Slashdot Mirror

*sigh* I didn't really want to get into this...

If it had been a (R) every news organization would have already covered it ... in spades ...

Looks like coverage to me.

But let's see, what else was covered today? Top stories -- health reform (impacts millions of lives), crash at Jamaica airport, H1N1 supply information, a captive soldier... y'know, important stuff?

Even if you're focusing on internal congressional politics, this is probably a more interesting story.

And hey, big surprise, this story isn't on the front page of foxnews.com now, and isn't "above the fold" (even on this 1200 vertical pixel screen) in their "politics" section. So while I'm sure they love taking shots at Democrats (hey, find me a Fox article critical of Republicans -- it's not hard to find a "liberal media" article, even on MSNBC, that's critical of Democrats) -- even Fox doesn't see it as that important, compared to all the other stuff going on. Maybe it'll actually matter if he succeeds...

Can you imagine what would happen to a (R) if they called someone a WHORE on TV?

Probably the same thing that happened to John McCain when he called this a "Christian nation", which is both offensive and demonstrably wrong. Or the same thing that happened to Ted "series of tubes" Stevens when he showed gross incompetence at grasping the most basic concepts of the Internet, such as e-mail.

Yes, I realize Ted Stevens was eventually prosecuted -- for actual corruption.

When 15 people show up for "Liberal" protest, the news reports "Dozens", when 5000 conservatives do the same thing, "some" showed up.

Yes, in a country of three hundred million, five thousand is "some". Would "dozens" have made you happier?

And if you're referring to the "TEA Parties" which "weren't covered" by the "mainstream media", let's keep a few facts in mind:

1. Fox News is "mainstream", as distasteful as that is.
2. Fox aggressively promoted these events. "Fair and balanced" my ass.
3. Fox took out a full-page ad, then repeated the same lie over and over, that various other news agencies had "missed" that story. I know you'll consider the source, but try to actually look at the facts in this article -- other agencies indeed covered them, they just didn't promote them, as Fox so blatantly (and tearfully -- thanks, Beck) did.

I'd dismantle the rest of your argument, but...

FOX NEWS is balance, when you have a "tingly feeling running down your leg" as fare on the other channels.

...it pretty much devolved into name-calling.

Tell me again how "balanced" Beck is when he blames a gang beating on the rise of atheism -- or when he wants California out of the union. I mean, Bill O'Reilly is a real gem, too, running a segment about how reporters should stop harassing people, leave celebrities alone, etc, right before he goes into a segment of footage of his reporters doing the exact same thing, with no segue... but hey, Beck makes O'Reilly look like a genius saint by comparison.

Whatever bias the "liberal media" might have -- and it doesn't, it just actually is fair and balanced, so liberals think it's too conservative, and conservatives think it's too liberal, but let's pretend it has a liberal bias and I just can't see it -- that hypothetical bias is entirely dwarfed by the kind of unfiltered bullshit, bigotry, and ignorance that so frequently comes

Well, Fox News apparently forgot Mark Foley was a Republican, and listed him as Mark Foley (D-FL). Same for the Republican governor of South Carolina after his affair.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/24/fox-news-identifies-sanfo_n_220377.html

It's a fair guess that most actually do not feel this way, considering that the Prison Rape Elimination Act was passed in 2003, during a time when those whose political ideals seem most likely to approve of retributive prison violence were in control of all major branches of government.

Doesn't seem to be working too well.

There is not one single AGW proponent out there that would claim that global warming is going to destroy all live as we know it.

Well, not directly, but our own best military men are treating it as a problem that has the potential to be the end of all civilized life on Earth. And they're right. Millions of people are not going to just "die off" because we like dinosaur SUVs, without a serious fucking fight.

