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"This year, AOL is spending $50 million to expand Patch nationally to hundreds of sites by the end of the year."

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2010/08/05/with_patch_aol_offers_challenge_to_local_news/?page=full

AOL is going hyperlocal - going to give local newspapers a run for their money.

Grannies, fine. But no MILFs? Straight to jail-bait? What is WRONG with these people!? Oh, wait.

Most universities have *INSANE* endowment funds. I've heard both Harvard and Michigan mentioned as schools that could offer their incoming freshman classes free education from undergrad through PhD without making so much as a dent in these funds.

Wouldn't it be neat if we could do a bit of research to see if the above were true? Oh wait, we can.

Harvard endowment: $25.7 billion

Harvard 2009-2010 undergrad tuition (excluding various student fees): $33,696

Admitted undergrads per year: 2,175 students

Total cost for 1 year of undergraduates to get their undergraduate degree, assuming everyone graduates and takes 4 years to do so (as a ball-park approximation):

>>> 33696*2175*4/1e6
293.15519999999998

That's $293 million dollars, or 11.4% of the total endowment. And that's just for undergrads, excluding graduate school, so I'd call that a "dent". They could keep it up for about a decade before going from having the nation's largest endowment to being bankrupt.

The Wikipedia article about Obamacare cites a Boston Globe article about tax implications stating: "Starting in 2014 everyone will be required to maintain health insurance. If you go without insurance, you will be subject to a tax of $695 per year."

Okay, have it your way, but I'm making factual claims and offering evidence for them, while you're making subjective assertions and offering no evidence for them.

There are effective ways to point out lies and distortions in a discussion, but issuing bare accusations isn't one of them. You're entitled to your opinion -- even if I happen to think yours is the more evil and destructive of our two philosophies -- but you're playing with an alternate set of facts from the actual ones.

Quoting this destructive sociopath defending himself on his own websites does not help your case one bit.

I didn't quote him, I offered links to evidence against your claims. But here, have some other evidence of Tea Party infiltration, and of zero-tolerance for racism:

Tea Party Express leader Mark Williams kicked out over 'Colored People' letter: Mark Williams, the flamethrower leading the battle against the Ground Zero mosque, was kicked out of the National Tea Party Federation Saturday for a racist blog post.But when he posted a satirical letter supposedly from "the Colored People" to President Lincoln praising slavery, that apparently crossed the line. [...] The federation, an umbrella organization that claims to represent 85 Tea Party groups, kicked out Williams' group when it wouldn't fire him. "We have expelled Tea Party Express and Mark Williams from the National Tea Party Federation because of the letter that he wrote," federation spokesman David Webb said on CBS's "Face the Nation." He called the letter - written after the NAACP called on Tea Party leaders to oust racists from their ranks - "clearly offensive."

Foes of tea party movement to infiltrate rallies: ALBANY, N.Y.--Opponents of the fiscally conservative tea party movement say they plan to infiltrate and dismantle the political group by trying to make its members appear to be racist, homophobic and moronic. [...] Levin says they want to exaggerate the group's least appealing qualities, further distance the tea party from mainstream America and damage the public's opinion of them.

The Crashers: They came, they saw, they failed: [Yes, it's a Michelle Malkin piece, but full of photographs of tea partiers using signs to denounce and ostracize extremists / infiltrators in their midst.] "Check out the Captain Obvious crasher getting called out for attempting to paint their peaceful protest as an incitement to violence and faking a vile sign."

As to your question...

There is no infiltration of the Teaz Party, those are the real views of real supporters who have never, as you claim, been denounced. In fact, if they were, it would be no problem for the Tea Party to do as the NAACP requested, and denounce the racists. Why won't they?

...again I ask, what racism? So far there's no evidence of it. You reiterate your claim and accuse me of lying and distortion, but you don't even mention a single occurrence that they should be denouncing, much less offer proof of any pattern of racism in the movement. Have you no sense of irony?

