Brunei-1 (Photo credit: didkovskaya)
United States Capitol (Photo credit: Jack in DC)
CIA jobs ad (Photo credit: thomas pix)The First Rule of 2016...
(By *American Zen*'s Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari.)
...don't talk about 2013.
The beauty of doing mere commentary instead of actual hard news (and
by that I'm not talking about the Brangelina or Kim Kardashian's
well-hidden stretch marks) is you don't have to do a lot of hard research
and provide, as Frank Rich used to do at the *NY Times*, a surfeit of
corroborating links. And one of the beauties of having a liberal byline is
you can always take it as a rock-solid, absolutely immovable article of
faith that both political parties will do their damnedest to punch
thems... more »
Does Chinese literacy need to be "revived"?
*Sent to the Wall Street Journal, Oct 22
*
*As is the case in the US, China thinks that literacy is declining and that
part of the solution is a TV spelling bee in Chinese ("Chinese TV's Latest
Hit Features a Character-Driven Plot: Show Aimed at Reviving the Country's
Written Language Explodes."October 20).
*
*There is no evidence of a decline of literacy in China and no evidence of
a decline in the US. The fact that only 30% of the adults in the audience
of the TV show could spell spell "toad" correctly in Chinese characters
suggests that there has been no decline: even adult Chin... more »
Here Comes the "Special" Hype
The death last week of long-time Member of the House C.W. Bill Young last
week means we're going to get something that this Congress has managed to
put off so far: outrageous hype over a special election.
All House elections are important, and this Tampa-area one will be in one
of the relatively rare competitive seats. So it will be an important
election.
However, whenever it winds up being scheduled (with March 11 apparently the
best guess so far) it will tell us nothing about the November 2014
elections, other than perhaps indicating what will happen in that district.
It is not a... more »
SEX-MAD SATANIC CIA-SULTANATE
*Shannon Marketic - 'sex slave'*
Brunei means sex, sadism and the CIA.
Brunei to bring in tough new sharia law
In 1997, former Miss USA Shannon Marketic says that she, and other girls,
were held as 'sex slaves' by the royal family of Brunei, who claim to be
good Moslems.
Brunei small cunt..
Brunei serves "as a virtual cash cow for covert and overt U.S.
operations..."
Brunei has been involved in "covertly *supporting the Nicaraguan contras *during
the Reagan administration and *contributing to the CIA-linked Bosnia
Defense Fund i*n the 1990s, to *pumping tons of cash into Bill C... more »
Al-Qaeda-Linked Group Is Seen Complicating the Drive for Peace in Syria
Oh it isn't just 'al Qaeda' complicating the drive for peace. Pay attention
to what John Kerry is saying.
By challenging moderate Syrian rebels, the group, the Islamic State of Iraq
and Syria, has forced them to fight on two fronts and divert resources from
their battle with the government of President Bashar al-Assad, the official
said.
And by presenting an extremist face to the world, the official said, the
group is aiding Mr. Assad’s efforts to portray the conflict in Syria as a
tug of war between the government and jihadists.
*“That has to give the regime comfort and confiden... more »
Another Great Video – Why You Should NEVER Lecture from the Book’s Slides
My first semester teaching as a PhD’d professor was tough – I was
constantly struggling to stay on top of my research responsibilities and my
family responsibilities. Add in teaching 2 new preps – something had to
give! Well, I thought I found a solution – the textbook I was using for
Intro to IR had already-made
Continue reading
The Realist Report with John Friend
On this edition of *The Realist Report*, we'll be joined by Dr. Kevin
MacDonald. Dr. MacDonald and I will be discussing his book *The Culture of
Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in
Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements*, White identity and
the future of White America.
You can download the mp3 for this program *here*, or visit *The Realist
Report* on BlogTalkRadio to subscribe via iTunes and view past programs.
Below are relevant links for this program:
- *Organized Jewry: destroyers of Western civilization* by John Friend
- *The Occid... more »
Happy Birthday!
To Southern Son, who inherited his mother's good looks and musical talents.
Happy Birthday Son!
Fall Break Day Three
And Day Three was the Drive Back Home. Which for some reason always seems
to take less time than the drive up, even though we were in no hurry and
made several stops to snack and geocache and generally goof around. Teen
Daughter was delivered to her mother at four-ish and Southern Man was back
at The Land by nine, having stopped in town to shop for Southern Son's
upcoming birthday. As in, tomorrow. Southern Man got him all six *Star Wars*movies on Blu-Ray; hope he likes them.
Tomorrow Southern Man will drop by the Ancestral Manor and drop off the
gifts, go to church, do laundry, and... more »
How Far Are Republicans In General-- And Fred Upton In Particular-- Willing To Go To Sabotage The Affordable Care Act?
Unlike Benghazi! and the rest of the nonsense Darrell Issa's Witch-Hunt
Committee "investigates," Boehner is eager to try to get some serious
attention focused on the flaws in the roll out of the Affordable Care Act. (Like
Medicare the rollout has been messy and, like Medicare, the Republicans
want to demagogue it instead of helping to make it better.) So he assigned
the investigation not to the clownish Oversight Committee chaired by Issa
but to Fred Upton's Energy and Commerce Committee. Here's the press release
the Republicans put out last Thursday:
The House Energy and Comme... more »
THINGS LEARNED
Maine is a beautiful state to walk through. Water, mountains, trees,
farms, poverty, and interesting people.
One of my favorite moments on the walk was along the narrow rural Highway 2
from Skowhegan to Farmington. (On this route truckers often blasted their
horns.) We approached a local mom & pop breakfast joint and three guys
were in the parking lot watching us pass by. I crossed the street and
handed them each our flyer. One of them asked how much it would cost to
get a hunting license to shoot down drones. I told them the story about
seeing a bumpersticker that said, "Pr... more »
Apples and Oranges
Nelson W. Polsby used to be very upset at the cliche about apples and
oranges: Of course you can compare them! They're both fruit!
Which is pretty much how I feel about liberal outrage about comparisons
between Healthcare.gov and Bush-era fiascos including Iraq and Katrina that
have been making the rounds this week -- here's Oliver Willis tweeting a graph
showing deaths from the three while saying "why you shouldnt compare
obamacare to katrina or iraq, in one chart. cc: all pundits"
Well, no, not really. And not just because, in fact, this is a
self-refusing argument; posting the gr... more »
Tuesday Linkage
Killer Robots: Wired reports on developments in autonomous weaponry,
quoting military personnel who say the idea is to think of them “not as
tools but as members of the squad.” Video gamers collaboratively solved a
decade-old puzzle about the complex structure of an enzyme relevant to
HIV-AIDS research, suggesting human spatial reasoning is superior to
Continue reading
Untitled
*Vilma returns to practice for Saints ~WDSU*
*Step Back In The Window, Sir ~The Angry Who Dat*
*who dat brat ~hungry termite *
The Mismeasure of Education Recalls the Coleman Report in Explaining Today's Reform Errors
It has been a great year for education scholarship with masterpieces like
David Kirp’s *Improbable Scholars *and Diane Ravitch’s *Reign of Error*.
Jal Mehta’s *The Allure of Order *provides a timely review of a century of
failed top down reforms and, now, Jim Horn and Denise Wilburn offer an
equally timely and profound history of the failure of test-driven reform.
