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Really? I pity the poor African-American kid in Alabama who's parents can't afford to move. Of course, he/she is free to just stay at home and be home schooled (which will be self-study, as both parents have to work). Parents being able to direct specific things like this have in the past and will in the future be abused, to the detriment of everyone in the class.

I disagree. What you are referring to is typically a single hot-button issue, e.g. school prayer, evolution, etc... After all is said and done each parent has the option to teach their child whatever they want. IMO part of the reason so many people take issue with this and believe the government should step in to "deal with the problem" is that there is a general belief these days that it's the school or state's job to raise children. It's the parent's responsibility and that needs to be taken more seriously. If someone does not want their child to learn creationism or evolution, it's not that hard to sit the little tyke down and have a conversation, read a book, etc...

I believe that ultimately having parents more involved with the education of their children is a good thing and should be encouraged.

The bad kids need to be identified as early as possible, and shunted off into a different program where they're prepared for careers as janitors and burger-flippers, and society doesn't waste any more time or money on them than necessary.

At what point do you label somebody a "bad kid?" I went to an honors high school, and the kids, while nerdy, still would engage in frowned upon activities... chemistry: blowing up a 5 gallon water ball with IPA and O2, slide bowling (destroying slides with a ball bearing), playing magic the gathering in the back of the room in physics, randomly burning things in class, filling the methane pipes with water, so that the pressure when on of them is opened shoots water accross the room. That was just the classroom stuff, plenty of underage drinking, and drug use also went on.
It was essentially just like any other public school. Only when it came to demonstrating academic proficiency the students produced excellent results

Students achieve success in different ways, some are naturally gifted as artists, engineers, programmers, etc. Others are driven to succes by their own force of will, just outworking the other guy.
What you essentially propose is a caste system, which can have far more destructive social impact. How does the child of an underprivilidged family ever get the resources to move to a higher caste when they are deemed at 5 years to not be capable of the "intellectual track"

not just like "Soviet Russia". (It's just Russia now, FYI)

Yes, but "just Russia" turned to a capitalist market after the USSR crumbled. Thus GPP was correct to say "Soviet Russia", since it was the Soviet Union that was socialist.

When a 12 trillion dollar economy cannot provide basic health care to all...there's a...problem.

Agreed, although I am not convinced that bigger government is the answer to the health care problem.

Regardless, revamping the health care system isn't the only thing that has people like GPP and myself concerned. How about dumping $13-17 BILLION into failing auto companies, then wanting to pour more money down the black hole when that didn't fix things as expected? How about trying to dictate how these companies do business? Or perhaps $13-17 billion isn't enough to raise any red flags, so how about another $700 billion to bail out America's banks? Does that seem Socialist to you? 'Cause it sure does to me.

As we've recently seen, unchecked capitalism is not a good thing since the markets aren't rational after all.

Yeah, sometimes the markets have to adjust themselves, and yes, it's frequently painful when that happens. FWIW, I do believe that government needs to intervene by setting laws on what companies can and cannot do -- thus we get things like the E.P.A., like child-labor laws, like minimum-wage laws, and I suppose even like SOX and SEC. But quite frankly, I don't like the direction that Obama seems to be taking the country (not that I was too thrilled with W's leadership, either...)

The West, and the US in particular, is a wealthy society.

The United States is beyond broke. Debt is NOT wealth. California is within 2 months of not being able to meet payroll and other expenses. Cities are massively overbuilt with houses that are worse than useless - wrong types of buildings in the wrong places - the banks can't even GIVE them to the cities for free because cities want the banks to pay for the cost of tearing them down. The deficit is blowing past anything that was ever contemplated. One in every 2 mortgages will be under water soon.

The median house price in Detroit is $7,500.00. That's one city that is never coming back, which is why it is being systematically bulldozed, street by street, as properties are abandoned.

The current public debt is over $11 trillion, but after you add in unfunded social security and medicare obligations, it's over $100 trillion, or $1.45 million for a family of 4. Unfunded health-care obligations are what bankrupted GM. Why won't they bankrupt the US?

... or why do you think the Chinese are making noises that the US issue bonds in yuan instead of dollars?

Our higher education system rocks the world over Based on what data do make that conclusion?

Basically anyone who has anything to say about quality of University level education will say the US leads far and away in number and quality.


