Wednesday, September 18, 2013

18 Sept - Blogs I'm Following II

English: Kingdom Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia....English: Kingdom Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Taken by BroadArrow in 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Map of the territory and area covered by prese...Map of the territory and area covered by present-day Saudi Arabia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
10:12pm MDST

Thursday Morning Linkage

Josh Busby at Duck of Minerva - 9 minutes ago
After last week’s diplomatic overtures on Syria, we’ve entered a period of relative calm and back to our mixed bag of stories of interest. NPR is running a fabulous series on Brazil in the lead up to the World Cup, which is also timely since the Brazilian president cancelled her plans to visit the United Continue reading

Is there a way toward a solution in Syria that protects the Syrian people in a way consistent with legitimacy and morality?

KenInNY at DownWithTyranny! - 11 minutes ago
*by Ken* If indeed "diplomatic action combined with the threat of force moves the Syrian regime toward putting its chemical weapons under international control," Michael Ignatieff writes in a NYRB blogpost, "How to Save the Syrians," "it will be a victory for international law, for the authority of the UN Security Council, and for peace." What it won't be is salvation for the Syrian people. "It is only too obvious," Ignatieff says, "that thus far the peoples of the democratic states have failed in our responsibility to protect the people of Syria." This is hardly a failure to int... more »

A Good Political Leader Knows When To Step Down - Adrian Dix Leaving Leadership Of BC New Democrats ...

leftdog at Buckdog - 12 minutes ago
*B.C. NDP Leader Adrian Dix has announced his resignation as party leader today in Vancouver, following the party's surprising defeat by the Liberals in the May provincial election.* * **Dix said he accepted responsibility for the election loss and felt it was in the best interests of the party for a new leader to take over.* * **“Since our defeat in the election on May 14, I have reflected both on my future as leader of the B.C. NDP and on the future of our party.* * * - *B.C. NDP caucus meets as leadership questions mount* - *NDP Leader Adrian Dix to reveal future plans next ... more »

Guest Post - Hybrid Cars–A Step Towards A Greener World

Small Footprints at Reduce Footprints - 13 minutes ago
What is the future of the car industry? Whilst electric powered cars used to be nothing more than a pipe-dream, as we watched vehicles like the ill fated Sinclair C5 fail to capture the UK public's imagination, it now seems like advances in battery technology are providing the public with the means to use electrically powered engines in the same way in which they've used petrol engines for decades. However, it seems like we're not quite ready for an overall switch to electrically powered cars – as batteries appear to limit the range of these vehicles to around 100 miles, making them ... more »

America, Turkey, And Saudi Arabia Are Waging War On Kurds In Syria Via Al-Qaeda

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 16 minutes ago
*America, Turkey, And Saudi Arabia: These nations are led by Evil Scumbags and Shitty Souls. America, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia should get together with their Al-Qaeda love buddies and form their own separate United Nations called the United Terrorist League. * *Understand this and take it to heart: the tyrants who speak for America, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey will be defeated in Syria and the Middle East. They have already lost the war against Syria and the Kurds because they have no ideas or solutions to offer, only terror and chaos. They are arming and sheltering Al-Qaeda ter... more »

Jersey Jazzman Reviews “Reign of Error”

Michael Paul Goldenberg at @ THE CHALK FACE - 33 minutes ago
Jersey Jazzman Reviews “Reign of Error”. This review really gets to the crux of the education deform paradox, its fundamental contradictions, and what may well be the key chapter in Diane Ravitch’s new book: the inseparable link between outlooks on education and outlooks on the larger society in which it is embedded. And the […]

Rouhani, Like Countless Iranian Officials Before Him, Affirms: Iran Will Never Seek Nuclear Weapons

Nima Shirazi at Wide Asleep in America - 40 minutes ago
NBC's Ann Curry interviews Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran, September 18, 2013 (Photo Credit: David Lom / NBC News) Speaking in Tehran to NBC's Ann Curry in his very first interview with an American media outlet, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani again - and repeatedly, considering Ms. Curry kept asking him the same question over and over - asserted Iran's wholesale condemnation

UN Commission of Inquiry has more news for Gareth Morgan

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 44 minutes ago
The head of a UN Commission of Inquiry into the place Gareth Morgan recently described as “just fantastic”—a place whose economic achievements have been “magnificent”—calls North Korea a place harbouring “unspeakable atrocities.” Retired Australian judge Michael Kirby, who has spent recent months gathering evidence in South Korea and Japan from North Korean defectors and other victims, says "testimony heard thus far points to widespread and serious violations in all areas." He said the evidence, both sobering and heart-rending, had "given a face and voice to great human suffering... more »

Five years “stimulus” in one graph

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 44 minutes ago
Pic from Not_Jim_Cramer Content is copyright PC.BlogSpot.Com © Please contact author for permission to republish: (organon at ihug.co.nz)

Musical Interlude: Yanni, "Magical Concluding Musical Performance"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 52 minutes ago
Yanni, "Magical Concluding Musical Performance" -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbBAlUnNKjM&html5=1

"A Look to the Heavens"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 hour ago
“Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Even if you have, you probably have never seen it as dusty as this. Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city. With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the Pleiades star cluster becomes very evident. * Click image for larger size.* The above exposure took about 20 minutes and covers a sky area several times the size of the full moon. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the ... more »

Musical Interlude: BrulĂ©, “Indian Summer Showcase 2012”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 hour ago
BrulĂ©, “Indian Summer Showcase 2012” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOYW4oOSIPQ&html5=1

"The End of Innocence"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 hour ago
* * *"The End of Innocence" * by John W. Whitehead “Just as the post-war generation was gaining a sense of social consciousness and angst, John F. Kennedy arrived on the scene, in a time of social and political turmoil. In his farewell address, Eisenhower startled his conservative supporters by warning the nation against business lobbies greedy for government munitions contracts and fat profits. Thus, even before Kennedy took the reigns of power, an ominous cloud covered the American cultural landscape. Kennedy, however, took the oath of office during anxious times. Soviet-suppor... more »

Kahlil Gibran, "Pain"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 hour ago
"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain. And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy; And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields. And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief. Pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self. Therefore tr... more »

"Natives"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 hour ago
"If you live on this land, and you have ancestors sleeping in this land, I believe that makes you a native to this land. It has nothing to do with the color of your skin. I was not raised to look at people racially. What I was taught is that we're flowers in the Great Spirit's garden. We share a common root, and the root is Mother Earth." - Oh Shinnah Fastwolf, Shishindi Nation (Apache)

“The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 hour ago
"For I have seen the truth; I have seen and I know that people can be beautiful and happy without losing the power of living on earth. I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind. And it is just this faith of mine that they laugh at. But how can I help believing it? I have seen the truth- it is not as though I had invented it with my mind, I have seen it, seen it, and the living image of it has filled my soul for ever. I have seen it in such full perfection that I cannot believe that it is impossible for people to have it. And so how can I go wrong?... more »

UHC 19: Health is a Right, Health is a Responsibility

Nonoy Oplas at Government and Taxes - 1 hour ago
Last week, September 10, 2013, I attended the “Health System Shapers Roundtable Discussion” for NGOs and private research institutes, held at the DOH. The Health Shapers forum is held for various sectors, like the private hospitals, drugstores/pharmacies and pharmacists, patient groups, drug manufacturers, and so on. The event is jointly sponsored by the Universal Health Care (UHC) Study Group, the AIM Zuellig Center for Asian Business Transformation (AIM-ZCABT) and the DOH. Dr. Ivanhoe Escartin, Director of the National Center for Health Promotion, DOH, gave the welcome remarks. D... more »

INTERVIEW / Jonah Raskin : Occupy's Nathan Schneider on Anarchy and Radical Catholicism

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 2 hours ago
Nathan Schneider, June 17, 2012. Photo from Occupy. Interview with Occupy’s Nathan Schneider: Anarchy, activism, and radical Catholicism By Jonah Raskin / The Rag Blog / November 19, 2013 "It's hard to pick a revolution about which one doesn't have major misgivings. But they also have peak moments: the nuns kneeling before Marcos' tanks in the Philippines; the queer crusaders emerging out

Influence of the #commoncore in my classroom: None.

Chalk Face, PhD at @ THE CHALK FACE - 2 hours ago
See, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Despite my math books, which I have yet to actually use, being labeled as “Common Core” approved, the Standards really have no impact or effect on my Kindergarten classroom. Now, this tells me two things. One, that the standards are entirely benign and unthreatening, imaginative. Two, that this […]

Analytic Eclecticism, Phantom Confrontations, and Dialogue: On Reus-Smit´s “Beyond Metatheory?”

Jon Western at Duck of Minerva - 2 hours ago
[Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Guzman Castro of the University of Pennsylvania. This post refers to an article and post in the European Journal of International Relations-Duck of Minerva symposium on "The End of International Relations Theory?"by Christian Reus-Smit and the corresponding post by Milja Kurki.] Christian Reus-Smit’s and Milja Kurki’s interventions Continue reading

Helena Cobban: Syria Needs A "South Africa-Style Negotiated Transition To Democracy"

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 2 hours ago
*"The Superpowers and the Syrian-Israeli Conflict"* by Helena Cobban (1991). Description of "The Superpowers and the Syrian-Israeli Conflict" (*Source: Google Books*) This study investigates the evolution of the military balance between Israel and Syria between 1978 and 1989 and the effects of the close strategic ties that developed in this period between these states and their respective superpower partners. The fighting in Lebanon in 1982 is closely examined, both because it proved to be a key strategic turning point for Israel and Syria, and because it provided important l... more »

American-Turkish Policy Towards Syria: A Tough Balancing Act

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 2 hours ago
Below is an excerpt from, *"In Kurdish Syria, a Different War,"* by Daniel Wagner and Giorgio Cafiero, published in Foreign Policy In Focus on September 5, 2013. As the majority of Syria’s oil and gas reserves exist in northeastern Syria, the stakes are high for both sides. The geopolitical ramifications of an established autonomous Kurdish region—or independent Kurdish state—in northeastern Syria are complicated. From Turkey’s vantage point, a PKK-run Syrian Kurdistan would constitute a major setback given the likelihood that the PKK would utilize the territory to launch attacks ag... more »

Mike Klonsky : Forbes Calls Charter Schools 'Part of a Corrupt System'

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 2 hours ago
Demonstration in New York against school privatization. 'Part of a corrupt system': Forbes piece pounds charters About the only thing charters do well is limit the influence of teachers’ unions. And fatten their investors’ portfolios. By Mike Klonsky / The Rag Blog / September 18, 2013 An article appearing in the September 10 issue of Forbes gives a swift kick in the rear end to

ON THE OTHER HAND......

