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POPSU.S. Ranked 36th Freest Press in the World 
Who Controls the U.S. Media? For the most part, the media spreads a lot of misinformation and corporate propaganda. This is not at all surprising considering that Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, Viacom (formerly CBS) and General Electric's NBC are the top owners of the entire media industry, which includes everything you read and hear in newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. In the last 15 years alone, your sources for news have shrunk drastically. Whereas in 1983, 50 corporations ruled the U.S. news media, by 2004 this number decreased to a minuscule six corporations! As you might imagine, with just six corporations deciding what’s worthy of news and what’s not, you end up with sensationalized tragedies, celebrity features, and anything else that will capture people’s attention. There is virtually no competition in the media market today whatsoever, and this s
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POPSCIA and the U.S. "War On Drugs" Doublespeak
This is a classic case of "Forked Tongue". The following is from the article. "This is a pattern for the CIA. In an earlier era they were in partnership with a different set of drug dealers in South America. These drug dealers were interested in selling cocaine and the CIA needed money to finance its secret wars against the people of South and Central America. A natural alliance evolved between cocaine cartels and the CIA, since both had identical interests, namely to crush any popular government that considered land reform or nationalization of industries." One of the more prominent drug dealers in that story was Manuel Noriega, Panama’s military strongman. Noriega was on CIA payroll from the 1950’s until the mid-80’s. He was also a coke dealer, an ally of Pablo Escobar of the Medellin Cartel. The CIA needed some extra cash to fund its covert operations against freely elected governments in South America, notably Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega (who was freely elected again in 200
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POPSDisconnected From The Real World Living in a fantasy place where my actions have no repercussions. Where I can do whatever I want and there are not opposite reactions. Now that's the life: Insanity
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POPSHow Polygamy Causes Wars The only defense Islam has been able to construct for itself is to recruit these unattached males, inculcate them into the religion, and convince them that if they turn their violence and sexual frustrations outward¸ they will be rewarded with "70 virgins in heaven." This is how the ranks of martyrs and suicide bombers are created. When Muslim warriors proclaim, "We love death," they are not kidding. In a polygamous Islamic society, some men's lives have very little intrinsic value. They are literally better off seeking death. Monogamy is the social contract that lies at the heart of the relatively peaceful societies of Europe and the Orient. It is no accident that Islam has "bloody borders" with both these civilizations. We practice different social customs that give human life very different values. If the UN wanted to something really useful, it would declare reproductive equality a "human right" and ban polygamy throughout the world.
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POPSCBS and NBC Skip Hasan's Ominous 'We Love Death More Than You Love Life' 
Brian Ross reported: The Washington Post reported today that Hasan presented this PowerPoint presentation at Walter Reed hospital in 2007, saying: “It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims.” Under comments, he wrote: “We love death more than you love life.” And his conclusion was that Muslim soldiers be given the option of being released from the military, as conscientious objectors, to decrease what he called “adverse events.” Bob Orr, on the CBS Evening News: There were reasons to worry. Hasan received poor performance reviews at Walter Reed, frequently criticized the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and in June, 2007, Hasan gave a shocking presentation to colleagues. Using slides, Hasan argued forcing Muslim soldiers to fight wars in Muslim countries puts them “at risk to hurting/killing believers unjustly” and he ominously warned of “adverse events." .....
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POPSTime to walk away from Israeli-Palestinian conflict? FTA: "We should stop feeling as though we have to apologize for our friendship with Israel, or pretend that the Palestinians and their Arab neighbors didn’t create their own misery through a series of wars against Israel which they lost. Let the Palestinians and the Israelis tend to their own interests, and we should tend to our own as well. When the Palestinians figure out that we are not interested in beating our heads against the wall by dealing with terrorists uninterested in actual negotiations, then perhaps they’ll produce effective leadership with more interest in coexistence rather than annihilation." I think I agree.
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POPSThe Victims of Fort Hood According to an officer who served with him at Walter Reed Hospital, Hasan spoke approvingly of the shooting of Army recruiters this past summer by a Muslim convert in Little Rock, Arkansas. Authorities also investigated Hasan as long as six months ago for internet postings discussing suicide bombings and other attacks, though they have not yet determined definitively if he was the author of those posts. One of those posts was a blog entry that deified suicide bombers as being similar to soldiers who throw themselves on hand grenades in order to save the lives of their fellow soldiers. A cousin, Nader Hasan, builds a picture of the shooter as a bullied Muslim who was a good person who did not even like weapons, was conflicted about his military service, and was against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But postings that are thought to be Major Hasan’s don’t match the portrait of a soldier who was conflicted. They present us with a picture of someone who housed beliefs that
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POPSSuspect Major Hasan Said His Goodbyes Before Rampage Kim Rosenthal, another neighbor, said Hasan didn't seem too upset by his scratched vehicle, even though it was damaged so badly that he got a new one. "He said it was Ramadan and that he had to forgive people," Rosenthal said. "He forgave him and moved on." Hasan appeared less forgiving to Dr. Val Finnell when they were classmates in a 2007-08 master's public health program at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He said that at a class presentation by public health students, at which topics like dry cleaning chemicals and house mold were discussed, Hasan talked about U.S. military actions as a war on Islam. Hasan made clear he was a "vociferous opponent" of U.S. wars in Muslim countries, Finnell said. "He made himself a lightning rod for things," Finnell said. "No one picked on him because he was a Muslim." Law enforcement officials said they are trying to confirm if Hasan wrote Internet postings that include his name about suicide....
