Thu

05

Dec

2013

President Obama's Unequality Speach

 

 

 

 

Ours is an economy....

 

"that’s become profoundly unequal and families that are more insecure.

 

Since 1979, when I graduated from high school, our productivity is up by more than 90 percent, but the income of the typical family has increased by less than 8 percent

 

Since 1979 our economy has more than doubled in size,

but most of the growth has flowed to a fortunate few.

 

The top 10 percent no longer takes in one-third of our income; it now takes half.

 

Whereas in the past, the average CEO made about 20 to 30 times the income of the average worker, today’s CEO now makes 273 times more."

 

for more see

 

 

Full transcript: President Obama’s December 4 remarks on the economy

Updated: Wednesday, December 4, 12:33 PM

 

 the following pages

 

 

 

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Wed

17

Apr

2013

One of Three deaths in 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings

From CHINA DAILY   One Chinese dead in US marathon blasts

Updated: 2013-04-17 08:03

( Agencies/Xinhua)

 

An official at the consulate's press section, who was not authorized to give

his name, said thatone Chinese student was injured and another died in the

blast.

 

The official said a work group from the consulate was in Boston to investigate the situation andassist relatives of the victims.

 

The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that relatives have

requested that thedeceased not be identified.

 

Zhou Danling, the Chinese student injured in the Boston Marathon blasts,

is out of danger.Zhou was injured in the stomach and was sent to a local

hospital.

 

She is now in stable condition. The Chinese Consulate General in New York

went into emergency mode after the blasts, sending staffers to Boston and getting casualty informationabout Chinese nationals

 

0 Comments

Tue

16

Apr

2013

Boston Marathon 2013 - Bombing attack

0 Comments

Mon

15

Apr

2013

Muzzling scientists is an assault on democracy

From: 

David Suzuki FoundationDavid Suzuki Foundation <subscribers@davidsuzuki.org>

 

Science Matters : Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 9:02 AM

Access to information is a basic foundation of democracy. Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms also gives us "freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication."

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Mon

15

Apr

2013

Culture of the United States

Culture of the United States

The Declaration of Independance

 

Press to see the entire article

American culture is a Western culture, largely based on British culture with influences from other parts of Europe, the Native American peoples, African Americans and to a lesser extent Asian Americans and other young groups of immigrants. Due to the extent of American culture there are many integrated but unique subcultures within the U.S. 

Attitudes Society and economic attitudes Relationship to other countries/cultures Body contact and expression
Names Intra-national allegiances Food Popular culture 
Technology and gadgets Tobacco Sports Clothing
Education Public education Private education Higher education
Language Religion Work and jobs Housing
Romantic relationships Marriage ceremonies Divorce Death rituals
Gender roles Family arrangements Nuclear family living patterns Single-parent living patterns
Regional distinctions Variations Rural living patterns Suburban living patterns
See also


 

0 Comments

Thu

11

Apr

2013

Budget Proposal 2014

From:  Washington Post

President's 2014 Budget

2013/04/10

 

Read the full text of Obama's 2014 budget proposal

 

President Obama unveiled a 10-year budget blueprint Wednesday that calls for nearly $250 billion in new spending on jobs, public works and expanded pre-school education and nearly $800 billion in new taxes, including an extra 94 cents a pack on cigarettes. But the president’s spending plan would also cut more than $1 trillion from programs across the federal government — for the first time targeting Social Security benefits — in an effort to persuade congressional Republicans to join him in finishing the job of debt reduction they started two years ago.

0 Comments

Tue

09

Apr

2013

USA : Basic American Values and Beliefs (Part 2)

From Goldenline (a Polish publication)

 

IS AMERICA A CLASSLESS SOCIETY? DESCRIBE THE SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN THE US.

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Tue

09

Apr

2013

USA : Basic American Values and Beliefs (Part I)

From Goldenline (a Polish publication)

 

WHAT ARE THE BASIC AMERICAN VALUES AND BELIEFS?


Sociologist Robin Williams attempted to offer a list of basic values in the United States:

 
Achievement, efficiency, material comfort, nationalism, equality and the supremacy of science and reason, over faith. 


There are certain ideals and values, rooted in the country’s history, which many Americans share.
These are: FREEDOM, INDIVIDUALISM, PRAGMATISM, VOLUNTEERISM, MOBILITY, PATRIOTISM, PROGRESS, AMERICAN DREAM.

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Wed

06

Feb

2013

Europe Moves Ahead on Privacy

From the Opinion Page of New York Times

For the whole article

The European Union is considering far-reaching privacy regulations that would give the citizens of its member countries significant control over how Web sites and marketing companies collect and use data about them. Years in the making, the effort stands in stark contrast to the much slower pace of discussions about online privacy laws in Washington.

1 Comments

Fri

25

Jan

2013

A House Divided

Why do middle-class blacks have far less wealth than whites

at the same income level?

