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POPSCory Doctorow: Follow your weird More: Did you get into that blissed-out concentration state that great athletes and musicians and artists find themselves in? Did you go to a place where your mind was able to talk to itself without the endless chatter of the million billion grocery items and nagging doubts? If you got there, you’re winning the game of life. You’ve spent your time well. You might even end up changing the world.
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POPSThe Real Columbus Story. I learned awhile back what a ruthless cruel man Christopher Columbus was. He was no hero but the history books continue to paint him that way. Why? Is it because the Christopher Columbus myth has taken a life of its own and cannot be dispelled? Human beings love fantasy. We love to be lifted, if only for a short period, out of our humdrum lives. We also love answers, even if most of the answers we are given by historians don't hold water, we will still cling to them. It makes me wonder that maybe in the not so far off future when we are all trying to survive the Global Warming Effects, history books will claim that the George W Bush era helped save our planet by getting rid of billions of poor people so that the wealthiest will have a better chance at survival. All the rich kids will read about their savior "W" while they bask in the sun at the seashores of South Dakota and Kansas on their George W Bush day off. No different from today. :eek:
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POPSShaving Kitty Sometimes this is done for very practical purposes, such as cutting down on matted fur, hairballs, fleas, etc. Not cruel. http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/lioncut.asp
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POPSWhy Did The DoD Ignore Requests From Their Own Attorney For A War Crimes Investigation? Air Force Maj. David Frakt, the attorney for former detainee Mohammed Jawad, says over the past 16 months he sent multiple memos to Defense Department and military leaders asking them to account for what a military judge called “abusive conduct and cruel and inhuman treatment” of his client. Jawad, who was arrested when he says he was 12 years old for allegedly tossing a grenade at U.S. military, was moved from cell to cell 112 times during a 14-day period to disrupt his sleep patterns, according to military documents. Frakt said he believes the treatment constituted torture, violated the Geneva Convention, war crime laws and Defense Department regulations.
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POPSLet Pandas Die Out Whilst I really dislike the thought of these gorgeous creatures becoming extinct, the fact that to keep them alive means they have to survive in zoos - just "feels abominable" to me. They were born to live in the wild and if their habitat no longer exists I think it is cruel to keep them alive in zoos and artificially inseminate them to propogate their species. So this conservationist has a very convincing argument. Maybe we should be using the money to buy up land that is "home/habitat" for these creatures instead of putting them in zoos and subjecting them to even more "human control". Just because we like living in zoos I don't see why we should subject them to it.
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POPS"Polanski's victim and me" by Robert Goolrick More: it is the absolute, final, and total end of childhood, of any sense of innocence and wonder. Perhaps the girl in California had already lost hers. Perhaps her mother manipulated the situation. I, frankly, don’t give a good goddamn. That girl is forever defined by that moment, as I have been defined by my own moment of terror and pain and horror. There is, for me, no place on this whole planet that is safe. I move farther and farther from the center of things. I find myself in hotel rooms or houses in remote places where nobody knows where I am, and very few even care. I have been an alcoholic, a drug user, a sexual deviant and addict. I have tried with what heart I have left to be kind and generous and loving, and I have wrecked my life and hurt people I love. I have tried to be whole, to be a regular man inside a regular man’s skin, and I have failed miserably.
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POPSOn ableist language More: If you think you should use a word because no other has the same impact, well, you’re right about the impact. Your usage has such an impact because it draws its power from disability=bad. You are forming a powerful sentence from disablism, our deep-set pain. It’s so much easier and better to just change your words. If you still insist on such usage, that’s lazy and cruel. If you’re not sure if your use of a word is offensive, err on the side of caution. Another message to take away is this. 1. If you are calling yourself progressive 2. and you are harming people with disabilities 3. you are not, in fact, progressive.
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POPSHazing at New Jersey's "top" high school This makes me furious. Not just because kids can be so cruel, but because this activity has been going on for over a decade without school administrators putting a stop to it. This is from one of the wealthiest towns in America and a school district that is ranked #1in the state. Man, growing up ain't easy.