A recent Newsweek ranking showed that 80% of the world's Top Ten universities were American and over half the top 50 were American. The Times Higher Education Supplement, arguably one of the world's most respected education comparisons of universities from all around the globe, listed 13 American universities in the Top 20, including 6 in the Top 10. The quality of American university education is second to none.


Also check: http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/worlds-best-colleges/2008/11/20/worlds-best-colleges-and-universities-top-200.html


Where would the increase in public funding for higher education come from? You would be cutting athletics and merchandising income and replacing that with public funds as well...


The current system might not be the best, but a ton of money gets put into the system as it is.

Not to mention it's a country that's easy to embargo since they have nothing we need.

No, but they're a sizeable market for food producers (Cuba imports a LOT of its food), who are one of the driving forces behind the movement to end the embargo.

Rest assured, if they strike oil there we'll find every reason under the sun to be the best of allies.

Guess what Venezuela is helping them prepare to drill for. Guess what other US companies want the embargo to end.

60% of her decisions that were appealed to the Supreme court were overturned.

This statistic is a big lie, in that it fails to put the number in a correct context; see this article.

So yes, 60% of her decisions that the Supreme Court reviewed were overturned. The problems are:

1. that 60% comes out to 3 out of 5, literally;
2. 60% is actually a below average rate of overturns of reviewed cases;
3. the 60% figure doesn't count decisions of hers that the SCOTUS declined to review (and thus allowed to stand);
4. the statistic used would count a 9-0 overturn the same way as a 5-4 overturn, when they just don't mean the same thing.

The incident happened in December 2008.

The loss of fingerprints is not described in the packaging of the drug...It is uncertain when the onset of fingerprint loss will take place in susceptible patients.

It's a side effect of long term use. It isn't well documented. It doesn't always happen. It isn't well-understood.

---and if you are on this drug your long term survival prospects aren't particularly good. Capecitabine

The letter in the Annuals of Oncology appeared online today. Fingerprints May Vanish With Cancer Drug

And Obama's seriously dropped Bush's emphasis on democratization.

After all, it's Democrats that have a history of being soft on dictators, not Republicans. Think this is wrong? Think this is flamebait?

Get over it. The facts are there.

Guess who installed Robert Mugabe into power.

Guess which party wants to normalize relations with Cuba?

Guess which party is not only soft on Venezuelan thug Chavez, but also had the aforementioned buffoon of an ex-President sign off on the election fraud that kept him in power.

Republican results? Marcos out of power. Noriega out of power. Saddam out of power.

I doubt Bill Gates ever said that. He's claimed the contrary on several occasions:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/gatesivu.htm
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1997/01/1484

But yes, making predictions for the future is dumb. Unless you control the future, in which case it's not really a prediction *cough* Moore's Law *cough*

The problem with smokers is that they die of lung cancer and lung cancer treatment is expensive. We spend a million bucks per lung cancer patient, and, all that money doesn't improve their survival odds

I strongly suggest you perform a simply google search before simply assuming the grass is greener. Without even taking into context how long the wait is for cancer treatment, cost alone (in the US) would assure most people cannot afford treatment Link, so I guess you are correct wait time does go down. Lucky for you, you can simply cross the border dip into your pocket and see how that treats you.

but so too is there evidence linking piracy and global temperatures.

There are other industries in WV and SWVa. Forestry for example. However, there is also a cultural acceptance of the status quo there as normal, both externally (we expect it to be so) and internally (they buy into it too).

Other correlations might be drawn to WV's economic situation, like for example, taxation and business costs. Infrastructure's another one, but thanks to a mountain of cash brought back to WV by its congressional delegation *cough* Byrd *cough*, there are vastly overprovisioned Interstate highways versus the traffic in the state. Why has business lagged in expanding to WV if it's so attractive? There must be a reason other industries aren't flocking in to take advantage of the low labor costs in WV. And thus drive up wages somewhat through competition until they reach equilibrium with the surrounding states.

and oh, wait, here's a bit of evidence:
http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/small-business-entrepreneurs/2009/02/02/the-7-worst-states-to-start-a-business.html
and its primary source:
http://www.sbecouncil.org/uploads/sbsi%202008%5B1%5D1.pdf

The other 10 states below WV in the second resource rankings all have other factors buoying their economies. In the case of NY, NYCs dwindling preeminence in finance is being milked to keep their economy and standard of living better than their business cost environment would merit. WV hasn't got a NYC to milk.

What's up with all these "chinese menace" news?