The answer is in real estate and history.

By Thomas J. Sugrue

Washington Monthly

 

Read More 1 Comments

Thu

24

Jan

2013

Chinese and English - Chinglish

It's gelivable! The whole world's speaking Chinese

By Jules Quartly (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-17 09:45

 

It's gelivable! The whole world's speaking Chinese

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Sun

10

Jun

2012

Noam Chomsky | The US War on Latin America

From Reader Supported News
The US War on Latin America
By Noam Chomsky, Nation of Change  12 May 12

Though sidelined by the Secret Service scandal, last month’s Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, was an event of considerable significance. There are three major reasons: Cuba, the drug war, and the isolation of the United States.

 

A headline in the Jamaica Observer read, "Summit shows how much Yanqui influence had waned." The story reports that "the big items on the agenda were the lucrative and destructive drug trade and how the countries of the entire region could meet while excluding one country – Cuba."

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Tue

05

Jun

2012

America's Rank Hypocrisy

From Reader Supported News

By Noam Chomsky, AlterNet

05 June 12

 

In his penetrating study "Ideal Illusions: How the U.S. Government Co-Opted Human Rights," international affairs scholar James Peck observes, "In the history of human rights, the worst atrocities are always committed by somebody else, never us" - whoever "us" is.

 

Almost any moment in history yields innumerable illustrations. Let's keep to the past few weeks.

 


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Fri

25

May

2012

Harry Truman

From delanceyplace.com 5/25/12 - fraud, bloodshed, and votes


Excerpt from Two Americans: Truman, Eisenhower, and a Dangerous World

by William Lee Miller by Knopf Hardcover

Release Date: 2012-04-10

 

In today's excerpt - the long, hard road to democracy. Decades ago, and for most of its history, political corruption was endemic in America. And not just in Boss Tweed's old New York and the venal corridors of Tammany Hall, but also the towns of America's heartland. And although Harry Truman was as decent and fair as any American president, he got his start in the rampant fraud and bloodshed of Tom Pendergrast's Kansas City political machine:

 


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Fri

27

Apr

2012

Chen Guangcheng, blind Chinese lawyer-activist, escapes house arrest

Escaped dissident said to be under protection of U.S. diplomats in China

Washington Post By Keith B. Richburg, Updated: Friday,April 27, 11:47 AM

 

BEIJING — Chen Guangcheng, the blind, self-taught lawyer known for his outspokenopposition to China’s forced abortion and sterilization policies, has escaped from house arrest and posted a dramatic YouTube video calling on Premier Wen Jiabao to investigate his case and protect his family.

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Tue

24

Apr

2012

UN to investigate plight of US Native Americans for first time

Many US Native Americans live in federally recognised tribal areas plagued with poverty, alcoholism other social problems. Photograph: Jennifer Brown/Corbis
Many US Native Americans live in federally recognised tribal areas plagued with poverty, alcoholism other social problems. Photograph: Jennifer Brown/Corbis

From The Guardian

Ewen MacAskill in Washington 
Sunday 22 April 2012 12.20 EDT

 

The UN is to conduct an investigation into the plight of US Native Americans, the first such mission in its history.

 

The human rights inquiry led by James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on indigenous peoples, is scheduled to begin on Monday.

 

 

 

Read More 1 Comments

Mon

23

Apr

2012

The Unlearned Lessons of the BP Gulf Disaster

Fire boats battle a fire at the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon April 21, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. (photo: US Coast Guard via Getty Images)
Fire boats battle a fire at the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon April 21, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. (photo: US Coast Guard via Getty Images)

From Reader Supported News

By Robert Weissman, Common Dreams

21 April 12

 

The BP disaster reminded the American people about some essential truths relating to corporate behavior, the need for regulatory controls over corporations, the need for effective sanctions.

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Sat

21

Apr

2012

A letter from my Senator: Carl Levin

Levin, McCain: GAO report shows China is failing to crack down on bogus electronic parts Monday,

 

March 26, 2012

WASHINGTON – A government investigative report released today provides further evidence that China is failing to crack down on the flood of bogus electronic parts making their way into U.S. military systems and endangering the safety of U.S. troops and U.S. national security.

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Sun

08

Apr

2012

Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies

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Thu

05

Apr

2012

Detroit Not To Be Taken Over By State

Zolmax.com

Posted by  on Apr 5th, 2012 

The City Council of Detroit on Wednesday passed a financial consent accord with a vote of 5-4. The agreement gives Detroit the power to slash costs and void contracts but not to provide state loans or funding to relieve the city of its financial problems.

 

By signing the agreement, state and city officials avoided a deadline set for Thursday to save the city that is being threatened by financial insolvency and the possible takeover of the city government by the state of Michigan.

