20
POPSIn Search of Wisdom: What is the Root Cause of Inequality? When there is nothing quantifiable to possess, we would neither know what the share of each individual is nor think of equality; if there was no notion of equality, we would not care that some have more than the others. Fortunately or unfortunately, there is always something to be possessed and our mind is naturally keen on the subject of equality
7
POPSMartial Law Would Be Declared If Bailout Not Passed In House
As former California congressman Dan Hamburg said earlier this year, the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act gives the executive the power to invoke martial law in case of “major public emergencies,” not limited to “a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack,” but also “any other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order.” Obviously, a financial crash and ensuing social chaos of the sort now being implemented by the ruling elite would be characterized as a dire emergency and a near perfect excuse to impose martial law, a long standing goal of the elite. As the Army Times reported last month, a battle-hardened “homeland” brigade is now “going domestic” after spending time in Iraq. It appears this illegal deployment (under Posse Comitatus) is designed to respond to “public disorder” as the economy is deliberately and cynically dismantled at the behest of our rulers.
0
POPSSkunk at the Party Convention Roll Call columnist Stan Collender plays skunk at the garden party by pointing to the immediate governing challenges that President Obama or McCain will face. In essence, with the Bush administration planning to punt on the 2010 budget, the incoming administration faces a scramble to get its budget in by early February 2009. We'd point out that there will be big-ticket bills to attend to as well, such as the highway bill, up for reauthorization in 2009 (for more, click here http://www.forbes.com/beltway/2008/05/21/washington-lobbying-transportation-biz-wash-cz_atg_0521beltway.html)
3
POPSNaomi Klein: Bush Sees Crises in Fuel, Food, Housing and Banking as Chance to Exploit Us More
... Food, fuel, housing, climate change -- talk about these crises. First, start with oil. Klein: There really is a kind of a tsunami of shocks facing not just the economy but people's lives, people's real lives. They're all intersecting. They're making each other worse. And I think we really are seeing some very live examples of what a write about in the book, which is how there is a strategy. And this is what I mean by "the shock doctrine." There is a clear political strategy, and has been for several decades, to exploit these moments when people are desperate for quick-fix solutions and more inclined to believe in a kind of a magical cure, to push through very, very unpopular policies that don't actually solve the crisis at hand, that don't actually help people, but are incredibly profitable for multinational corporations. And I think we are seeing a very vivid example of this with this speech from George Bush yesterday, where he is taking a very real crisis, which is demandi
6
POPSWorld Bank Leak: Biofuels cause 75% of Food Increase The report claims that biofuels have driven up global food prices by 75%, according to the Guardian report, accounting for more than half of the 140% jump in price since 2002 of the food examined by the study. The paper claims that the report, completed in April, was not made public in order to avoid embarrassing Bush.
1
POPSWell, duh!
The question was specifically focused on a military response, but Obama didn’t talk about the military, or any use of force at all. “Well, first thing we’d have to do is make sure that we’ve got an effective emergency response, something that this administration failed to do when we had a hurricane in New Orleans,” Obama said. “And I think that we have to review how we operate in the event of not only a natural disaster, but also a terrorist attack.” “The second thing,” Obama continued, “is to make sure that we’ve got good intelligence, A, to find out that we don’t have other threats and attacks potentially out there; and B, to find out do we have any intelligence on who might have carried it out so that we can take potentially some action to dismantle that network.” The reference to “some action” might be interpreted as an endorsement of the use of force, but in the rest of his response, Obama softened even that notion. “But what we can’t do is then alienate the world community
4
POPSFlood victims say FEMA is doing a heckuva job Since FEMA received mega-press for it's perceived failures during the Hurricane, it seemed fair to post a clip that gives the organization some praise for doing a good job. However, I believe the magnitude and circumstances are entirely different. I am still amazed by a government/Country who will so willingly hand out millions of dollars to its citizens who have lost homes and property in these *natural* disasters.