Nature says the stolen data show no wrongdoing, as reported on /. already, and even the scandal-whore Associated Press now admits that there's nothing to the hype tooted by Rupert Murdoch's British property, The Times, to which I will not link, but which ran idiotic headlines like "The great climate change science scandal" immediately after learning that some data had been stolen, and which immediately concluded the end of the theory of anthropogenic global warming before anybody could have read even a significant fraction of the stolen material to make any remotely intelligent assessment of its general nature, much less its significance to the decades of research it supposedly undermined. Now, we know that the most "improper" behavior found was saying rude things about people they dislike. Yeah, act shocked and offended at that. Whatever.

Rupert Murdoch's minions have zero credibility to anybody with a brain. All of his properties, including the Wall Street Journal, are not to be trusted about anything, ever again. It's all just bird cage liner.

See: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0303091mcnugget1.html

She ordered nuggets, paid for them, and they say they're out, refuse to refund her and they offer her a mcdouble with small fries.

They were stealing from her or trying to defraud her. When that happens, calling the cops is a valid response.

It may not be a 911 case, but it's not like they tell everyone who to call in that situation.

Where she went wrong was calling 911 three times when they already told her an officer is on the way.

But wow, that's a really crappy McD. When was the last time you went to place where they were out of something and they still insisted on keeping your money and offered you something else instead. I'm not surprised she got so pissed off.

And: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20090304/odd-mcnuggets-911/

> A McDonald's spokesman says Goodman should have been given a refund, and she's being sent a gift card for a free meal.

Wow if I tried to cheat someone and failed, I can get away just by offering a gift card for a free meal? Oh only corporations can do that?

Ah I see.

"I can only imagine what 911 dispatchers go through."

Hello 911? McDonalds won't give me my chicken McNuggets.

Which climate skeptics are on the payroll of "big oil"

You do realize that the American Petroleum Institute not only funds the AGW thinktanks, but Exxon-Mobil actually outright offered a prize for anyone who could get a paper published that defended their positions, right? If you want a specific example, Soon and Baluinas, 2003. Here's some of their background. Half the board of Climate Research resigned in protest after Soon and Baliunas's publication, by the way. So when you see hacked emails showing scientists dissing people like them, or McIntyre, or any of that ilk, realize that the scientists *really do* think that these people are putting out garbage and have vested agendas. It's just that when speaking publicly, they usually have more tact.

What's your problem with boobies? There was just some new research on them in the news.

Interestingly, they have blue feet.

and while it stated earlier, Dubya cemented the belief that 'science' can't be trusted because he appointed political hacks and cronies into technical positions so they could override actual science with political motivations.

The only saving grace is that 'science' abhors the falsification and politicalization of data just as much as the deniers do. The difference is the Deniers generally won't think twice about falsifying their data to prove their point. case in point, Faux News showing a Rasmussen poll with 120%. linky

This isn't to say that some scientists don't do such things, just that it's against the very nature of 'science' itself. And it is self correcting in the long run.

Continuing in the off-topic topic .. Here's what happened .. Probation and no jail time (again): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/23/ex-cop-anthony-abbate-get_n_219651.html

Googling "somali pirates fought back" yields quite a few articles about N Korean, S Korean, Egyptian, and Spanish ships that fought back successfully. These are untrained men with improvised weapons - not trained men with rifles.

These pirates aren't "multiple decade battle hardened militants". Most have NO organized military training whatsoever. The process of recruiting for Armies in Somali wars consists of driving around in pickup trucks yanking young men off the street. Somali "veterans" are veterans of little more than the usual random violence that plagues the country.

No, I'm quite certain that the other posters are right. It's the entry rules to various ports that keep ships from arming themselves. In many cases where crew has had some means to fight back and has tried, the pirates have cut and run. They are after easy money - not a prolonged fight. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_attacked_by_Somali_pirates)

If you're not American I can understand, if you are American then you're either 12, have lived in a box for all your life, or have experienced so much censorship in your life that you've never heard of it before, which is equally as sad.

Never heard the phrase 'Porch Monkey' even?