"In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that misinformed people, particularly political partisans, rarely changed their minds when exposed to corrected facts in news stories. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger."

http://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/07/14/1235220/Given-Truth-the-Misinformed-Believe-Lies-More
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/?camp=misc:on:share:article

Sarah Palin has said that reducing carbon dioxide emissions will destroy the economy. So, yes, this is what the denialists claim. To me, this is the actual alarmism, as opposed to the calm, rational explanation of the effects of global warming such as that we'll see a meter of sea level rise this century. These same denialists say that people who believe in AGW claim that global warming is a threat to the planet, or at least an end to human civilization. In their minds, everything is all switched around, and stating the facts of the matter simply reinforces their misinformed opinion even more. No doubt I'll be modded as a troll by these people, though.

Corporation's don't have empathy or remorse, but individuals do.

Not always. Sociopathic individuals do not show empathy or remorse. Unfortunately for the rest of us, it seems that succesful managers score higher on tests of sociopathy.

Slashdot has for a long time had a way of filtering the trolls out,

What system would that be, homeslice? The moderation only works on posts that are of the generic-troll or meme-troll variety -- like "HOT GRITS" or "OBAMA is a N1&&3r" or somesuch. When trolls troll from a point of view, then it becomes much more subjective. Meta-moderation is very much a crapshoot and not evenly applied.

Obviously slashdot has its own cultural norms and when you come here you simply have to be aware that there's going to be some verbal abuse. A newspaper, on the other hand, doesn't really want that and doesn't want to dedicate its services and infrastructure to hosting shouting matches. The draw for a newspaper is the story, not the argument itself; this is where a newspaper and a forum are different. Any conversation on the article should facilitate understanding, perspectives, and critique of the article, and not be a sort of vanity contest.

Boston.com did a very interesting article recently on the average anonymous poster. And to be honest, I don't see why these people spout off about half the crap they do. They just want attention, and it isn't a newspapers job to host vanity projects.

First, The Boston Globe has an article that explains the same details, though not in question & answer interview format.

Second, the adult human brain is engineered to actually dismiss information that it does not agree with. There was a very good article I read (that I think was posted a while ago on /.) that explained the situation very well. In summary, the prefrontal cortex of the adult human brain is the "information filter" that is responsible for filtering out "unnecessary" information. For example, ask yourself how many people you walked by today. Then ask yourself how many of those peoples' faces do you remember vividly? Though your eyes most likely saw many, many faces, your prefrontal cortex filters out that information before it even is stored in short-term memory. I know there's an article out there that explains the science more thoroughly, but sadly I failed to find it.

Anyways, the same information filter that filters out unnecessary information also is also responsible for blocking any information that it determines to be dissonant from accepted information, i.e. cognitive dissonance. In this previously mentioned misplaced article, scientists hooked up participants to an MRI in an experiment analyzing how their brains processed conflicting information. The participants were sorted into two groups: physics majors and non-physics majors. The video was a recreation of Newton's gravity experiment, where a person drops a tennis ball and a bowling ball, both hitting the floor at the same time. When the physics majors saw the experiment, their brain did not register much activity, because what they saw was already what they knew to be true. But when the non-physics majors watched the video, the "WTF" section of their brain went crazy. In short, they believed that the bowling ball would hit the ground first, and when it didn't, their brain had a difficult time processing the information that conflicted with previously held beliefs. When faced with this confliction, adult minds must either reclassify what they know (a very difficult task for the adult brain), or filter out what they have just witnessed (a very easy task for the adult brain). In the end, I'm sure most of those non-physics majors ended up rationalizing what they saw with excuses such as, "Video editing" or "lead weight inside tennis ball."

As difficult as it is, the only way to prove to someone the truth is to first prove to them that their accepted beliefs are false. The only way this is possible is to take what they believe to be true, then show them how their own "facts" are inconsistent with one another. Only by creating cognitive dissonance within their own thoughts, rather than introducing it from an external stimulus, can you create the conditions necessary for them to be willing to listen to truth.