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 3 hours ago

DCCC Has Its Dander Up Again-- The Hypocrisy Is Spilling All Over DC

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 3 hours ago
The last time-- the 41st time-- the House voted to defund Obamacare, every single Republican voted yes, making each one a potential target for an "engaged" DCCC. There was a slight glitch. The Republicans are calling it a "bipartisan vote." Why? Because 5 reactionary Blue Dog Democrats voted to defund Obamacare as well-- John Barrow (GA), Collin Peterson (MN), Mike McIntyre (NC), Jim Matheson (UT) and Dan Lipinski (IL). Worse still, three of them-- Barrow, McIntyre and Matheson-- are dependent on the DCCC for their reelection efforts. Last year the DCCC spent over $4 million of th... more »

The True Size of the Shadow Banking System Revealed (Spoiler: Humongous)

Obi-Wan Kabuki at AMERICAN KABUKI - 3 hours ago
in The Physics arXiv Blog https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/5e1dd9d1642 *The True Size of the Shadow Banking System Revealed (Spoiler: Humongous)* The shadow banking system is vastly bigger than regulators had thought, say *econophysicists* *who have developed a powerful new way to measure its hidden impact* In most parts of the world, the banking system is closely regulated and monitored by central banks and other government agencies. That’s just as it should be, you might think. But banks have a way round this kind of regulation. For the last decade or so, it has beco... more »

Think about it . . .

Edstock at The Galloping Beaver - 3 hours ago
Toxoplasma gondii THE ATLANTIC has a fascinating article on how parasites can change how you think and react. No foolin’, they have found that infected people have more car accidents, for example. “How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy”, by Kathleen McAuliffe looks at the research of a Czech scientist, Jaroslav Flegr whose research on a single-cell parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii or

The Taper That Wasn't

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 4 hours ago
*Guest post by Fed-watcher Peter Schiff, who reckons the U.S. Central Bank, whose non-decision yesterday left financial markets in all sorts of confusion, have dug themselves a hole we won’t easily climb out of.* The Fed's failure yesterday to announce some sort of tapering of its QE program, despite the consensus of an overwhelming percentage of economists who expected action, once again reveals the degree to which mainstream analysts have overestimated the strength of the U.S. economy. The Fed understands, as the market seems not to, that the current "recovery" could not survive... more »

Liberty Notes from Larry Reed (3)

Nonoy Oplas at Government and Taxes - 4 hours ago
A continuation of useful quotes from Lawrence "Larry" Reed, President of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in the US. Posted in his facebook wall. Photos below -- 1st row: Larry Reed, Friedrich Hayek; 2nd row: Ludwig von Mises, Franklin D. Roosevelt; 3rd row: Thomas Szasz, Rand Paul. Government is awful at fighting poverty. That's because its expertise is in fighting prosperity. And it ought to be small enough that you have to go looking for it, instead of it always looking for you. -- Lawrence Reed Top of Form There is all the difference in the world between treating peo... more »

Chet Raymo, “Palm Reading”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 4 hours ago
*“Palm Reading”* by Chet Raymo “I find myself looking at the palm of my hand. The pattern of lines in which palm readers claim to read my fate. A criss-cross of indentations that is apparently unique to me. Then I look at my other palm. The same pattern, in mirror image. And I'm gobsmacked. It all started out as a single fertilized cell. 2. 4. 8. 16. 32. Eventually, tens of trillions of cells. How do the cells multiplying in my left hand know what the cells in my right hand are doing? How is such perfect symmetry maintained across what is in effect molecular light-years? Gene... more »

Flooded oil and gas wells - Colorado flooding has wrecked holy hell as a result of the inland oil and gas industry there. Apart from wrecked road , landslide and wreckage water and sewage problems - coming into focus is contamination from the natural gas and oil exploration facilites wrecked by the storms....

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 4 hours ago
Flooded oil and gas wells spark fears of contamination in Colorado by Renee Lewis September 18, 2013 12:30PM ET Activists say ruptured pipelines, gas leaks and oil spills in flood-stricken Weld County put environment at risk Topics: Environment Energy Fracking ** ** ** [image: Weld County] An oil storage tank on a well pad lies toppled by flood waters in Weld County -- environmental activists have raised concerns about leaks of gas, oil and hazardous materials from compromised oil and gas industry infrastructure.Rick Wilking/Reuters As Colorado reels from a prolonged flooding disast... more »

The Daily "Near You?"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 4 hours ago
Waynesville, North Carolina, USA. Thanks for stopping by.

"Want To Fly Like An Eagle?"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 4 hours ago
“Want to fly like an eagle? Thanks to a GoPro camera, you can!” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3QrhdfLCO8&html5=1 Do watch this fullscreen... • Hat tip to Alex Noble for this material.

"Find Another Way..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 4 hours ago
“Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.” - Leroy Satchel Paige

A Note on Natural Science and Social Science

Phil at A Very Public Sociologist - 4 hours ago
Doting dads have small bollocks. That was the news story preoccupying the news cycle for half a day last week. You may recall it *appeared* to "scientifically" prove a correlation between the size of a man's balls and whether he's a doting dad or not. Small balls = good dads. Giant bawbags - bad dads. Of course, it did nothing of the sort. How it got through peer review for a prestigious scientific journal when a simpleton like me drove a cart and horses through their sampling beggars belief. This isn't to say there is no correlation, it's just that they have not proved it because ... more »

Pooh’s Little Instruction Book for Teachers

Susan O at Schools Matter - 5 hours ago
* by Susan Ohanian* 1. When waking in the morning, if your first thought is, “I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” it’s unlikely you’ll find it in your Plan Book. 2. When you’ve been following your Lesson Plan for miles, and you suddenly stop for breath and a student says, “Do you want to hear why the chicken crossed the road?” then you know it’s a Friendly Day. 3. If you plant an acorn, it will grow up into an oaktree. But it doesn’t follow that writing *The students will…* in your Plan Book means they will become 21st Century Workers. 4. If you want to make your... more »

Crash + 5 years of “stimulus” = “2007 all over again, but worse”

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 5 hours ago
It’s like 2007 all over again, says the banker who picked the 2008 global financial storm, only worse. The “irrational exuberance” for debt instruments is the same, based as before on gobs of cheap money, only this time (after all those gobs of failed stimulus spending) debt levels for every over-spending government are even higher than before, and there is nowhere for interest rates on those borrowings to go but up. Which means the global economy is on the edge of the same cliff as six years ago, only higher up—and it’s ready to jump. William White, former economist for “the ba... more »

Ron Jacobs : 'Another Self Portrait' of Bob Dylan

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 5 hours ago
Another Self Portrait: Dylan’s take revisited Dylan's voice here is the voice of an earnest troubadour. There is little of the smoky raspiness present in his mid-sixties material or the world-weary gruffness of Dylan's current persona. By Ron Jacobs / The Rag Blog / September 18, 2013 When I lived there in the early 1970s, the main shopping area in Frankfurt am Main revolved around the

Inter-National Ill-Health Service

Rufus News From Atlantis at News From Atlantis. - 5 hours ago
Over the past two weeks I have been in-and-out of hospitals caring for family members who have been stricken ill. Hospitals are never pleasant places, and it is especially traumatic when loved ones are taken in for treatment. Thankfully, all concerned now seem to be alright, which is in itself miraculous considering the decay of the NHS and the culture of shoddiness which has pushed out the traditional caring approach to the people who need health care. This is not to say that there are not many professional staff in the NHS who genuinely have the best interests of the people at ... more »

Walking! Long Walk 4 headed west from Kansas City!

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 5 hours ago
. Photos 1 -- 6 by Nikki Lopez, photo 7 -- 9 by Carl 'Bad Bear' Sampson! Thank you! Photos of Longest Walk 4 Return to Alcatraz Sept 17 and 18, 2013 in Kansas. On Wednesday afternoon, the walkers were on Prairie Band Potawatomi land in Kansas and headed west! The walkers will walk through Lawrence, Kansas, on Friday, Sept. 20, 2013.

Fukushima updates - September 18 , 2013 ..... Things fall Edition Wednesday ( Steam pouring out for 5 of 6 past days , cracks in steel observed - follow Crane failure ..... symptoms of high radiation ? Of course water everywhere and where in the world is the missing Corium ? How many more reasons do we need for Tepco to be immediately removed from oversight and control of Fukushima and the Executives who ran the remediation efforts put on trial ? How about Tepco choosing not to stop water leaks in 2011 because of concerns of hurting their precious stock price - with Government consent ? Assume that is accurate , how can you trust any statements , assurances , actions taken or failures to follow Rules / Regulations from Tepco and the Government ?