Horn’s and Wilburn’s The Mismeasure of Education is a must-read, a
scholarly tour de force comparable to Daniel Koretz’s *Measuring Up*. The
two aspects of Horn’s and Wilburn’s research that taught me the most were
their a... more »
Medicating ADHD in the Brave New World of High-Stakes Accountability
Medicating ADHD in the Brave New World of High-Stakes Accountability. via
Medicating ADHD in the Brave New World of High-Stakes Accountability.
Treading Water Underwater
That's the excellent metaphor used by Binyamin Applebaum of the *New York
Times* today in describing the most recent jobs report. We're
drowning while continuing to flail.
And as per usual, the experts proclaim themselves mildly surprised and
disappointed that we aren't bursting from the depths and performing a water
ballet. They're still a little bummed that austerity for the
masses and corporate welfare and quantitative easing for the plutocrats has
not caused a sonic boom in hiring. All they can come up with to describe
the destructive effects of the class war is that the situati... more »
The GOP's 10 Lesser Demands During the Government Shutdown
On October 16th, Congress passed an 11th hour bill allowing the
government to reopen and to raise the debt ceiling. During the 16 day
shutdown, the Republicans submitted what Rachel Maddow called a "long,
weird, ever-changing ransom note" to Congressional Democrats and the White
House that was consistently and categorically refused. Among the ransom
demands: Starting construction on the Keystone XL pipeline, delaying and
defunding the ACA and denying President Obama himself ObamaCare. But those
were merely the most visible demands submitted by a GOP desperate to save
face and ... more »
This Is Disturbing: "The (Pacific) Ocean Is Broken"!
Recently, I was asked to look at some articles that claim that the
Fukushima nuclear disaster was a "hoax". I indeed spent some time looking
over the material, and although it did some some very interesting points
and some factual evidence that backs the claim that there was no disaster
at Fukushima, Japan, I was not sold.... I have seen the reports and photos
of all the damage to the west coast of the United States and Canada, and of
course all the reports about marine life dying in the north Pacific due to
radiation exposure.... AND of course I have the reports about high
radiati... more »
Amazing Article By Lasha Darkmoon: Secret Sex Life Of The Jews
I and others in what I call the REAL truth movement have been putting up
articles for years explaining to everyone the dangers of Judaism and its
vile and disgusting practices of pedophilia as written in its revolting
Talmud. There are many passages in the disgusting Talmud that talks about
such things as "Sex with a child under the age of 3 is permissible", and
"Sex with someone under the age of 9 is nothing". It is remarkable that
people have not been aware of these and other writings in this piece of
filth, and that primarily is due to the work of the Jewish media in not
reve... more »
From Consolidation to "Decoupling" in Memphis, and the Costs of Corporate Reform
The Memphis Commercial Appeal has another no-news story today on questions
remaining about how much it will cost to operate nine school systems in
Shelby County, rather than one. Let's see, we have six leafy boutique
municipal systems, a Shelby County non-municipal system, the Achievement
School District downtown, a high-rolling hedge fund backed charter system
with KIPPs and Rocketships, and a local charter system run by black
politicians paid off for their support of the Gates fragmentation plan.
The CM article continues to focus on the millions missing when the munis
pull out en... more »
Untitled
*What we have heah, is a fail'ya'ta comoonicate, what Ah like'ta call
Congenital Insult with Extreme Prejudice! ~Editorial: Don’t ban Harper Lee*
*Full-time employees drop sharply even as Landrieu proposes first budget
increase ~Charles Maldonado, The Lens*
*Officials break ground on Iberville redevelopment ~Jaquetta White, N.O.
Advocate*
*New “nano” brewery sets sights on Lower Garden District ~Robert Morris,
Uptown Messenger*
*Robert Penn Warren ~KnowLA*
*Judge orders BP oil spill claims chief to set terms ~WWLTV *
*Corps to host meeting for update on Mississippi River study ~Dr... more »
Raising Minnesota: Ripley’s choice!
*TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013*
*The name that doesn’t bark:* Amanda Ripley’s ballyhooed book, The Smartest
Kids in the World, is simply filled with embellishments.
It also makes several basic proposals. These proposals seem to make pretty
good sense, especially if you only care about our middle-class kids.
For ourselves, we’ve been fascinated by the embellishments. They start on
page 2, where Ripley offers one of the most absurd misstatements in the
history of books.
But so what? Reviewers, including major education writers, know they
mustn’t notice such problems. As you can see in ... more »
MORE WALK PHOTOS
From our drone peace walk pot luck supper and program in Bangor, Maine on
October 12.
Photos taken by Katie Greenman.
Northern Taiwan Tour: Two Days of Fun-n-Sun!
*Corey Sanderson fortifies himself for the Suao Mackerel Festival*
Saturday and Sunday, courtesy of the fine folks at the China Productivity
Center, I took a great trip across northern Taiwan to Pingxi, Suao, and
Neiwan where a diverse and interesting group visited a variety of tourist
sites, including local museums and old streets, and participated in some of
the local activities, including the lantern in Pingxi, which I had never
done before. Come below the READ MORE divide for some great Taiwan fun with
people who really made it worthwhile.
We boarded a bus at the uncivilized ho... more »
Iraq Government Again Denies Permits To Anti-Pension Protests
In August and October 2013 thousands of Iraqis went to the streets across
the country to protest the pensions that government lawmakers receive. Some
were met by friendly officials and went about their business peacefully. In
other provinces like Baghdad and Dhi Qar the security forces cordoned off
the center of the cities, harassed, beat, arrested, and shot activists and
reporters. One cause of the confrontations was the fact that the
authorities have denied permits to organizers. Another day of marches is
planned for October 26, and again the central government has turned down a... more »
Signs of a changing planet - October Part I
address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Dr. John v. Kampen) at - 5 hours ago
Link: http://youtu.be/Gys0tge5Fto
An (again) interesting compilation of visual facts about world climatic
events (and not from computer model garbage by so-called 'scientists'
swarming around corrupt and incompetent so-called 'professional
politicians' wasting our tax money). I think that modern means of
communication make us faster aware of the handful of dreadful weather (
associated) events that take place on Earth each month. Earlier we didn't
hear about it, weren't aware of it, or learned it weeks afterwards causing
a "who cares"-reaction. There are signs of change! There alway... more »
10 Reasons To Buy Your Food Locally
Source:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Agriculture-Society/217990047058#!/pages/Agriculture-Society/217990047058
New Research on UI
The abstract of a recent NBER working paper (emphasis added):
We exploit a policy discontinuity at U.S. state borders to identify the
effects of unemployment insurance policies on unemployment. Our estimates
imply that *most of the persistent increase in unemployment during the
Great Recession can be accounted for by the unprecedented extensions of
unemployment benefit eligibility*. In contrast to the existing recent
literature that mainly focused on estimating the effects of benefit
duration on job search and acceptance strategies of the unemployed -- the
micro effect -- we focus o... more »
How A Political Wave Builds And Turns Into A Tsunami
Did Ted Cruz's McCarthy-like agenda help build a wave for the Democrats?
