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POPSWhy does our society hate children?
As a person without kids, I agree entirely about the need for patience. Kids are part of life, and adults should not default to being nasty to or about them. More: Several folks on this and other sites pointed out how much money they would pay for a child-free flight. You know what? I'd pay just as much for a child-friendly flight - where reasonably behaved kids can fly without fear of glares from miserable old ladies, put-off hipsters, and misanthropic businessmen… Indeed, when we took our son on his first cross-country flight, he had a bad time. He screamed, he was in pain from the air pressure, and generally wasn't a happy camper. People were okay, but I still remember That Guy. He came up to me and said, "I have two kids. I've been where you are. Hang in there, it'll get better." In my life, I love my wife, my child, my family, a handful of close friends, and That Guy. I hope he's finding money or falling in love or getting elected mayor somewhere right now.
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POPSClub of Rome "The real enemy then, is humanity itself." According to its website, the Club of Rome is composed of "scientists, economists, businessmen, international high civil servants, heads of state and former heads of state from all five continents who are convinced that the future of humankind is not determined once and for all and that each human being can contribute to the improvement of our societies." "Searching for a new enemy to unite us..." See also "Comittee of 300" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crYO5Or-86M "The threat of pollution, global warming, water shortages, and famine can be used to fulfill humanity's need for a common adversary"
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POPSWhat Went Wrong With Our Economy? We're letting domestic and multinational corporations, with their uncompromising profit motive and strong connection to the military, determine the future course of our country and the world. Terrorism has replaced communism as the major threat to our lifestyle. But corporate defense contractors -- Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics -- take millions of dollars from the federal treasury every DAY to produce Cold-War-era weapons, with their profits guaranteed by the American public. We're the leading seller of arms to the world. We intervene in more countries than ever before, even though studies show that intervention is tied to terrorism. Our elected representatives listen to businessmen and generals rather than to scientists, doctors, humanitarians, teachers, mothers. And we've been conditioned to believe that this is the way it must be. But it doesn't have to be this way.
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POPS Masters of illusion: The great management consultancy swindle The more I thought about it, the grander it seemed. The next morning, I sent out 10 CVs. One ended up in the hands of the founding partner of a small and enlightened consultancy firm based in New York. I landed the job by providing a credible response to this question: How many pubs are there in Great Britain? The purpose of that question, I realised after the interview, was to see how easily I could talk about a subject of which I knew almost nothing, on the basis of facts that were almost entirely fictional. It was an excellent introduction to management consulting.
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POPSWho In Their Right Mind?! Gaddafi's Oddest Idea: Abolish Switzerland Relations between Libya and Switzerland soured in July 2008 when Gaddafi's son Hannibal and his wife were arrested by police in Geneva for allegedly beating their two servants at a local hotel. Gaddafi was so enraged by his son's two-day detention, he immediately retaliated by shutting down local subsidiaries of Swiss companies Nestlé and ABB in Libya, arresting two Swiss businessmen for supposed visa irregularities, canceling most commercial flights between the two countries and withdrawing about $5 billion from his Swiss bank accounts. Then came Gaddafi's suggestion that Switzerland be carved up like a wheel of Swiss cheese. During the G-8 summit in Italy in July, Gaddafi said Switzerland "is a world mafia and not a state," adding that the Italian-speaking part of the country should be returned to Italy, the German-speaking part given to Germany and the French-speaking part ceded to France.
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POPSIran Prepares For War, While Obama Sleeps!
What damage has been caused by Obama’s withholding this information from the world? Yet, he praised the Islamic Republic of Iran and apologized for America’s actions in the Middle East. He held out his hand to a regime that denies the Holocaust while plotting to commit another one, and has a history of lying repeatedly to the international community while murdering away around the world (including its own citizens, uh..subjects). Obama has given Iran more time to develop nuclear weapons. But is there more damage that Obama has caused? He has allowed Iran time and wiggle room to escape the brunt of the one type of sanction that once held promise to restrain Iran: crafting and enforcing sanctions on companies and nations that export refined gas to Iran. In the last year, threats of sanctions on those few companies and nations that supply Iran with gasoline and heating oil have been partially effective. But the serious pressure would have come from sanctions passed by .
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POPSWill he jump? While some passers-by like 23-year-old Verena Kircher found the piece "alarming," others like Caroline van Kelst thought it was beautiful. "It is crystal clear that this is not a suicide," she said. "He has definitely got something about him which is majestic, not desperate."
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POPSStunted outlook on neglect of kids " What can the United States do? The State Department each year publishes heavily researched reports on human rights, drug trafficking, religious freedom and human trafficking. All of these are important topics. But is any of them as critical as saving a billion children from life as a mental cripple? Why not a new report, on human nutrition, with appropriate penalties for the nations that neglect their children?"
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POPSVoice of America Corruption.
What a surprise! Besides already being a foul source of polluted news and setting up propaganda scams throughout the world it seems -- gasp! -- on of it's chief of staff was taking money and gifts for favors, including supporting a fascist, zionist extremist private TV station. This sure is a great country. The banks steal billions anytime they want...and not only get loans to get out of debt but get paid interest on the loan they get.... ...can you image...borrowing money then getting you getting paid interest on the money you borrowed?? That fact just sticks in my mind about how Opposite to Good Government things can get and everything about Abramoff and his lobbying scams (he stole millions from Native American Indians and sent it to Israel for weapons) is "impressive," on the scale of how Opposite to What's Right as bad as it could get. These guys sell their souls for pennies, btw. Give a few hundred thousand and then get billions in return. Lobbying is just bribery
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POPSFamily Farmers: No NAIS in our name National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is designed to protect the health of livestock and the economic well-being of those industries by quickly and effectively tracing an animal disease to its source. So sayeth the federal government. NAIS poses the greatest threat to local and sustainable agriculture since the Nixon administration. NAIS was originally designed to give huge corporations help with export markets. It will not stop animal disease or improve food safety. So sayeth those who oppose another layer of bureaucracy that severely cripples the livelihood of independent farmers and ranchers. NAIS is not legislation but a program designed by USDA bureaucrats with the help of businessmen and manufacturers of ID tags and will only enrich the corporations that already control most of our food supply. So sayeth everyone who knows how government really works.
