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POPSCarbon Tax- UNCONSTITUTIONAL This new French carbon tax was scheduled to go into law on Jan1, 2010. The tax was steep: 17 euros per ton of carbon dioxide (USD $24.40). In a stunning move, and surely a blow to warmists everywhere, the tax has been found unconstitutional and thrown out. Originally found here (Google Translation).
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POPSMissing girl sailor Laura Dekker found safe in Antilles Miss Dekker is a seasoned sailor who was born on a yacht off the coast of New Zealand during a seven-year world trip. She had a yacht by the age of six and began sailing solo when she was 10. Her father, Dick Dekker, supports her attempt at the record, while her mother has expressed some concerns. Miss Dekker had planned to spend about two years aboard her 8m (26ft) boat, Guppy, to break the record set in August by a 17-year-old UK boy. Mike Perham tackled 50ft waves, gale force winds and technical problems during the 45,000-km (28,000-mile) circumnavigation, which took him nine months.
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POPSClimatologists Baffled by Global Warming Time-Out "Ironically, climate change appears to have stalled in the run-up to the upcoming world summit in the Danish capital, where thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, scientists, business leaders and environmental activists plan to negotiate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Billions of euros are at stake in the negotiations."
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POPSEuropean Court bans classroom crucifixes "Those societies which cannot combine reverence to their symbols with freedom and revision, must ultimately decay either from anarchy, or from the slow atrophy of a life stifled by useless shadows" - A.N. Whitehead
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POPSBMW to Cap Executive Pay - wundervoll! Now let me get this straight. GM, Ford, and Chrysler have all lost market share in the US and complain that worker wages and benefits made them uncompetitive. Germans assembly line workers average $60,000 a year and BMW sales have not plummeted as US car makers have. And now, BMW says they are capping executive pay by establishing the current ration of difference 25-1 as THE ratio. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average U.S. worker earned $29,544. The ratio of CEO pay to average pay is 364:1 and to minimum wage is 885:1. So... Why is it that US car companies have trouble competing?
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POPSMonsanto guilty in 'false ad' row Earlier this month, Monsanto reported a fourth quarter loss of $233m (£147m), driven mostly by a drop in sales of its Roundup brand. It would be quite a result if this led to some of their other products like Aspartame being investigated publicly.
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POPSClassic Liquidity Trap Such a Brilliant man...lol... Only a Foolish Fed falls for the Classic Liquidity Trap. Read more about it at:Google... doctrader liquidity trap.
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POPSThe United States’ Place in The World … and he needs to grow a set via Weekly Standard, Lieberman, Kyl and Bayh, “Whatever it takes … crippling sanctions.” I dunno, I can think of other measures that might be more effectively crippling. Whatever … Also at WS, Steven Hayes, hurtfully, “Speak timidly and don’t carry a stick.” Ralph Peters, NYPost, cruelly: “Appease-y does it for weak Prez on the road to a Mideast apocalypse.” Greenwald, Should any Iraq lessons be applied to Iran? I can think of a few quick applicable Iraq lessons off the top of my head. Whack one tyrant, the rest notice. Also, whacking tyrants effectively neutralizes their ability to cause trouble. Also, follow-on is important, don’t let the Euros weasel out of it, and ignore the Dems and the anti-war American left. They are loud, but harmless.
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POPSIn Which Obama Has A General Problem, Just Like A Real President*
The tug-o-war playground politics of the matter aside, there is still the fact of war in Afghanistan, a persistent global threat, and the rapidly diminishing credibility of the United States as a stalwart, moral force in the world, from the limp handling of Iran to the delivery of tribute to Vladimir Putin, and now the dawdling and dithering over the erstwhile good war. For all their squawking about us, the Euros don’t need us to be another EU member. They need someone to do the dirty work. Ditto the Arabs. China and Russia have got to be enjoying this, though. On second thought, there is a sort of double-reverse presidential precedent to this crisis. It’s Obama as McClellan. Not exactly Lincolnesque, but very Lincoln-proximate. Totally related: Victor Davis Hanson at NRO looks at Two-Front Wars, Theirs and Ours and comes away with something other than the currently fashionable doom-and-gloom mongering. It’s al-Qaeda after eight years of war, on the ropes and desperate.