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POPSObama: Nothing More Than a Shrewd and Opportunistic Partisan
He could have joined the bipartisan “Gang of 14” that negotiated a halt to divisive judicial nominations, but didn't. He could have been a leader for bipartisan compromises on immigration, terrorist surveillance and energy, but wasn't. According to a Washington Post database, Obama votes with his party 96 percent of the time, which makes him tied for the eleventh most partisan member of the Senate. At 96.6 percent, his running mate Joe Biden is the eighth most partisan senator. In his next political act, he dispensed with centrism and the great middle ground of American politics and espoused the politics of “change” — change in pastors, change in churches and calculated changes in his positions on NAFTA, gun control and much else. But all those convention antics pale in comparison to the change in the man who, four years ago, briefly fired the imaginations of Americans tired of the extremes of partisan politics. That Obama has left and gone away, if he ever really existed.
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POPSCan you trust your mind? "These findings have significant implications for the authenticity of reports of recovered memory experiences." "Overall, this study clearly demonstrates that false suggestions about childhood events can profoundly change people’s attitudes and behavior." This is an amazing (if i recall it is not the first one:)) study. Raising many questions regarding the validity of my self-experience and knowledge.
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POPSIs a "Little Ice Age" Imminent? -Maverick Scientists Say "Yes"
The idea is especially intriguing considering that most of the world is in preparation for global warming. Could we be preparing for the wrong scenario? Geophysicist Phil Chapman, the first Australian to become an astronaut with NASA, notes that pictures from the US Solar and Heliospheric Observatory show that there are currently no spots on the sun. He believes this is the reason why the world cooled rapidly between January last year and January this year, by about 0.7C. "This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record, and it puts us back to where we were in 1930," Dr Chapman writes in The Australian today. "If the temperature does not soon recover, we will have to conclude that global warming is over." Sorokhtin believes that, in spite of the results of certain recent studies, lack of sunspots does indicate a coming cooling period. In fact, he calls manmade climate change "a drop in the bucket" compared to the cold brought on by inactive solar phases.
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POPSUgobi elevator Pitch "Every Pleo is autonomous. Yes, each one begins life as a newly-hatched baby Camarasaurus, but that's where predictability ends and individuality begins. Like any creature, Pleo feels hunger and fatigue - offset by powerful urges to explore and be nurtured. He'll graze, nap and toddle about on his own -when he feels like it! Pleo dinosaur can change his mind and his mood, just as you do. " www.pleoworld.com/discover
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POPSHey! Let's Give 1.7 Trillion $$$ to Corporations! "I think there's a very good chance he will change his position, yet again. He's changed his position on taxes many times, and I think he probably will change it again - because his target audience now is no longer conservative activists, its actually middle of the road voters. And most voters do not find 1.7 trillion dollar for corporations a great agenda. So we expect that he will change it up a little bit."
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POPSBack to The Future * In 1979, he shared Carter's starry-eyed belief that the fall of the shah in Iran and the advent of the ayatollahs represented progress for human rights. Throughout the hostage crisis, as US diplomats were daily paraded blindfolded in front of television cameras and threatened with execution, he opposed strong action against the terrorist mullahs and preached dialogue. * Biden opposed President Ronald Reagan's proactive policy against the Soviet Union. Biden was all for détente - which, in practice, meant Western subsidies that would have enabled the moribund USSR to cling to life and continue doing mischief. Had Biden had his way, "the Evil Empire" would still be around and Saddam Hussein still in power. The US would still be begging the mullahs of Tehran for forgiveness of unspecified "past sins" - and more American hostages would be seized in the Middle East while the mullahs celebrate their first atomic bombs.
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POPSClimate Change Is Already Affecting the West's Water Unless it slaps them in the face, the typical American can't be bothered by an abstract threat. If there's a global warming event -- a mammoth hurricane, tornado, or forest fire -- in our neighborhood, then we get concerned. From this perspective, the loss of a few thousand acres of ice in a remote corner of Montana hardly seems significant. Most of us don't see it as a danger sign. But it is. Disappearing glaciers is a harbinger of huge problems. In the West, the most obvious is drought.
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POPSSwitching it up: How memory deals with a change in plans The answer is "both," according to researchers at The Johns Hopkins University, who have learned that two different areas of the brain are responsible for the way human beings handle complex sets of "if-then" rules. "This discovery may eventually lead to enhanced understanding of psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit disorder, all conditions in which a person's ability to remember and change such rules is impaired," "This indicates that different parts of our brains store different kinds of memories and information," Courtney said. That, she said, "provides clues about how the human brain accomplishes complex, goal-directed behaviors that require remembering and changing abstract rules, an ability that is disrupted in many mental illnesses."