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Fri

17

Feb

2012

Noam Chomsky: American Decline in Perspective, Part 2

In the years of conscious, self-inflicted decline at home, “losses” continued to mount elsewhere.  In the past decade, for the first time in 500 years, South America has taken successful steps to free itself from western domination, another serious loss. The region has moved towards integration, and has begun to address some of the terrible internal problems of societies ruled by mostly Europeanized elites, tiny islands of extreme wealth in a sea of misery.  They have also rid themselves of all U.S. military bases and of IMF controls.  A newly formed organization, CELAC, includes all countries of the hemisphere apart from the U.S. and Canada.  If it actually functions, that would be another step in American decline, in this case in what has always been regarded as “the backyard.”

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Fri

20

Jan

2012

Montana State Supreme Court: Citizens United Not Welcome Here

By alexa  Created 2012-01-04 06:55  Sam Ferguson [1]  Source: 
Truthout  Display date: Wednesday 4 January 2012

 

In a rebuke to the United States Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Montana has held that Citizens United does not apply to Montana campaign finance law.

 

Last Friday, the Montana Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a 1912 voter initiative - the Corrupt Practices Act - that prohibits corporations from making contributions to or expenditures on behalf of state political candidates and political parties. In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that a similar federal prohibition was unconstitutional, prompting a wave of bills and court rulings that erased prohibitions on corporate and union political expenditures around the country.

0 Comments

Mon

10

Oct

2011

Occupywallstreet

Ambiguous UpSparkles From the Heart of the Park and other articles as well as videos all related to and reporting on the Protests on WallStreet.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/ambiguous-upsparkles-from_b_1003908.html

0 Comments

Sat

08

Oct

2011

"We Are the 99 Percent" Creators Revealed

"We Are the 99 Percent" Creators Revealed  

Mother Jones Fri Oct. 7, 2011 3:00 AM PDT

 

It began as a simple little idea, just another blog among millions. The Occupy Wall Street protest was scheduled to begin on September 17, and launching We Are the 99 Percent on Tumblr seemed like a good way to promote it. Its creator had no clue that it would go viral and become a touchstone for a protest movement soon tospread nationwide.

 

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Sat

26

Mar

2011

Universal Healthcare Bill Passes VT House: Vermont Takes Step Towards Making Healthcare a Human Right

NEWS ALERT FROM THE HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT CAMPAIGN

BuzzFlash Blog


Montpelier, VT -- Statehouse -- On Wednesday, March 23, members of the grassroots Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign cheered on as the Vermont House of Representatives voted 92 - 49 to pass the universal healthcare bill, H.202.  The House bill passed as a result of thousands of Vermonters speaking out and demanding that healthcare be treated as a human right and provided as a public good.  

"This bill puts Vermont on a path to a system in which every Vermonter can get the healthcare they need when they need it, and the financing of that system is shared equitably by all.  This is a huge step forward," says Peg Franzen, President of the Vermont Workers' Center. 

 

Read More 1 Comments

Sat

26

Mar

2011

Breaking News:Geraldine Ferraro, first woman Vice Presidential candidate, is dead at age 75

----------------------------------------
Breaking News Alert: Breaking News:Geraldine Ferraro, first woman Vice Presidential candidate, is dead at age 75 
March 26, 2011 12:15:14 PM
----------------------------------------

Geraldine Anne Ferraro Zaccaro, 75, passed away Saturday morning at Massachusetts General Hospital, surrounded by her family. The cause of death was complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that she had battled for 12 years. 

Ms. Ferraro earned a place in history as the first woman and first Italian-American to run on a major party national ticket, serving as Walter Mondale’s Vice Presidential running mate in 1984 on the Democratic Party ticket. 

 

0 Comments

Mon

14

Mar

2011

P.J. Crowley Resigns As State Department Spokesman

First Posted: 03/13/11 02:35 PM Updated: 03/13/11 02:35 PM
First Posted: 03/13/11 02:35 PM Updated: 03/13/11 02:35 PM

The Huffington Post

P.J. Crowley resigned as spokesman for the State Department Sunday. According to CNN, Crowleycame under pressure from the Obama administration to step down in the wake of makingcontroversial comments about the Pentagon's treatment of Army private Bradley Manning, who is currently detained over suspicion he was complicit in leaking classified government documents to WikiLeaks.

 

"It is with regret that I have accepted the resignation of Philip J. Crowley as assistant secretary of state for public affairs," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a statement Sunday. "P.J. has served our nation with distinction for more than three decades, in uniform and as a civilian. His service to country is motivated by a deep devotion to public policy and public diplomacy, and I wish him the very best."