Sadly you are mistaken. People do not reconsider beliefs often. In fact attempting to change deeply held convictions can cause cognitive dissonance since many other decisions have been based on that belief. In fact, people with deeply held beliefs often hold those beliefs even more strongly in the face of proof to the contrary. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/

But that is beside the point. There is no petition here, this article is about the potential outing of a million gay teens. Which could result in eviction, abuse, and other forms of harm. The FTC made the right call I just wish that consumer protections were more broad. Rather than "you can't do this as it violates your privacy policy" I would prefer "you can not sell consumer information as it could do harm".

Imagine if facebook or myspace decided to mine and sell your data. "Ehh who cares, they already do." But studies suggest they can determine where you live, your sexuality, what you are interested in via your connections. So now even if you keep your data private they can probably figure out your birthday, orientation, former residences, etc. Now imagine if you are an actor or musician and have too many gay friends so they sell your info to a anti-gay group that starts protesting at your work and calling your family/friends/co-workers. You lose business partners, sponsorships, your family starts to wonder what you are hiding...

You can not reason with a mob, they have others reinforcing their opinion and peer pressure would prevent most people from backing down. Only a culture of tolerance and/or stronger consumer protection would make this less likely. Right now we have neither. We are sometimes inching towards more tolerance but then I see anti-gay, anti-immigration, anti-Muslim, anti-intellectual materials and I despair.

Found it

Probably because it's dangerous to pick on serial killers as a group.

"We call this one the "Genetic Researcher Decapitator".

Also, genetics does not work that way. Either you're an epically great troll or you simply didn't take any biology at any time in your life.

So you are saying gene therapy never works to cure anything? Lets look into that,

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-01-28-bubble-boy-gene_N.htm
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/colortherapy/
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/02/28/gene_therapy_gets_closer_to_a_cure/
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7003-gene-therapy-is-first-deafness-cure.html

So what you are saying is you'd rather continue to leave people hopelessly disabled rather than attempt to find a gene therapy? And as far as fetuses go, you can screen every fetus and guarantee that the fetuses born don't have the gene.

Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday refused to rule out a tax hike [emphasis mine] next year - handing his opposition a hot campaign issue - as he signed a pared-back $27.6 billion budget and looked ahead to an estimated $2 billion deficit [emphasis mine] with a nearly dry rainy day fund.

Those are the facts, no matter how you slice them. They have drained our state's savings, continue to overspend, and continue to raise taxes. Mind you, this is the same guy who got into office and immediately started spending money on himself (office, car, etc) way beyond what was appropriate. He (and his liberal tax-and-spend buddies in the MA houses of congress) has spent us to ruin.

• The sales tax hike from a year ago raised taxes on existing items, and started taxing items that had been exempt before. It has directly hurt MA businesses by sending sales across the border.
• This is the same state politicians who have kept increasing tolls on the Mass Pike despite the fact that the road has been paid off for years, because our corrupt pols can't bring themselves to give up a cash cow.
• The "temporary" income tax hike is still in place, years after we were promised it would be gone. They even refused to act on the referendum the voters passed to reduce it to where it by all rights ought to be.

Massachusetts has been abused by its corrupt politicians for decades. It is STILL Taxachusetts. Pick on Glenn Beck after you get your facts straight.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/theword/2009/06/fish_or_cut_bai.html

>>> http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/worldcup_06_25/w18_24042095.jpg

It's a little-known fact that silicon bags amplify radio waves and improve reception. No doubt this brilliant young(?) lady is using her iPhone with the speakerphone on and getting perfection reproduction.

Sorry, guys. This is the right way

Mod parent up, all signs point to this; both parties play this game every election. Heck, a good percentage of Hillary's support in 2008 was from Republicans voting against Obama. Democrats play the same game (remember the South Carolina Bush vs McCain primary in 2000?).