<sarcasm>Yeah, and what's up with all of the "Obama administration is corrupt" news? If we keep this up, there might be an all out civil war soon. I mean, Texas is already considering secession. </sarcasm>

Seriously, there is a difference between being racist/nationalist, and stating facts. This article is fact, and you are recommending censorship. If you don't think this article is true, than prove otherwise. Don't ridicule this article because it's "not nice."

Better aricles:
US News and World Report.
Washington Post
Associated Press
It took me a while to find as some of the spelling is different than above. No offense, but I need to hear something that inflammatory from a source other than a blog.

He set a timeline to shutdown gitmo in 1 year.

Well he signed a order to create a plan to close it. Nobody was released, and no trials will happen until the plan is worked out. Maybe they'll get a better prison? How about Buffalo?

Stopped torture that was going on.

Actually, stopped "for now" any techniques not in the Army Field Manual. Another task force will "study" techniques and decide how much torturing they can do in the future.

Allowed government to support abortions.

So he's killing babies, now? I don't even know what this is about??

Explained that the US is not at war with Islam.

"He said" is not "He did". And I'm pretty sure this had been said before.

Brought closer ties to Europe and the globe merely by being closer to the global center (US left).

Pfft. Damn you made me squirt milk out of my nose.

Strict lobbyist rules were made. Well... comparatively strict. (doesn't allow you to make desicions about things you lobbied for in past, no gift-giving, no jumping from government into a bussiness thats lobbying you).

And those rules were immediately broken, ignored, and/or given "waivers". See, for example:

• Mark Gitenstein
• Ron Klain
• John Podesta
• Larry Summers
• Patrick Gaspard
• William Lynn
• William Corr

So, nothing. This would have been great if he had really meant it.

Made an order for higher fuel efficiency standards in vehicles.

You mean the one Bush proposed? That will help.

Opened up whitehouse.gov to have a more open converstation between the government and its people.

He has a website? That's good governance, putting up a website? I can't find anyplace I can join the "converstation" there, anyway.

Or barring that a very clear layout on plans, ideas and keeping the public informed.

Having a marketing plan is not "keeping the public informed". Try finding out what's going on with ACTA.

There was also some thing about whitehouse transperency .. saving letters or somesuch.

Ummm... you mean the law that's been in place since the 1970's that says all whitehouse correspondence must be made public record?

Oh and that was week 1. He's not perfect but dear god think if it was McCain. Oh and he spoke to leaders on both sides of the good/evil barrier.

There's a good/evil barrier in D.C.? I thought it surrounded the whole city.

10 Cars That Sank Detroit

And whats to stop them from driving down the street your house is on and doing the same thing?

Maybe they live in another city. Maybe they judge that the cost of performing that check is not worth it. Maybe it doesn't even occur to them to check out the neighborhood except for the fact that Google makes it trivial for them to do so, without leaving their chairs.

Yes, I am aware that it is counterintuitive to a lot of people that what Google should be restricted* from doing in the large scale is something that anybody is allowed to do in a small scale. Nobody's arguing that it should be forbidden to take a photo of somebody's house. The argument is that systematically taking a full-coverage photo set of every street and every house amounts to systematic surveillance of the whole population, and that putting that geo-tagged database online amounts to indiscriminate disclosure of facts about others.

*And when I say "restricted," I don't necessarily mean "prohibited." I am perfectly willing to consider relatively narrow restrictions that protect people's privacy.

You are talking about a problem of discrimination that is not solved by not allowing Google to take pictures of residential streets for Streetview.

I never claimed that restricting Street View would solve the problem. My claim is that its existence aggravates problems we already have, in countless, unexpected ways.

If you want to conceal the side of your property facing a public street, then get a fence. Your neighborhood could also organize to make the street privately maintained and gated. You have given no justifiable reason to restrict another entity's rights.

Or, as an alternative, my neighborhood could organize to change the laws to forbid Google from freely disseminating the results of their systematic surveillance of our community. Basically, I don't think Google has the right to do that, and that the law, which was written before this problem came into being, needs to change to reflect this (just like the law has needed to change for new problems like upskirt photography and texting while driving).

When that happens, the only thing with monetary value will be land.

Not even...Machines will be making that too. Even now I always kinda laugh at the people who say how crowded the planet is when I drive by a sign that says, "Next exit 60 miles".