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 5 hours ago
Energy News...... 03:08 PM EST on September 18th, 2013 | 24 comments Steam observed 5 of previous 6 days at Fukushima Unit 3; Lasted for 24 hours straight at one point — Nuclear Expert: There could be pockets of corium still in molten state; Nobody quite understands what’s going on (AUDIO) 12:41 PM EST on September 18th, 2013 | 17 comments Crack found over 200 feet above ground at Unit 1 & 2 exhaust stack — Fukushima Worker: May be more difficult to deal with than contaminated water 11:08 AM EST on September 18th, 2013 | 18 comments Tepco ‘Prompt Report’: Fracture-like traces found on... more »

“This Time There Really Will Be a Government Shutdown”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 5 hours ago
* * *“This Time There Really Will Be a Government Shutdown”* And that's not all bad... BY Noam Scheiber “Suffice it to say, it’s hard to do a deal when the only thing the other guy wants is the one thing you can’t give him. This null set scenario is, unfortunately, precisely where we find ourselves in the debate over funding the government beyond September 30th. House Republicans are insisting that any funding measure simultaneously de-fund Obamacare, while Democrats have rightly proclaimed this idea preposterous. And there appears to be no wiggle room in the GOP position. Accord... more »

Nature Photography

Southern Man at Southern Man - 5 hours ago
Southern Man does these posts any time Teen Daughter gets 'hold of the camera. Southern Man got this one with the phone cam. Drop the camera and step away from the car, or I lick it again! Meta photography. Southern Man loves his children equally (if differently) but this one adds a special sparkle to his life. *Lord, thank you for my children. Guide and direct me, as I strive to guide and direct them. Amen.*

And they’re off … or are they? [updated]

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 6 hours ago
Wait your patience with the classic Irish yachting commentary… *UPDATE*: Former blogger Cactus Kate is a Kiwi Ninja. Content is copyright PC.BlogSpot.Com © Please contact author for permission to republish: (organon at ihug.co.nz)

Lightning Round--Shutdown Redux, Cable News Fails Again, iOS 7 Available, Wing Thief Warned, Google Takes on Death, More

Jay Allbritton at Jay Allbritton - 6 hours ago
*MaddowBlog*: Steve Benen covers the power struggle that John Boehner just lost with the right wing of his party over how to proceed in the budget negotiations that will determine whether we have a government shutdown in less than two weeks. *TPM*: A reader named PJ explains why the coming storm over GOP threats to shut down the government if Obamacare isn't defunded comes at a time when even the most politically engaged are dealing with a high level of political fatigue. The two dominant political stories leading into this were about Syria and the mass shooting in DC. "So the two d... more »

Austerity - long term

Roobin at THROUGH THE SCARY DOOR - 6 hours ago
The birth rate in Greece has dropped by 10% in four years. This is truly sad - children are a source of joy but adults are afraid to bring children into the world. This will also have a knock on effect on Greek society. Unless, for some reason, Greece becomes super-prosperous and the children born now are super-fertile, this will result in a long-term decline in the Greek population. Fewer people means fewer people working, fewer people producing wealth, Greece falls further behind. Future generations have been sacrificed by current politicians to the Almighty Market.

The Balance of Probabilities

Paul Coker at News Spike - 6 hours ago
The Balance of Probabilities from Spike1138 on Vimeo. *CNN: * *"Mr Bin Laden, you have declared a Jihad against the United States.... * * * *Can you tell us: Why?* Who Carried out 9/11? Let's play "Jesus or Judas...?"

And they’re off … or are they? [updated]

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 6 hours ago
Wait your patience with the classic Irish yachting commentary… *UPDATE*: Former blogger Cactus Kate is a Kiwi Ninja. Content is copyright PC.BlogSpot.Com © Please contact author for permission to republish: (organon at ihug.co.nz)

When Larry Fell (And How) What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Goldman Sacked (What Does Goldman Think Now?)

Sometimes it's difficult to tell how Obama feels about certain issues. Sometimes not. Larry Summers: Goldman Sacked By Greg Palast Joseph Stiglitz couldn't believe his ears. Here they were in the White House, with President Bill Clinton asking the chiefs of the US Treasury for guidance on the life and death of America's economy, when the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers

Democrats Use The NRA in Their Campaign Ads

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 7 hours ago
Yesterday I heard some "brilliant" Beltway pundit on MSNBC babbling incoherently that there won't be any progress on gun control unless pro-gun control forces can beat an NRA shill at the polls. Being from the Beltway, one wouldn't expect her to know anything about America... and a states like California and Illinois are so, so far away. But last year-- that's *soooooo * long ago too-- NRA whore Joe Baca was defeated on exactly one issue: gun control. And isn't that why former Congresswoman and NRA shill Debbie Halvorson (D-IL) still a *former* congresswoman? Then you have the p... more »

Hamilton Police: Distracted Driving Bad, Causing Distracted Driving "Peaceful"

noreply@blogger.com (fern hill) at DAMMIT JANET! - 7 hours ago
The Fetal Gore Pron Gang are in Hamilton, Ontario, and up to their usual mischief. A graphic anti-abortion banner that hung across an overpass on the Linc Tuesday evening snarled traffic and angered some Hamiltonians. The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR) draped a banner with a picture of a 10-week-old fetus and the slogan “abortion kills children” on the overpass by the Upper Wentworth exit on the Linc on Tuesday during rush hour. Police reported an accident in that area at 4:20 p.m., and further traffic incidents shortly after. Doesn't that sound like the banner ca... more »

A recommendation

Roobin at THROUGH THE SCARY DOOR - 7 hours ago
If literature has a future it is in collective, open source writing. If you haven't come across this before those of you who love creepypastas will love the SCP Foundation, a wikipage that collects sci-fi/horror stories.

The Story of the Jews (Part Three)

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 8 hours ago
Simon Schama can certainly tell a story; indeed, the third part of his *The Story of the Jews *seemed to flash by, such was the power of his story-telling. And it was a big story he had to tell. "This is the story of an immense leap of faith, made on a promise of equality and toleration. It would carry the Jews of Europe from the certainties of tradition, and from the ghettos enforced by ancient prejudice, and expose them to the opportunities and to the threats of freedom in world transformed by revolution, technology, mass culture and nationalism." "The consequences would be wo... more »

“The Constitution-Free Zone: Fact and Fiction”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 8 hours ago
*“The Constitution-Free Zone: Fact and Fiction”* By Guillermo Jimenez “In recent months, there has been a growth in the level of interest and curiosity regarding the area near the border of the United States known as the “constitution-free zone.” Persistent civil disobedience, viral “checkpoint refusal” videos on YouTube, and unlawful arrests of several activists in the area have caused the issue to reach newfound levels of awareness. For those who have worked towards generating a wider public discourse, the increased media attention and revived dialogue is undoubtedly a good sign... more »

Natural disasters and anomalies - Signs of Change the last weeks

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Dr. John v. Kampen) at - 8 hours ago
Link: http://youtu.be/uH9jGI1mzSI Is it because our solar system on its journey through the galaxy we call "Milky Way" is gradually changing places? Are different forces from the outside at work throughout our planetary system? Yes, other planets also show anomalies. Or is it our variable star, the Sun and its currently weakening electro-magnetic force-field that plays its part in strange weather and seismic phenomena we see these days. What about some bright meteors then at our night skies? With our highly fragmented sciences and pseudo-sciences it is hard to figure out what the G... more »

The Realist Report with John Friend

John Friend at John Friend's Blog - 8 hours ago
On this edition of *The Realist Report*, we'll be joined once again by Tom in Connecticut. Tom and I will be discussing the systematic use of deception. Please visit *The Realist Report* on TalkeShoe to download this and past episodes. Below are relevant links and data for this program: - *TERROR IN THE CAPITAL DRILL GONE REAL* - *The Washington D.C. Navy Yard Shooting Hoax* - *Navy Yard shooting: Aaron Alexis narrative crumbling* by John Rappopport - *Artifacts from the DC Navy Yard Shooting* by Dr. James Tracy - *Carney: Obama Implementing Executive Actions Foll... more »

Al-Qaeda Thanks The Mainstream Media For Its Slanted Coverage of Syria

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 9 hours ago
Related: *Al-Qaeda Presents The Moral Case For U.S. Intervention In Syria*. *Al-Qaeda Is Disappointed In British Parliament, Calls On British PM To Attack Syria*. *Al-Qaeda Applauds Secretary of State John Kerry's Latest Remarks On Syria*. *Al-Qaeda Approves of Barack Obama's Glorious Declaration of War Against Syria On August 31st*. *Al-Qaeda Praises Obama Reaching Out To Friends McCain And Graham*. *Al-Qaeda Demands Congress Pass Obama's Syrian War Resolution*. *Al-Qaeda Rejects False Accusations That It Was Behind The Chemical Weapons Attack At Ghouta*. *Al-Qaeda Slams Putin's NYT O... more »

A Small Point About the Hard and Soft of Shutdown Deadlines

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 9 hours ago
I think I mentioned this at some point, but I keep reading things that don't seem to get it, so a quick dedicated post about the flexibility of the fiscal year deadline. Yes, the deadline for funding the government is a hard deadline. No CR, and the government shuts down. The deadline is the end of September. However, one thing that Dylan Matthews didn't include in his nice explainerthis morning): just as Congress can pass a one-year CR or a ten week CR (what the GOP is apparently planning for now), they can also pass a one day or ten day CR. Any length of time at all, in fact. Hours... more »

Hansen: Europe standing tall against rogue state of Canada

Luboš Motl at The Reference Frame - 9 hours ago
It seems that no other climate skeptic is paying any attention to James Hansen and his home page anymore. The guy has retired and he's irrelevant, the underlying assumption probably says. Well, I sometimes follow the page because in some sense, I still consider him the most important single person of the climate alarmist movement. Al Gore has sold his soul to Arab oil sheikhs for hundreds of millions of dollars and well before he did so, his climate alarmist empire incredibly shrank by 80% or so. Pachauri is widely viewed as a politically appointed engine driver of a sort who is ... more »