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POPS Dots, Not Connected Well, you don’t get to not go just because you don’t want to. Apparently was disturbed by what he was hearing from the combat-traumatized solders he was counseling. Very sensitive, couldn’t hang with the war wounds. Had poor performance reports and was himself in counseling. Sounds a bit like the psychiatrist, not simply unwilling and ill-suited to the military career he had chosen, might have been morphing into patient, or should have been, as he found himself increasingly conflicted at the intersection of various aspects of his life, which appears to have included a respectable level of stress and some potentially extreme contradictions. Given that he worked at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, that part of it starts to sound like a very big dot that shouldn’t have needed that much connecting. Here’s another one, dot-connection in process. Had been the focus of some level of attention by federal agents for at least six months....
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POPSRepublicans Need to Dump the Neoconservatives The republicans need a "tea party" within their own camp! The Bush and present GOP "conservatives" are pushing big government Statism as much as Democrats, with only a different slant. Wars for democracy are a key element of both parties now. There is an insidious philosophy underlying this acceptance of the "natural" growth of statism. Neoconservative columnist David Brooks wrote ... we need "a vigorous One Nation Conservatism ... by making the nation great, individuals are able to join their narrow concerns to a larger national project." Actually, it was originally the Democrats that used to believe in curtailing the powers of the Federal government. (This was after the Civil War where they were called Dixie-crats). See this related Clipmark: Danger--America Becoming Statist, First Bush Now Obama
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POPSFt. Hood suspect reportedly shouted `Allahu Akbar' At least six months ago, Hasan came to the attention of law enforcement officials because of Internet postings about suicide bombings and other threats, including posts that equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades. Investigators had not determined for certain whether Hasan was the author of the posting, and a formal investigation had not been opened before the shooting, said law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case. The FBI, local police and other agencies searched Hasan's apartment Thursday night after evacuating the complex in Killeen, said city spokeswoman Hilary Shine. She referred questions about what was found to the FBI. The FBI in Dallas referred questions to a spokesman who was not immediately available early Friday morning.
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POPSIndian Removal Act: "Trail of Tears." Hollywood has left the impression that the great Indian wars came in the Old West during the late 1800's, a period that many think of simplistically as the "cowboy and Indian" days. But in fact that was a "mopping up" effort. By that time the Indians were nearly finished, their subjugation complete, their numbers decimated. The killing, enslavement, and land theft had begun with the arrival of the Europeans. But it may have reached its nadir when it became federal policy under President (Andrew) Jackson.
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POPSWe want the truth behind the 9/11 attacks
Something doesn’t make sense. 700+ engineers and architects, 200+ pilots and aviation professionals, 400+ professors all question the official account 9/11. http://patriotsquestion911.com/ 956 architectural and engineering professionals and 5,369 other supporters have signed the petition demanding of Congress a truly independent investigation. http://www.ae911truth.org/ These are not nutcases. These are highly educated infividuals who have expressed significant criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report or have made public statements that contradict the Report. Building 7 http://www.wtc7.net/ is a controlled implosion. This building was never touched by an airplane. The building fell straight down. The only way a building falls straight down into its own footprint is if the structure was carefully prepared to fall straight down. The U.S. government is asking us to believe something that defies physical laws. Don’t we want the truth? http://www.truthjihad.com/
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POPSPeople dressed as sci-fi characters Awesome! That guy really looks like Jean-Luc Picard. I wonder why the family with the Klingon dad had the curtains pulled? I like the one with the cat on the hearth-rug, too. And the kid Darth Vader.
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POPSCost of War versus Health care reform with public option. Joe Lieberman (Democrat ?!?) and his Republicans' friends are talking about of the high costs of the health care reform with public option? It nauseates me. Stop the wars! Bring our troops at home! Use our money for the health care! Save lives! Remember Joe Lieberman? YOU VOTED FOR THE WAR.
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POPSThird-party runs are for real in N.J., N.Y. races But the impact of those candidacies on the high-profile contests points to an anti-incumbent, anti-establishment sentiment that could be a prevailing theme in the 2010 congressional elections and beyond. "What it says is the public is looking for less self-interested parties and candidates who can reflect the needs of a very frustrated public," said Douglas Astolfi, a history professor at Florida's St. Leo University. "We have two wars and we're in a recession that neither party seems to address in any positive way. There's a deep sense that government has abandoned the common man. People are frustrated and angry."
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POPSStar Wars Cast Photo? Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamil, I take it the tall guy in back played Darth and small guy in front R2D2.
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POPSCharles Krauthammer: The Three Envelopes I suppose, explain away his own, well, yearlong drift on Afghanistan. This compulsion to attack his predecessor is as stale as it is unseemly. Obama was elected a year ago. He became commander in chief two months later. He then solemnly announced his own "comprehensive new strategy" for Afghanistan seven months ago. Obama is obviously unhappy with the path he himself chose in March. Fine. He has every right -- indeed duty -- to reconsider. But what Obama is reacting to is the failure of his own strategy. There is nothing new here. The history of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars is a considered readjustment of policies that have failed. In each war, quick initial low-casualty campaigns toppled enemy governments. In the subsequent occupation stage, two policy choices presented themselves: the light or heavy "footprint." In both Iraq and Afghanistan, we initially chose the light footprint. This was the considered judgment of our commanders at the time,
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