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Wed

16

Feb

2011

US military interests at stake in Bahraini unrest

Bahraini demonstrators run from tear gas Monday, Feb. 14, 2011, as riot police disperse a protest in the village of Duraz, Bahrain, outside the capital of Manama. Demonstrations broke out nationwide in response to calls on social media sites for major anti-government protests and were dispersed by riot police firing tear gas and chasing demonstrators. – AP Photo

 

From DawnCom

WASHINGTON: Unrest surging through the Arab world has so far taken no toll on the American military. But that could change if revolt washes over the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain — long-time home to the US Navy’s mighty 5th Fleet and arguably the Middle East anchor of US defense strategy.

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Tue

15

Feb

2011

Breaking News: Obama says governments in the Middle East must recognize 'hunger for freedom'

Gene Thorp/The Washington Post
Gene Thorp/The Washington Post
----------------------------------------
Breaking News Alert: Obama says governments in the Middle East must recognize 'hunger for freedom' 
February 15, 2011 11:58:24 AM
----------------------------------------

In the wake of the uprising that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, President Obama on Tuesday sharply criticized Iran for using force against protesters and said that governments in the region "can't maintain power through coercion" and must recognize their populations' "hunger for freedoms." 

"The world is changing," Obama said at White House news conference, in a message directed at autocratic rulers across the region. "You have a young, vibrant generation within the Middle East that is looking for greater opportunity. ... You've got to get out ahead of change; you can't be behind the curve."

 

0 Comments

Mon

07

Feb

2011

Egypt protesters unmoved by talks

Hundreds of people are resisting attempts by the army to restore order to Tahrir Square
Hundreds of people are resisting attempts by the army to restore order to Tahrir Square

BBC NEWS

7 February 2011 Last updated at 03:16 ET

 

Talks between the Egyptian government and opposition groups on tackling the country's political crisis have failed to end protests in central Cairo.

 

Crowds of protesters, who have occupied the city's Tahrir Square for two weeks, say they will only leave when President Hosni Mubarak stands down.

The government offered a series of concessions at Sunday's talks, but the opposition said they were not enough.

 

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Fri

04

Feb

2011

Egypt's 'Friday Of Departure' Rally: Massive, But Calm

Egyptian soldiers stand behind barbed wire at the entrance of Cairo's Tahrir Square as anti-government demonstrators gather Friday by NPR STAFF AND WIRES  February 4, 2011

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters massed again in central Cairo for what organizers billed as a "Friday of Departure." After two days of clashes with supporters of the regime, their goal remained the same: Force out President Hosni Mubarak.

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Wed

02

Feb

2011

Why Almost Everything You Hear About Medicine Is Wrong

Newsweek

Why Almost Everything You Hear About Medicine Is Wrong

Sharon Begley

by Sharon BegleyJanuary 24, 2011
If you follow the news about health research, you risk whiplash. First garlic lowers bad cholesterol, then—after more study—it doesn’t. Hormone replacement reduces the risk of heart disease in postmenopausal women, until a huge study finds that it doesn’t (and that it raises the risk of breast cancer to boot). Eating a big breakfast cuts your total daily calories, or not—as a study released last week finds. Yet even if biomedical research can be a fickle guide, we rely on it.
Read More 1 Comments

Wed

02

Feb

2011

A Completely Unpredictable Revolution Mubarak, the military, and the future.

Only fools would predict the unpredictable, and thus with the course of the Egyptian revolution. Imagine yourself as a pundit in Paris at the start of the French Revolution, the mother of them all. In August of 1789, you would have celebrated the “General Declaration of Human Rights,” an ur-document of democracy, as the dawn of “liberty, equality and fraternity.” Yet, four years later, the Terreurerupted, claiming anywhere between 16,000 and 40,000 lives. In 1804, one-man despotism was back. Except its name was not “Louis,” but “Napoleon.”

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Tue

01

Feb

2011

AlJazeera English Blacked Out Across Most Of U.S.

First Posted: 01/30/11 05:00 PM Updated: 02/ 1/11 08:39 AM
First Posted: 01/30/11 05:00 PM Updated: 02/ 1/11 08:39 AM

WASHINGTON - Canadian television viewers looking for the most thorough and in-depth coverage of the uprising in Egypt have the option of tuning into Al Jazeera English, whose on-the-ground coverage of the turmoil is unmatched by any other outlet. American viewers, meanwhile, have little choice but to wait until one of the U.S. cable-company-approved networks broadcasts footage from AJE, which the company makes publicly available. What they can't do is watch the network directly.

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Sun

30

Jan

2011

U.S. Offers Evacuation Flights as Mubarak Clings to Power

Egyptian protesters prayed Saturday in front of a military vehicles in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo on Saturday
Egyptian protesters prayed Saturday in front of a military vehicles in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo on Saturday

More in New York Times 

CAIRO — As President Hosni Mubarak struggled to maintain a tenuous hold on power and the Egyptian military reinforced strategic points in the capital, the United States said on Sunday it was offering evacuation flights for its citizens and urged all Americans currently in Eqypt to “consider leaving as soon as they can safely do so.” By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and ALAN COWELL Published: January 30, 2011

1 Comments

Sat

29

Jan

2011

Egypt - Turmoil

 

 

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered his Cabinet ministers to resign early Saturday but also vowed to remain in power himself and backed his government's use of force to quell the massive protests that have challenged his 30-year rule.