The 2014 midterm elections are over a year away and there's plenty that
will happen between now and then. The Democrats need a net gain of 17 seats
to take back the majority. That means if worthless Blue Dogs and New Dems
from the Republican-wing of the Democratic Party-- say, as looks likely,
Jim Matheson (UT), Mike McIntyre (NC) and Ron Barber (AZ)-- can't be saved,
not even in a wave election and lose their seats, then the Democrats would
have to win not 17 but 20 to make up for the 3 losses. The new polling f... more »
The Greeks Had a Word For It
How do you spell heteros*edasticity? Economist Alfredo R. Paloyo surveys
the evidence and shows that the variant “heteroskedasticity” overtook its
rival, “heteroscedasticity”, several years ago. Oddly, “homoscedastic”,
“heteroscedastic”, and “homoscedasticity” continue to trump their
k-variants. (Clearly, I am in the copy-editing phase of revising a paper,
and this blog post must be part of the
Continue reading
The threat of Islamophilia
Islamophobia is not a problem, Islamophilia is...
Bill exposes government officials who lack the courage to speak out or
stand against Islamic violence.
Oil money buys a lot.
*Thanks to Theo Spark for the spot.*
Saudi doctors lose appeal of dismissal of University of Ottawa lawsuit -- media article, judgement, and commentary
Dr.
Khalid Aba-Alkhail (left), and Dr. Waleed AlGhaithy
The Ottawa Citizen has reported this short story: HERE.
The actual Court of Appeal for Ontario judgement is HERE.
Well there you have it. The claimants were simply never allowed to be
heard in the Ontario courts regarding how they were treated by
University of Ottawa administrators. Plain and simple denial of access
to justice.
France floats " Trial Balloon " discussion of Eurozone Exit by France ! Reaction to Marine Le Pen recent Electoral Success or more substantial fundamental disagreement with Germany the motivation ?
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013
French Officialdom Now Discussing Eurozone Exit
Just because a taboo has been broken does not necessarily mean that more
radical action is in the offing. But the flip side is that, while we’ve
been busy following debt ceiling and budget hijinx in the US, there are
some surprising developments on the other side of the pond. One is that, as
anti-Euro candidate Marine Le Pen is leading in polls in France, respected
members of its ruling bureaucracy are deeming the Euro as a failed
experiment and presenting detailed plans as to how an breakup could be
executed.... more »
Libya news for October 18 - 19 , 2013 - Nato's template for non kinetic military clusterfarks and items on note concerning lack of security , the daily killings , the daily political strife as Militias still rule the land....
Catharsis Ours - 6 hours ago
Libya Shield commander denies murder, vows revenge for torched family home
*By Ahmed Elumami and Maha Ellawati.*
[image: Wissam Ben Hamid this evening on Alaseema TV]
Wissam Ben Hamid this evening on Alaseema TV
*Benghazi, 18 October 2013:*
The commander of the Libya Shield No. 1 Battalion, Wissam Ben Hamid, spent
almost two hours taking part in a TV phone-in this evening, denying that he
was in any way connected with the murder earlier in the day of the Chief of
Libya’s Military Police, Colonel Ahmed Mustafa Al-Barghathi. He also vowed
to target the people who had burnt down his famil... more »
FROM BOTH SIDES NOW: Live and direct from the general store!
*TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013*
*Part 2—What David Jackson said:* Without any question, there’s a lot of
The Crazy and a lot of The Dumb floating around on “the right.”
As always, Jonathan Capehart went looking. Last week, he was still
shrieking about the things one person had said.
Back in September, Capehart spoke with David Jackson of Belmont, North
Carolina (or thereabouts) at the Belmont General Store, roughly 15 miles
west of Charlotte. (Belmont is located at 35°14′40″N, 81°2′8″W. For pizza
prices at Belmont General, kindly please click right here.)
Three weeks later, the things... more »
12 Ways Essential Oils Can Heal by Pat B.
12 Ways Essential Oils Can Heal
by Pat B.
Off The Grid News, 21 October 2013
A major concern in an emergency or survival situation is the tending of
injuries and illnesses, but it is often difficult to lay in supplies for
these potential needs.
Many of the “conventional” supplies for health care are controlled by
prescription requirements, or access is otherwise limited to healthcare
professionals. To be perfectly honest, many modern techniques are not the
best options available, and are more dictated by the current whims of large
pharmaceutical companies than by real world... more »
September Non Farm Payrolls miss expectations ( actual 148 , 000 vs expectations of 180 , 000 ) , Unemployment rate drops allegedly to 7.2 Percent - Taper Talk off the table with those headline numbers ! Labor Force Participation remains flat at 63.2 Percent - lowest in thirty years !
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-22/dismal-jobs-reports-sends-sp-new-all-time-high
Dismal Jobs Reports Sends S&P To New All-Time High
[image: Tyler Durden's picture]
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/22/2013 08:50 -0400
- Bond
- recovery
- Unemployment
inShare
The 3rd miss in a row for private payrolls was enough to spark an
engorgement of all things Federal-Reserve-liquidity related. Gold is
jumping, Bond yields are tumbling, the USD is crumbling, and the S&P 500 is
soaring to new all-time highs... sure, why not...
But but but the unemployment rate is at 5 ... more »
‘Now it is impossible to defeat Syria’: General Amine Hotait
*‘Now it is impossible to defeat Syria’: General Amine Hotait*
Is the General's analysis solid? With so many variables to consider? Maybe,
yes. Maybe, no.
Either way, the piece is a very good read. Israel's involvement get a good
going over. Which is so rare in the NATO media. Enjoy!
The situation in Syria showcases the US-Israel failure to pursue their
plans on the ground, Lebanese military specialist, law professor, General
Amine Hotait told RT. He believes this attempt blocks the use of force in
the war-torn state – for good.
RT: What do you think about the situation in Syria? ... more »
Read Stuff, You Should
Happy Birthday to Bob Odenkirk, 51.
Good stuff:
1. Seth Masket with a good point about voters and the shutdown.
2. Agree with Ezra Klein: what matters for both Obama and for ACA is to get
the thing working; his speeches don't really matter much (Note: Philip
Klein made the same point on twitter at some point today, too. Good).
3. Sarah Kliff is on the ACA hotline.
4. Rand Paul and the truth, from Jill Lawrence.
5. And Dan Drezner on Prince Fielder and foreign policy think tanks.
That Big Mouth
On the day Stephen Harper returned to Question Period, planning to crow
about his new trade deal, Donald Payne crashed the party. Mike Duffy's
lawyer took direct aim at the Prime Minister's Office and at Stephen Harper
himself. Andrew Coyne writes:
Donald Bayne may not have succeeded, in the course of Monday’s press
conference, in lifting his client clear of the muck. But he has certainly
dragged the rest of the Tory hierarchy down into it.
And the muck keeps getting deeper. This story is no longer about Mike
Duffy:
Duffy has long since ceased to be the issue. Certainly if the... more »
FedEx Offering TFA Holiday Joy ($$$)
FedEx has a thing for Teach for America:
2009
2008
And now for the holidays in 2013:
Starting Nov. 1, FedEx will kick off the “FedEx One Rate, Countless
Possibilities Through Education” promotion, giving customers across the
United States a simple way to give the gift of education. Through Dec. 23,
$1 from every FedEx One Rate transaction will be donated to Teach For
America, up to $200,000, helping to fund training for 11,000 teachers
serving 750,000 students in underserved communities across the country.