But why pull this trick in SC when the Republican seat is safe? Simple, neither side would ever pass up an opportunity to embarrass the other.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/911_caller_in_g.html

The rest of your post - about being polite is irrelevant, you have not cited one thing to show that you were stopped for anything reasonable. All you've done is say that just because the cop didn't know you personally you gave him a pass.

You forgot your sarcasm tag. It's a testament to Bush's awfulness that yet another centrist, milquetoast suit was hailed as liberal saviour.

I am not a lawyer, but as far as the Obama administration arguing for this, doesn't the administration pretty much -have- to defend the law here since it is the government and the government is the defendant? In the case of the "defense of marriage act," the Obama administration had to defend it in court even though Obama thought it should be repealed.

So maybe in this case, Obama felt obligated to defend the DHS in court regardless of how dumb or valid he felt the rules being challenged were.

Now,I think "appropriate place to repeal a bad rule" is trivial compared to actually repealing that bad law. In this case, had the courts struck down DHS's stupid, stupid rules rather than the legislative branch or executive branch dealt with it in a slower manner that allowed plenty of political BS and lobbying efforts, that would be okay in my book.

Well, yes, they do, but this is not an example of that. If I own a small company I can install whatever I want on my systems to monitor what my employees are doing for various reasons. I know of one specific case where a property management company does this to ensure that a disgruntled employee doesn't improperly handle a tenant's personal information - it is there for CYA reasons. I would also imagine that some parents would want to monitor their kids. I can see a lot of legitimate uses for this, and the ruling specifies that you cannot disguise the package as something else. I don't see or have a problem with this. Having said that, people will undoubtedly abuse the software, but that is true of most anything.

I don't think this is a good example of the authorities eroding the rights of the people - there are plenty of examples of that to be had.

Here's some interesting photos of the area http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/a_rough_week_for_guatemala.html

I have been reading recently about what seems to me to be a disturbing trend by police agencies, prosecutors and legislatures to criminalize the ability of a citizen to record a police interaction. This is but one example: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/01/12/police_fight_cellphone_recordings/

While I strongly support the Sherriff and the other police agencies in Arizona, corrupt officers are not unheard of, and I strongly reject the notion that a citizen recording any interaction with any official of the state should be criminal.

What is your position on this issue and what can we do to prevent such onerous laws, such as they have in Massachusetts for example, from becoming law here?

Truth should be a defense against Troll mods.

I DEFY anyone to discredit anything in the above post.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=catholic+abuse+settlements

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/

http://bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbylastName-A.html

http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/world/europe/01vatican.html?src=me

Troll?
The only reason for downmodding that post is being an apologist for the Church. How dare you do that?

You're getting closer to the truth. See Robert Putnam.

I caught this link a day or two ago. Take a look.

China is doing about as much to stop "piracy" as they are to stop anything else they're doing. For example, executing their head of food safety over taking bribes to ignore unsafe food for export instead of actually doing something to prevent the next guy from doing the same thing.

I would think that fear of execution is a rather effective deterrent for the next guy. It's also infinitely more effective than rewarding the offender with a huge bonus and a pat on the back.

Yeah, I guess all the pirate VCDs and DVDs at the flea markets all over California aren't full of professionally-pressed pirate video copies from China? Oh wait, yes they are. In fact, they're all over eBay and Amazon, too. China isn't just "failing to crack down on copyright piracy" (per the RTFA), they have institutionalized copyright infringement for profit all over their country and it's probably a substantial slice of their GNP. China is doing about as much to stop "piracy" as they are to stop anything else they're doing. For example, executing their head of food safety over taking bribes to ignore unsafe food for export instead of actually doing something to prevent the next guy from doing the same thing.