 

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Sun

23

Jan

2011

Woodie Guthrie Folk Singer and the Great Depression

In today's excerpt - in the wake of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote the song "This Land is Your Land," a satire and protest against what he saw as the unrealistic vision of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." It was originally titled "God Bless America for Me," and the original chorus used that line instead of "this land was made for you and me." Guthrie eventually deleted two verses, perhaps because he knew he couldn't get the song published otherwise - one that lamented the lack of help provided by America's churches for the poor, and the other his protest against the idea of private property (read those verses after the author credit below):

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Sun

23

Jan

2011

H.L. Mencken and Today - here we are again

In today's excerpt -H.L. Mencken comments on the impact of crowd psychology. Mencken, known as "The Sage of Baltimore," was a popular journalist, essayist and satirist, and is regarded as one of the most influential American writers of the first half of the 20th century. A caustic critic of American life and culture, Mencken was one of the first in the U.S. to popularize such writers as Friedrich Nietzsche and Joseph Conrad.

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Sun

23

Jan

2011

Define A Person.


 

Wal-Mart Is Not a Person

Thom Hartmann | Monday 17 January 2011

 
The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. —John Stuart Mill
Read More 2 Comments

Sun

23

Jan

2011

Map Comparison of China and USA

I was chatting with Lisa on English Share and we spent a minute commenting on the size of USA and China.  I was sure that China was much bigger.  I was sure wrong.

Read More 1 Comments

Sun

24

Oct

2010

"The Perpetuation of our Political Institutions". Abraham Lincoln's speech to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois

From Delancy Place.com

 

In today's excerpt  - twenty-eight year old Abraham Lincoln's speech to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois.  Titled "The Perpetuation of our Political Institutions," Lincoln's 1838 comments addressed the rampant lynchings that followed the Emancipation Act of 1833, and his belief that America's greatest dangers came not from abroad but from within:

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Wed

20

Oct

2010

Pictures of Automobiles mostly from the 1950s

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Mon

18

Oct

2010

President's Schedule: Picture of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama

Photostream: September in Full

Check out behind the scenes photos from September 2010.

Photo of the Day

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama walk along the Colonnade of the White House, Sept. 21, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

.

Read More 0 Comments

Wed

06

Oct

2010

They Killed the Gulf Of Mexico by Bruce Tetley

0 Comments

Sun

03

Oct

2010

U.S. Issues Alert for Europe, Cites Terror Threat

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. State Department issued an alert warning Americans traveling to Europe to be vigilant about possible terrorist attacks.

Read More 1 Comments

Tue

28

Sep

2010

Household income plunged in 2009

Household incomes plunged for the second year in a row in 2009, as fewer families earned over $100,000 a year and the ranks of the poor rose, according to census statistics released Tuesday.

Read More 2 Comments

Thu

23

Sep

2010

China<>Japan - President Obama's schedule for Sept. 23, 2010

From email received: info@messages.whitehouse.gov which contains the President's daily schedule.  The important parts are marked in red.  Are they connected with thread: China Takes a Sharper Tone in Its Dispute With Japan?

Read More 1 Comments

Tue

21

Sep

2010

BP Oil Spill

From the Los Angeles Times.

On Sunday (September 19,2010), the BP well that fed the largest offshore oil spill
in America's history was officially pronounced "dead," with no chance of further leaks. While we are happy to report that a single drop will never again leak from this well, we find it appropriate to break down the Gulf oil spill by the numbers.

Read More 3 Comments

Tue

14

Sep

2010

Winnie's philosophy of life

Read More 12 Comments

Mon

13

Sep

2010

CEO layoff leaders also led in pay in '09: study

Times of Oman

Reuters 01 September 2010 09:46:56 Oman Time

 

WASHINGTON: As U.S. companies shed millions of workers during the recession, the CEOs who laid off the most people brought home pay that was significantly higher than that of their peers, a study released on Thursday found.

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Thu

09

Sep

2010

Harry Truman

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Thu

09

Sep

2010

The Crime of Giving Water to Thirsty People

Time Magazine  By Adam Cohen Wednesday, Sep. 08, 2010

Mike asked me to post this (Roger).

 

Daniel Millis, a volunteer with the faith-based organization No More Deaths, was arrested in 2008 for littering. His crime: leaving bottles of drinking water on trails near the Arizona-Mexico border so immigrants walking through the desert would not die of thirst.

Read More 0 Comments

Tue

31

Aug

2010

What Is "Third World America"?

Q: What does "Third World America" mean?