I need to reply to this, but I will probably get modded down. Considering what gasoline and heating oil prices were, it appears that they will go up in the near future due to carbons swaps brought on by cap and trade. I am not debating whether or not this will be a good thing, but with the market and commodity derivatives causing some adjustments to the price, the government stepping in will cause more. Source: US News

If this asshole did this with what I would have to guess was secure information....putting these plans on a non-secure computer, that alone can get you some heavy legal problems, and possibly jail time.

Except that these incidents happen happens all the time, without jail time. No one's been prosecuted publicly for deploying known insecure systems like Windows, despite there certainly being a paper trail leading to the culprits. Take the case where Windows somehow got onto base computers in Afghanistan and were subsequently owned by malware letting still more outsiders into the network. Windows has such a cult following that it's likely the authorities will continue to turn a blind eye to the incident and make up excuses for not deploying systems capable of filling mission-critical roles.

Another prime example is that the world's seventh largest economy was shut down for five hours because some individuals decided to override technical decisions with an ideology. There are more such incidents monthly than you can shake a stick at. In a lot of regions, a threat to national economy or security is rated by the cost of the damage. Yet, for anything related to Windows, these metrics appear not to be applied.

In any other field, heads would roll.

...putting these plans on a non-secure computer, that alone can get you some heavy legal problems, and possibly jail time.

Except that Windows has such a cult following that it's likely the authorities will turn a blind eye to the incident. Take the case where Windows somehow got onto base computers in Afghanistan and were subsequently owned by malware letting still more outsiders into the network. No one's been prosecuted publicly despite there certainly being a paper trail leading to the culprits.

In light of this, your mocking tone is honestly mysterious to me.

Almost as mysterious as the idea that the military industrial complex is something that the media "almost never talks about". And that was after spending 30 seconds on Google News.

Using a powerful search engine, you are able to actively seek and find information about something that is rarely mentioned in the media. That sort of research, of separating the tiny fraction of information you are after from the vast ocean of information available, is in fact what a search engine is for. That is not at all the same thing as the mainstream media routinely discussing the downsides and dangers of systems that could bring about a fascist state. You have proven that search engines work; you have not demonstrated that the media appreciates the importance of this issue. To do that, you would need to perform statistical analysis of the mainstream media to determine what fraction of headlines and stories discuss this specific issue. If you did that, I maintain you would find that it's a small fraction indeed and that Britney Spears and Paris Hilton get far more coverage. This should be obvious.

So you first mock the fact that I mention the term "military-industrial complex" at all. When I explain the term's origin to show that there was no reason to do that (something you have not either admitted or refuted, by the way), now you respond by arguing about the number of occurrences of the term. Look at your paragraph above. It's like you're saying that my claim that the media seldom talks about the military-industrial complex has any bearing on the way you conduct yourself ("almost as mysterious as the idea that..."). If that's true then you have little self-control; if that's false then you're effectively saying "I know you are but what am I?" which is, shall we say, rather unenlightening. Rather than do all of that, I'd like to see the superior viewpoint with which you would replace mine if mine is indeed so flawed. I'm willing to abandom my current viewpoint and embrace a superior one at any time, in fact I would be grateful for such an opportunity; the only "catch" is that the one you advocate really does have to be superior and not merely because you say so.

Your methods and your tactics are nothing new to me. It's apparent that you want to argue for the sake of arguing and are not really interested in the strength of your position and whether it could be improved or replaced. You just want to feel like you are right and I am wrong. I doubt very much that you are deliberately planning to do this or to be this way. In fact, I strongly doubt that you seriously question your own motives or examine your own actions and their implications enough for you to be able to make a conscious choice in the matter. You are probably too worried about the other guy and how you can take him down a peg or two for it to occur to you that you should be doing this. That's alright. I'm not upset or resentful when I see this, nor is it my place to condemn it (I will, however, call it what it is). In fact, I used to do something like this and it most certainly did not make me happy. I understand that so there is no need for me to lash out at you. I will say that I would like something better than this for you and that when you give up your need to feel right in the eyes of others, you will truly understand the saying "the thing about banging your head against the wall is that it feels so good when you stop." I don't expect you to understand this right now so if you must get more belligerent now that I am speaking to the heart of the matter, I understand that too. People always feel justified because they always do what they think is right or necessary, even when they're utterly wrong.

In light of this, your mocking tone is honestly mysterious to me.

Almost as mysterious as the idea that the military industrial complex is something that the media "almost never talks about". And that was after spending 30 seconds on Google News.

