conservatives here seem to have close ties with these ratbag religions.
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POPSClipmarks: NO REASON AT ALL NEEDED TO DELETE COMMENTS This was the thread that led to my asking Clipmarks for clarification on their comment deletion policy. It's official. {{Antara}}, and any clipper, is allowed to delete any comment on clips they initiate, for any reason or none at all. I personally maintain a "No personal attacks against other clippers" policy as my only reason for censoring comments. But if I just don't like you, your politics, your hair-color, your religion, your ethnicity, sexual orientation, your city of birth, the facts you offer... I can delete your comments, no consequences. The deletion pop-up reads Please only remove comments that appear to be spam or that you believe to be unquestionably outside the bounds of civility. But that's only a suggestion. I think this will lead to less discussion and a even more negativity and hostility between clippers, and I do hope Clipmarks reconsiders.
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POPSPowell-As-Traitor Cartoon Receives Condemnation Cartoonists from all shades of the political spectrum: left, right and center, have been close to unanimous in agreeing that this is, in the words of Matt Bors, one of the "...top ten worst political cartoons ever created. Since time began. Hands down.” Even Michelle Malkin, who is so far to the right that she can't walk without spinning around, said, "It’s a mistake to attribute Powell’s endorsement primarily to some kind of race loyalty." It's not even much of a cartoon, as the images are from the top of the list of Google image searches for "Benedict Arnold" and "white flag".
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POPSCNN asks hard questions about Palin, gets dodged Campbell Brown does her job, asking McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds about Sarah Palin's foreign policy experience. After many dodges, he finally lands on the fiction that she commands the Alaska National Guard and has military experience - but he can't name one Guard decision she's made. McCain later cancels scheduled interview with CNN.
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POPS"They shoot children, do they?" Arab children!
Her gesture in worrying about her mother, about not wanting to cause a beloved parent any grief was partly genuine, and partly an attempt to distract herself from the fact that she knew something terrible had just happened to her. Indeed a child’s sweetness knows no bounds, irrespective of where such a child can be found in the world. As she lie in a bath of her own warm blood that increased with each passing second, while frantic adults attempt to effect that which they know is futile, all she can think is that her mother must be worried, and how she wishes she could be home with her now, if only for enough time to give her one final embrace, tell her of a daughter’s love, and to say goodbye. Sweets, an indispensable part of any child’s life, even in places that have been torn apart by warfare for the last century Mona grew up in a world of bullets and mortars, allowed the carelessness of her childhood to overpower her reason just enough to persuade her towards venturing f
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POPSFactcheck: the false rumors about Palin Dems and Repubs and Indies can agree that these allegations are neither true nor helpful. Further, McCain and campaign conflate the false charges of kooks with the serious questions about Palin's qualifications, and declare them all out of bounds. Not so fast ...
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POPSCartoonist Arrested "Nekschot’s work is rude and often sexually explicit. As such it is characteristic for the Dutch liberal mentality and not beyond the limit in the Netherlands. In his cartoons, however, he mocks the multicultural society, and that does seem to be beyond all bounds."
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POPS"If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it" Goebbels? Israel's campaign to rewrite international law to its advantage is deliberate and knowing. As the former head of Israel's 20-lawyer International Law Division in the Military Advocate General's office, Daniel Reisner, recently stated: ... sfgate George Bisharat is a professor of law at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, and writes frequently on law and politics in the Middle East.
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POPSLiars Unite in Support of Dictators Worldwide Once again our fearless leader has chosen to align himself with a dictatorial tyrant. Apparently there is not a Constitution Obama likes. He has no regard for our own constitution and has shown a total disrespect for the Constitution of Honduras. The rule of law is not high on Obama's list of disciplines. He much rather support anarchists and lawlessness. Or perhaps he sees a similar fate awaiting himself in the not too distant future. Perhaps it is time we start to consider impeachment proceedings for high crimes and misdemeanors?
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