 

From The Huffington Post.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/24/what-is-third-world-ameri_n_693444.html

 

A third world country is one characterized by poverty, political instability and low standards of living. In a third world country there is no middle class, only an elite upper class living off the fat of a predominant lower class.

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Wed

25

Aug

2010

Still Striving for MLK's Dream in the 21st

 

Still Striving for MLK's Dream in the 21st  

By Martin Luther King III
Wednesday, August 25, 2010; A19

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST

 

Forty-seven years ago this weekend, on a sweltering August day often remembered simply as the March on Washington, my father delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

Read More 1 Comments

Sat

14

Aug

2010

Unemployment rates in USA, by County

A county is a political area which is much smaller than a state but larger than a city.

Read More 0 Comments

Tue

10

Aug

2010

It's A Wonderful LIfe

One of the first two movie tapes that Martha and I bought after we were married was It's a Wonderful LIfe.  Both have to do with a philosophy of life, but are approached quite differently.  Lost Horizon, the other one, is written up separately. Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore are in this picture.  Most of Stewart's movies are excellent. When you combine Stewart's acting with Hitchcock's plots and directing (like Vertigo or Rear Window) you are sure to have a great movie.

 

Read More 1 Comments

Tue

10

Aug

2010

Lost Horizon

One of the first two movie tapes that Martha and I bought after we were married was Lost Horizon.  The version we like is a black and white film from 1937. It is non-musical, black & white staring Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt.  Each of these are excellent actors.  The director is Frank Capra who made many excellent movies.

Read More 3 Comments

Mon

09

Aug

2010

PRETTY WOMAN Julia Roberts and RIchard Gere

People frequently ask me which movies I like.  It is hard to form an answer to that question, because I like a lot of movies, but most of them are older ones (to me, older ones means 50 or more years ago).  But there are some specific movies that I like and some "blocks" of movies I like.  For example there are a lot of Hitchcock that I like, or a lot of Jimmy Stewart or Tracey-Hepburn movies that I like.  These are blocks.  And there are some individual movies that I like.

 

Read More 1 Comments

Tue

20

Jul

2010

WHAT was your country like 100 years ago?

 

1909 Ford Model R  

 

The year is 1909.

  
Just over one hundred years ago.  
What a difference a century makes.

Read More 4 Comments

Fri

16

Jul

2010

Animal Autopsies in Gulf Yield a Mystery

Something on the BP Oil Spill, if you are following it at all.

I found this news article interesting - but it is a little long.  Maybe you would just want to skim it and see what you think.

 

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle lay belly-up on the metal autopsy table, as pallid as split-pea soup but for the bright orange X spray-painted on its shell, proof that it had been counted as part of the Gulf of Mexico’s continuing “unusual mortality event.”

Read More 4 Comments

Wed

07

Jul

2010

U.S. Unemployment Payments

The New York Times  

July 4, 2010

Punishing the Jobless

By PAUL KRUGMAN  

There was a time when everyone took it for granted that unemployment insurance, which normally terminates after 26 weeks, would be extended in times of persistent joblessness. It was, most people agreed, the decent thing to do.

Read More 15 Comments

Fri

13

Nov

2015

Are Languages Products of their Environment?


shutterstock_222422665_151112


DISCOVER MAGAZINE published this very interesting article: 


  Languages Are Products of Their Environments


The characteristics that make each language unique may actually be adaptations to the acoustics of different environments.

2 Comments

Tue

03

Jun

2014

The Case for Reparations

 

The Case for Reparations

 

Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.

 

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

May 21, 2014

 


Chapters

  1. I. “So That’s Just One Of My Losses”
  2. II.  “A Difference of Kind, Not Degree”
  3. III. “We Inherit Our Ample Patrimony”
  4. IV. “The Ills That Slavery Frees Us From”
  5. V. The Quiet Plunder
  6. VI. Making The Second Ghetto
  7. VII. “A Lot Of People Fell By The Way”
  8. VIII. “Negro Poverty is not White Poverty”
  9. IX. Toward A New Country
  10. X. “There Will Be No ‘Reparations’ From Germany”
0 Comments

Mon

02

Jun

2014

A Look At 19th Century Children In The USA

PHILADELPHIA — DINNER with your children in 19th-century America often required some self-control. Berry stains in your daughter’s hair? Good for her. Raccoon bites running up your boy’s arms? Bet he had an interesting day.

 

As this year’s summer vacation begins, many parents contemplate how to rein in their kids. But there was a time when Americans pushed in the opposite direction, preserved in Mark Twain’s cat-swinging scamps. Parents back then encouraged kids to get some wildness out of their system, to express the republic’s revolutionary values.