No, they're cheaper because they just plain ol' have less of the active ingredient.

What he's talking about is cocaine - two forms, one powder, one freebased (crack). Generally, crack has less active ingredient (its made from powder cocaine)

You get a 5-year minimum for trafficking cocaine when you have up to half a kilo. Five hundred grams.

For crack? Five grams. Who uses cocaine? People with money. Crack? People with low SES.

Citation Given: http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2007/10/01/crack-vs-powder-cocaine-a-gulf-in-penalties.html

The first improvement would be removing the "Write the tax code by hand" requirement.

Why? Maybe it would give them an idea of just how ridicious the tax code really is. According to this the Federal tax code consists of 3.7 million words. By contrast, all seven Harry Potter novels only clock in at around 1.1 million words.

What's wrong with that picture? It really requires that much complexity to fund the Federal Government?

I think it was not so much a criticism of the idea as it is pointing out that it is a "fox guarding the henhouse" situation. Basically, short of a constitutional amendment requiring them to hand-write the tax code, they would just legislate it out of existence first chance they got.

It's better to first worry about whether an idea is sound and good. Only after deciding that does it really make sense to concern yourself with what it would take to bring it about, like a constitutional amendment in this case. The difficulty of doing a thing, alone, is not a valid argument against the soundness of an idea so long as it really could be done, which is true in this case. It does take a measure of courage to see and entertain possibilities like this despite knowing that these good things are also unlikely, but I believe that not succumbing to hopelessness is the beginning of real change.

The first improvement would be removing the "Write the tax code by hand" requirement.

Why? Maybe it would give them an idea of just how ridicious the tax code really is. According to this the Federal tax code consists of 3.7 million words. By contrast, all seven Harry Potter novels only clock in at around 1.1 million words.

What's wrong with that picture? It really requires that much complexity to fund the Federal Government?

I think it was not so much a criticism of the idea as it is pointing out that it is a "fox guarding the henhouse" situation. Basically, short of a constitutional amendment requiring them to hand-write the tax code, they would just legislate it out of existence first chance they got.

The first improvement would be removing the "Write the tax code by hand" requirement.

Why? Maybe it would give them an idea of just how ridicious the tax code really is. According to this the Federal tax code consists of 3.7 million words. By contrast, all seven Harry Potter novels only clock in at around 1.1 million words.

What's wrong with that picture? It really requires that much complexity to fund the Federal Government?

First, the facts: The Chase policy, which is similar to those of many other credit card companies, states: "You may tell us not to share information about you with non-financial companies outside of our family of companies. Even if you do tell us not to share, we may do so as required or permitted by law..."

According to the Wikipedia article, the credit card number, expiration date, and PIN verification info. I've seen tweekers do it with stolen cards. Magstripe readers are available for 50 bucks online.

From Omyfuckinggod

Health Buzz: Teens Using MySpace and Other Health News
Posted January 6, 2009
Teens Who Use MySpace Often Discuss Sex, Substance Abuse, Violence

About 54 percent of adolescents who use the social networking website MySpace often discuss sexual behavior, substance abuse, or violence on the site, according to a pair of new studies published this month in Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine by researchers at Seattle Children's Research Institute. In one of the studies, the researchers looked at 500 randomly selected MySpace profiles of 18-year-old teens (as reported on their MySpace pages) to determine how much they discussed high-risk behaviors and if those behaviors were influenced by their interests, activities, or other factors. Forty-one percent of the profiles referenced substance abuse, 24 percent discussed sexual behavior, and 14 percent talked about teen violence.

Dear Pediatricians: Please return to your job and practise MEDICINE, not stupid stories.

Yours sincerely,
Golem

Your comments seem, well... under-informed.

Here's a link to a user comment that I found pretty interesting regarding the ability of post-Whipple procedures patients to process proteins.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/new-money/2009/01/05/some-arent-buying-steve-jobs-hormone-imbalance.html#1593509

For those that don't click through, here's a quote of a portion:

"the person has an unusual level of difficulty digesting proteins, fats, and starches since pancreatic enzyme levels are reduced and since the duodenum is missing. Unlike ferrets (who also get a little understood form of insulinoma, with insulinoma being a topic that needs a lot of study still) humans just don't have a lot of excess pancreas to spare. So, the upshot is that his body now will have more of his food go through without needed nutrients digested. Hence, the weight loss.