I'm a 31-year-old white American male, and I have never heard the phrase "Porch Monkey" other than in reference to "Clerks II". When I saw the Obama chimp cartoon, I didn't recognize it as being racist until someone explained the racial connection to me.

I wouldn't say I live in a box, but I would say that racism is not a daily part of my life. It's just not something I'm exposed to. Of course I'm aware that it exists, and I try to be sensitive to it, but how can I be expected to know that comparing black people to monkeys is racist (while comparing white people to monkeys is not) if I never see people comparing black people to monkeys?

79% accurate. That's pretty useless.

Not useless at all, just have it solve the same problem 5 or 15 times and go with the answer that it gives most often.

That's TOTALLY moronic. That's like saying "get 5 or 15 people to guess your birthday and go with the answer that it gives most often."

Go and ask 510 Americans to point to New York on a map, and go with the answers that they give the most often.

Despite nearly constant news coverage since the war there began in 2003, 63 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 failed to correctly locate the country (Iraq) on a map of the Middle East. Seventy percent could not find Iran or Israel.

Nine in ten couldn't find Afghanistan on a map of Asia.

And 54 percent were unaware that Sudan is a country in Africa.

Remember the December 2004 tsunami and the widespread images of devastation in Indonesia?

Three-quarters of respondents failed to find that country on a map.

A third of the respondents could not find Louisiana, and 48 percent couldn't locate Mississippi on a map of the United States, even though Hurricane Katrina put these southeastern states in the spotlight in 2005.

And what about India, which features prominently in the job-outsourcing debate? Forty-seven percent of young Americans were unable to locate where their jobs may go on a map of Asia

Heck, many Americans can't even find the USofA on a map.

"That thing definitely looked familiar," said autoworker and father of three Ed McConnell. "And my gut told me there were probably a whole bunch of Americans there. So I had to go with 'Iraq.'"

Good thing he's not in charge of the big red button - he'd nuke you'all.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security sees the Gallup/Harris poll results as a blessing in disguise. According to Secretary Michael Chertoff, the nation would be better off if these numbers skewed even higher.

"Personally, I believe if fewer people in this world could spot America on a map, we'd have a much better chance of avoiding national tragedies like 9/11," said Chertoff. "You can't attack a country you can't find."

How stupid can you get?

Well, turns out even stupider than that:

Asked for the name of the U.S. capital, those polled placed Washington, D.C., fifth behind "Minneapolis-St. Paul," "Mount Rushmore," "America City," and "Whitewater."

So, according to your "go-with-the-flow" theory, the capital of the US is Minneapolis-St. Paul.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/24/michelle-obama-photo-goog_n_368760.html

The apology of Google. "Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries. We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google. [...] We apologize if you've had an upsetting experience using Google. We hope you understand our position regarding offensive results."

Will we see more apologies in the future?

No actually i am referring to reporters who have "tingles going up their leg" every time they see obama. See uber-liberal rag the Huffington Post

The models were coded using assumptions, and we are talking about a chaotic system that is difficult to predict 7 days in advance let alone 70 years. In fact many of these models are based on models of ocean currents recently shown to be wrong. Not that anyone seems to care.

Then, of course, is the question of other factors that might be understated. Solar activity increased in the past 50 years too, but now we have had 18 months and that activity has vanished. Temperatures have historically increased and decreased with the increase and decrease of solar activity. It is an accepted factor in global warming, but looking at Mars and Jupiter it is strange how much extraterrestrial climate change is happening at exactly the same time. Maybe they have underestimated the Sun's importance.

My problem is this: "Climate change" is no longer a real science. The one thing that the hacked emails proved is that Climate Change has become far too political to be called a science. You don't need stolen emails to prove that proponents of the current climate change theory are doing what they can to stifle debate. When the debate is gone, there is no science.