The New York Times

Sunday Review

By JON GRINSPAN MAY 31, 2014

 

A late 19th century family taking a stroll down a set of railroad tracks
A late 19th century family taking a stroll down a set of railroad tracks

American children of the 19th century had a reputation. Returning British visitors reported on American kids who showed no respect, who swore and fought, who appeared — at age 10 — “calling for liquor at the bar, or puffing a cigar in the streets,” as one wrote. There were really no children in 19th-century America, travelers often claimed, only “small stuck-up caricatures of men and women.”

 

This was not a “carefree” nation, too rough-hewed to teach proper manners; adults deliberately chose to express new values by raising “go-ahead” boys and girls. The result mixed democracy and mob rule, assertiveness and cruelty, sudden freedom and strict boundaries. Visitors noted how American fathers would brag that their disobedient children were actually “young republicans,” liberated from old hierarchies. Children were still expected to be deferential to elders, but many were trained to embody their nation’s revolutionary virtues. “The theory of the equality” was present at the ballot box, according to one sympathetic Englishman, but “rampant in the nursery.”

 

Boys, in particular, spent their childhoods in a rowdy outdoor subculture. After age 5 or so they needed little attention from their mothers, but were not big enough to help their fathers work. So until age 10 or 12 they spent much of their time playing or fighting.

 

The writer William Dean Howells recalled his ordinary, violent Ohio childhood, immersed in his loose gang of pals, rarely catching a “glimpse of life much higher than the middle of a man.” Howells’s peers were “always stoning something,” whether friends, rivals or stray dogs. They left a trail of maimed animals behind them, often hurt in sloppy attempts to domesticate wild pets.

 

And though we envision innocents playing with a hoop and a stick, many preferred “mumbletypeg” — a game where two players competed to see who could throw a knife closer to his own foot. Stabbing yourself meant a win by default.

 

Left to their own devices, boys learned an assertive style that shaped their futures. The story of every 19th-century empire builder — Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt — seems to begin with a striving 10-year-old. “Boy culture” offered training for the challenges of American manhood and a reprieve before a life of labor.

 

But these unsupervised boys also formed gangs that harassed the mentally ill, the handicapped and racial and ethnic minorities. Boys played an outsize role in the anti-Irish pogroms in 1840s Philadelphia, the brutal New York City draft riots targeting African-Americans during the Civil War and attacks on Chinese laborers in Gilded Age California. These children did not invent the bigotry rampant in white America, but their unrestrained upbringing let them enact what their parents mostly muttered.

 

Their sisters followed a different path. Girls were usually assigned more of their mothers’ tasks. An 8-year-old girl would be expected to help with the wash or other physically demanding tasks, while her brother might simply be too small, too slow or too annoying to drive the plow with his father. But despite their drudgery, 19th-century American girls still found time for tree climbing, bonfire building and waterfall-jumping antics. There were few pretty pink princesses in 19th-century America: Girls were too rowdy and too republican for that.

 

So how did we get from “democratic sucklings” to helicopter parents? Though many point to a rise of parental worrying after the 1970s, this was an incremental change in a movement that began a hundred years earlier.

 

In the last quarter of the 19th century, middle-class parents launched a self-conscious project to protect children. Urban professionals began to focus on children’s vulnerabilities. Well-to-do worriers no longer needed to raise tough dairymaids or cunning newsboys; the changing economy demanded careful managers of businesses or households, and restrained company men, capable of navigating big institutions.

 

Demographics played a role as well: By 1900 American women had half as many children as they did in 1800, and those children were twice as likely to live through infancy as they were in 1850. Ironically, as their children faced fewer dangers, parents worried more about their protection.

 

Instead of seeing boys and girls as capable, clever, knockabout scamps, many reconceived children as vulnerable, weak and naïve. Reformers introduced child labor laws, divided kids by age in school and monitored their play. Jane Addams particularly worked to fit children into the new industrial order, condemning “this stupid experiment of organizing work and failing to organize play.”

 

There was good reason to tame the boys and girls of the 19th century, if only for stray cats’ sake. But somewhere between Jane Addams and Nancy Grace, Americans lost track of their larger goal. Earlier parents raised their kids to express values their society trumpeted.

 

“Precocious” 19th-century troublemakers asserted their parents’ democratic beliefs and fit into an economy that had little use for 8-year-olds but idealized striving, self-made men. Reformers designed their Boy Scouts to meet the demands of the 20th century, teaching organization and rebalancing the relationship between play and work. Both movements agreed, in their didactic ways, that playtime shaped future citizens.

 

Does the overprotected child articulate values we are proud of in 2014? Nothing is easier than judging other peoples’ parenting, but there is a side of contemporary American culture — fearful, litigious, controlling — that we do not brag about but that we reveal in our child rearing, and that runs contrary to our self-image as an open, optimistic nation. Maybe this is why sheltering parents come in for so much easy criticism: A visit to the playground exposes traits we would rather not recognize.

