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POPSMy Resignation As An Adult I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, dreams, the imagination, the Tooth Fairy, a kiss that makes a boo-boo go away, making angels in the snow, and that my dad and G-d are the strongest people in the world. There are a few more at the source. . :)
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POPSThe Biggest Threat to the West Lies Within Itself, Not with Islam Simon Jenkins on threats to peace and democracy. This defeatism led the American Congress to allow its president to authorise torture and detention without trial in what Senator Robert Byrd called “the slow unravelling of the people’s liberties”. It enabled a British Home Office to curb free speech and habeas corpus. It arms police, fortifies buildings and impedes the free movement of citizens. It makes every Christian suspicious of every Muslim.
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POPSWhy George Orwell wrote 1984 Orwell served in Burma as a member of The Indian Imperial police, saw poverty and failure, but the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Hitler, and the NAZIs, gave him a political direction, and his work after 1936, was to warn against the establishment of a totalitarian state. There is more at the site, with more background. Orwell died Seven months after 1984 was published, due to the effects of tuberculosis, and an allergic reaction to a new medication. While he was in Hospital, writing 1984 they took away his typewriter, but he continued to write longhand with a ballpoint pen, despite his failing health
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POPSLEDs to replace city street lights The city near Detroit Ann Arbour, is replacing traditional bulbs with white LEDs, which last an average of five times as long, and the energy saving will be the equivalent of taking 400 cars of the road.
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POPSMany in US Military: Bush & Cheney Out of Control CENTCOM Admiral William Fallon reportedly thwarted Cheney's wish to sent a third additional aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf. One paper wrote that he "vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM." The whole article is worth a read.
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POPSOffical: Ireland ranked Friendlist Place in World-Lonely Planet "The British have rarely been complimentary about the Irish down the centuries. There have been the Irish jokes, insulting nicknames and the attitude that much that went on the neighbouring island was simply beyond the pale. Perhaps the greatest insult of all was that the Whigs called their political rivals Tories, after a type of 17th-century Irish rebel." "The Irish have further reason to smile after claiming a place in the Lonely Planet list of the world's 10 best brewery headquarters, thanks to the St James's Gate building in Dublin, leased by Arthur Guinness in 1759. "If you don't know what it is that makes the Guinness brewery Ireland's number one visitor attraction, you must be under 18," the book says. "The syrupy black nectar is so good the Guinness executives are almost forgiven for touting a brewery tour that does not actually let you into where Guinness is brewed." ...Independent