CHOOSING THE NEXT PRESIDENT; MOSSAD, THE CIA AND THE SAUDIS

Anon at aangirfan - 9 hours ago
*Stanley Weiss* *Stanley Weiss* is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. And he's a member of the American Ditchley Foundation, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the Royal Institute in the UK. Weiss tells us who is going to be the next president. *Prabowo. **Prabowo, a fan of Ataturk, has business interests in many countries, including Canada. Prabowo's ties to the U.S. military are the closest of any among the U.S.-trained officer corps. He attended the Advanced Infantry Officers Course at Fort Benning, Ga., in 1985 and the Army Special Forces Train... more »

Gaia Waters Energetics Carry Sparkles of Iridescence…

Obi-Wan Kabuki at AMERICAN KABUKI - 9 hours ago
* * * * *Gaia Waters Energetics Carry Sparkles of Iridescence…* by ÉirePort Gaia Waters energetics carry sparkles of iridescence, blue, violet, green, gold, as well as Higher Dimensional "colors" or "aspects of consciousness". Current upgraded and transformed and transmuted Gaia grid structures are able to support such iridescence. Incorporation of these Gaia Waters energetics into each and every Hue-Being, each and every hu-being (small 'h' (namely, not yet fully conscious of Higher Energetics)) has completed. Full integration is in progress. ÉirePort | September 18, 2013 at 17:... more »

Terraformed Energetics Have Continued to Eliminate Dark-Intenders from Gaia Inner and Outer Consciousness Planes

Obi-Wan Kabuki at AMERICAN KABUKI - 9 hours ago
*Terraformed Energetics Have Continued to Eliminate Dark-Intenders from Gaia Inner and Outer Consciousness Planes* by ÉirePort Terraformed Energetics have continued to eliminate dark-intenders from Gaia inner and outer consciousness planes. Peak of this process is soon to be reached and will manifest as mass consciousness awakening within short period, possibly within this current (what Earth beings call) "month". Friability* of new grids has been ameliorated and the increased flexibility of such to respond to 3D-5D changes is assured. [*fri·a·ble [frahy-uh-buhl]: adjective... e... more »

Is Baird being muzzled by Harper on Loubani/Greyson case?

noreply@blogger.com (deBeauxOs) at DAMMIT JANET! - 10 hours ago
In August R.E.A.L.wimminz of Canada launched a full-metal attack on the minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, John Baird. In September, the Harper government has yet to offer any serious, harsh direction to the Egyptian government with respect to the illegal detention of two Canadian citizens in a Cairo prison: award-winning filmmaker John Greyson and his traveling companion Dr Tarek Loubani. Has Baird been cowed by Gwen Landolt's homophobic screeching? John Greyson wears his homosexuality proudly and rigorously in his work. Or is the Harper government malignantly punishing Dr Lo... more »

"How It Really Is"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 10 hours ago

“Failure to Withdraw: The CIA, the Taliban, and the Strategy of Tension in Afghanistan”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 10 hours ago
*“Failure to Withdraw: * *The CIA, the Taliban, and the Strategy of Tension in Afghanistan”* by Sibel Edmonds “The Afghan war has provided NATO with access to control the $200+ Billion opium trade. The war has given NATO a key toe-hold in a geostrategic region, bordering perennial US target Iran as well as providing access to the key Central Asian nations- a vital area in NATO’s ongoing quest to encircle China and Russia. The occupation also affords the ISAF forces direct access to Afghanistan’s mineral resources, and the compliant Kabul regime is only too happy to allow multinati... more »

“Corporate Corruption: They Don't Give A Damn”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 11 hours ago
* “Corporate Corruption: They Don't Give A Damn”* by Karl Denninger “Well now. You know those "Terms and Conditions" where everyone says we respect your privacy? Really? All of them have carve-outs for valid legal process, of course. Nobody in business is willing to go to jail for you, nor should they be. That would be flatly unreasonable. But- there is a difference between going to jail for someone and being their lapdog, especially when the "requests" made are not targeted at individuals who are under suspicion but rather are for everyone's records. If you don't push back ag... more »

Food Stamps... A Victim Of Deficit Reduction Mania

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 11 hours ago
I'm not a big fan of obsessive focus on deficit reduction. I'd rather see the government investing in the country's future-- our people and our infrastructure. But the Obama Administration has successfully fought to cut the deficit at a faster rate than any other Administration since World War II. I don't blame just Obama. The Republicans have made a really bad situation much, much worse. All this deficit reduction is called Austerity, the failed European budget slashing program that has devastated most European economies. Ideologically, the Republicans laser in on government fun... more »

No Proclamation for Fetus Fetishists

noreply@blogger.com (fern hill) at DAMMIT JANET! - 11 hours ago
Woo-hoo! After five straight years of bending over for fetus fetishists, the City of Kelowna has declined to proclaim the last week in September "Protect Human Life Week". It's a yet another straight-up victory for sane people who oppose this tiny minority of fanatics in our midst. In a long overdue move, Kelowna has changed its criteria for issuing proclamations to focus on local common issues and, more importantly, to take into account the human rights issue so often glossed over by these anodyne statements. "Although the wording of the proclamation may have sounded harmless, ... more »

UFO Crashes Fifty Years Before Roswell

KRandle at A Different Perspective - 11 hours ago
Zoamchomsky, in response to a comment in the last posting, suggested that there had been stories of UFO crashes for more than fifty years prior to the Roswell case. He was asked to provide sources but that isn’t really necessary. There is plenty of evidence that this is true and for those who would like to see a long listing of them, including a story or two that are centuries old, take a look at *Crash: When UFOs Fall from the Sky*. In 1897 the Great Airship was being seen all over the Midwest and Southern states, with occasional excursions into the West. A report from San Angelo, ... more »

The Economy: “Always Look on the Bright Side...”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 11 hours ago
*“Always Look on the Bright Side...”* by Bill Bonner “Some things in life are bad, They can really make you mad. Other things just make you swear and curse. When you're chewing on life's gristle Don't grumble, give a whistle, And this'll help things turn out for the best. And always look on the bright side of life, Always look on the light side of life...” – Eric Idle, Monty Python, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” “Today, we continue our showdown with Gary Shilling, John Mauldin and Justice Litle (who responds to our case below). On one side: people who are looking on... more »

New Study Finds Guns Kill

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 11 hours ago
A study published in the *American Journal of Medicine* refutes the common American myth that high levels of gun ownership make countries safer. Well, duh. *Guns do not make a nation safer, say US doctors who have compared the rate of firearms-related deaths in countries where many people own guns with the death rate in countries where gun ownership is rare.* *On the contrary, the US, with the most guns per head in the world, has the highest rate of deaths from firearms, while Japan, which has the lowest rate of gun ownership, has the least.* *The journal has fast-tracked public... more »

One Reason the IPCC Estimates Regularly Fall Short.

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 12 hours ago
Why has the IPCC repeatedly failed to anticipate the onset and severity of climate change impacts? IPCC reports, with a very few exceptions, routinely understate impacts. A study, published in the Quarterly Reports of the Royal Meteorological Society, says the methodology of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is flawed because it's incomplete. *Traditional estimates of climate sensitivity such as that adopted by the IPCC focus on "fast feedbacks" like water vapour, natural aerosols, clouds, and snow cover, but do not sufficiently account for slower feedbacks includin... more »

Miley Cyrus, Rob Ford and Skyler White

thwap at thwap's schoolyard - 12 hours ago
I was FRONT PAGE NEWS that 20-year old pop super-vixen Miley Cyrus and her fiance Liam Hemsworth have definitely called it Quitsville. I'm not sure of the reasons for the split, but it was a long time coming. Also, the bungling Obama's attempts to start World War III appear to be stuttering to a halt; the hunger-strike in California prisons is over, teachers are being clubbed by riot police in Mexico City, global warming, financial system tottering ... but on the front page of newspapers is the denouement of the wedding plans of two celebrities. Despite his aides tweeting (on "Tw... more »

R.I.P. Eiji Toyoda

Steve at Thinking Aboot - 12 hours ago
Eiji Toyoda was the younger cousin of the founder. Toyota has done the world a lot of good. The Kan Ban inventory system and process of constant improvement pioneered by Toyota have been adopted by almost every enterprise. Thus lowering the cost and improving the quality of life. Eiji Toyoda ruled this firm for 25 years. Amongst his accomplishments the Prius and the Lexus brand.

Newest Post By JB Campbell: Unconditional Surrender!

Northerntruthseeker at Northerntruthseeker - 12 hours ago
The news these days is a combination of both good and bad.... We see the good in the Syrian government working with the international community in showing that they were not responsible for the chemical weapons attack on their own people, and them willing to commit to a removal of their own chemical weapons stockpile so as to not give the United States, Israel, and other criminal nations their excuses for an invasion of their country....And of course we see the bad, where the criminal maniacs in both the United States and the criminal state of Israel are absolutely lusting for war, ... more »

Do you remember that day when you first heard “no excuses?”

Timothy D. Slekar at @ THE CHALK FACE - 12 hours ago
Sexual Abuse Physical Abuse Malnutrition No Health Care Homelessness Some idiots just keep on saying it! No excuses DAMN IT! Follow Tim Slekar on Twitter: @slekar

MAINE DRONE PEACE WALK

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 12 hours ago
*Preserve our Privacy: No Drone Spying in Maine* *Limestone to Bath * *October 10-19* Peace activists from Maine and beyond will walk through large portions of our state from October 10-19 in order to bring the issue of drone surveillance at home and drone killing overseas to the public’s attention. The walk will begin in Limestone in Aroostook County and end in Bath. President Obama has announced that as many as 30,000 drones will be flying around the US doing surveillance of the American people in the coming years. Thirty-seven states have applied to host one of six military dron... more »

In Which John Boehner Tells a Little White Lie

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 12 hours ago
So House Republicans are going to (try to) pass a semi-clean CR except for including an ACA defunding mechanism. John Boehner says: “On every major issue we’ve faced for the past two and a half years, the math has been the same: House Republicans either find a way together to get to 218, or the Democrats who run the rest of Washington essentially get everything they want,” he added, pressing for House GOP unity. This is, well....not true. Look: with a normal, healthy party, 218 could be important, as the process of getting to consensus would involve internal compromises and as the ... more »

Lockheed - Arm Twister Extraordinaire?