You must have missed the all the articles about credit card info being stolen (just the first one I can think of) or never received one of the many notices going around saying, "You've been issued a new card number because of a data breached that may have affected your account" yet. Also, PCI compliance (which is what you are think of) doesn't require all information to be removed. Here's the actual overview if you want to know.

iProduct: An interface with a simple grid of pictures to click on instead a design where any literacy is required, no need to worry about any background programs running you won't be able to see/comprehend, no need to worry about programs being installed without a matching deduction from your credit card, no need to be able to watch a video that hasn't been monetized by the man behind the curtain... Even the simple advertising campaigns - just a picture of someone cool (like you want to be) using the product (and a song if on tv) - all designed for those with low cognitive fluency

e.g. "If you build something even stupid people can use, only stupid people will use it".

Stupid people often make the best customers though - to them, you can sell shit and get thanks. They are the ones clicking on the mobile phone carrier's preinstalled spamware to buy $5 ringtones instead of downloading the whole song for $0.99.

No one should have a vested interest in a high recidivism rate, particularly not when people's liberties are at stake. It does not serve society's interests.

There, fixed that for you.

Just for a great example, that judge from Pennsylvania that was handing down way too harsh sentences and doing his best to keep the detention facility packed full of kids. I would also lump law enforcement and the military into the pile of things that should never be motivated by profit. When people's lives and liberties are at stake(you know, important shit), there is no reason people should have a profit motive. Otherwise, we'd see more and more people being killed or caged so someone can make an extra buck.

"I'm willing to bet that the Vatican would be most interested in hearing about/excommunicating those involved. Suffice to say that's not even SLIGHTLY kosher (for lack of a better word)."

Pedophilia isn't technically approved either, yet Church payoffs to shut up victims are totalling around a BILLION dollars in the US alone, the scandal is spreading, and the shell game of hide-the-pedo (as opposed to the duty to instantly turn over such predators to the police for public prosecution) is continually being exposed.

http://www.americancatholic.org/News/ClergySexAbuse/

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Sex-Abuse-Scandal-Threatens-Popes-Focus-on-Europes-Chritian-Roots-90097932.html

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2010/03/17/sex_scandal_embroiling_catholic_church_in_brazil/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/opinion/25thur1.html

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ireland/091126/abuse-report-catholic-church-dublin

I'd like to see all priests get what Father Geoghan got in prison. The enablers are as guilty as the predators.

And nothing in TFA suggests that the two charged with statutory rape had anything to do with the bullying (cyber or otherwise); they aren't charged with the other stuff.

The 17yo was. From http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/03/holding_for_pho.html:

Scheibel's office released this list of those being charged, and the charges they face.

• Sean Mulveyhill, 17, of South Hadley, charged with statutory rape, violation of civil rights, criminal harassment, disturbance of a school assembly.
• Austin Renaud, 18, of Springfield, charged with statutory rape.
• Kayla Narey, 17, of South Hadley, charged with violation of civil rights, criminal harassment, disturbance of a school assembly.
• Ashley Longe, 16, of South Hadley, charged with violation of civil rights, as a youthful offender.
• Flannery Mullins, 16, of South Hadley, charged with violation of civil rights as a youthful offender, stalking as a youthful offender.
• Sharon Chanon Velazquez, 16, of South Hadley, charged with violation of civil rights as a youthful offender, stalking as a youthful offender.

I'm surprised that "disturbance of a school assembly" is a crime. Do school assemblies really need statutory protection?

Though there is occasion that Google dealt with the devil without bargaining at all. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/12/03/google_search_and_seizure/

Privatization! All the same mistakes the government makes, plus the cost of profits, administrative overhead, plain old greed, no transparency, and no incentive to make things right.

The Pentagon’s reliance on outside contractors in Iraq is proportionately far larger than in any previous conflict, and it has fueled charges that this outsourcing has led to overbilling, fraud and shoddy and unsafe work that has endangered and even killed American troops. The role of armed security contractors has also raised new legal and political questions about whether the United States has become too dependent on private armed forces on the 21st-century battlefield...