These "countless possibilities through education" are surely about all the ... more »
Plunging Greek wages - Q2 Disposable Income falls by 9.3 Percent , government borrowing rises to new record , savings rate of households and NPISH fall by 8.7 percent - but the stock market is rising through all of this ? Another example of " Frozen Greece " - captured by ECB and Troika policies the fundamentals and realities on the ground become irrelevant ! Troika continues on its merry way , decimating the Greek economy and State businesses ....Greece austerity largest in Eurozone between 2011 and 2013 - more pain will still be imposed on Greece !
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-22/plunging-greek-wages-crater-q2-disposable-income-93-government-borrowing-rises-recor
Plunging Greek Wages Crater Q2 Disposable Income By 9.3%, Government
Borrowing Rises To Record
[image: Tyler Durden's picture]
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/22/2013 08:01 -0400
- Greece
- Gross Domestic Product
- Savings Rate
- Unemployment
inShare1
Can someone please explain this whole "Grecovery" concept to use because
neither we, nor apparently the people of Greece which are not only
unemployed and broke, but have negative savings, a... more »
War watch October 22 , 2013 - Focus on Afghanistan and Syria ......Afghanistan disputes that it has reached Agreement on a Bilateral Security Agreement with the US - Loyal Jirga will not be asked to ratify anything but rather will be given document outlining significant issues still unresolved between the two nations..... US demand that the BSA be agreed upon by the end of October or else about to be ignored and negotiations for better terms continue - Afghanistan following Iraq model for the BSA talks ! Syria can be summed up in one sentence - Syria talk are going nowhere and neither will Assad ! .
Afghanistan....
Afghan Govt: Differences Remain on US PactDisputes State Dept Claim Pact Is
Going to Loya Jirga for Vote
by Jason Ditz, October 21, 2013
Print This | Share This
US State Department claims that the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with
Afghanistan is essentially complete and will be submitted to the Loya Jirga
for ratification are untrue, according to a spokesman for President Hamid
Karzai, who insists that significant “differences” remains.
Spokesman Aimal Faizi says that the text will be presented to the Loya
Jirga along with an explanation of the outstanding issu... more »
Saudi anger at the failure of the US to launch attacks against Syria and daring to make peaceful overtures to Iran - will Saudis Bandar Bin Sultan take on the Russian Bear directly ? Meanwhile after successfully defusing the Syria War campaign pushed by the Saudis , Russia moving forward with its agenda to neuter the Iran sanctions over the nuclear program subject to the Iran - P5 + 1 talks . ........ Nuclear talks have a strange mix of parties whi would love nohing better than to see them collapse ( Iran hardliners / Israel and its US Congressional supporters / Saudis and its GCC allies )
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-22/lack-syrian-aggression-will-not-stand-man-saudis-bandar-bin-sultan-furious-us
Home
This Lack Of Syrian Aggression Will Not Stand, Man: Saudi's Bandar Bin
Sultan Furious At US
[image: Tyler Durden's picture]
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/22/2013 07:31 -0400
- China
- France
- Iran
- None
- Obama Administration
- Reserve Currency
- Saudi Arabia
inShare
That Saudi Arabia has been furious at the US for refusing to be the
monarchy's puppet Globocop, and in the last minute declining to bomb Syria
following Puti... more »
Is space and time emergent? ER-EPR correspondence adds a voice
After a cold September and early October, an Indian summer finally arrived
to Central Europe. Well, it's only called "Indian summer" in Northern
America. In Europe, we have a different meteorological phenomenon, the
grandma summer (at least in Czech we call it this way – because the
floating spider webs resemble grandmas' grey hair) ;-), and it's disputable
whether the grandma summer and the Indian summer may be viewed as
equivalents. Europe and Northern America are allowed to differ in other
respects than just the human history and politics.
Such a nice weather keeps one offline.... more »
FedEd Celebrating Holidays with TFA Donations
FedEx has a thing for Teach for America: 2009 2008 And now for the holidays
in 2013: Starting Nov. 1, FedEx will kick off the “FedEx One Rate,
Countless Possibilities Through Education” promotion, giving customers
across the United States a simple way to give the gift of education.
Through Dec. 23, $1 from every FedEx […]
Poppy wearing - how and when should you wear it?
A good video but remember please don't start wearing your poppy until the
end of October and remember what wearing the poppy signifies.
How do you fix a leaky gut? New twists on old ideas.
Leaky gut, AKA intestinal permeability, is one of the determining factors
in diseases of the liver, which should be tolerant of the normal adaptive
quantities of lipopolysaccharides (LPS, fragments of
Gram-negative bacterial cell walls) that reach it (other parts of the
immune system need to be more sensitive to LPS). If too much LPS reaches
the liver because the gut barrier is weakened, or if the liver is made
over-sensitive to LPS by factors such as steatosis and cholesterol
accumulation, LPS activation of TLR4 can set in motion the immune cascades
that lead to fibrosis and necr... more »
Interpreter for overseas NHS patients: "People really abuse the system" - No shit Sherlock
'An interpreter working in hospitals in Dover says she regularly sees
migrants coming to the UK for cancer treatment.'
This is from the BBC but I fully expect the comment to disappear as soon as
possible as the BBC return to their usual immigration narrative.
Audio here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01k45sh
Journal of American-East Asian Relations Website
*Cold springs, Suao.*
I've been out for the last week running madly about Taiwan on various
trips. Apologies for the blogging lack... Next few days posts will pile up.
First this announcement via H-Asia... some of my readers in schools abroad
should think about this:
H-ASIA
October 21, 2013
Journal of American-East Asian Relations new website
*******
From: James Matray
The Journal of American-East Asian Relations has a new website located at
http://www.brill.com/journal-american-east-asian-relations. The previous
electronic listing with Interworld-Pacific is now defunct. I am eag... more »
Great Video on Getting a PhD in Political Science – Very Funny
certainly sounds like my 20s… The Duck hasn’t had a good video up in
awhile, and for all of you thinking about grad school apps this fall, well,
here it is…
Treaty Rights vs Court Injunctions
So the corporate polluting scum got a court injunction to force the Mi’kmaq
FN to stop their protest. But the Mi’kmaq's Treaty Rights should have made
any such injunction null and void to begin with.
The RCMP should be disbanded.
What's wrong with advising people to put another jumper on if they are cold?
I listened to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme for just three minutes this
morning and there was an example of BBC bias. The interviewee was Jeremy
Hunt and the interviewer had to ask, at the end of an interview about
trying to stop or reduce NHS tourism, about what people should do if they
feel cold but also feel they can't afford to heat their home - should they
just put another jumper on, was the sneering question. Of course Jeremy
Hunt doesn't want to say so but YES they should.
We can afford to heat our house but that doesn't mean we have the central
heating blaring morning, noo... more »
Government Says Parents Cannot Send Lunches With Children To School Anymore Unless They Have A Doctor’s Note
October 21, 2013
(Before It's News)
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: YOUR PRESCHOOLER CAN’T BRING A LUNCH FROM HOME WITHOUT
A DOCTOR’S NOTENot even a preschooler’s lunch can be free from Federal
control. Health conscious parents are not allowed to opt their children out
of eating the processed, nutritionally-deficient, genetically-modified
garbage food without approval from a doctor. Pink Floyd was right.