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POPSKhadafy Speaks at U.N. The horrid translation on live TV are hard to believe. The following summary can't be any worse: 1. You folks in the General Assembly might as well be speaking at Hyde Park. 2. The veto power of five nations on the Security Council is unfair. 3. Continents and long recognized regional unions should have a permanent seat on the Security Council (like the African Union, EU, etc.) 4. General Assembly should be real power, not just Security Council. 5. No more Mickey Mouse 6. 65 wars since UN founded. 7. Nuclear power's do war/ terrorism too, killing millions. And they are pirates of resources. 8. Obama good ideas but could just be an shinning exception in the dark. 9. Cruel Colonialism of Africa ripped off $7.77 Trillion. Pay us back. 10. UN should Investigate Iraq War and many assassinations that favored imperialism. 11. Arabs didn't do the Holocaust. It was done by Europeans. 12. We're friends of Jews, but stop the aggression that poisons the worl
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POPSBertolt Brecht Quote Collage "Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928. A moritat (from mori meaning "deadly" and tat meaning "deed") is a medieval version of the murder ballad performed by strolling minstrels The Brecht-Weill version of the character was far more cruel and sinister, and has been transformed into a modern anti-hero. The opera opens with the moritat singer comparing Macheath (unfavorably) with a shark, and then telling tales of his robberies, murders, rapes, and arson.
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POPSFDA Approves Experimental H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Prior to Children Safety Trials Beginning Moreover, it appears that the Novartis Swine Flu vaccine insert is mostly a copied and pasted from the FLUVIRIN insert. Both inserts indicate that the vaccine is not for use for children under four years of age. Yet, Novartis is having a trial as I write this on three year old boys and girls. Even harder to grasp is the CDC’s recommendation that pregnant women and children 6-months of age are being shoved to the front of the line for being vaccinated. The cruel irony on page 2 of the Novartis Swine Flu vaccine insert remarks, “Safety and effectiveness of Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine have not been established in pregnant women, nursing mothers or children less than 4 years of age. (8.1, 8.3, 8.4)“
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POPSJapanese Town Starts Dolphin Hunt Under Global Spotlight
The film shows angry confrontations between residents and the lead activist, Ric O'Barry, who in the 1960s trained dolphins for the US hit television show "Flipper" but now argues the animals should be free to roam the oceans. The film won numerous international prizes, including the Sundance Festival's audience award, and last month led the Australian city of Broome to announce it would cancel it sister-city relationship with Taiji. "Dolphins are a large-brain creature," O'Barry, 69, told AFP during a recent return visit to Japan. "They are highly intelligent, they are self-aware, like gorillas and humans. I nursed them, I watched them give birth. "And for me, to kill them, is extremely, extremely..." He paused, then simply added: "I don't see the purpose." In Taiji, where about 3,700 people live, the global uproar stirred by "The Cove" has met with equal incomprehension -- and anger. Amid the raging controversy, Taiji's fishermen started their annual hunt Wednesday, catc
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POPSA Tale of Two Joe Wilsons, a Tale of Two Americas Note that the first Joe Wilson was dead wrong, but that the Obama administration responded in a gentlemanly way to his charge. The Bush-Cheney administration, in contrast, attempted to besmirch the reputation and the life of a dedicated lifetime civil servant because he spoke the truth to the president. The story of the two Joe Wilsons and how they were treated is the story of two visions of America. The Bush-Cheney vision is a nightmarish landscape of blighted lives and cruel indifference to basic human decency. The Obama vision is just the Golden Rule, with which the people who vote for the evil Joe Wilson typically profess acquaintance.
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POPSPres. Obama's Speech = Huge Progress
Once again our new President Obama stepped up to the plate and blasted another home run. His speech last night to a rare joint session of Congress (i.e. all our politicians), was firm, assertive, inspiring and pointed to real and positive changes, i.e. 1) no disqualifications for pre-existing conditions and 2) Not dropping people's health insurance when they get sick! Gads! -- Not needing is much I had no idea the health insurance industry was so cruel and so criminal...criminal, imo, that someone has insurance then when they get cancer their policy is NOT RENEWED! Wow...that's evil. (If you've been reading any of the 80 posts by merri today, or only listening to USA corrosive and toxic news, you may have missed the boat on where this is going: It's going to certain victory on the two (2) points mentioned above. It surreal the vile Republican spin that trys to drag Obama down, call things failed, and the dude hasn't even gotten up to bat yet! He hit this one out of t
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POPS“Happy Cows” in California? Not with Schwarzenegger Around… Despite having no arguments, Schwarzenegger has openly mocked this bill on his twitter page, along with making a video to prove his point, with the stance that no one should be bothering with cow tails when the economy is suffering. If signed into law, California would be the first state to ban tail docking in dairy cattle. You can contact the Governor’s office to urge him to sign the bill by emailing governor@governor.ca.gov or by calling 916-445-2841.
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