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POPSAlan comes to Stephen's rescue Stephen Fry is one of the wittiest people I have ever come across ~ it's sad to see that even a celebrity such as him can be hard hit by depression.
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POPS80-Year Anniversary Of "Black Tuesday"
More commonly known as "Black Tuesday," October 29, 1929 was the last of four so-called "black" days which ushered in the Great Depression. In fact, the stock market collapse in the U.S. for at least one month after Black Tuesday. Eventually, the Great Depression grew into a worldwide financial calamity that lasted, by most conventional accounts, until the end of World War II. By 1933, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) was cut in half. The Depression caused many farmers to lose their farms. At the same time, years of erosion and a drought created the “Dust Bowl” in the Midwest, where no crops could grow. Many traveled to California to find work, a subject written about by John Steinbeck in "The Grapes of Wrath." Many others ended up living as “hobos” or in “Hoovervilles”, make-shift homeless encampments named after then-President Herbert Hoover. During the 1928 Presidential campaign, Hoover campaigned on a number of slogans, one of which was "Vote for Pros
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POPSLiving On Less, While Banks Thrive On Excess I hold corporations & government to the same standards I hold myself. I make sure there is enough money in my checking account to pay my bills. If I create a bill, I pay it. If I cause an accident, I admit it, apologize, and pay for it. It's the right thing to do.
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POPSHe Never Played The Fear Card "Underscoring the power of fighting fearmongers without resorting to fearmongering, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche issued this warning with which I close. "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. In reminding his fellow Americans that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, President Roosevelt sought to make us less vulnerable to our enemies, not more like them."
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POPS Tom Tancredo Walks Off MSNBC Set Because Of Markos Moulitas "You're not going to do that. You're not going to try to insult me that way and then pretend like we're just going on and talk about that. You either apologize ..." When Moulitas did not apologize, Tancredo simply took out his earpiece and walked away. As a Republican student activist, Tancredo spoke out in favor of the Vietnam War but did not serve. After graduating from college in June 1969, he became eligible to serve in Vietnam. Tancredo said he went for his physical, telling doctors he'd been treated for depression, and eventually got a deferment.
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POPSCarrie Prejean Goes Down. Literally! Of course, all of this should have little effect on her career. If anything it will add fuel to it with the way Americans are infatuated with hypocrites and fallen angels. Vivid Entertainment Group, which specializes in adult films, made an offer of a million dollars to Prejean back in May to make a movie for them. Seems she might be a natural. This could only raise her value in the porn market. Practice makes perfect. I'm curious as to how all the rightwing Prejean backers will spin this and find a way to blame this on everyone but Prejean. I might even turn on Fox News to check it out. With Prejean's looks and attitude, she may end up with her own show over there since credibility isn't a factor in Fox's hiring practices. And for those of you who don’t remember who actually won the Miss California Pageant, her name is Tami Ferrell from Malibu. How soon we forget those with actual morals.
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POPSHated Roosevelt, Hate Obama: Paleoconservative Persuasions
Nock saw the state as “them,” not “us,” and “them” really came to mean Roosevelt. You must know that Roosevelt was hated by many during the Great Depression. Not disliked, hated. The laissez faire crowd saw every move toward government relief of intolerable conditions as government self-aggrandizement—Nock’s term, not mine. Despite the fact that people were desperate in the streets, extreme-sport capitalists saw only usurpation of the powers of the church (as the precursor to the modern social relief agency) and the individual—that old fall-back, the rugged individual—Nock’s term, not mine. Professor Nock pulls no punches. With a Beckian flourish he proclaims, “This regime was established by a coup d'État of a new and unusual kind, practicable only in a rich country.” Yup. A coup d’etat. You almost want to ask for Mr. Roosevelt’s birth certificate. Nock’s antipathy to Roosevelt knew few boundaries. Perversely, Nock saw in the New Deal, “the erection of po
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POPSEnumerated Powers Act: Interview with Walter E. Williams
who has introduced it every Congress since 1995, it does not allow them to get away with the Commerce Clause and the General Welfare Clause. They have to specifically point in the Constitution where they get the authority. And as a matter of fact the reason the Enumerated Powers Act’s maximum number of co-sponsors in the House has been 31, or it could be a bit higher than that (and it has never had a co-sponsor in the Senate until this year) is that the Congressmen can read the writing on the wall. If Congress were forced to obey the United States Constitution, then I would say that two-thirds to three-quarters of all the spending Congress does would be found to be unconstitutional. ALL RIGHT MAGAZINE: You’re probably right about that. Article 1, Section 8 has a very short list of things government is able to do according to the word of the law. WALTER E. WILLIAMS: That’s right, and if you read the Founders’ statements, they say that Congress can only do those things....
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POPSGiant Crack in Africa Will Create a New Ocean The thinking is that the Red Sea will eventually pour into the new sea in a million years or so. The new ocean would connect to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, an arm of the Arabian Sea between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia in eastern Africa.
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POPS31 Sneaky Mood Boosters Want to feel happier today, tomorrow and for the rest of your life? Okay, okay, dumb question — of course you do!
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POPSSmile! It Could Make You Happier It is believed that what we feel on the inside is reflected outwardly. Can we assume that it can also be the other way around. Does it mean that if we smile even when we feel down and out, we would feel better? The human brain is still a mystery and a lot is still needed to be discovered.
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POPS5-HTTLPR and Depression So the short allele assumes that we avoid risk and have great support systems. What if we don't? "Only" 40 percent of the S variant in countries of European origin is still close to half. Most of my family is short on serotonin, and we're Scandinavian/English. There's currently no way to make more. SSRIs only make more of what you already have available for neurotransmitting. Help, medical science!
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POPSPork Report - 28 Oct 09 Junket watch: Speaking at a beachfront spa and resort, Federal Reserve Chairman says Americans need to save more and the country must “substantially reduce federal deficits”
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POPSThe Crash 80 years later, could it happen again? (Note: Don't say it happened in the 1980's. That wasn't a crash, exactly)
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POPSThe Forgotten Depression of 1920 The experience of 1920–21 reinforces the contention of genuine free-market economists that government intervention is a hindrance to economic recovery. It is not in spite of the absence of fiscal and monetary stimulus that the economy recovered from the 1920–21 depression. It is because those things were avoided that recovery came. The next time we are solemnly warned to recall the lessons of history lest our economy deteriorate still further, we ought to refer to this episode – and observe how hastily our interrogators try to change the subject.