This parent lives in Richmond, Virginia.
http://www.momdot.com/a-doctors-note-for-gmos/
What a disgusting thing to say. NOBODY has the right to get between a
prent andhis/her child. T... more »
Exaro - at no point do they mention Ben Fellows - so it might not be about 'his' arrest for false accusation of indecent assault
Investigation website Exaro is (as they put it) *holding power to account*.
Good for them. So, they have witnesses/testimony that Ken Clarke wasn't on
a sting operation for the on the night he was indecently assaulted, as a
boy. Okay, let's add this to my coverage of BEN FELLOWS, even though it
might not be about said corporate-named Person
One rarely comes across any website that disables one's ability to
QuoteCopy a section of text from their article to be able to QuotePaste it
into a report about the article. Exaro even disables right-click View
Source so you can get at the text... more »
CAN ANYTHING BE PERFECT?
[image: shoes]
Is* perfection* possible, either in 'Heaven' or on Earth?
Some philosophers have argued that: "If the world was perfect, it could not
improve and so it would lack 'true perfection'".
Imagine a 'perfect' day at the beach, which includes a meal of tasty
freshly caught sardines.
It was not a perfect day for the sardines.
[image: Summer rain]
*By Valery Titievsky*
Professor Michael Slote, in *The Impossibility of Perfection *(2011)
says certain virtues cannot be had in perfect measure.
If you are perfect in regard to prudence you may not be perfect in regard
to adventu... more »
Class War Continues? Or Is It Just Getting Started In Earnest? (Wealth Breeds a Class of People for Whom Human Beings Are Disposable Commodities: The Inability to Grasp the Pathology of Our Oligarchic Rulers Is One of our Gravest Faults)
George W. Bush’s life is a case study in the insidious affirmative action
for the rich. The rich have a snobbish disdain for the poor — despite
well-publicized acts of philanthropy — and the middle class. These lower
classes are viewed as uncouth parasites, annoyances that have to be
endured, at times placated and always controlled in the quest to amass more
power and money. My hatred of
Al Jazeera Lies For Turkey, And Paints Al-Qaeda As Heroes (Video)
*Al Jazeera Is Al-Qaeda's Media Channel.*
In this video, Al Jazeera shows flesh-eating al-Qaeda terrorists as heroes,
and paints Turkey as a victim of al-Qaeda terrorism when the opposite is
true. Turkey is one of the region's biggest state sponsors of al-Qaeda,
alongside Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Israel.
*1)* Al Jazeera paints Al-Qaeda as a social outreach organization more so
than a terrorist group, depicting its members giving out free meat to poor
Syrian refugees in the Muslim holiday of Eid. This is 100 percent
propaganda. Al-Qaeda does not give a shit about helping people. A... more »
Banner Congressional Race In FL-13? Will We See Alex Sink vs Bill Young II?
C.W. Bill Young's friends and family have been speculating for years about
when he would retire from Congress. Very ill, finally on October 9 he
announced he would... in 2015-- and then died about a week or so later.
Everyone is busy remembering the good times and trying to not bring up
anything about the corruption that defined his life. And political types
are all paying homage to fake memories and only whispering about the race
for the very swingy 13th congressional district that will turn into an
unseemly brawl after the funeral later this week.
The Florida state legislature, ... more »
What the BBC deliberately doesn't tell you about welfare immigration
'...the UK is one of only five EU states (the others being Finland,
Germany, Estonia and Ireland) that offer non contributory benefits to the
unemployed. In other words, only if you live in one of those countries are
you able to claim unemployment benefits without having paid into the
system.
If you or I – or the BBC home affairs editor Mark Easton – pitched up in
France, Italy or Greece, we could not claim unemployment benefit without
having contributed into the system. (There might, as someone in the comment
thread will point out, be a million or so Brits living in Spain, but t... more »
Guest Post - What Can the Middle East Teach Us About Sustainability?
When one thinks about urban development in the Middle East, sustainability
may not be the first idea that springs to mind. But recent reports show
that, as a matter of fact, the Middle East is actually leading the way when
it comes to implementing sustainable practices.
Disparate Attitudes
This news has come as a surprise to many, particularly in light of the
disparate attitudes towards promoting sustainability which are held by
Middle East and Western governments. The British government, for example,
introduced a tax which made it exponentially more expensive to purchase
landfill s... more »
My Top Ten Character Names
Naming a baby is hard. I have only had to do it once in my life, but books
were a huge inspiration for me. Unfortunately, my husband and I don't have
the same taste in names and we struggled to find a name for our daughter
that we could agree on. If it had been completely up to me, I would have
named her straight from one of my favorite books, but alas I needed my
husband to agree too. Here are some of my favorite character names, other
known as, the names of my ten imaginary children. Linking up with The Broke
and the Bookish.
Boys Names:
- Dashiell- I absolutely adore Das... more »
Looks Like Mike Duffy Took The Advice I Proposed On August 9th .. Pamela Wallin Should Follow Him ...
*BUCKDOG: Maybe It's Time For Mike Duffy And Pamela Wallin To Throw Stephen
Harper 'Under The Bus' And Come Clean On This Whole Sorry Affair!" - August
9, 2013*
*"When Stephen Harper decided to add Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy to
Canada's unelected, undemocratic Senate, he started in motion a series of
events that has ultimately become an ugly, nasty political scandal.
For starters, neither Duffy nor Wallin qualified for senate appointment as
representatives of their respective native provinces.
While Ms. Wallin is originally from Saskatchewan, she has lived away for
most of her... more »
WILL ISRAEL STRIKE IRAN BEFORE ISRAELI-U.S. RELATIONS COOL TOO MUCH?
Relations between Israel and the US, according to some observers, are
deteriorating rapidly as the US talks with the Iranians over Iran’s nuclear
program seem to be gaining ground.
Netanyahu has been trying to convince the world that the new president of
Iran’s fresh and non-confronting approach to the West over sanctions and
Iran’s nuclear program are just about buying time which Iran is using to
build a nuclear bomb that Netanyahu says will be launched at Israel just as
soon as it’s ready.
Netanyahu maintains that he will strike Iran unilaterally if he felt that
Iran was getting... more »
My comments on the JFK and the media panel at the Duquesne "Passing the Torch" conference
The
following are my prepared remarks for the special program I spoke on
last week during the “Passing the Torch” conference on the JFK
assassination at the Senator John Heinz Heinz History Center. The other
participants included writers Jeff Morley, David Talbot, Russ Baker and
Jerry Policoff and our special guest, film director Oliver Stone.I
skipped the paragraph on Max Holland, below, because
Insight into co-location, dirt edition #edchat #TFA
Sort of a follow-up to a previous post of mine. As a public school, your
kid shows up, we teach them. It is rather well-documented that charter
schools, shall we say, select the most successful students. All I have to
say is, “How the HELL are you going to suspend a five year-old SIX times […]
You may be suffering from this...
