2
POPSLa Paz celebrates Day of the Skulls Earlier this month the Church called on the faithful to stop using human skulls at special mass celebrations. The Archbishop of La Paz, Edmundo Abastoflor, urged followers of the Andean rite to "let them rest in peace". Some inside the Church even link the practice to the occult. However, some priests believe they have no other choice than to let people pray Catholic prayers to their skulls, and even allow them to go to church with them. "I receive them and not as enemies of the Catholic faith," the cemetery's Roman Catholic priest, Father Jaime Fernandez, told the BBC after giving an informal blessing to thousands of skull-carrying devotees at the cemetery's chapel. "Officially the Catholic Church does not recognise such a thing," Father Fernandez adds. But, let's be honest, in the end, who am I to stop their uncontrollable faith?"
4
POPSItalian court convicts 23 CIA agents over rendition Italian prosecutors had charged the Americans and seven members of the Italian military intelligence agency in the abduction of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as //Abu Omar, on Feb. 17, 2003. Prosecutors said he was snatched in broad daylight, flown from an American air base in Italy to a base in Germany and then on to Egypt, where he asserts that he was tortured.//
3
POPSOscar Starts His Own News Network, GNN Grouchy News Network
"Oscar the Grouch Smacks Fox News" video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO-1j9T90-8&feature=player_embedded If Mom and Dad watch cable news, it’s better than 50/50 they watch “POX News.” So what gives? PBS " a network partially funded with my tax dollars " has the right to tell my kids that their parents watch “trashy” news? The message is clear, I can’t even sit my kids in front of “Sesame Street” without having to worry about the Left attempting to undermine my authority. And don’t tell me, “If you don’t like it change the channel.” There are no channels left! It’s everywhere. Just last week I had Obama’s service and volunteerism promoted on every single major network, including Disney and Nickelodeon. …by the way, why SHOULD I change the channel? This is MY channel, I’m paying for it! The fact that this is a re-run from an episode written during the Bush Presidency only reinforces that this is nothing new. The Left has been doing this for years now.
1
POPSHollywood Movies Hs probably contribute to violence:Kidman 
Nicole Kidman conceded Wednesday that Hollywood has probably contributed to violence against women by portraying them as weak, sex objects. The Oscar-winning actress said she is not interested in those kinds of demeaning roles, adding that the movie industry also has made an effort to contribute to solutions for ending the violence. Kidman appeared before the committee in her role as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Development Fund for Women, known as UNIFEM, to promote the International Violence Against Women Act. "In the real world, the laws go unenforced and impunity is the norm," she said.The legislation has stalled in the past, but a sponsor, Democratic Rep. Bill Delahunt, said he and others plan to reintroduce it soon. The Australian star told Congress that the U.N. women's fund needs more resources. "We need the money," she said. Before the hearing began, a crowd of people lined the hall and around the corner to hear her speak.
2
POPSTop Percenters - Raise our Taxes Now We would see a minimal tax increase -- from 35% to 39.6%, a rate still far lower than the one under President Reagan -- but the increased revenue would raise an estimated $43 billion per year. The group’s founders include Chuck Collins, who inherited some of the Oscar Mayer meat fortune and who has long been involved in agitating on income-inequality issues. He may be best known for co-authoring the 2003 book "Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes" with Bill Gates Sr. The book made the case for retaining the federal estate tax. Wealth for the Common Good on Tuesday sent its request to President Obama and to House and Senate leaders, including a petition with more than 1,000 signatures.
2
POPSTwo-year-old with same IQ as Einstein Mrs Wrigley, a housewife, added: "His vocabulary is amazing. He's able to construct complex sentences. "The other day he said to me, 'Mummy, sausages are like a party in my mouth'." Dr Peter Congdon, who assessed Oscar, said he was a "child of very superior intelligence". "His abilities fall well within the range sometimes referred to as intellectually gifted. He demonstrated outstanding ability," he said. John Stevenage, Mensa's Chief Executive confirmed Oscar had been accepted aged two years, five months and 11 days. "Oscar shows great potential. Converting that potential to achievement is the challenge for his parents and we are delighted that they have chosen to join the Mensa network for support", he said. The youngest British child to join Mensa is Elise Tan Roberts, from Edmonton, North London, at two years, four months and 14 days, with an IQ of 156.
23
POPSWho is the victim here? FTA: Second, Polanski was "demonized by the press" because he raped a child, and was convicted because he pled guilty. He "feared heavy sentencing" because drugging and raping a child is generally frowned upon by the legal system.
5
POPSSlumdog Millionaire Surprisingly this movie gets 10 nominations in Oscar. A really worth watching movie.If It gets oscar in a category it will be a gift to India and Indians. Thanks and wishes to Danny Boyle,A R Rahman and The Slumdog Millionaire Team.
5
POPSRape is never okay... unless you also happen to make Great Art More: Rape is a crime of violence. It doesn't matter who the rapist is. It doesn't matter who the victim is. It doesn't matter how hard she fought or what she was wearing or how much she had to drink. It doesn't matter whether she knew the rapist, whether she'd gone out with him, whether she kissed him or went back to his place or had sex with fifty thousand other men first. No one has the right to rape another person, and anyone who does must be held accountable, must receive the message that rape is not okay and will not be tolerated, each and every time, no exceptions. How else can we ever build a society in which a woman can move freely through her world without fearing for her physical and emotional safety at every turn? I can only hope and pray that our justice system takes this opportunity to declare loudly and without apology that no one has immunity from accountability for rape, not even Roman Polanski.
7
POPSLosing Sight I'd like to ask whether, if the victim were their daughter, they'd be so cavalier about a crime that was originally charged as sodomy and rape before Polanski agreed to a plea bargain. She testified that he put his mouth on her vagina. "I was ready to cry," she said. "I was kind of -- I was going, 'No. Come on. Stop it.' But I was afraid." She said he then pulled off her panties. Q: What happened after that? A: He started to have intercourse with me. "He goes, 'Would you want me to go in through your back?' And I went, 'No.' " According to her, that didn't stop Polanski, who began having anal sex with her." Does it make you uncomfortable to read this? GOOD. She was a child.
4
POPSHarvey Weinstein thinks being an artist makes raping a child okay, it seems More: I am reassured to know that people with this kind of power, and this kind of money, fully believe they have the right to use the connections that they have, to help a friend evade prosecution for this 'so called crime'. It makes me feel very positive about the world, that the drugging and raping, of a 13 year old child- is not rape, as long as it is a powerful celebrity that is raping her. It reassures me that women like Deborah Winger, and Whoopi Goldberg- are standing up to tell the world that this 'so called crime' is not really that bad, its not like its 'rape rape' after all. Well if a case where a undisputed facts are that a 13 year old was repeatedly fucked against her will, after being drugged, is not rape= then really, I would like to know what constitutes rape at all? Oh wait, I am not reassured. I am fucking angry. Disgusted. Horrified. Dumbfounded.
4
POPSReminder: Roman Polanski raped a child More: Polanski was "demonized by the press" because he raped a child, and was convicted because he pled guilty. He "feared heavy sentencing" because drugging and raping a child is generally frowned upon by the legal system. …The point is not to keep 76-year-old Polanski off the streets or help his victim feel safe. The point is that drugging and raping a child, then leaving the country before you can be sentenced for it, is behavior our society should not -- and at least in theory, does not -- tolerate, no matter how famous, wealthy or well-connected you are, no matter how old you were when you finally got caught, no matter what your victim says about it now, no matter how mature she looked at 13, no matter how pushy her mother was, and no matter how many really swell movies you've made. Roman Polanski raped a child. No one, not even him, disputes that.