I am willing to admit when I am wrong, but it is not time for that yet. Solar activity may be approaching a minimum, and if it does, it will prove me right or wrong. But I am sure-- damned sure --that if global temperatures fall with the solar activity, a good many of the current scientists echoing the conventional wisdom will adjust their models to prove that they were right all along.

That's roughly accurate, although saying "everybody knows" is silly. Now, do you realize that CNN and MSNBC, and yes, even NPR, are no better? Or do you think they're magically better because they correspond more closely to your beliefs?

With the exception of MSNBC which does have an unabashedly liberal bias in primetime, I'm not aware of either CNN or NPR promoting astroturf political rallies ("tea parties"), orchestrating the crowd. and promoting partisan language. To claim equivalency between Fox News and CNN and NPR just doesn't pass muster. There just never have been any blatant cheerleading on either of those. Complaints of "liberal bias" are limited to such wishy washy statement like "Postcards from Buster" having the audacity to show a lesbian family without commentary, the there being too many blue muppets on Sesame Street. Even a 2003 poll on perceived bias PBS revealed that only about 1 in 5 thought there was a liberal bias, lower than other networks or CNN. The only difference being that a third of Republicans thought there was a bias, versus 10% of Democrats.

The complaints of "liberal bias" against the mainstream media, have always been a canard. Rich Bond, 1992 chair of the Republican Party, said in an interview "There is some strategy to it [bashing the 'liberal' media]. If you watch any great coach, what they try to do is 'work the refs.' Maybe the ref will cut you a little slack on the next one." In 1996, Bill Kristol said, "I admit it. The liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures."

You wouldn't believe how many educated people I talked to were certain that president Bush would call martial law and cancel the election before Obama could be voted in (thus becoming emperor). You may have been one of them.

I guess you can call me "one of them". Although, I never thought it was a certainty, just a possibility. During the congressional debates on the bank bailout bill, Representative Brad Sherman related that members of congress were told that martial law would be declared if the bailout bill was not passed. The damage-control story after Rep. Sherman's revelation was that "martial law" was a metaphorical phrase amongst congresspeople meaning that the House leadership would ram through legislation in spite of the concerns of the larger body. Problem is, the phrase has never been used to mean that.

During the congressional debates on the bank bailout bill, did President Bush have any effect on the house leadership? For the record, that would be Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Jim Clyburn (D-SC).

After Bush got out of office, we find out that the Bush administration wanted to use the military to arrest terror suspects inside of the United States.

I'd say "wanted to" is a strong word. A fair story (i.e. not the Huffington Post) that I read at the time makes it sound like the President said something like "OK, so we know this guy did it and could be dangerous. Get me all the options, and I'll pick one." When presented with the option, he looked at using the military and said "This one looks like it would violate posse comitatus, so let's use the FBI."

So yeah, it seemed like a real possibility, and after the fact, we find out that they were up to shenanigans like this. I don't think the people who suspected this were so paranoid.

Except that the "shenanigans like this" happened under the Obama administration. And had nothing to do with marshal law. And Bush didn't declare marshal law because, well, because, well, that's not how we do things in places that aren't asshole dictatorships, and thinking that he would is more than a little paranoid.

You wouldn't believe how many educated people I talked to were certain that president Bush would call martial law and cancel the election before Obama could be voted in (thus becoming emperor). You may have been one of them.

I guess you can call me "one of them". Although, I never thought it was a certainty, just a possibility.

During the congressional debates on the bank bailout bill, Representative Brad Sherman related that members of congress were told that martial law would be declared if the bailout bill was not passed. The damage-control story after Rep. Sherman's revelation was that "martial law" was a metaphorical phrase amongst congresspeople meaning that the House leadership would ram through legislation in spite of the concerns of the larger body. Problem is, the phrase has never been used to mean that.

Or at least, I have never encountered a historically documented use of that phrase. Maybe you know of one?

After Bush got out of office, we find out that the Bush administration wanted to use the military to arrest terror suspects inside of the United States.So yeah, it seemed like a real possibility, and after the fact, we find out that they were up to shenanigans like this. I don't think the people who suspected this were so paranoid.