*and not even know it.*
"In a larger sense the Republicans have ben winning for the past three years, if not the past thirty" (George Packer)
*What most "real" Americans "know," as they've "known" since the days of
St. Ronald of Reagan, is that government is the enemy, and anything that's
bad for the government is good for "real" Americans.*
*"The government shutdown is over. National default has been averted, for
now. According to an estimate by Standard and Poor's, the Tea Party's
brinkmanship cost the American economy twenty-four billion dollars -- more
than half a percentage point of quarterly growth. House Republicans have
suffered a huge tactical defeat of their own devising, and their approval
ratings are at an al... more »
Mining 36: Tax that can Wipe Out All PH Public Debt
* This is my article yesterday in Mining Week.
-----------
The mining industry is a very useful sector because many of the things that
humanity needs in modern life come from mining, like cellphones, tv, cars,
buses, electricity, appliances and so on. Yet mining is also highly
criticized if not demonized for the various environmental damages
attributed to it, real or imaginary.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is an
international voluntary system among governments and big mining worlds in
many countries that help clear this issue of whether mining indeed dese... more »
What Really Happened When the House Stenographer Was Pulled Off the Floor?
*(a Religious-Nuts-Need-To-Be-Mentally-Evaluated False Flag??)*
[image: TRUTHstreammedia] TRUTHstreammedia
* Oct 19, 2013*
Because the mainstream media isn't telling.
Following weeks of bizarreness coming out of D.C., now we have this. The
House stenographer was pulled off the floor after an outburst (story on
that here: http://truthstreammedia.com/outburst-...).
It's weird because the mainstream media dubbed the part of the outburst
that happened after she was already pulled off the floor and standing near
the elevators over the part where she's up at the dias podium, leavin... more »
Longest Walk 4 Walks into Canon City, Colorado!
Long Walk 4 Return to Alcatraz Pueblo to Canon City, Colorado Oct. 21, 2013
Western Shoshone Long Walker Carl 'Bad Bear' Sampson
Photos by Western Shoshone Long Walker Carl 'Bad Bear' Sampson (photo 2) via cell. Thank you for sharing with Censored News!
Longest Walk 4 Return to Alcatraz walks into Canon City, Colorado, today, Monday, Oct. 21, 2013. They are walking west
Disaster Averted In Egypt-Ethiopia Relations, Both Sides Move Closer To An Agreement Over Renaissance Dam Project
Related: * *
*Morsi Defends Position In Looming Fight Over The Nile.* *
*
*War Over Water? Dispute Between Egypt and Ethiopia Over Nile Grows After
Violent Threats Made On Egyptian TV*.
*For Egyptians, The Nile Is Sacred - But What Is Sacred In War?*
* Ethiopian PM Brushes Off Morsi's Threatening Rhetoric.*
Egypt and Ethiopia have come to an agreement about the controversial
Renaissance Dam project. If Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood gang had
remained in power this positive development would not have occurred, so
this is another benefit to the July coup. Anyone who did not s... more »
Ed Steer's Gold and Silver Report - October 18 , 2013 - Data from October 18 , 2013 , news touching on the precious metals , world news and views touching on the precious metals.
Catharsis Ours - 20 hours ago
More New Normal News.... Europe fixed ? Certainly not Spain ! Spanish Bad
Loans Soar To New Record High
[image: Tyler Durden's picture]
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/18/2013 08:22 -0400
- Bond
- None
inShare
Despite the onslaught of confidence-inspiring flim-flam from leadership in
Europe and a Spanish Prime Minister (and finance minister) desperate to
distract with "soft" survey based data, the hard numbers keep coming in and
keep getting worse and worse. The latest, seemingly confirming the IMF's
fearsome forecast that European banks face massive loan losses in the ... more »
RAG RADIO/ Thorne Dreyer : Father-Daughter! Newsman Dan Rather & Environmental Activist Robin Rather
Dan
Rather and Robin Rather on Rag Radio, Friday, September 27, 2013, in
the studios of KOOP-FM in Austin, Texas. Photos by Roger Baker / The Rag
Blog.
Rag Radio podcast:
Legendary newsman Dan Rather
and environmental activist Robin Rather
Their first ever father-daughter interview is a funny, far-ranging
discussion spiced with lively anecdotes, sharp political insights, and
touching family
Fall Break Day Two
For our one full day in Branson we kicked things off with a visit to Ripley's
Believe It Or Not.
Posing outside...
Riding a strange contraption...
In a diving helmet...
The World's Tallest Man...
Posing in the gift shop...
Fun House Mirror Selfie...
Southern Man spent the afternoon at a sales pitch (Southern Man is a sucker
for those "discount mini vacation if you listen to our ninety minute
timeshare spiel" deals) and geocaching, then for our evening entertainment
went to an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. With all-you-can-eat lobster and
crab legs.
We ate like kings! ... more »
Understanding The Subscription eBook Offer
Subscription services are today’s alternative solution to owning what may
fast become yesterday’s technology.
Imagine buying eight track cassettes, cassettes, vinyl, betamax, VHS, mini
discs etc, today. Yes, some still do but for the majority of us, these are
yesterday’s technology both in terms of devices and media. During the last
ten years we have achieved many things in the ebook arena and many old
formats and devices have come and gone. Do we expect tomorrow to be any
different? Do we expect to still be able to read and enjoy that ebook
download in say 10 or 20 years? Do we e... more »
Fall Break Day One
Day One was Travel Day - pick up Teen Daughter at her mother's house and
then head on in to Branson.
We stayed at the fabulous Branson Plaza...
Teen Daughter strikes a pose...
Teen Daughter strikes another pose...
ParaSailors!
...and ate dinner at the very nice restaurant on the top floor, where Teen
Daughter conducted a workshop in experimental photography.
Still Life #33, by Teen Daughter.
Flowers, by Teen Daughter.
Lights, by Teen Daughter.
Teen Daughter is immersed in reading *The Mortal Instruments* series so she
curled up in a corner to read and Southern Man relax... more »
INEXPLICATA: UFOs in History: Latin America and Spain.
We are pleased to present the final installment of the INEXPLICATA series
of monographs: *UFOs in History - Latin America and Spain*, which rounds
out the information we wanted to make available to the public in a more
accessible form than random entries scattered across the Internet. *UFOs in
History* is by no means exhaustive and is simply a quick reference guide,
giving the reader an idea of the wealth of cases available to researchers
in Spanish-speaking regions of the world, going back to Colonial times in
the Americas, and prehistoric times in Spain. While it borrows sections... more »
The best immunizaton is from the shopping cart at the supermarket
On the way to MacDonalds Yep, this is a fast food nation, with
frankenfood being a mainstay of the American diet, so why not? We can get
our immunizations on the go and it's all certified as wholesome and good by
the FDA and the AMA. So long as we can afford a car, a license, insurance,
and gasoline we can get it at the drive through and then we can say our
prayers at the drive through church. Expert Explains the Flu Vaccine
Deception and the Swine Flu Hoax
Dr. Shiv Chopra was a drug company insider, and also worked for what is
now Health Canada -- the Canadian equiva... more »
George Osborne and Ruling Class Decadence
If you think this is about the chancellor's youthful larks with Natalie
Rowe, you will surely be disappointed. What's more important - and far more
damaging - from the standpoint of British capital is his current game of
footsie with the Chinese Communist Party. The very notion that not only is
he letting the Chinese state build and run a cornerstone of Britain's
electricity generating capacity at Hinkley Point C, but will also be
shovelling hundreds of millions of taxpayers' cash their way as a sweetener
is flabbergasting. Forget the EU and its silly rules about straight
bananas, ... more »
Untitled
*Gulf ecosystem in crisis after BP spill ~Aljazeera*
The "Transparency" articles, and why they were written
Apparently one of the hot topics of conversations in several skype and
Facebook groups is the question of WHY I wrote the two transparency
articles last week. We had a discussion about it in one of the skype
rooms last night (which is posted below), but after receiving two more
messages this morning about other conversations on the topic, I decided to
write this here so that it can be read and shared by everyone if they wish.