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POPSPalestinians Out, Jews In
After receiving eviction notices last May, three Palestinian families constituting 53 people, including 20 children, were forcibly removed from their homes under High Court order at dawn on August 2. This is just one of several plans by various real estate groups such as Nahalat Shimon International and American businessmen such as Irving Moskowitz, to populate the areas surrounding the Old City with Jewish strongholds that sever Palestinian territorial contiguity in East Jerusalem. This prejudices any final resolution in which East Jerusalem would be the Palestinian capital. It is also in clear breach of Israel’s commitment under the Road Map. But these operations are backed by the Israel Lands Administration, the Jerusalem Municipality and the Israeli government, who are all working together to undermine any possibility for a two-state solution and are blatantly infringing on the basic human rights of the residents of what they deem to be the “united Jerusalem.”
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POPSWho Said It Could Be Worse? They Were Right! He admitted in effect that the budget he submitted in January, which called for a deficit of $15.8 billion and which he termed at the tune "prudent and responsible," had become obsolete in only seven weeks. But the troubles had been building up for more than a decade, said Carter, and they could be traced largely to "our failure in Government, as individuals and as a society to live within our means." Glossing over his own record of rapidly rising spending and huge deficits, both of which contradicted his firm campaign pledges of 1976 , he proclaimed his born-again fiscal faith: "The Federal Government must stop spending money we do not have and borrowing to make up the difference." Only four hours later, Carter returned to the theme at a press conference in the East Room. "The Federal Government simply must accept discipline on itself as an example for others to follow," he said.
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POPSAsia's Axis of Evil? Throws up a theory and then debunks it. How to keep your job. (And I legitimize it by clipping it to clipmarks)
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POPSWhen DuPont Almost Overthrew the Government
* Irenee Du Pont - Right-wing chemical industrialist and founder of the American Liberty League, the organization assigned to execute the plot. * Grayson Murphy - Director of Goodyear, Bethlehem Steel and a group of J.P. Morgan banks. * William Doyle - Former state commander of the American Legion and a central plotter of the coup. * John Davis - Former Democratic presidential candidate and a senior attorney for J.P. Morgan. * Al Smith - Roosevelt’s bitter political foe from New York. Smith was a former governor of New York and a codirector of the American Liberty League. * John J. Raskob - A high-ranking Du Pont officer and a former chairman of the Democratic Party. In later decades, Raskob would become a “Knight of Malta,” a Roman Catholic Religious Order with a high percentage of CIA spies, including CIA Directors William Casey, William Colby and John McCone. * Robert Clark - One of Wall Street’s richest bankers and stockbrokers. * Gerald MacGuire - Bond salesman for Clark, a
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POPSCapitalism in Crisis
An interesting column by Richard Posner on the background of and some lessons from the financial crisis. In short: 1) Capitalism is risky and is prone to bubbles and depressions (take home message is not that capitalism is 'bad' but that one must diversify and hedge); 2) The crisis is a consequence of deregulation (not that deregulation is 'bad' but that deregulated capitalism carries with it more of the bubble/depression risks). But in the end, as with so many, Posner concludes that the whole mess should be laid at the feet of government. This is not the right conclusion, not that government is not the responsible party, they are. But the key issue that underlies the government's failure is not that government is inherently 'bad' as many are often led to conclude but that it was made that way. A systematic attack and undermining of governance has occurred in the U.S. since the early 1980s. Not all was bad, likely much of it early on was needed, but like so many other human expe
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POPS Senator Reid's Gitmo Truth Now remember the 17 Uighurs at Gitmo. They have admitted to being trained and committed terrorists. Incredibly, a military review board said they are no threat to America when they are all associates of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement. The ETIM has a long relationship with al Qaeda and its founder swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden. On April 9, 2009, the Obama administration added the ETIM’s current leader, Abdul Haq, to the Treasury Department’s terrorist list. As they pose a direct threat to Chinese businessmen and diplomats here, who wants to risk becoming collateral damage?
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POPSInside Obama's Bank CEOs Meeting Having created the mob, he threatens to use it. Which fascist dictator does this remind you of? “These are complicated companies,” one CEO said. Offered another: “We’re competing for talent on an international market.” But President Barack Obama wasn’t in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation and offered a blunt reminder of the public’s reaction to such explanations. “Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that.” “My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.” The fresh details of the meeting — some never before revealed — come from an account provided to POLITICO by one of the participants. A second source inside the meeting confirmed the details, and two other sources familiar with the meeting offered additional information. Watch the bank CEOs' news conference after last week's meeting: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/20871.
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POPS“Teach me to dance, will you, Zorba?” Down and Out — or Up..?. "There are people who fall hard and do not find their feet for a long time, if ever — a condition some psychiatrists call complicated grief. And the depth of this economic collapse has unceremoniously stripped thousands of far more than money: reputations have reversed; friendships have turned sour; families have fractured."
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POPSchina's labor unrest worse than expected this went on to say that this legal advocates office was broken into on Jan. 9th and that 600 legal case files. 160 law books his computer-photocopier-t.v. and 100,000 yuan in cash were stolen.............he was also ambushed that night by 5 men- and has since then been evicted from his home- he feels this is due to his defying bribery and threats - by speaking to foreign media in an effort to get the word out of these deplorable conditions
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