 

There is, however, a saving grace that parents will notice this summer. Kids are harder to guide and shape, as William Dean Howells put it, “than grown people are apt to think.” It is as true today as it was two centuries ago: “Everywhere and always the world of boys is outside of the laws that govern grown-up communities.” Somehow, they’ll manage to go their own way.

 

________________________________

 

A National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Massachusetts Historical Society who is writing a book on the role of young people in 19th-century American democracy.

0 Comments

Mon

21

Apr

2014

Investigating Family's Wealth, China's Leader Signals a Change

From The New York Times 

By CHRISTOPHER DREW and JAD MOUAWAD

APRIL 19, 2014

 

HONG KONG — His son landed contracts to sell equipment to state oil fields and thousands of filling stations across China. His son’s mother-in-law held stakes in pipelines and natural gas pumps from Sichuan Province in the west to the southern isle of Hainan. And his sister-in-law, working from one of Beijing’s most prestigious office buildings, invested in mines, property and energy projects.

 

In thousands of pages of corporate documents describing these ventures, the name that never appears is his own: Zhou Yongkang, the formidable Chinese Communist Party leader who served as China’s top security official and the de facto boss of its oil industry.





A visitor at the Zhou family's ancestral graves in Xiqliantou, eastern China.  Intrigue surrounds the family after a spate of arrests.  Sim Chi Yim for the New York Times
A visitor at the Zhou family's ancestral graves in Xiqliantou, eastern China. Intrigue surrounds the family after a spate of arrests. Sim Chi Yim for the New York Times

But President Xi Jinping has targeted Mr. Zhou in an extraordinary corruption inquiry, a first for a Chinese party leader of Mr. Zhou’s rank, and put his family’s extensive business interests in the cross hairs.

 

Even by the cutthroat standards of Chinese politics, it is a bold maneuver. The finances of the families of senior leaders are among the deepest and most politically delicate secrets in China. The party has for years followed a tacit rule that relatives of the elite could prosper from the country’s economic opening, which rewarded loyalty and helped avert rifts in the leadership.

Zhou Family Ties

1 Comments

Fri

13

Nov

2015

Are Languages Products of their Environment?


shutterstock_222422665_151112


DISCOVER MAGAZINE published this very interesting article: 


  Languages Are Products of Their Environments


The characteristics that make each language unique may actually be adaptations to the acoustics of different environments.

2 Comments

Tue

03

Jun

2014

The Case for Reparations

 

The Case for Reparations

 

Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.

 

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

May 21, 2014

 


Chapters

  1. I. “So That’s Just One Of My Losses”
  2. II.  “A Difference of Kind, Not Degree”
  3. III. “We Inherit Our Ample Patrimony”
  4. IV. “The Ills That Slavery Frees Us From”
  5. V. The Quiet Plunder
  6. VI. Making The Second Ghetto
  7. VII. “A Lot Of People Fell By The Way”
  8. VIII. “Negro Poverty is not White Poverty”
  9. IX. Toward A New Country
  10. X. “There Will Be No ‘Reparations’ From Germany”
0 Comments

Mon

02

Jun

2014

A Look At 19th Century Children In The USA

PHILADELPHIA — DINNER with your children in 19th-century America often required some self-control. Berry stains in your daughter’s hair? Good for her. Raccoon bites running up your boy’s arms? Bet he had an interesting day.

 

As this year’s summer vacation begins, many parents contemplate how to rein in their kids. But there was a time when Americans pushed in the opposite direction, preserved in Mark Twain’s cat-swinging scamps. Parents back then encouraged kids to get some wildness out of their system, to express the republic’s revolutionary values.

The New York Times

Sunday Review

By JON GRINSPAN MAY 31, 2014

 

A late 19th century family taking a stroll down a set of railroad tracks
A late 19th century family taking a stroll down a set of railroad tracks

Read More 0 Comments

Mon

21

Apr

2014

Investigating Family's Wealth, China's Leader Signals a Change

From The New York Times 

By CHRISTOPHER DREW and JAD MOUAWAD

APRIL 19, 2014

 

HONG KONG — His son landed contracts to sell equipment to state oil fields and thousands of filling stations across China. His son’s mother-in-law held stakes in pipelines and natural gas pumps from Sichuan Province in the west to the southern isle of Hainan. And his sister-in-law, working from one of Beijing’s most prestigious office buildings, invested in mines, property and energy projects.

 

In thousands of pages of corporate documents describing these ventures, the name that never appears is his own: Zhou Yongkang, the formidable Chinese Communist Party leader who served as China’s top security official and the de facto boss of its oil industry.





A visitor at the Zhou family's ancestral graves in Xiqliantou, eastern China.  Intrigue surrounds the family after a spate of arrests.  Sim Chi Yim for the New York Times
A visitor at the Zhou family's ancestral graves in Xiqliantou, eastern China. Intrigue surrounds the family after a spate of arrests. Sim Chi Yim for the New York Times

Read More 1 Comments