The problem is a good portion of the US has trouble figuring out how to distinguish good information from bad information.

I suppose you have a universally valid method for doing so?

It would appear that one of the defining points of human evolution was where we as a species may have gained bipedalism, better use of our hands, a need to be relatively more clever, the monogamous pair bond and possibly even language.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/ardi-oldest-human-skeleto_n_306033.html

This suggests in effect that the moment our species ancestors diverged from the other apes and chimpanzees was when, through circumstances and mating preferences, it became the case that the dominant alpha males of the tribes were no longer the individuals within our species that got to breed.

One could argue then that having excessively male characteristics is a throwback.

... and also arrest the programmers at Moodys, Standard and Poors, Fitch, and AIG. I'm sure they'd be willing to cooperate in return for consideration.

That won't happen, because people like Warren Buffett made out like bandits under the bail-out.

"Oh wait, that's free market economics, and I forgot that our president has announced that "that doesn't work any more.""

Except it's not the government, it's speculators, next deferment to an abstraction does not mean that somehow magically oil producers would expand just because you believe in free market economics, big oil has a track record of scotching energy alternatives and in the REAL free market (the real world), not your fantasy land, speculators and other interested parties come in.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-ed-markey/oil-speculators-cost-cons_b_120713.html

Given that thirty Conservative senators voted against a gang-rape-prevention bill recently....

This may sound cold, but we'd probably be better off if this happened to more people. If everyone went around getting CP-downloading malware by mistake, I think they'd eventually give up on prosecuting people for it.

Yeah, because we totally stopped prosecuting people for molestation without evidence because kids lie about it all the time. I mean, it's not like children have ever been coerced into trumping-up child molestation accusations, and they certainly don't lie about molestation to get attention and revenge.

Many kids (not all) don't know how to properly weigh the consequences of their actions, and so they can be easily manipulated into doing just about anything. All it takes is one kid's testimony (zero hard evidence) to ruin your life forever (who cares if you're innocent or guilty, you'll still spend years jumping through all the legal hoops and dealing with the mob hysterics who hide in the shadows and sick authorities on the accused via "anonymous tips.")

If you think that more incidences of CP-downloading malware will somehow clarify the silly situation and stop frivolous prosecutions, you're a fool. The reason we have such knee-jerk laws in this country is because the mob loves a good burning at the stake. And since they can't do that anymore, they do the next best thing and rally around a law like a bunch of bloodthirsty jackals. If you are simply accused (not convicted), these people will sit in the shadows while dragging your name through the mud and trying you in the court of opinion. And if you have the balls to question the laws, they will fight you tooth and nail, and claim you love child molesters and child porn.

Norway is excellent. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/05/norway-best-place-to-live_n_309698.html and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGTzbj3fRSw and yes, hot women

...kind of like the way all the people who protested Bush have shut up now that it's a Democrat continuing his policies?

As is usually the case, the facts don't meet your storyline.

He didn't in this one: http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/114612/original.jpg

Story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/27/schwarzenegger-sends-lawm_n_336319.html

He didn't in this one: http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/114612/original.jpg

Story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/27/schwarzenegger-sends-lawm_n_336319.html

Yes,
  there's
  always envy among the inferior.

> For your next trick, can I get an article about how movie vampires represent world-wide fear of religion?

How about a scary story about the American, Kennedy - it includes a body, the real "un-dead" and even... brains.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-m-gillon/a-new-wrinkle-in-the-jfk_b_339026.html

According to the newly declassified transcript, Mrs. Kennedy was becoming desperate to leave. "Mrs. Kennedy was getting very warm, she had blood all over her hat, her coat...his brains were sticking on her hat. It was dreadful," McHugh said. She pleaded with him to get the plane off the ground. "Please, let's leave," she said. McHugh jumped up and used the phone near the rear compartment to call Captain James Swindal. "Let's leave," he said. Swindal responded: "I can't do it. I have orders to wait."