(Thanx bea, excellent suggestion!).
As I said below, the two News based articles that I wrote last week: When
Transparency Smacks you in the Face- Even... more »
Slew Of New Polls-- All Devastating For The Party That Shut Down The Government
Time to say good-bye
CNN's latest polling was all bad news for the Republican Party, but in a
general kind of way. The PPP/MoveOn district-by-district polls released
this morning, though, are what terrorizes the hostage takers and cowards in
the GOP who just cost tax-payers $24 billion with their right-wing temper
tantrum. We'll get to those results in a moment.
Just over half the public says that it's bad for the country that the GOP
controls the House of Representatives, according to a new national poll
conducted after the end of the partial government shutdown.
…According to the... more »
Elsewhere: Broken GOP, Showdown Future, AutoCR
Column time. At TAP today, I argued that we're unlikely to have a second
shutdown when the current CR expires in January. The big point I've been
making is that shutdowns are the result of a deliberate strategy, not the
accidental effect of difficulty reaching a deal.
At Salon, I talked about the broken GOP and why that's the problem, and not
institutional design.
Going with both of those: a PP post today in which I complained about one
specific reform proposal: a fail-safe automatic CR at current levels.
Terrible idea!
And way back on Friday I took note of one of the big issues in... more »
The Ottomans: The Armenian Genocide
The greatest test facing BBC Two's *The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors* was
obviously how it handled the most incendiary event in the entirely of
Ottoman history: The Armenian Genocide.
The Armenian genocide is widely regarded as the largest genocide prior to
the Holocaust.
What resulted sounded uncomfortably like an apologia to me.
I shall explain why. Please see if you agree.
The programme set the genocide in the context of the First World War.
Rageh Omaar's commentary presented the Ottoman Empire as the victim of the
Great Powers:
"The Great Powers of Europe had been w... more »
Photos from press conference and delivery of petition to free Albert Woodfox, at Louisiana State Capitol, Oct.21
*MEDIA COVERAGE: **Times-Picayune** II **The Advocate* *II* *The
Republic / AP*
Robert H King speaks outside LA State Capitol(View more photos below)
*Congressman Cedric Richmond's statement for October 21:*
“I am firm in my resolve to continue the fight to address the horrors of
long term solitary confinement in a meaningful way. The plight of the
Angola 3 has shined a disinfecting light on this terrible, unconstitutional
practice of indefinite solitary confinement without meaningful due process
reviews. This past summer, I joined the prominent Ranking Members of the
Full H... more »
Photos from the second line for Herman Wallace, New Orleans, Oct. 19
*View more photos here.*
The Ultimate Washington Kopp-Out: "Highly-Qualified" Teacher = Corporate Missionary with 15 Hours Experience
Wendy Kopp and her gang of creepy recruiters for TFA have established
themselves as the main missionary source for expanding control of
segregated urban schools to benefit the international corporate socialist
movement of Capitalists Without Borders.
With the blessing of the Obama Administration, Tom Harkin was able to slip
a provision through last week that entirely nullifies the concept of
"highly qualified" teacher:
With a $100 million endowment and annual revenues approaching $300 million,
TFA is flush with cash and ambition. Its clout on Capitol Hill was
demonstrated last we... more »
“Who Will Protect You from the Police?"
* *
*“Who Will Protect You from the Police?*
* The Rise of Government-Sanctioned Home Invasions”*
By John W. Whitehead
“Democracy means that if the doorbell rings in the
early hours, it is likely to be the milkman.”
- Winston Churchill
“It’s 3 a.m. You’ve been asleep for hours when suddenly you hear a loud
“Crash! Bang! Boom!” Based on the yelling, shouting and mayhem, it sounds
as if someone—or several someones—are breaking through your front door.
With your heart racing and your stomach churning, all you can think about
is keeping your family safe from the intruders who hav... more »
Satire: “Nation That Waited Decades to Pass Health Care Infuriated by Slow Web Site”
* *
*“Nation That Waited Decades to Pass Health*
* Care Infuriated by Slow Web Site”*
by Andy Borowitz
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)— “A nation that waited several decades for
health insurance is becoming increasingly infuriated by a Web site that is
wasting minutes of its time, reports from across the United States confirm.
The official Web site of Obamacare, HealthCare.gov, has been plagued by
glitches, crashes, and sluggishly loading pages, say millions of angry
Americans attempting to log on to the site at exactly the same time.
“Look, I know that we had to wait longer for... more »
The Economy: “Civilization Versus Barbarism”
* *
*“Civilization Versus Barbarism”*
by Bill Bonner
“US stocks and gold were calm on Friday. Nothing much to report. So, we’ll
return to a subject we’ve been working on: the real difference between
civilization and barbarism.
Why does this matter to you? Because it is critical to understanding what
money is… why the Fed will fail… why the dollar will disappear… and why you
should own gold. It’s something that has been a big focus at Bonner &
Partners Family Office, the family wealth investment advisory service my
eldest son, Will, and I started four years ago. Our goal is to tur... more »
The Saturday Night Massacre and the Presidency
"The recall of MacArthur, the steel seizure, and the dispatch of troops to
Little Rock share still another notable characteristic: In each case, the
decisive order was a painful last resort, a forced response to the
exhaustion of all other remedies, suggestive less of mastery than failure
-- the failure of attempts to gain an end by softer means" (Neustadt,
Presidential Power, 24).
The Saturday Night Massacre, forty years ago yesterday, was critical in the
public story of Watergate; it marked the point at which impeachment of the
President of the United States became part of the no... more »
Disney on Ice Ticket Giveaway!
I received tickets to Disney on Ice in exchange for this post and hosting a
giveaway. All opinions are 100% my own.
Are you ready for a giveaway? Disney on Ice presents Passport to
Adventure is rolling into town at the first of November and today you can
win a Family 4-pack of tickets to the show. This fall's show is a musical
expedition to the beaches of Hawaii with Lilo and Stitch, Under the Sea
with The Little Mermaid, to Africa with The Lion King and to Never Never
Land with Peter Pan.
We absolutely love Disney on Ice and we are excited to share our
favorite family outing w... more »
Are Mainstream Republicans Capable Of Going On The Offensive Against Teabaggers?