“This is unprecedented,” [Charles Tiefer] added. “It was considered an all-out imperative by the administration to keep troop levels low, particularly in the beginning of the war, and one way that was done was to shift money and manpower to contractors. But that has exposed the military to greater risks from contractor waste and abuse.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/washington/12contractors.html

"Right now the government is paying health insurance plans that administer Medicare Advantage, on average, 12 percent more per person than it spends on patients enrolled in traditional Medicare," said AMA Board Member Cecil Wilson, MD. "With Medicare payments to doctors who care for seniors slated for a 10 percent cut next year, Congress must put the money used to subsidize the insurance industry to better use."

At the AMA's Annual Meeting late last month, America's physicians sent a resounding message to Congress - eliminate the Medicare Advantage subsidy. AMA policy clearly states that subsidies to private plans offering alternative coverage to Medicare beneficiaries should be eliminated, and that these private Medicare plans should compete with the regular Medicare program on a fiscally neutral basis.

"While groups that truly represent physicians fight to preserve all seniors' access to health care by stopping Medicare physician payment cuts, the insurance industry and its partners are solely focused on preserving their $65 billion government subsidy," said Dr. Wilson.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/76805.php

Engineers hired to investigate the cause of September's massive Big Dig tunnel leak have discovered that the project is riddled with hundreds of leaks that are pouring millions of gallons of water into the $14.6 billion tunnel system.

While none of the leaks is as large as the fissure that snarled traffic for miles on Interstate 93 northbound in September, the breaches appear to permeate the subterranean road system, calling into question the quality of construction and managerial oversight provided by Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff on the massive highway project.

Finding and fixing all the leaks will take years, perhaps more than a decade, said Jack K. Lemley, an internationally known consultant hired by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to investigate the problem. Just repairing the section of wall where the September leak occurred will take up to two months and require closing of traffic lanes.

The engineers also said they have discovered documents showing that Bechtel managers were aware that the wall breached this fall was deficient from the moment it was built in the late 1990s, yet did not order it replaced and did not inform state officials of the situation.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/11/10/big_dig_found_riddled_with_leaks/

French health care: heh. go try it. and don't forget the accompanying taxes.

Huh? The WHO ranks French healthcare as the best in the world. The US spends almost twice per capita of public funds on health care than France does.

cite:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/08/11/frances_model_healthcare_system/

Plus, the arguement is specious anyway - The USA will have huge taxes, the nation-state has just decided to download those taxes onto your children, grand-children and great grandchildren. In the USA, the next generations are expected to fund today's spending...

I'm curious, in what ways is the French system better than the American one? Is it just cost, cost/quality of care, or some other factor?

A high quality of care, delivered to everyone, at a per-capita cost of nearly half of what the US taxpayer spends:

http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/pvd/Primer.htm

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/08/11/frances_model_healthcare_system/

A lot of replies to this seem to be dismissing it as irrelevant. Yes, social networks are not private. But determining aspects of your identity that you yourself do not choose to post can have serious implications. Project Gaydar at MIT showed that it was possible to determine sexual orientation via social networks. In many parts of the world, including the US, this matters. As might information about what preexisting medical conditions you might have...

That post also said "some economists" claim interventions is wrong, and then goes to state in the next sentence that "Keynesian stimulus spending rarely works well", which is an unsupported claim; there is no logical inference from the previous statement. In other words, this is not logic but unsupported assertions, or bullshit.

If you read the Wikipedia article it shows that many economists refute the efficient market hypothesis.

Market strategist Jeremy Grantham has stated flatly that EMH is responsible for the current financial crisis, claiming that belief in the hypothesis caused financial leaders to have a "chronic underestimation of the dangers of asset bubbles breaking"

Another economic critic is Minsky http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/09/13/why_capitalism_fails/

He believed in capitalism, but also believed it had almost a genetic weakness. Modern finance, he argued, was far from the stabilizing force that mainstream economics portrayed: rather, it was a system that created the illusion of stability while simultaneously creating the conditions for an inevitable and dramatic collapse.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis#Minsky.27s_theory

Minsky saw that stable markets lead to risk taking, which is rewarded, which leads to greater risk taking. Eventually the risk taking makes the markets unstable, and there is a general meltdown. He exactly described what has happened in the latest crash.