Your sig link is truly eye opening. Thank you so much!

> For your next trick, can I get an article about how movie vampires represent world-wide fear of religion?

How about a scary story about the American, Kennedy - it includes a body, the real "un-dead" and even... brains.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-m-gillon/a-new-wrinkle-in-the-jfk_b_339026.html

According to the newly declassified transcript, Mrs. Kennedy was becoming desperate to leave. "Mrs. Kennedy was getting very warm, she had blood all over her hat, her coat...his brains were sticking on her hat. It was dreadful," McHugh said. She pleaded with him to get the plane off the ground. "Please, let's leave," she said. McHugh jumped up and used the phone near the rear compartment to call Captain James Swindal. "Let's leave," he said. Swindal responded: "I can't do it. I have orders to wait."

As you say, the big exception is Fox... the only media outlet that is growing. People are voting with their eyes:

Fox News averaged 2.25 million total viewers in prime time for the third quarter, up 2% over the previous year. That's more than CNN (946,000, down 30%) and MSNBC (788,000, down 10%) combined.

Countdown with Keith Olbermann" averaged 1.087 million total viewers, down 12% from the previous year...

At CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" averaged 1.005 million viewers, down 17% from the previous year and "Lou Dobbs" averaged 658,000 total viewers, down 24%.

Reference at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/30/fox-news-dominates-3q-200_n_304260.html

from G.M.A.C..
We owe you a credit on your current loan for your Government Motors clunker and need your bank account number and Social Security Number to deposit this credit in your bank. Do wish to proceed with this authorization?

Yes.

No.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Yours In Lahore,
Y. Omotayo.

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=b02

http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/neighbors.php?type=city&city=West+Hollywood

Remember how there was that big deal about the first woman winning the Nobel prize for economics? It's a shame that the fact that she has a vag overshadowed her research, which showed that the people using a common resource can better manage that resource than a government.

The bar for entry for a Nobel prize is admittedly low these days, but Elinor Ostrom's findings warrant your own investigation, assuming you can get over your prior assumptions.

The Real Reason for More Troops in Afghanistan

We can all look back at the wonderful decision that was made to send more troops to Korea. If we had not, we could have been bogged down in a quagmire there that would have required 50 plus years of American lives, involvement and money. What a wonderful decision it was to send more troops to Vietnam. If we had not, we could have lost over 58,000 soldier's lives; killed millions of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians and been forced to flee the country with our tails between our legs, deserting our allies to the horrors of communist retribution. Good thing our wonderful leaders had the wisdom and courage to send "more troops." Now we are forced with the same dilemma; send more troops or face military defeat.

The question is: why are we in Afghanistan in the first place? Now that time has erased the emotions of retaliation for the events of 9/11 and our country elected a new leader who campaigned on the principle of bringing an end to our involvement in these costly wars, why the call for more troops? Could it be we are again simply following the dictates of the power cabal as Major General Smedley Darlington Butler so eloquently outlined in his outstanding work, War is a Racket ?

Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of our quest for empire over the past six decades realizes that Obama's contemplation of whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan is simply those who control him providing Obama with the opportunity to look "presidential." The decision to send additional troops was reached prior to the situational comedy of General McChrystal's leaked "confidential report" to the Washington Post and Obama's National Security Advisor's public admonishment of McChrystal's failure to follow the chain of command. All of this is nothing but a well-rehearsed, though poorly camouflaged hoax. Additional troops will be sent to Afghanistan within a very short period of time and Obama really has no say in the matter. The question is: why?