Add to this that he is a vegetarian, in fact, a vegan. Vegetable protein is especially difficult to break into usable amino acids. Animal protein is far easier to utilize.

Furthermore, people who have had the Whipple Procedure sometimes find themselves simply not feeling like having the many and frequent small meals the procedure makes necessary, and as a vegan Mr Jobs may resist the foods that settle the belly at such times: full fat yogurts, full fat milk, and cheeses. "

Somebody from US News & World report blogged about it here. Not quite to the "run in circles scream and shout" stage, but I might go and spend $100 on rice and beans, just in case.

If we've had a cooling trend since 1998, isn't about time someone told the Arctic ice so it can stop melting?

ostrich behaviour. There is ice, but...

Well, if you want a description of American unionism from a mixed view, try this; he's sympathetic to why things got this way, but thinks they're ultimately untenable.

Where are you going to get fertiliser from? Petrochemicals?...You *need* grazing animals for it to work.

The whole concept is to use composting, mulching, and crop combinations to reduce or eliminate the need for fertilizer.

We certainly have no shortage of humanure, though keeping contaminants out of the sewage stream remains a challenge. (Back in the day, when my grandfather started his garden he was able to get a load of sludge from the sewage treatment plant. He dug up the ground, buried the sludge, and ended up with very fertile soil.)

And one can keep chickens, ducks, goats, or sheep around and not slaughter them (or confine them in small cages, or de-beak them, or otherwise treat them cruelly). After all, you need human workers on a farm, but that doesn't mean they end up in the cookpot!

got a link? not being sarcastic, genuinely curious as it seems you have some details I don't.

Sure. There's a lot out there, so just Google for it. "Barney Frank + Subprime" is a good place to start.

Here's a few links to get you started. The first is a transcript from Fannie and Freddie hearings in 2003 where he says flat out that he didn't see a problem with subprime loans:

Link One

The next is actual video of Congressional hearings in 2004 on Fannie and Freddie. Republicans called for much tighter regulations on both, while Frank, and various Congressmen not only flatly state that there was no crisis coming, but that the Republicans just wanted to keep poor people from owning their own homes. In particular, Maxine Watts repeatedly kissed the ass of Franklin Raines, the man who drove Fannie into the ground with subprimes.

Link 2

Lastly, here's a YouTube composite video called "Burning Down The House". It was made specifically to help Republicans in the elections, but the first half gives a brief but informed history of the subprime crisis, with screen shots of stories covering the history from name newspapers like the Washington Post and the New York Times, as well as graphs from major papers. Watch at least the first half of it. It's a really good jumping off point for further reading.

Link 3

There's plenty out there to read. One last thing... Frank was not only personally culpable in this crisis, he's a lying, two-faced bastard about it too. For years he repeatedly said "there is no problem", and yet two months ago he gave an interview to Money Magazine, stating that basically he'd seen this coming for years, and it was.... wait for it... all Alan Greenspan's fault. He takes absolutely no responsibility for this mess whatsoever. In fact, he basically adopted 90 percent of the very criticisms the GOP was making about Fannie and Freddie. He basically pretends he never ever denied there was a problem. Read this interview, and then go back to the video of his testimony before Congress. You'll never see a more two-faced man on Capitol Hill.

Money interview

Here US News and World Reports displays more of Frank's bald-faced lying: US&WR Article

Lastly, even honest liberals see his hypocrisy. Alec Baldwin calls Frank out over subprimes on Bill Maher's program. I'd link it, but it was pulled from YouTube on a DMCA complain from HBO... but here's the transcript:

Baldwin - "The, the thing we have to remember, a friend of mine who is very close to the financial community in New York pointed out that Democrats have a lot of the responsibility for this as well. I mean, it was Clinton who killed the Glass-Steagall, and it happened under a Democratic president. Barney Frank and his committee, they, they kept propping up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saying everything's fine, everything's fine, everything's good. And it was his job to know everything wasn't fine. And Barney Frank let you down and let us down as well. And so, but I want to say there's blame to go both ways. But I will say, I want to, I maybe keep beating this to death, but I still think anyone in this Congress who voted to add $140 billion to that bill, they should be ashamed of themselves. That is a disgrace. It's a disgrace. This Congress is a disgrace, Democrat and Republican. "

Government requests be damned! Verizon charges everybody 10 bucks / month for GPS tracking; even the new debt clock can't handle that much!