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POPSPowerMall Debate So, my dear friend, forgive me for not heeding your word of warning. Because you see, my family comes first, what kind of person would I be, if I gave my "time" to strangers, when "my family" are the one's needing my "time". I am not selfish and do not want anyone to suffer, I do what I can, for whom I can, whenever the need arises. I will continue to show my concern, and be of help. I will also continue to find the right people who believe that "together, "we can" make a difference in the world we live in". Even if our world only reaches as far as our own back yard...it makes no difference to "Him"..., just as long as we do something.....
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POPSThe Fall of Great Cities: America's Fastest-Dying Cities
The former manufacturing backbone of the U.S. is in rougher shape than ever, still searching for some way to replace its long-stilled smokestacks. Where's it worst? Ohio has 4 of the 10 cities and Michigan has 2 cities making the ranking. So far this decade, 115,000 people have left Cleveland. Smaller changes in other regions can be just as painful: People are leaving in the thousands and they are not being replaced by either new babies or new immigrants. These cities face fleeing populations, painful waves of unemployment and barely growing economies... And they face even bleaker futures. Once great centers of business and industry, these cities now are shells of their former selves. They will have to re-shape their image & think outside of the box in order to try to attract future residents and businesses. The top 5 fastest dying American cities: 1. Canton, Ohio 2. Youngstown, Ohio 3. Flint, Mich. 4. Scranton, Pa. 5. Dayton, Ohio
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POPSThe Buckminster Fuller Challenge - SEE THE MOVIE! THE BUCKMINSTER FULLER CHALLENGE Catalyzing the vanguard of a design science revolution Each year, BFI will offer a single $100,000 prize to support the development and implementation of a solution with significant potential to solve the world's most pressing problems in the shortest possible time while enhancing the Earth's ecological integrity.
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POPSLYING FORWARDS FROM THE RIGHTWING My niece sent me this email and asked me the following... Hey Aunt C, Somebody sent this to me and I know you are fantastic at finding the truth, so is this true or some republican trying to change peoples votes. Thanks, (Niece) LINK HERE: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/taxes.asp Hi, (Niece). it is completely false... Thanks for asking... I wish that others would question this baloney the republican rightwing sends around to the naive, who mindlessly accept these stupid forwards as the truth... A sad America, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, (and the middle class continues to disappear) is the result of such irrationality... The very ones who get hurt by these forwards are the ones who would probably be helped if the wealthy, whether they be individuals or corporations were forced to pay their share of taxes, instead of getting tax breaks that the republican party keep giving them. http://thinkingblue.blogspot.com
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POPSThe Truth about Wal-Mart, continued Since that long thread of differing opinions about the 'Merikan Dream and Wally world where I was attacked as being a non-productive, lazy Hippie (untrue--I was a semi-productive, Happy Hippie), I found this interesting, informative Anti-Wally site....see if you can defend these charges about Wally's relationship with Communist/monopoly Capitalist China and the US consumer rip=off, Willie, Esundby, and the rest of you bozos who think I was some non-productive lazy Hippie all my life.
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POPSWhite to be another minority Why does this matter? Diversity is a necessary component for a healthy and successfully functioning society. The fact that this information is released now is suspect. Right-wingers will somehow use this as evidence of the need for toughter immigration policies. The superficiality of these numbers become more so as more minority members are voted into public office and begin to hold a larger presence in America's economy. Although the government is using race as the measure, it seems what is being alluded to is really a change in culture, with the inaccurate conjecture being that an increase in minorities will not only change how America looks but what it stands for and the values it upholds.
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POPSBlank Man Is The Savior He has powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. God help us!!! I think I just threw up a little in my mouth....
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POPSNeurogenesis and Brain Plasticity in Adult Brains Elkhonon Goldberg, neuroscientist and co-founder of SharpBrains, discussing Brain Plasticity and Cognitive Fitness, pointed out that “as we age, our expert knowledge remains strong, and our capacity for solving problems within our areas of expertise can often exceed that of those who are younger.” He further employed us to “turn neuroplasticity to your advantage” by: • welcoming novel challenges • beware of being on mental autopilot • remain cognitively active