Could it be the US-installed puppet government in Afghanistan has new suitors who represent a very real threat to the United State's control of Afghanistan and her abundant natural resources? Is the entry of Russia and Chinese influence into Afghanistan the real reason for the need for more troops? Russia reportedly made its entry back in 2007 with the reopening of its embassy in Kabul. The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Ivanov, met privately with President Karzai and offered military assistance through the Collective Security Treaty Organization. (CSTO) The CSTO is made up of Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Russia is the driving force in this organization, as one might understand, due to the economic and military weakness of the other members. There were meetings with CSTO delegation in Kabul and neither the US nor the UK were invited. Were the US/UK

I never took flu shots my whole life. I would get the occasional cold or flu, but nothing severe lasting more than 3 days or so that bed rest and lots of fluids and chicken noodle soup couldn't take care of.

One time, 5 years ago I came down with Pneumonia, and that was by far the sickest I have ever been in my life, and the most physically exhausting pain i have had to endure for a week and a half straight. My doctors didn't diagnose it correctly until after my temperature hovered for 103 degrees for two straight days. I almost could feel myself passing out from my body heat. It was horrible. They gave me the correct antibiotics and my temperature dropped within 24 hours.

5 years since then i have not had any seasonal flu/sickness and still refused to take flu shots. I see no need to since i don't see a large risk of becoming very sick and missing out on work or dishing out money on OTC/prescription meds unless necessary. I'd rather let my body get exposed to it if it happens and deal with it as it comes. I am fairly healthy and always up and moving at work so I get tons of exercise throughout the day without even trying. FYI, I am an IT Director, and yes I am at peoples desks every day, touching keyboards, laptops, monitors, etc. I am never the one getting sick in both of the building complexes I manage. I'm always washing my hands before eating and often throughout the day. Its always the sales/accounting/marketing departments where people end up going missing for days because they are at home sick with the flu; the same people that were the ones that jumped on the chance to get the company sponsored flu shots; and also the same people sitting all day at their desks eating donuts for breakfast and only getting up out of their cubicle to refill their coffee cups. See the relation...?

I also don't trust pharmas that spend more money every year on Marketing then they do on R&D, and I sure as hell won't trust them to stick a needle full of a product they produced for the sole purpose of capitalizing on this "pandemic" and inject it into my body. I'll take my chances...and so far for 27 years, I've been doing pretty good without their annual "miracle" shots.

Pay attention! The "idiots" were Republican congressmen who figured out yet another way to funnel our tax dollars to private business to do a job that the government could do much cheaper. Just like "Medicare Advantage" or the Bush prescription drug program. Republicans are currently fighting Obama's efforts to lower the costs of student loans.

If you see this person, do not approach.

Call this phone number: 1-800-CAL-LFBI
and report your information.

Yours In Minsk,
Kilgore Trout

Read Robert Naiman's opinion, including the tale of Desmond Tutu winning in '84:

The Nobel Committee gave South African Bishop Desmond Tutu the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his leadership of efforts to abolish apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid wasn't fully abolished in South Africa until 1994. The committee could have waited until after apartheid was abolished to say, "Well done!" But the point of the award was to help bring down apartheid by strengthening Bishop Tutu's efforts. In particular, everyone knew that it was going to be much harder for the apartheid regime to crack down on Tutu after the Nobel Committee wrapped him in its protective cloak of world praise.

Well, as I understand it, within the new Medical Care Reform legislation they're trying to pass, there are provisions to let the govt. have full access to your banking accounts (without warrant, etc).

You've been FUDded. The provisions would streamline transfers between doctors and insurers and facilitate automated payments (many flex cards work this way already).

See debunking here - not just an opinion page, includes link to the actual bill text.

...it's news because Microsoft bragged on .NET being in the LSE for a couple of years, pointing to it as proof that they were enterprise-ready and such.

Then at about this time last year, the TradElect system (which was the .NET bits which ran the LSE) went 'splat', taking the London Stock Exchange down with it.

The relevant info should be sitting right there in TFA.