Aaron Schock's boyfriend is being targeted for political extinction by the
teabaggers
Earlier today we took a quickie glance at the devastating Republican Party
civil war and how an energized DCCC-- one without Steve Israel holding it
back-- could take advantage of it to win back the House. But mainstream
conservative Republicans have a different perspective. They're looking for ways
to excise the Tea Party cancer before its too late. Political strategists
told David Ignatius "the basic ingredients for revival include: good
candidates in key districts; a national nest egg of perhaps ... more »
A Bunch of Posters and Presentations on the Ethics of Person Centred Care and Shared Decision Making in Adolescent Diabetes now Online
Yea, what he said! These things are all outcomes of ongoing research in the
cross-disciplinary project *Organizing Person Centred Care in Pediatric
Diabetes: Communication, Decision-making, Ethics and Health*, where myself
and some younger philosophers/ethicists collaborate with psychologists,
linguists, care and organisation researchers and medical specialists. The
project's original plan can be seen here. We are now a few years in and the
last week has been a hectic one of delivery both at the yearly
international conference of pediatric and adolescent diabetes specialists, *ISPAD ... more »
As heard on Fox: Eric Stern debunks Hannity show!
*MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013*
*Silence from the Times:* According to Eric Stern, he watched the Hannity
program on Fox on Friday evening, October 11.
Stern has a large advantage on most cable viewers; he understands the basic
workings of the Affordable Care Act. In a subsequent piece at Salon, Stern
says he worked as a senior adviser to Montana governor Brian Schweitzer. He
says he helped Schweitzer deal with the new federal rules in the ACA.
We watched Hannity’s program that evening too. We saw and heard the same
things Stern did.
Being less knowledgeable than Stern, we didn’t know ... more »
British Taxpayers are Gouged for Nuclear Power Plant- Clean and Green?
An expensive deal that ignores all alternatives....
Why worry about a bad deal when the abusive government can extract taxes
from it populace
*EDF would have settled at a lower price, with lower guarantees *But,
didn't have to.
The details of the deal to build Britain’s new nuclear reactors at Hinkley
Point are becoming clearer: a basic cost of £16bn, a quiet increase of £2bn
since the last parliamentary statement on the issue less than six months
ago. It guarantees a unit price of £92.50 per megawatt hour for the
electricity produced, stretching four decades into the future, and ... more »
Jesse Staniforth brutally rips Rex Murphy a new one ...
And
a very well-deserved one it is.
Rex Murphy's opinion piece isn't just ignorant, it's totally vacuous,
the product of someone who literally seems to know nothing about the
subject he's railing against.
But then, there's the rub. Murphy is educated in the art of the word;
not the projection of knowledge. He is the perfect right-wing shill,
bereft of information, ignorant of history and
The Senate Isn't Really an "Old Boys Club" Any More
I can understand why Mark Tracy was annoyed by the hype about the role of
Susan Collins in settling the shutdown, but his takedown is really an
overreaction.
Tracy notes that there are still only 20 women in the Seante. True! On the
other hand, he claims that "11 of the top 12 Senate officials are men." But
he's apparently counting (his link) the VP and the president pro tempore;
the latter is a symbolic designation, while the VP isn't even a Senator,
and really doesn't have a role in the Senate at all most of the time. I
think he's also counting Harry Reid twice, for whatever that'... more »
Obama um, er, ah talks about the wonderful roll out of Obamacare...
*a summation:*
He's got a bunch of goofy looking people standing behind him clapping when
they're told to.
He's hired more people for the call centers costing the tax payers even
more money.
Oh, wow. "If you've gotten stuck on the website, don't worry - we'll
contact you in the next few weeks."
"It's going to get fixed." (Clap, clap, clap, clap.)
"Even with the problems with the website, it's still easier than buying
insurance the old fashioned way."
Okay - time to vilify the GOP. Right on schedule.
It's their fault!!! (Clap, clap, clap, clap.)
This is about making sure ev... more »
An Industry of Mediocrity?: How about Journalism?
Careless, shoddy, flippant, thoughtless—these are the words that come to
mind when I think about most journalism addressing education. There are a
few shining examples of journalists doing their work (Valerie Strauss comes
to mind), but mostly, those are the words. So when I saw ‘An Industry of
Mediocrity’ at The New York Times, and […]
Health Care Is Hell
While we're waiting* for The Presider to give out bouquets to a few lucky
duckies who've beaten the odds and already acquired their golden tickets to
Obamacare Nirvana, let's take a gander at Health and Human Services' online
apologia for its glitch-ridden rollout.
The first sign that these people are still not ready for primetime is their
pledge to scour the earth to find "the best and the brightest" minds to fix
the troubled HealthCare.Gov. site. *The Best and the Brightest*, as you may
recall, is the title of a scathing book by David Halberstam about how a
group of so-called Whit... more »
THE SOLUTION TO WAR.......
*The Daily Show*
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook
In this exclusive, unedited interview, Malala Yousafzai offers suggestions
for Americans looking to help out overseas and stresses the importance of
education.
Mi'kmaq attorney Amy Sock punched kicked by RCMP
.
Attorney Amy Sock shows bruises Monday morning from RCMP. Amy says, "I am a peaceful warrior."
.
Amy Sock showing bruises at Monday press conference.
.
Iraq Considers Forming Neighborhood Security Committees
As security deteriorates in Iraq, the government is desperately searching
for solutions. Recently Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called for
revitalizing the Sons of Iraq groups, which he neglected after the U.S.
withdrawal, and about using the Tribal Support Councils that he created
several years ago. The latest idea being floated is the creation of
“popular committees” in Baghdad and its suburbs, which would assist the
security forces. The first group to publicly acquiesce to this plan is an
Iranian supported militia with ties to Maliki. That raises fears that the
committees cou... more »
Federal Government joins litigation against Quebec's Anti-Clarity Act legislation
It has taken years to get to Court but the intervention is a good idea: Story
here
Yes, Economics is a Science
Says my Harvard colleague Raj Chetty.
An interesting article, which raises the following questions in my mind: Is
the younger generation of economists like Raj skipping some of the big
questions of economics because some smaller questions are easier to
answer? If so, is that optimal from the standpoint of society as a whole?
Read Stuff, You Should
Happy Birthday to Carrie Fisher, 57.
Plenty of good stuff for the new week:
1. Seth Masket on top-two.
2. John Sides on primary reform.
3. Robert Costa interviews Ted Cruz.
4. Nice Adam Serwer item about what a mess DHS is.
5. Danny Vinik pushes back against my case for blaming mainstream
conservatives for the shutdown; he says the Tea Partiers were at fault.
6. Amanda Hess on privacy and young people.
7. Off my normal track, but: a good series about specialization in high
school sports, from Tom FitzGerald. My experience has been that not only is
this true and a real shame, bu... more »
The Facts about Diane Ravitch's So-called "Rain of Errors"
I rode the *Reign of Error *review horse as far as I intended. But, Mike
Petrilli issued his “Rain of Error,” lambasting Diane Ravitch in the *National
Review Online*. He may be the first reformer to challenge Ravitch’s
evidence and logic, as opposed to complaining about her use of the words
“privatize” and “corporate reform.” Petrilli supplemented the standard,
conservative soundbites with some links to his sources. He concentrated on
the parts of Ravitch’s agenda that he characterized as “pie-in the-sky”
dreaming, as opposed to mean arguments against test-driven reforms.
Petrilli ... more »
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