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 12 hours ago
What Lockheed wants, Lockheed intends to get especially when it comes to the F-35 stealth light attack bomber. Last week the company tried to stiffen spines here in Canada by warning that Canadian businesses stood to lose over $10-billion in contract work if their government tries to play wise guy and cancels the F-35 purchase. *Nice little place ya got here. It'd be a shame if anyting was to happen to it.* Now Lockheed seems to be doing a full Wall-Mart on its own contractors. Seemingly desperate to cut costs that are scaring off potential buyers, Lockheed has told the contrac... more »

Bizarre Confrontation With Toledo Cop Caught on Video

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Daniels) at Global Political Awakening - 12 hours ago
[image: Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...] Amanda Warren An incident with one policeman in Toledo, Ohio escalated over the weekend and was caught on film in Washington Township, Lucas County. Already chaotic, the scene gets more heated as more angry words and swearing are interchanged; and finally, after a few minutes, other bystanders start appearing. According to the description, the couple in question, who are flat face forward on the road with their hands behind their backs in cuffs, wound up there after asking the officer to move his car because it was blocking ... more »

Fukuchiyama, Japan: Flooding

LeDaro at LeDaro - 12 hours ago
*A residential area in Fukuchiyama, Kyoto Prefecture, flooded because of Typhoon Man-yi. - Kyodo News via AP* It looks Japan is not getting much break lately. Too many natural disasters.

Stephen Harper and friends

LeDaro at LeDaro - 12 hours ago
Stooge meets stooges.

When "Biblical" Becomes Normal

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 13 hours ago
The word being bandied about now to describe Colorado's raging flash floods is "Biblical". That's a step up from "once a century" but some are saying "new normal" might be more accurate. *Andrew Freedman at Climate Central ...notes that this lethal catastrophic event is consistent with the increasing frequency of extreme rain storms occurring under, and sometimes definitely linked to, continued climate change.* *Climate Central/National Climate Assessment* Biblical? Hardly. Normal? Yeah, that's right - or at least that's right now. If we start passing these events off as superna... more »

Click, Click, Boom! Again?

Timothy D. Slekar at @ THE CHALK FACE - 13 hours ago
In case you need to know about the number of mass shootings in America, Mother jones has produced the “data.” In case you’ve forgotten here is a small sampling… http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/14/us/california-santa-monica-gunman/index.html Slain Santa Monica gunman John Zawahri left behind a note on his body apologizing for killing his father and his brother and hoping his father’s […]

Change The World Wednesday (#CTWW) - National Ceiling Fan Day

Small Footprints at Reduce Footprints - 13 hours ago
Welcome to Change The World Wednesday (#CTWW)! Wondering how to live greener? You've come to the right place. Each week we challenge ourselves to try a new task ... or "amp up" something we're already doing. We raise our awareness, learn from each other and develop Eco-friendly skills which will improve our lives and protect our planet. Doing so together gives us power ... the power to Change The World! If this is your first visit, please click HERE for information and a complete list of all the challenges we've taken on so far. This post contains great information and I encourage ... more »

WORKERS ARE YOU READY?

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 13 hours ago
September 5th, 2013, Raleigh, NC - As Walmart workers petition managers to reinstate employees who have been unfairly treated, a flash mob breaks out. Did you know it's your right to form a union?

WotW: Simplify Your Blogging/Social Media World

Seth R. Hawkins at Housewife Eclectic - 13 hours ago
Social media is great, but do you ever feel like it takes up more and more of your time, leaving you with less time to live actual real life? If you run a blog, a business or are hip on all the latest social media sites, chances are you know exactly what I'm talking about. It can easily become exhausting to compose a blog post, a Facebook page post, a bunch of Twitter posts, an Instagram post and a slew of pins on Pinterest. Not to mention Google+, YouTube and a slew of other sites. You want to be active on all these channels, but there's just a limited amount of time available, a... more »

We Are NSA (Not So Adept) At Noticing the Mentally Ill

Karen Garcia at Sardonicky - 13 hours ago
You'd think that with a multi-billion dollar surveillance state monitoring our every move, somebody would have been alerted to the fact that Aaron Alexis, a guy with security clearance to work in a military installation, had been complaining about hearing voices in his head and thinking that stalkers were sending microwave signals to his body. Classic symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. From *Reuters*: Alexis told police he believed people were following him and "sending vibrations into his body," according to a Newport police report. He told police that he had twice moved hotels t... more »

Iraq Signs Consulting Contract With BP For Kirkuk Oil Field

Joel Wing at MUSINGS ON IRAQ - 13 hours ago
In September 2013 Iraq’s Oil Ministry and British Petroleum (BP) signed a contract for the Kirkuk oil field in northern Iraq. This appeared to be controversial at first, because the field is in the disputed territories, and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has demanded that all deals for the field have to have its approval. BP is only doing technical work however. It is interested in developing Kirkuk as well, but the arguments between the central and regional governments will likely prevent that from happening any time soon. The Kirkuk field stretches from the disputed te... more »

“Free Flow of Information Act” Targets Independent Journalism

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Daniels) at Global Political Awakening - 14 hours ago
[image: Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...] James Tracy The fact that the US Senate is now defining what a journalist actually is sets a dangerous precedent threatening the present marketplace of ideas that in recent history has been greatly expanded by the internet. According to the text of an amendment sponsored by Senators Diane Feinstein and Dick Durbin to the proposed “Free Flow of Information Act” (PDF) that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 12, only salaried journalists will be given the free press protections guaranteed to all US citizens by ... more »

the truth

Oberon at GlobaLove Think Tank - 14 hours ago

Theories Never Die

Daniel Nexon at Duck of Minerva - 14 hours ago
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Felix Berenskoetter. It is the 25th and final installment in our “End of IR Theory” companion symposium for the special issue of the European Journal of International Relations. SAGE has temporarily ungated all of the articles in that issue. tl;dr notice: ~1750 words. Other entries in the symposium- may be reached via the “EJIR Special Issue Continue reading

Your moment of Zen

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 14 hours ago
Mt. Fuji at sunset.

Is this statement about the gun debate true?

bob somerby at the daily howler - 14 hours ago
*WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2013* *What Buddy Holly once said:* Last night, Rachel Maddow did two segments about gun reform, a response to this week’s most recent mass shooting. In her second segment, she interviewed Mark Kelly, who with his wife, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, has started a group which favors gun reforms. Whether you agree with his views or not, Kelly is a thoroughly sensible person. We were struck by Maddow’s account of the way the debate about guns gets cast by various parties: MADDOW (9/17/13): *The debate in our country over gun policy most often ... more »

Read Stuff, You Should

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 14 hours ago
Happy Birthday to June Foray, 96. Cruelly underappreciated; amazingly talented, and in way more things than you think she has been (Brady Bunch? Yup. Married with Children? Sure. Rugrats? Powerpuff Girls? Twilight Zone? Get Smart? Check, check, check, check.). HOF-level just for Natasha Fatale. Good stuff: 1. Seth Masket on recall elections. 2. Phil Arena on Syria. 3. And Andrew Sprung on J Street and the ADL.

Canada wins best skyscraper 2013

Steve at Thinking Aboot - 15 hours ago
Who does not wish sometimes they were an architect. A Chinese firm builds a winner in Mississauga.

Global Matrix showing glitches ? September 18 , 2013.......

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 15 hours ago
Glitches in the Global Matrix ? [image: Tyler Durden's picture] Housing Starts, Permits Miss; Demand For Rental Units Continues SlideSubmitted by Tyler Durden on 09/18/2013 - 08:54 That today's housing starts and permits data disappointed once again (in the case of starts this was the 5th miss in a row) is not surprising: with Starts printing at 891K, this was a miss to "expectations" of 917K, as analyst expectations for the "recovery" begin to be repriced in the face of rising rates. There was of course spin: the prior month was revised from 896K to 883K so the mainstream media c... more »

Republicans Running On A Platform Of Repealing The Affordable Care Act? Awesome!

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 15 hours ago
The GOP-- or at least the Ted Cruz/Teabagger wing of the Republican Party-- seems determined to run on a platform of repealing Obamacare next year. Polls show something between a quarter and a third of Americans embrace that position. The problem, for the Republican Party, is that all of the embracers are GOP primary voters. And they don't care about history. The relevant history would be the 1936 election in which Alf Landon's campaign was based on repealing Social Security. Landon, the governor of Kansas, claimed the New Deal was corrupt, unconstitutional, hostile to business an... more »

Israel: with an eye to Iran, jumps off the Syria fence?

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 15 hours ago
*And last but certainly not least!* But first, before we get to the crux of this post. Don't miss the first two posts for today. The fit like glove to hand to one another and are both worth checking out. If they weren't they would not be here! 1. William Engdahl- Doomsday Food and the Business of Eugenics 2. Top climate scientists admit global warming forecasts were wrong Now onto the main feature! *Below is a follow up piece to the sudden admission by Ambassador Oren. Covered in yesterday's post ** Ambassador Oren: Israel has wanted Assad ousted since BEFORE Syria war began* * Wh... more »

holy shit !