In the real world the Efficient Market Hypothesis is about as realistic as the Flat Earth Hypothesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_Society, and leads to similar results if you use it. Of course. it is a core belief of Republicans/Neo-Cons, which is one reason that everything is so screw up right now.

Here is a lovely site for some light reading... http://www.paypalsucks.com/

Also an interesting story on a new scam in Boston on a scam using facebook, twitter, and Paypal http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/03/6000_fall_prey.html

Our banking system is one of our most heavily-regulated industries, right up there with medicine and operating nuclear power plants.

Given the number of iatrogenic fatalities and the recent revelations about tritium leaks at Vermont Yankee, it's clear that neither medicine nor nuclear power plants are being effectively regulated. Nor are banks.

Entergy claims they have saved Vermonters $300 million over 8 years http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/02/26/leaking_credibility_vt_yankee_must_step_up_or_face_closure/ But they have also failed to contribute to the decommissioning fund required for all nuclear plants and the deficit seems to be just about that much. So really, what they have been doing is faking cheaper power to constrain competition in a dishonest manner.

There's just something inherently distasteful about a middle aged man, not involved with law enforcement, getting worked into a lather over naked children. It's creepy.

You reminded me of this article: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/07/05/the_nature_of_temptation/ which indeed validates your theory

Entergy claims it has save Vermonters $300 million over eight years because of its electricity rates. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/02/26/leaking_credibility_vt_yankee_must_step_up_or_face_closure/ But this is just about what is lacking in the decomissioning fund for the plant that Entergy has failed to contribute to. Sure hope Entergy has that money available now to make up the deficit.

I don't know which rock you (and the mods who modded you up) have been living under for the past few years but this has already happened. Ethanol induced food shortages were front page news in 2008 when oil prices skyrocketed and ethanol production increased. I know it's easy to forget these things when they doesn't affect you but the billions of people world wide who went hungry (and the many who died) definitely haven't forgotten. This all occurred very quickly in response to a rather small increase in ethanol production.

Here are a few articles I found for your reference...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/23/earlyshow/main4036816.shtml

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2008/06/04/un_warns_of_food_shortage_and_unrest/?page=full3

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/article678698.ece

"I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people."
-Barack Hussein Obama, 2010 State of the Union address

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/20/in_a_shift_obama_rejects_public_funding/

Obviously it would not be in a democracy. However many of us live in a representative democracy where our government represents those who speak the loudest

For those who may be interested, here's a report from the Boston Globe on the rise and fall of Dr. David Arndt, the doctor who abandoned a patient on the operating table to go to the bank:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/03/21/what_went_wrong/

Roughly a BILLION dollars in pedo payoffs worldwide make that post a candidate for Funny, not Flamebait.

From rescuing Nazis (not to mention largely ignoring the Holocaust, if THAT wasn't worthy of excommunication what is?) in Operation Ratline after WWII to playing hide-the-pedo across international borders, the Vatican has forfeited any respect except by its own brainwashed flock.

Enjoy!

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/

Justice, courtesy of another inmate:
http://www.boston.com/news/specials/geoghan/

Some fangirl support:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/11/23/coakley_details_her_role_in_1995_probation_deal_for_geoghan/?page=3

Roughly a BILLION dollars in pedo payoffs worldwide make that post a candidate for Funny, not Flamebait.

From rescuing Nazis (not to mention largely ignoring the Holocaust, if THAT wasn't worthy of excommunication what is?) in Operation Ratline after WWII to playing hide-the-pedo across international borders, the Vatican has forfeited any respect except by its own brainwashed flock.

Enjoy!

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/

Justice, courtesy of another inmate:
http://www.boston.com/news/specials/geoghan/

Some fangirl support:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/11/23/coakley_details_her_role_in_1995_probation_deal_for_geoghan/?page=3