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POPSThe emergent danger to personal liberty More: (Unfortunately, the use of government as a tool to enhance liberty is anathema to conservatives, focused as they are on the eighteenth-century threat alone.) If we lose this health insurance battle—or even if we win it—I’m still a progressive. I’ll still be pushing to right the balance. I expect to work on it all my life. …3. I worked for a while with a sister of one of the McLibel defendants. I know how bad it can get. Click through to read the whole thing, including footnotes 1 & 2.
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POPSfilk: "A Day in the Life" with Martians and Triffids! More: I read the news today oh, boy A million germs infecting all the war machines And though the germs were rather small They somehow killed them all Now we can finally go outside to places like the albert hall I'd love to turn you on
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POPSshort story: The Parable of the Shower, by Leah Bobet
More: The great and terrible laughter of the angel of the one true God makes thy knees tremble, but thou refusest to fall down upon them. For one thing, the shower in which thou showerest is slippery, and the LORD knows it is simple enough to break an ankle or a hip or an arm in the shower without the intervention of an angel of the LORD. Missus Van Metre down the hall suffered this very affliction five months past, and thou hadst to fetch and carry for her from the apartment to the hospital, bear pajamas and the daily mail, as thou art the most young and hale person upon the sixteenth floor and the cry would have been great against you if thou hadst not.… Thou sayest unto the angel: I am in the shower. The angel saith: I care not. Thou sayest: I am naked. The angel saith: Nakedness is nothing before a servant of the LORD. Well it is something to man, thou repliest, and place thy loofah before thy shame. Much more – click through for the full story.
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POPSMaking Light: Folksongs are your friends More: Avoid navigable waterways. Don’t let yourself be talked into going down by the wild rippling water, the wan water, the salt sea shore, the strand, the lowlands low, the Burning Thames, and any area where the grass grows green on the banks of some pool. Cliffs overlooking navigable waterways aren’t safe either. Stay away from the greenwood side, too. If you look at the calendar and discover it’s May, stay home. If you are an unmarried lady and have sex, you will get pregnant. No good will come of it. If you are physically unable to get pregnant due to being male, the girl you had sex with will get pregnant. No good will come of it. You’ll either kill her, or she’ll kill herself, or her husband/brother/father/uncle/cousin will kill you both. In any case her Doleful Ghost will make sure everyone finds out. You will either get hanged, kill yourself, or be carried off bodily by Satan. Your last words will begin “Come all ye.” If your name is Janet, change it.
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POPSphysicists discover important step for making light crystals a bose-einstein condensate is a collection of atoms cooled with laser light to a temp just above absolute zero-kelvin, -273 degrees Celsius, or -460 degrees Fahrenheit...the first BEC ever produced was 170 nanokelvin, or 170 billionths of a kelvin- researchers have since produced condensates as cold as 500 picokelvin - or 500 trillionths of a kelvin....there is quite a bit more at source....interesting-
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POPSMore possible abuse While reading this same page, I realized that my housemate/husband's girlfriend (long story, if you don't know me personally, please don't ask) did these things to me. I suppose that still counts as abuse even if she wasn't MY partner, doesn't it? Another thing to mention to my lawyer. ...Or maybe none of it matters since Oregon is a "no fault" state when it comes to divorce.
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POPSNY Governor David Paterson: SNL's Faux Pas Outlaw trans fats? C'mon, Mike. That's small potatoes. How about a tax on sugar itself? A can of Coke could soon cost New Yorkers more than just calories. Gov. Paterson, as part of a $121 billion budget to be unveiled Tuesday, will propose an "obesity tax" of about 15% on nondiet drinks. Let's just skip the next few chapters and move straight to the government-approved, gluten-free, non-dairy nutrient paste. (HT: JWF and Hot Air)
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POPSin praise of REAL fruitcake Not those nasty commercial things that are better used as doorstops than as food, this is real fruitcake made with real fruit and real liquor. Yum. Don't miss the comments, as there are a number of tasty-sounding recipes there as well.
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POPSthings to remember on Dysfunctional Families Day There are a plenitude of days for celebrating your parents and getting together with your family. There aren’t a lot of days when you can admit that your parents actually drove you completely bats, or that you’d rather learn autotrepanning with a Black and Decker than sit down with the people who made your first 18 years a misery. And some people need that, because that’s the truth, and pretending otherwise is poison to the soul. Today is the autumnal equinox. Things are in balance, but shifting toward the darkness. What better day to use for this purpose? (For Southern Hemisphere readers, today is yet another day when your experience is overridden by the thoughtless majority, which is an equally valid reason.) Now, I’m not really qualified to discuss this matter, because, well, I kinda like my family…So let me yield the floor to those whose day this really is. What are you doing today, to either live with your past or transcend it?
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POPSSick Humour Heals "It should be called an honest attitude, and that covers all the bases, because some days you feel angry and some days you feel sad," she says. "When you give it to them on a coffee mug it gives permission to say that and feel that." "I am stronger than a jelly doughnut." "I am stronger than f***ing Tourette's." "Diabetes makes me twice as sweet." "It's not just my head that's bald, you know..."
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POPSFinding Comedy in Terrorism When I saw this, it only reminded me of how warped and sick those in media have become. Some things are beyond satire and are completely tasteless. I wonder how the families of those who died in Britain, Spain, Indonesia, Israel, Iraq, Russia, etc...innocents....would view this spectacle? Sadly, we are beyond redemption in this area. Free speech and *artistic license* supersede common decency. But wait til it happens to you....if won't be *art* anymore. :~(
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POPSMexican park gives visitors a border run for their money My first immediate thought was: "If they are really doing this to provide jobs to the citizens of Mexico". My second thought, was: "Wait a minute what about all the lives lost and families separated by dangerous routes across the border is this not making light of their deaths." My last thought was: "What if it is true and the citizens of Mexico are spending what money they have to practice to make a run for the border?" I believe this was a well writen article except now I have more questions then answers.
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