Oberon at GlobaLove Think Tank - 15 hours ago

Unpaid Internships

Owen Gray at Northern Reflections - 15 hours ago
The latest entry point in the job market is the unpaid internship. Young people are told that an internship will help them get their feet in someone's door and on their way to a promising career. But Devon Black writes that the truth is far different than the pitch: That rosy picture of unpaid internships is almost certainly wrong. The U.S.-based National Association of Colleges and Employers released the results of a three-year-long survey on internships, where students were asked if they’d received offers of paying jobs during the critical pre-graduation period of February to A... more »

Untitled

New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 15 hours ago
*Heavy Weather extremes stir research ~Amy Wold, Advocate* *Send a Letter to your State Legislators urging them to support our SLFPA-East lawsuit to protect New Orleans ~Levees.org* *St. John residents get up-close look at Corps' levee plans* *St. James residents protest proposed flood protection levee alignment* *Jean-Paul Villere: Fancy a ferry landing? ~Uptown Messenger* *Polite confirmed as new U.S. Attorney in New Orleans ~WDSU* *St. Bernard brings in outside experts to test for brain-eating amoeba ~ WWLTV* *The New Orleans pizza scene is hot, any way you slice it ~Ian McNulty*

DIVISION AND CONQUEST: Red and blue together losing ground!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 15 hours ago
*WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2013* *Interlude—Clinton among The Others:* In this morning’s New York Times, Anne Lowrey keeps presenting gloomy new economic data. Bill O’Reilly cited these same new data on his Fox program last night: LOWREY (9/18/13): Despite the addition of more than two million jobs last year, soaring corporate profits and continuing economic growth, *income for the typical American household did not rise in 2012 and poverty failed to fall, new data from the Census Bureau show.* [...] Over a longer perspective, the figures reveal that the income of the median Americ... more »

Syria provides Russia with evidence Syria Rebels were behind August 21 , 2013 chemical weapon attack at Ghouta ! Russia set to analyze evidence and then report their findings ! Chemical weapon talks - foundering on US and France's refusal to step back from military options ? Much more on the state of play in Syria ....

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 15 hours ago
http://www.france24.com/en/20130918-syria-gives-russia-evidence-rebels-behind-chem-attack Syria gives Russia 'evidence' rebels behind chem attack [image: Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem (R) meets with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov (L) in Damascus on September 17, 2013.] Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem (R) meets with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov (L) in Damascus on September 17, 2013. *AFP - *The Syrian regime has handed Russia new materials implicating rebels in a chemical attack outside Damascus on August 21, Russian Deputy Foreign Minis... more »

LinkedIn challenges US management over data requirements

Megaan at Current news updates, World current news - 15 hours ago
*LinkedIn, the business networking service, has mounted an authorized challenge to the US government's ban on disclosing the number of national security-related data requests it receives.* US organizations are permitted to publish the total number of data requests, but cannot split the figure down to reveal the number made by security services. US organizations are allowed to publish the total number of data requests, but cannot break the figure down to reveal the number made by security services. *LinkedIn strongly believes that all data, whether analog or digital, whether store... more »

Top climate scientists admit global warming forecasts were wrong

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 15 hours ago
Imagine my non-surprise at this news? Our computers were wrong? Is that credible? Shows you how bizarre this whole concept is. If *"the forecast computers may not have taken enough notice of natural variability in climate" *It was only because the programming was done to * not* take notice of the natural variability in climate! Will they drop all their carbon tax grabs? Don't count on it! Liars and manipulators. Anything to extract every last penny from your pocket and control you, the human resource. A leaked draft of a report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change i... more »

Pauline Marois: Her proposed Charter of Hate-Values

LeDaro at LeDaro - 15 hours ago
It is already having an impact as a Muslim woman was harassed on a city bus by a bigoted moron. Also a mosque in Saguenay was attacked and disfigured. *"A substance that appears to be pig's blood was sprayed on the front of the mosque Saturday, and a letter containing hate comments was also left at the scene. An identical letter was left at the local Radio-Canada building." * Muslims don't eat pork, pig's blood on a Mosque is a degrading and a serious insult. Quebec separatists not only want separation from Canada, but also want to break ties from civilized soci... more »

Are ALEC Corporations Really That Damn Dumb?

2old2care at Because I Can - 15 hours ago
ALEC corporate members never cease to amaze me. ALEC corporations may have all the money in the United States - it's evident that they don't have all the smarts. It's evident that none of them took a logic class in college. It's evident that they never learned that if A is B and B is C then A is C. They argue that the money that they give to ALEC - has a specific use - bullshit. There is no special bank account that ALEC corporate member money goes into - to fund only this or only that. The money that ALEC corporate members give to ALEC go into one a general fund - THAT FUNDS EVERYTHIN... more »

The Virtues of Quitting

Brandon Valeriano at Duck of Minerva - 16 hours ago
We have all quit from time to time. Choosing when to quit and move on is tough proposition, especially for researchers. I never really thought much about the issue and how it relates to our work until Dave Chappelle brought it home for me recently. I saw his set on the Funny or Die tour Continue reading

William Engdahl- Doomsday Food and the Business of Eugenics

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 16 hours ago
*Thanks Henrik @ Red Ice * An excellent interview This interview goes hand in hand with the article in this post Top climate scientists admit global warming forecasts were wrong

NSA spying blowback continues a Brazil's Presidents blast US spying on the Aides of the Brazilian President , as well as industrial spying on Brazil Energy giant Petrobras , snubs Obama by refusing to settle for a telephone discussion with " The One " to satisfy Brazilian anger - then tears the band-aid off abruptly by publicly demands a public apology as its State Visit to the US is indefinitely postponed !

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 16 hours ago
Brazilian President Snubs Obama: How US Cyber Espionage will Destroy the Internet Posted on 09/18/2013 by Juan Cole *The USG Open Source Center reports on Brazilian press reaction to President Dilma Roussef’s decision to cancel her state visit to Washington DC this fall, after revelations by Edward Snowden that the US National Security Agency not only intensively spied on all Brazilians online and engaged in industrial espionage but that special efforts were made to spy on the president herself.* Brazil is now the world’s 6th largest economy at $2 trillion a year, and is economy is ... more »

Wednesday Addams Linkage

PM at Duck of Minerva - 16 hours ago
Brief but important interview with Andrew Gelman. Here’s one thing regarding “great applied work”: Ask yourself the question: What makes a statistician look like a hero? You might think that the answer would be, Extracting a small faint signal from noise. But I don’t think so. I think that a statistician looks like a hero Continue reading

If There Is - A Chinese Proverb

Stranger in a Strange Land at Stranger in a Strange Land - 16 hours ago
Source: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Living-with-Common-Sense/154468647938561

T- Minus seven hours until the Federal Reserve unleashes its taper of its QE program regarding buying treasuries and / or MBS ? In other news , an Italian Senate Committee is expected to vote on a proposal to block Berlusconi's expulsion from Parliament on Wednesday evening ! Overnight review of yesterday's data and news regarding US markets , Asia markets and Europe this morning ...

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 16 hours ago
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2013 All Eyes on the Fed Taper *By Leith van Onselen, Chief Economist of Macro Investor, Australia’s independent investment newsletter covering trades, stocks, property and yield. You can follow him on Twitter at @leithvo. Cross posted from MacroBusiness* It’s all about the FOMC meeting at 04:00 AEST tomorrow morning and to be honest nothing else really matters. Ben Bernanke speaks 30 minutes later at 04:30 AEST and the chairman’s speech will also be highly watched, potentially increasing volatility across the board. Data in the US has been OK, but hardly en... more »

Untitled

Paul Coker at News Spike - 17 hours ago

Fear of a Black Planet

Paul Coker at News Spike - 17 hours ago
Don't Believe the Hype * * * * *“The problem we have is we have a faction of the Republican Party, in the House of Representatives in particular, that view “compromise” as a dirty word, and anything that is even remotely associated with me, they feel obliged to oppose.”* * * * * ** ** * * * * Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, said, "*Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery. It is mean-spirited and dangerous. * * * *We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster t... more »

Code Pink

Paul Coker at News Spike - 18 hours ago
Some people have accused me of making this up: I'm not making it up. Why do they do this...? Here's an idea: A B.S. in political science...? Ya got that right.... "Recover that"...? I'm sorry, I don't understand - you're a white woman and an American Jew - what are you "recovering" exactly, and why...? OBAMA Heckled by "Medea" Brown of Code Pink " Will you apologize to Muslims...?" from Spike1138 on Vimeo. He shouldn't - not at any rate while he makes appointments like Chuck Hegal, the most anti-Zionst Defence Secretary in a generation and ends two major, decade-lo... more »

Kindness- A Narration by M.N. Hopkins

Stranger in a Strange Land at Stranger in a Strange Land - 19 hours ago
** *Kindness:* *By kindness, we mean a spirit of giving not just of oneself, but the giving of the gifts of Spirit to Mankind.* ** *Kindness is the flame that burns away the mire. Kindness is that which is so sweet and lovely, yet few will open their minds and hearts to its gifts. Kindness brings with it Love and with Love comes the redemption for all who live within your Earth Realm.* ** *For men refuse to love one another. Instead, they insist upon that which divides not just themselves, but divides whole communities. We often hear that our way is the true way and the only way to... more »

Hi Sarah Silverman, did you mean Aaron Alexis? Is that why your video no longer plays?

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 19 hours ago
Recently Sarah Silverman posted an absolutely hilarious (yes I'm being sarcastic) video on Funny or Die. She caught a fair bit of flack over it, not least from black right of centre Americans. But it seems that the reality of a black man, Aaron Alexis, going on a gun powered killing spree has lead to Funny or Die killing the video... Poor timing with the original video Sarah? Here's some of the responses from black men to Sarah Silverman's original black NRA video You can read more about Sarah Silverman's previous exploits including recommending using emotional blackmail to... more »

Amplituhedron: wonderful P.R. on new Arkani-Hamed+Trnka papers

Luboš Motl at The Reference Frame - 19 hours ago
*Spacetime is doomed and its murderer has finally been spotted* In December 2012, Nima Arkani-Hamed along with Bourjaily, Cachazo, Goncharov, Postnikov, and Trnka released a very interesting paper Scattering Amplitudes and the Positive Grassmannian on a new way to calculate planar amplitudes of four-dimensional gauge theories using some generalized higher-dimensional "polytopes", more precisely "positive Grassmannians" (see previous TRF articles on that concept). This development arose from the twistor minirevolution sparked by Witten's 2003 paper although the twistors turned into a... more »

Lost in Minquan W Rd Station....

