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POPSShould schools be allowed to have crucifixes? This @breakingtweet shares how government orders a schools in Italy to hang crucifixes and then to take them all done. It makes me think about the arguments in America about prayer in the schools and whether we should teach creationism or evolution? What are your thoughts about this? Tweet us or leave a comment!
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POPS Combat Wounded, Combat Dead
defense such as we’re already seeing explored on his behalf … rather than as a committed jihadi, an unlawful combatant, a terrorist, a deserter who aided and abetted the enemy, and a traitor who took up arms against his nation. It’s a push Republican lawmakers and those Democrats who agree could take up, that would command a lot of public support. Politicization of justice? Tell me that hasn’t happened already in this country. I’d call it a simple demand for justice. We owe it to the dead and the wounded to acknowledge why and under what circumstances they died and bled. Here’s an American hero who deserves the highest honors we can bestow on her. NY Daily News. Sgt. Kimberly Munley, cop, gunfighting woman. Went into a hot situation without regard for her own safety, gave better than she got, wounded in action, got the job done. I’d call that gallantry and valor in the face of the enemy, plus war wounds. Maybe even above and beyond. She’s reportedly an Army vet.
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POPSReactionary anti-women "men's rights" groups go mainstream
More: Toward the end of her piece, Joyce makes a particularly fascinating point about MRAs' domestic violence arguments: Critics like Australian sociologist Michael Flood say that men’s rights movements reflect the tactics of domestic abusers themselves, minimizing existing violence, calling it mutual, and discrediting victims. MRA groups downplay national abuse rates, just as abusers downplay their personal battery; they wage campaigns dismissing most allegations as false, as abusers claim partners are lying about being hit; and they depict the violence as mutual—part of an epidemic of wife-on-husband abuse—as individual batterers rationalize their behavior by saying that the violence was reciprocal. Additionally, MRA groups’ predictions of future violence by fed-up men wronged by the family-law system seem an obvious additional correlation, with the threat of violence seemingly intended to intimidate a community, like a fearful spouse, into compliance.
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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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POPS GOP Trifecta? But it can be difficult to draw broader conclusions from off-year contests, which often turn on local issues. ************************************************** Revolt in New York Beltway bigs misjudged public dismay against the Democratic agenda in Washington. Picked by GOP elites without a primary and with a voting record to the left of many Albany Democrats, Ms. Scozzafava faced a revolt by local and national conservatives in favor of businessman Doug Hoffman, who was nominated on the Conservative Party line. The longtime GOP assemblywoman saw herself falling in the polls and yesterday endorsed Democratic lawyer Bill Owens, who could still win the GOP-leaning seat with a plurality. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703932904574509633956777194.html?mod=loomia&loomia_si=t0:a16:g2:r4:c0.0565713:b28671837
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POPSDealing with Arguments Relationships are never perfect. There are good times and bad times. All right, this is cliché – a realistic one at that. There will be instances when couples have to deal with rough times.
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POPSYou Can't Have A Picnic Without Ants. “Don’t feed the troll” Simple and surefire rule. Trolls feed on your reactions. Ignore them. Put comments under moderation. This way you can approve or disapprove of inappropriate comments. Don’t be overly sensitive just because they go against what you stood for. Debate is healthy. Ban them. If you have persistent trolls, you might just want to block them. This way they will not be able to wreck havoc as they please. If you remove a post, aren't you preventing free speech? Discussion boards are by design a forum for open communication, a place where the community is encouraged to freely discuss its opinions. Only remove troll posts when they become disruptive to open communication. A troll is actually silencing the voice of a majority of the community members. Ask the troll to take their comments elsewhere.
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POPSLooking for a middle class
A sad depiction of how our middle class has been steadily losing ground to corporate dominance. This new economy is strangling the very people responsible for the success of many businesses who, along with government’s help, are creating this new economy. The days of job security are over. Beginning when companies began turning their ‘full-benefit’ employees into contractors to save the expense of providing those benefits. The middle class is about to be beat down even further when the drive to reduce the deficit and debt takes center stage. Reduction of Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements will be seen as the answer to rising costs and the middle class will be the biggest losers, again. Ms Cocco advises us to “Fight the myths. Break the back of the corrupt campaign finance and lobbying systems. These are hard political tasks. But being pushed further down is harder, still. Because no one knows where the new bottom lies.” Advice we would all do well to heed.
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POPSSearching For Consensus on Afghanistan share the same strategic interests and that the return to power of the Taliban would automatically mean a new sanctuary for al-Qaeda. Is that a myth? Here is Barack Obama on March 27, 2009, announcing his first new strategy for Afghanistan: "And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban - or allows al Qaeda to go unchallenged - that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can." He added: The return in force of al Qaeda terrorists who would accompany the core Taliban leadership would cast Afghanistan under the shadow of perpetual violence. Later in the Post article, the reporters quote a "senior Obama official" comparing Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Eight months ago, if you had asked people which was worse, everybody would have said Pakistan is worse and Afghanistan is in good shape." Afghanistan was in good shape? 2008 was the deadliest year for American troops there. Nobody paying any attention
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POPSDo our brains interpret our values and beliefs as facts (objective truths)?
Such messages caused activation in the brain region that is responsible for error detection. So in other words (and yes, I am grossly simplifying here), it was as if people's brain's were indicating "error, error, error; this message does not compute." This is consistent with research by Emily Pronin (psychology professor at Princeton University), which shows that people of all beliefs see their own beliefs as LESS biased than others. In other words, republicans see themselves as less biased, and so do democrats, and for that matter, so do mailman, coperate CEO's and homeless people. I think this goes a long way in explaining the depth and extent to which people defend their beliefs. Perhaps, Berger and Luckmann are right; we do live, in some sense, in alternative forms of reality. Sure, we all know a rock won't bite us and 2 + 2 = 4, but what I "know" (George W. Bush was lousy) is not what many Republicans "knows" (George W. Bush was a good president).
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POPSObama: Taleban can be involved in Afghanistan future I can't decide if I'm surprised or in a coma. Sending only enough troops to keep al-Qaeda at bay places those already there in increased danger. No wonder the moral has taken a huge dip over the last months. No leadership = demoralization. And this guy is a 'Commander-in-Chief'?
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