Google Apps/Gmail has gone down multiple times in the past several years. I suppose that means linux sucks? I mean sheesh, this Microsoft solution only went down one time in 3 years. Google/Linux couldn't even handle the lower-volume, less-stressed, less mission critical email market...

Implementation is the important factor.

Oh, and it's not like the linux based NYSE has never had an issue. Or the Frankfurt Exchange. Or the Australian Exchange. Or the Moscow Exchange. Or the Tokyo Exchange.

In fact, we have had 8 major failures of linux based exchanges this decade.

Business buys whatever it wants, including firearms, governments, and public opinion.

Businesses buying firearms? Sure but how many businesses do you see brandishing firearms against people? Government? It only matters if businesses buy government when said government is big and powerful. A small and weak government doesn't have much to offer businesses. Businesses buying public opinion? Sure, businesses can buy some people's opinion, those who can't think for themselves or who are greedy. However people have to power to force businesses to their will. Do you really think apartheid would have ended in South Africa without strong public opinion? Quite simply stockholders big and small forced the corporations they owned shares in to either actively oppose apartheid or to pull out of South Africa, to disinvest.

Even major US corporations are changing, or seeming to. Look at the top 10 companies in the US at least trying to greenwash themselves. One of those is GE with it's $90 million "Ecomagination" advertising campaign. Now I'm not saying all of them are actually trying to clean up, I bet many are only trying to hoodwink the public (where do you think Greenwash comes from?), but with shareholders pushing some corporations are trying to do good.

However what that Huffington Post article does not say is that in the US the government is by far the biggest polluter. Governments routinely exempt themselves from laws they pass. Weak governments don't have that ability.

Falcon

Posting a positive review of a product on your facebook page isn't required to have a disclaimer or anything else, unless someone paid you for that review.

And what if you're paid to review something whether the review is good or bad? If I have a blog I post reviews on and I accept Google ads should I need a disclaimer? How about if I start a website like Daily KOS or Huffington Post and someone starts paying me do I need to have the disclaimer? In more than one ruling the US Supreme Court ruled that anonymity was an important prerequisite to political speech.

Falcon

Right, and the PATRIOT act will only be used to protect us from terr'ists (sorry, pdf).

More accurately, if Verizon is any judge, it will be used to block access to, or remove features that would otherwise allow users access to cheaper markets. Much like Verizon's disabling of bluetooth OBEX profiles to prevent you from sending your own ringtones to your phone, and instead pushing toward they're exorbitantly overpriced ones, where 30 seconds or less of "music" costs as much as an entire album by the same artist at a used CD store.

I never heard of her either. So I went on youtube, searched for lilly allen, saw a promo for a song called "the fear."

Here are the lyrics:

http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-fear-lyrics-lily-allen.html

Then I saw that lilly allen got topless for some award show http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/12/lily-allen-topless-for-gq_n_284560.html

She wasn't being ironic with the song, she was just expressing what she does.

Don't worry lilly, there isn't a chance in hell that I would ever buy or download your songs, your music is awful. It is studio produced, lacks any sort of musicality, doesn't stick in my head because its soft, weak, and meaningless drivel.

If a copy of your cds came free with my rent, I would move, just so I wouldn't be associated with it. It is a fraud to call what lilly allen creates music.

but Obama protesters showing up with assault rifles and being left free to do so

 
...not exactly.

HTML is your friend. www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/13/brooklyn-man-shot-to-deat_n_230487.html

At least, I think this is what you meant by that handy "citation" thing.
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/13/brooklyn-man-shot-to-deat_n_230487.html">www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/13/brooklyn-man-shot-to-deat_n_230487.html</a> is what it would look like if you wanted to do a proper link. The http:// is quite important.

Or maybe you just meant [citation needed]? Pretty simple to do. Just hit the bracket key and put in the words, and then close out the bracket.

The number is 1-800-ALQ-AEDA.

Have they backtested the predictive system on the policies and actions of BushCo Inc.?

Yours In Domodedovo,
Philboyd Studge