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POPSGerman Translation Workers Report Mass Protests on University Campuses
According a number of outspoken German Translation students, demonstrations began on Monday and are anticipated to continue through the weekend. Apparently, the protests began at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich sparked these new comments from the Education Minister. Other protests are being held simultaneously on 20 different university campuses throughout Germany. However, German students are not alone in their call for academic reform. In fact, the German protests are more of a display of camaraderie for students in Austria who are also demanding changes. In Austria, complaints range from overloaded degree courses, social inequality within the educational system, chronic funding shortages, and the introduction of tuition fees and the bachelor and master system into German universities problems in restructuring bachelors and masters degree programs. More specifically, student tend to be protesting most for publicly funded education.
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POPSThe trouble with diversity: celebrating difference doesn't reduce inequality More: If you're worried about the growing economic inequality in American life, if you suspect that there may be something unjust as well as unpleasant in the spectacle of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, no cause is less worth supporting, no battles are less worth fighting, than the ones we fight for diversity… Our identity is the least important thing about us. And yet, it is the thing we have become most committed to talking about. From the standpoint of a left politics, this is a profound mistake since what it means is that the political left -- increasingly invested in the celebration of diversity and the redress of historical grievance -- has converted itself into the accomplice rather than the opponent of the right.
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POPSWall Street Bonuses Vs. Normal Wages: A Disturbing Trend (CHART, VIDEO) A Goldman Sachs International adviser defended compensation in the finance industry as his company plans a near-record year for pay, saying the spending will help boost the economy. "We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all," Brian Griffiths, who was a special adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said yesterday at a panel discussion hosted by St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/20/wall-street-bonuses-vs-no_n_324281.html
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POPSNational Gaps Between Rich & Poor - USA is No. 3
When I saw this headline, I thought for sure the ole USA would be at the top of the list but NO there really are greedier nations (people) residing on this Earth. Though only 2, for USA hit the number 3 slot. It's a pity that the human race has yet to understand that we are all one, all traveling in the same direction of unknowing. Yet material-wise we struggle to have a one-upmanship on one another; a need of sorts to look down your nose at those financially beneath you due to hard luck or heritage. The visualization of this gap is hardest to stomach. With architecturally handsome buildings on one side of the picture (You can envision those within these structures looking out their ivory tower windows at the ants below.) and poor people, on the other side, in fetal-like positions, huddled against buildings to protect themselves from the elements, cold, hungry and hopeless. It’s the food-chain, only the winners aren’t the fittest but the greediest.
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POPS10 Mediveval Torture Devices
More from the article: Some courts used torture to determine if someone accused of a crime was truly guilty. This torture would take strange forms: Someone's arm would be forced into boiling water, and the verdict would be based on how well the arm healed days later. Other courts simply tortured people to get them to confess to the crime. The courts themselves even recognized, in their twisted way, that a confession given under torture held no legal meaning. Such a confession had to be confirmed by the victims while not being tortured within 24 hours. If they refused, however, they were simply tortured until they confessed again People were often tortured to force religious conversions. They also faced torture because they may have committed heresy against the established church. Thousands were tortured during the Inquisition on the pretext of religious heresy or conversion, although Inquisitors in general were often motivated by more earthly concerns - they took over the estates
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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.
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POPSTrying to muster sympathy for the billionaires' shrinking assets More: Lawrence Katz, a labor economist at Harvard, sensibly points out that one could generate incentives to excel for less: “I don’t think the added incentive of earning $100 million over $50 million is very different than the incentive of making $10 million over $5 million,” he told me once.
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POPSEast Bay poverty rates show 1 in 10 below federal poverty line
More: in real terms — adjusted for inflation — East Bay incomes have been flat for two years. East Bay residents make about $3,500 less than they did in 2000 if their incomes are adjusted for inflation, said Jennifer Lin, a researcher for the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy. Lin points out that averages can also disguise the growing inequality the census numbers reveal. There are fewer East Bay households now making the middle incomes of from $75,000 to $150,000, and more people—especially Latinos and African-Americans working in low-wage service industries—are having a harder time making enough money to get by without public help.… Homeownership declined in both counties, which was no surprise to a region hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis… For homeowners with a mortgage, the median monthly cost last year was $2,755 in Alameda County and $2,842 in Contra Costa County. For renters, the median monthly rent was $1,192 in Alameda County and $1,254 in Contra C
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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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POPSUS is slipping toward Plutocracy: Money rules
Latest example is healthcare reform. In the second quarter of 2009, the health industry spent $133 million on lobbyists, reckons the Center for Responsive Politics. That doesn’t count lobbying by associations. The US Chamber of Commerce alone spent $26 million on lobbying in the first half of this year, “a good chunk” on the health issue, says Dave Levinthal, spokesman for the center. Polls show the public wants healthcare reform and a public-insurance option. So the health-insurance industry is pretending to be in favor of reform while trying to kill it through campaign contributions, ads, and lobbying, says Wendell Potter, who until recently led corporate communications at CIGNA, a major health-insurance company. Moreover trade unions provide some balance of power to the might of business and wealth. In Sweden, 85 percent of the labor force is organized; in other major nations 35-40 percent. Compare with 7.4 percent of workers in the private sector in the US.
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