Michael Turton at The View from Taiwan - 19 hours ago
Wow. The bottom map... Yes, in modern maps, north is at the top. In traditional Chinese maps, south is at the top. But Minquan W Rd station is a whole new orientation. But the top map... Looking at that, I seriously began to wonder if I had Alzheimer's or something... _______________________ [Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Integrating Dietary Supplements Into Cancer Care - Free Online PDF Document

Stranger in a Strange Land at Stranger in a Strange Land - 19 hours ago
*Integrating Dietary Supplements Into Cancer Care* * * *Abstract* **Many studies confirm that a majority of patients undergoing cancer therapy use self-selected forms of complementary therapies, mainly dietary supplements. Unfortunately, patients often do not report their use of supplements to their providers. The failure of physicians to communicate effectively with patients on this use may result in a loss of trust within the therapeutic relationship and in the selection by patients of harmful, useless, or ineffective and costly nonconventional therapies when effective integ... more »

'There are no relations between Israel and the Islamist Hamas government in Gaza.'

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 20 hours ago
'There are no relations between Israel and the Islamist Hamas government in Gaza.' That's the BBC position on the Israel/Gaza state of affairs. Wouldn't a brief explanation as to why there are no relations between Israel and Hamas be in order? Hamas don't recognise Israel and in their Charter and frequently since they state their aim as the destruction of Israel and often also the killing of all Jews. I would have thought this worth a mention but the anti-Israel BBC would seem to disagree. The rubric that the BBC uses gives the impression that the fault could lie on either or both s... more »

CIA ATROCITIES IN SYRIA

Anon at aangirfan - 21 hours ago
*Syria.* In his autobiography* Soldier*, Lt Colonel Anthony Herbert tells how, as a member of the CIA-military Specials Operations Group, he was asked to take charge of execution teams in Vietnam. These teams murdered entire families and tried to make it look as though the enemy, the Viet Cong, had done the killings. *The CIA, the Press and Black Propaganda* Human Rights Watch claims that pro-government Syrian forces brutally slaughtered 248 people in the coastal towns of al-Bayda and Baniyas in May 2013. The claim is based on accounts by the rebels. http://www.dailymail.co.uk... more »

Britax Carseat Giveaway!

Debra Hawkins at Housewife Eclectic - 21 hours ago
In honor of Child Passenger Safety Week, Viva Veltoro and Thrifty Nifty Mommy are bringing you a fantastic opportunity to win a Britax Boulevard 70-G3 Car Seat! Car crashes remain the leading cause of death for children 1-13 years old in the United States, but many times these tragedies can be prevented by the proper use of car seats, boosters, and seat belts. Child Passenger Safety Week is the perfect time to inspect your car seat and make sure you're restraining your child in the correct seat, and that the seat is installed properly. Britax has been an industry leader in... more »

And so it begins...

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 22 hours ago
Tony Abbott has been sworn in as Australia's new prime minister. So how does the BBC's new Sydney correspondent, Jon Donnison, choose to mark the occasion? By discussing the disappointment felt by some that Mr Abbott's cabinet has only one woman in it. This gives him the chance to link again to Julia Gillard on *YouTube *accusing Tony Abbott of being a misogynist. Jon Donnison's first non-*YouTube *link then (predictably) carries readers straight to the UK's very own *Guardian *newspaper (no fan of Mr Abbott's) to back up the charge than Mr Abbott has a case to answer. Going ... more »

dream - Cressida Dick did not look like Stanley Kubrick's wife was not Philip K Dick's wife

Mike Philbin at PROGNOSIS II - 22 hours ago
*not Cressida Dick*what the hell was THAT dream all about? I was lost, in the same 'urban village' of Old London I always get lost in, when trying to find 'the railway station' or 'avoiding riots in the street'. I passed my friend Mitch out in Town with his two grown-up kids. Then went down a winding back alley to where I ended up being invited into this old person's house 'for water' or 'directions'. There was a soft white female black 'n' white Border Collie or 'sheep dog' in the pantry that eventually was affectionate or at least accepted petting, seemed to need love. Then (here... more »

Turkey Shoots Down Syrian Helicopter, Harbors Al-Qaeda, Looks To Play Spoiler (Videos)

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 23 hours ago
While President Obama and President Putin are busy making responsible deals and coming to an adult agreement about Syria, at least for now, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄźan is doing everything in his power to increase tensions along Turkey's border with Syria and jump-start a larger war. "Turkey scrambled its F-16 fighter jets on Monday to shoot down Syria’s Russian-built Mi-17 helicopter, claiming that it was forced to take the decision after the helicopter intruded two km inside Turkish airspace," reports Atul Aneja for *The Hindu*. The blog "friday-lunch-club" *says* ... more »

The Upcoming War On Syria (Momentarily Delayed): Speaking Of Chemical Weapons - What About Israel's Arsenal?

Northerntruthseeker at Northerntruthseeker - 23 hours ago
Yes, it does appear that an outright attack by the United States against the innocent nation of Syria has been delayed for the time being... But what is not being told is that in spite of direct military intervention by the cirminals in the United States, their government has now been pouring in massive amounts of supplies to their insurgent criminal mercenaries, also known as the "rebels". This battle for Syria is not over by a long shot... With the Syrians agreeing to put their chemical weapons arsenal under international control, there have been many people that have said tha... more »

Gen. Dr. Engineer Salim Idriss

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 23 hours ago
The Face of The FSA. lol. He's not exactly the charismatic-conqueror type. "You know how Salim Idriss of the Fee Syrian Army signs his decrees? Like this: Gen. Dr. Engineer Salim Idriss. I am not making this up. This is exactly how his name appears in all of his decrees. I think that he should add lawyer to the mix." - *The Angry Arab*.

Gates Money and Common Core– Part IV

deutsch29 at @ THE CHALK FACE - 23 hours ago
This post is a continuation of a series I am writing on Bill Gates’ funding specifically for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). In my first post, I examined the Gates bankroll of the CCSS foundation organizations and to both national teachers’ unions and other influential groups. In the second post, I […]

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Is This Thing A Lemon?

Northerntruthseeker at Northerntruthseeker - 23 hours ago
Some time ago, someone asked me to take a look at the new US Lockheed Martin designed and built Joint Strike Fighter, the F35, that many in the criminal US Government have haled as being the fighter plane of the future, and have decided to replace almost the entire existing inventory of US fighter planes with. I periodically have read the reports in major online publications, and have looked at the aeronautics of this so called "fighter plane" and I am not impressed... In fact, I am deeply concerned that the American public has been forced to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on... more »

Misogynist Rites Activists Alberta Style Part the Second

noreply@blogger.com (Niles) at DAMMIT JANET! - 1 day ago
Well, we knew it was coming after the show earlier in the year. When Canadian "GirlWritesWhat", Edmonton member of American misogyny group/aggregate blog and fun group "A Voice for Men" (google it, I'm not linking), fronted to the media for the group after a slut-shaming poster campaign that went up around the Uof Alberta, American Paul Elam, head of AVfM, crowed about how much mileage they were going to get out of people being outraged by their speaking truthiness to Power in a country where they could be bold Spartacus in lumberjack shirts, throwing off the shackles of feminarchy... more »

Far Right Extremist Koch Brothers Are Pouring Hundreds of Millions Into A Silent Coup Against Democracy

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 1 day ago
North Carolina neo-fascist Art Pope bought his state's Republican Party at bargain basement rates. The Koch brothers, also of a distinctly fascist/John Bircher bent, paid a lot more to buy the national Republican Party. In fact, they're paying a lot more than anyone could have proven until just recently. The most corporately-oriented and extreme right Supreme Court since the Civil War has allowed Big Business and wealthy special interests like the Kochs to coverup the legalistic bribes they give politicians. But the diligence of OpenSecrets keeps foiling much of the skullduggery. ... more »

Standard of review

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 1 day ago
R v Yorston, 2013 ABCA 309 : [6] Triers of fact have considerable leeway in assessing the evidence and in drawing inferences from that evidence: *R v Biniaris*, 2000 SCC 15 (CanLII), 2000 SCC 15, [2000] 1 SCR 381 at paras 24, 37. While appellate courts accord great deference to findings of fact by a trial judge, they will intervene when they are unreasonable: *R v Wolbeck*, 2010 ABCA 65 (CanLII), 2010 ABCA 65, 474 AR 331 at para 9.

A snack

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 1 day ago

Proud to be a bleeding heart liberal

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 1 day ago
Been a long day dealing with real life. Best thing I've seen on the internets tonight, via Doug J, is this political ad. Reminds me of me and my Dad.

Federal Judge approves US seizure of Mid- Town Manhattan Tower owned by Iran ( by way of Alavi Foundation and Assa Corporation ) - Piaget building seized due to building owners alleged violation of federal money laundering laws and Iran sanctions ....

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 1 day ago
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130917-707310.html A U.S. district judge found that the U.S. government can seize a 36-story midtown Manhattan office building that it says is secretly owned and controlled by the government of Iran. The judgment paves the way for the "largest-ever terrorism-related forfeiture" and sale and would provide a means for compensating victims of Iranian-backed terrorism, the U.S. Justice Department said. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest granted summary judgment in favor of the U.S. government's claims for the forfeiture of 650 F... more »

S&P turns negative on Chicago's outlook ! Will Chicago follow Detroit as its fiscal plight worsens ?