Actually, the evidence seems to suggest that acupuncture-like treatments are probably beneficial in some limited scenarios. A German study last year, in particular, found that acupuncture was twice as effective as standard treatments for lower back pain. That's not to say it cures all ills, but to say that there is no evidence of it working is just plain wrong.

"By just about any measure, the past three years have produced one of the biggest cash gushers in the oil industry's history. Since January of 2002, the price of crude has tripled, leaving oil producers awash in profits. During that period, the top 10 major public oil companies have sold some $1.5 trillion worth of crude, pocketing profits of more than $125 billion.

"Exxon beat its own one-year-old record for the biggest corporate profits ever by 3 percent. Put together with the announcement by the No. 2 U.S. oil company, Chevron, of an $18.7 billion year, up 9 percent over 2006, plus the earlier results of Shell and ConocoPhillips, and that's more than $100 billion in profits from four companies. It's all thanks to the historic 35 percent climb in worldwide crude oil prices in the second half of 2007, ending the first week of this year when oil briefly touched $100 per barrel...Exxon Mobil's profits are 80 percent higher than those of General Electric, which used to be the largest U.S. company by market capitalization before Exxon left it in the dust in 2005. The new economy? Microsoft earns about a third as much money. And next to Exxon, the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, looks like a quaint boutique, with annual profits of about $11 billion."

Just because they aren't getting money straight from Uncle Sam like the military industrial contractors are, don't think that this war hasn't served to make oil far more profitable than ever, and don't think that is any surprise to the oil man in the Whitehouse.

Do you also complain about auto manufacturers producing new models every year?

I do because they produce new cars that aren't much better than the year before, then asked to be bailed out to the tune of $25 billion because nobody wants them.

They'll probably use that money to build a factory or two overseas, then use the rest to pay off some bank loans. Meanwhile, we borrowed that $25 billion from the FED at interest who creates it from nothing and the taxpayers are on the hook for it.

Now, consider the FACT that Obama lied about having ties to a known terrorist.

Err... [Citation needed]

Please.

Google is your friend. May I suggest "obama ties to terrorist" as a good starting point. If you don't have access to Google, let me help you out:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8630.html
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/barone/2008/8/22/obama-needs-to-explain-his-ties-to-william-ayers.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers

Need more?

Informative link

Here's another link with 4 phones with large buttons.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/technology/2008/07/29/4-cellphones-for-seniors.html

Forgot the link.

And Obama, for that matter.

What laws did they put in effect that are causing you to go broke?

Read this:

Since 1982, a congressional moratorium, renewed each year as part of the funding bill for the Interior Department, has restricted oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in parts of the Gulf of Mexico.

White LED's emit considerable UV light and HEV (High Energy Visible) Light. As reported in http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/living-well-usn/2008/06/27/your-eyes-need-uv-protection-too.html , these radiations are harmful to your eyes. Those with macular degeneration should definitely keep away from harmful UV and HEV light.

Sorry, but no.

Straight from the horse's mouth:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/gatesivu.htm
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1997/01/1484

And part of the reason it's misattributed:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/15180#fn*

He *implied* that 640k was a fair amount "for the time being" but that it would need to be significantly increased as technology proved more demanding. He never implied that "no-one will ever need more than 640k".

I really wish people would quit saying that we have an economy that needs fixing. Really, we've just been through a major mortgage crisis, and the most anyone can say the economy is going sideways. I'd say that bodes pretty damn good for our economy, just wait a few more months until the banks get their crap together and the economy will be humming along again. Also here's a few links just to prove a point:

U.S. manufacturing activity rose unexpectedly in May...
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/06/02/afx5070060.html

Gross domestic product expanded at an annual pace of 0.9 percent from January through March, up from the 0.6 percent projected last month...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aERpSgHrPI_Y&refer=home

What do you call a recession where the economy keeps going up and up, even if a bit sluggishly? Well, my friends, you call that an expansion.
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/5/29/the-strangest-recession-in-economic-history.html

Fewer Americans than forecast applied for unemployment benefits last week...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aDeTc4KzXjhs&refer=home

Recession? Where? Looking back months from now, we may find that the economy grew 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, 1.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, and 2.5 percent (according to a model from Macroeconomic Advisers) in the second quarter....
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/5/9/the-recession-that-wasnt.html#

The unemployment rate edged down in April and employers cut far fewer jobs than expected...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/02/AR2008050200489.html?nav=rss_email/components