6
POPSDirector of Meteorology: Americans Should Go After Gore And Hansen "It's back to the drawing board for Hansen and company as the alleged ‘consensus' over man-made climate fears continues to wane and more and more scientists declare their dissent," said Sen. Inhofe. Hear, hear! Readers are strongly advised to review all of the articles NewsBusters has published concerning the junk science being advanced by Hansen the last two decades. *****Update: Please don't miss fabulous posts concerning this matter by CEI's Chris Horner published at NRO's Planet Gore such as this, this, and this. In particular, don't miss Horner exposing Hansen for staging his June 1988 Congressional appearance by timing it for the hottest day of the year, and having the air conditioning turned off in the hearing room to make it especially toasty. Also, D'Aleo has more here.
0
POPSRelentless Working Out One of the reasons we were happy to return to NZ from Australia was that we are not convinced that Australia has food security. More evidence
13
POPSWhy do displays of compassion differ between East and West?
I am trying to understand A bit more: "In many Asian countries, favors invariably create obligations, which is perhaps why people are sometimes disinclined to interfere in the problems of others. You are obliged to take care of your family, your friends, or even your fellow countrymen. But the idea of universal charity is too abstract, and smacks of the kind of unwelcome interference that Western imperialists — and the Christian missionaries who followed them — practiced in the East for too long. The notion of "Asian values," promoted mostly by Singaporean official scribes, was partly a critique of universalist Western claims. Asians, according to this theory, have their own values, which include thrift, deference to authority, the sacrifice of individual to collective interests, and the belief that countries should not stick their noses into others' affairs. Hence, the hesitant response of Southeast Asian governments — and public opinion — to the Burmese disaster." see source
7
POPSNatural Disaster Evolves Into Man-Made Catastrophe "We have small helicopters to drop food, and we have doctors." The USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship, and its battle group have been waiting to join in the relief effort as well. U.S. Marine flights from their makeshift headquarters in Utapao, Thailand, continued Saturday — bringing the total to 500,000 pounds of aid delivered. Britain's prime minister accused authorities in Burma of behaving inhumanely by preventing foreign aid from reaching victims. "This is inhuman," Gordon Brown told the British Broadcasting Corp. Brown said a natural disaster "is being made into a man-made catastrophe by the negligence, the neglect and the inhuman treatment of the Burmese people by a regime that is failing to act.
2
POPSNatural Disaster In Beichuan: A Vision Of Hell Anger, too, is growing about the poor quality of buildings. In Mianzhu, an apartment block collapsed on itself. The flats had been built using contributions from a local work unit, a group of workers organised by the Communist Party at a factory or office. Residents searching for survivors said it was because corrupt officials had demanded so much in kickbacks that the building fell. The neighbouring buildings had not collapsed, including one which housed cadres from the Communist Party. "Show me the structural steel in that building," said one woman, whose mother is missing in the rubble. "It all went into some official's pocket," she spat. The foreign media have a poor image in China This makes reporting the disaster difficult; before the anti-Chinese riots in Tibet, and the sympathetic view of Tibetans in the Western media, foreign journalists were popular. Now we are seen as a threat.
7
POPSHuman Tragedy Granted, Myanmar has a terrible track record of human abuse. Their government is cuel and dictatorial. Yet for the US to offer a paultry $250,000 is an insult and shows a deep lack of humanity. The people of Myanmar are not the corrupt military dictatorship. Yet, it seems as though we are making them pay to score political points. Something is not right here.
8
POPSSmoke over Buenos Aires "Buenos Aires residents are hoping for a change in the wind direction to bring back the "good airs" which gave their city its name."
0
POPSVulnerability of Web and World A world without internet is almost inconceivable, In an article in Gigaom, however, 10 ways of how it might die are described. Even the survival of our whole world on the long term is unsure. An article in Discover discusses "20 ways the world could end". All these desasters are listed below.
5
POPSIreland- the good the bad & the ugly more funny stuff Most dangerous thing in Africa = Angry Hippo. Most dangerous thing in Ireland = Angry bumble bee. got to link hyperspace into wierd wonderful world of boards.ie the after hours topics/discussions can ve fairly interesting special if your irish or think you are
3
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update