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 1 day ago
S&P turns negative on Chicago's outlook BY DAN BERMAN September 17, 2013 • Reprints Share on linkedinShare on twitterShare on facebookShare on emailMore Sharing Services0 Chicago became the latest U.S. city to see its financial prospects dragged down by its pension obligations when Standard & Poor’s changed its outlook to negative from stable, while affirming its A-plus bond rating. "The outlook change reflects our view of the risks involved in how the city will address its upcoming, large pension payments," Standard & Poor's credit analyst Helen Samuelson, said in a statement. Whil... more »

Alan Waldman: ‘Are You Being Served?’ Was Hit Sitcom in Britain and Around the World

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 1 day ago
Waldman's film and TV treasures you may have missed: It -- and sequel ‘Grace and Favour’ -- aired 81 classic episodes, which repeated and repeated on many PBS stations. By Alan Waldman / The Rag Blog / September 18, 2013 [In his weekly column, Alan Waldman reviews some of his favorite films and TV series that readers may have missed, including TV dramas, mysteries, and comedies from Canada

endeavor

Oberon at GlobaLove Think Tank - 1 day ago

Congressmen (not) on BBC America

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 1 day ago
According to the right-wing website Trending Central the BBC has been caught out over its "pro-Obama bias". The evidence? A report from the Pew Research Center think tank comparing the coverage of the Syrian Crisis by Al Jazeera America, BBC America, CNN, Fox and MSNBC. One of the sections in the Pew report examines the use of sources cited by each media organisation. Trending Central notes that all the media outlets relied heavily on Obama administration officials as sources but adds that "the BBC failed to balance its reporting by consulting many representatives of the U.S. ... more »

Harry Targ : Revisiting 'American Exceptionalism'

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 1 day ago
Beacon to the world? Image from Wikimedia Commons. Was Putin right? Revisiting 'American exceptionalism' A better future and the survival of the human race require us to realize, as Paul Robeson suggested, that what is precious about humanity is not our differences but our commonalities. By Harry Targ / The Rag Blog / September 17, 2013 Continued study and research into the origins of the

Worry: There's no escape

Jody Paterson at A Closer Look: Jody Paterson - 1 day ago
Long, slow drives to distant communities are opportunities for interesting conversations with my co-workers, as there’s often just me and one of the guys in the truck. We've talked about workers’ rights, Canadian salaries, time management, trades training, attitudes toward homosexuality – you name it. “Why do so many people in Canada and the U.S. use drugs?” asked a co-worker last week during one such conversation. Hoo-boy, I thought to myself. Tough question. Making a living in the illegal-drug business is something a significant number of Hondurans are intimately famil... more »

Lion Rock 7: Reading Club Salon 2013, Hong Kong

Nonoy Oplas at Government and Taxes - 1 day ago
The Lion Rock Institute (LRI), Hong Kong's first and only free market think tank, will hold its second annual round table discussion on some theoretical concepts, billed as "Reading Club Salon 2013". The first event, "Reading Club Salon 2012" was held in early November 2012, two days before the Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia conference which was held in another hotel in Hong Kong. I attended both events. Below, our group photo at the conclusion of the 1 1/2 days LRI event. The Reading Salon is unique because (1) there are no primary or resource speakers, every participant is... more »

New Democrats DEMAND To Know (as should MOST Canadians), Why Conservative Party Lawyer Sat In On Elections Canada Investigative Interviews On Robocalls Scandal!!

leftdog at Buckdog - 1 day ago
[image: Progressive Bloggers] *OTTAWA – The NDP wants the Commissioner of Elections Canada to publicly answer questions about why Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton attended robocalls interviews.* *In a letter sent to Commissioner Yves Cote Tuesday, NDP MP Craig Scott asks Cote to answer six specific questions about Hamilton’s presence in interviews with witnesses, all of them Conservative staffers. “It just jumps off the page that there’s a potential ethical problem here,” Scott, critic for democratic and Parliamentary reform, said in an interview. “What is (Hamilton) doin... more »

Why is this man smiling? Jeffrey Toobin walks us through the ongoing conservative capture of our state courts

KenInNY at DownWithTyranny! - 1 day ago
*The clown justice gets the last laugh.* *by Ken* We've heard and read a lot about the heavy investments made by the billionaires of the Right in the decade before the 2010 census and ensuing reapportionment to gain control of as many governorships and state legislative houses as possible, and we've head and read a lot about the direct effect on legislative agendas -- spearheaded by such luminaries of the rich and reactionary as Wisconsin's Scott Walker, Ohio's John Kasich, Michigan's Rick Snyder, and Florida's Rick Scott -- and also about the even longer-term impact of the right-... more »

Ron Paul Wants to Abolish Public Schools

freetoteach at @ THE CHALK FACE - 1 day ago
While progressives are busy reading (or not reading) Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error, Ron Paul’s anti-progressive, right wing Tea Party folks and followers are reading The School Revolution. I came across a review of this book in The New Republic. What concerns me are the recent discussions and blog posts here and elsewhere about finding common […]

BEYOND AMBITION

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 1 day ago
*My father, Kenneth Gagnon (front center), with his family around 1926* A dear friend once told me that her parents thought I had no ambition. But that wasn’t quite the case; it is more complicated than that. The real issue, summed up in my long-lost father’s worn letters to my mom (kept secret until I finally got to read them at 23 years old) written soon after their separation around 1954, was that “I couldn’t imagine making money off other people’s misery.” My mother (Gaetana Ruth Amelia DiCapua), the product of a social climbing Italian immigrant family, had asked him in a pr... more »

Musical Interlude: 2002, “The Dreaming Tree”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 day ago
2002, “The Dreaming Tree” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_hOphl_fsg&html5=1

Dutch Trim F-35 Order

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 1 day ago
At the outset the Netherlands was expected to buy 85 of Lockheed's light attack stealth bomber, the F-35. For a nation not much larger in area than Vancouver Island that seemed like a hefty purchase. Now the Dutch have announced they'll settle for just 37 of the overpriced, overdue and underperforming warplanes. That seems to make the F-35 something of a niche buy for the Netherlands. Not particularly inspirational but it still gives Lockheed something to crow about as the company tries to strongarm South Korea into rethinking their decision to go for an updated F-15 buy inst... more »

"A Look to the Heavens"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 day ago
“From Sagittarius to Carina, the Milky Way Galaxy shines in this dark night sky above planet Earth's lush island paradise of Mangaia. Familiar to denizens of the southern hemisphere, the gorgeous skyscape includes the bulging galactic center at the upper left and bright stars Alpha and Beta Centauri just right of center. *Click image for larger size.* About 10 kilometers wide, volcanic Mangaia is the southernmost of the Cook Islands. Geologists estimate that at 18 million years old it is the oldest island in the Pacific Ocean. Of course, the Milky Way is somewhat older, with the... more »

"A Look to the Heavens

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 day ago
“Is this what our own Milky Way Galaxy looks like from far away? Similar in size and grand design to our home Galaxy (although without the central bar), spiral galaxy NGC 3370 lies about 100 million light-years away toward the constellation of the Lion (Leo). Recorded below in exquisite detail by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys, the big, beautiful face-on spiral is not only photogenic, but has proven sharp enough to study individual stars known as Cepheids. *Click image for larger size.* These pulsating stars have been used to accurately determine NG... more »

"A Look to the Heavens"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 day ago
“Is this what our own Milky Way Galaxy looks like from far away? Similar in size and grand design to our home Galaxy (although without the central bar), spiral galaxy NGC 3370 lies about 100 million light-years away toward the constellation of the Lion (Leo). Recorded below in exquisite detail by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys, the big, beautiful face-on spiral is not only photogenic, but has proven sharp enough to study individual stars known as Cepheids. *Click image for larger size.* These pulsating stars have been used to accurately determine NGC ... more »

Carlos Castaneda, "The Predator of Man"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 day ago
*"The Predator of Man"* by Carlos Castaneda ․ “’Predators Mind.’ This is the Castaneda term for that which aligns man with the thought center of service to self. In “Active Side of Infinity,” Don Juan tells Castaneda of the Earth being invaded in the mists of time by creatures of condensed darkness, the so-called Flyers which use man as food. The key idea as that these cosmic predators gave man their own mind. This is reasonable in light of much other material. At the human level, a system based on exploitation and consuming and control is seen to shape people in its own image... more »

"True, But Partial..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 day ago
"The real intent of my writing is not to say, you must think in this way. The real intent is: here are some of the many important facets of this extraordinary Kosmos; have you thought about including them in your own worldview? My work is an attempt to make room in the Kosmos for all of the dimensions, levels, domains, waves, memes, modes, individuals, cultures, and so on ad infinitum. I have one major rule: Everybody is right. More specifically, everybody — including me — has some important pieces of truth, and all of those pieces need to be honored, cherished, and included in ... more »

Michael James : Heart of Illinois in the Summer of '64

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 1 day ago
Boys in a pickup truck in front of the Fulton Democrat in Lewistown, Illinois, in the summer of 1964. Photos by Michael James from his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord James' Pictures from the Long Haul. Pictures from the Long Haul: Heart of Illinois in the Summer of '64 Hanging with this band of old dudes I learned to roll smokes. I played guitar and sang with them, and in the process

Chet Raymo, "A Walk In The Woods"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 day ago
*"A Walk In The Woods"* by Chet Raymo "Awhile ago I went for a walk in the deep woods west of Boston with sons Tom and Dan and spouses. The highlight of the day was coming across this beaver dam. We were bowled over by the size and engineering sophistication of the dam, as impressive in its own way as Hoover Dam on the Colorado. Constructed by rats. OK, not rats, but rodents. A huge undertaking of felled trees, rocks and mud, ingeniously placed at the perfect spot along a tiny stream, as if planned by a human engineer. "OK," the engineer might have said to the assembled be... more »
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