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Stone Age Brain, Space Age Culture
Mickey Z.
I was recently asked to do a short reading at Art House Astoria
ckering candles and eating food before it could spoil, longtime neighbors introduced themselves, discovering similarities and answering the question of the day: “Where were you when the lights went out?” They were asking this, of course, during the big blackout of August 14, 2003, but I’m getting a little ahead of myself. This story begins in the stars…
Living in New York City, I often have the opportunity to see stars. They’re everywhere: at cafés, boutiques, movie premieres, health clubs, & other such earthbound venues. Check the gossip columns if you don’t believe me.
Official! The Police no longer need a warrant!
Roland Michel Tremblay
It took me two years to finally send this article, I was afraid, afraid of the police and other authorities. It is now official, the Police no longer need a warrant to enter your home and look through your things, hoping to find something to incriminate you. I am a living proof of it, twice over, living in the United Kingdom no less.
Never would have I expected this from such a country. There you are, they found nothing, there was nothing to be found, and yet, we have found something. Something serious, critical, significant. This is the end, the beginning of a new way of life, an all powerful Police State against which we are all powerless. It has begun. and it happened to me not once, but twice in the last two years, our worst fears have materialised.
Unrecognized Palestinians: Illegally Demolishing Their Homes and Villages
by Stephen Lendman
In October, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, together with nine other human rights organizations, addressed a position paper on "The unconstitutionality of the state's policy of demolishing Arab Bedouin unrecognized villages in the Negev" to three Israeli officials:
-- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
-- Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, and
-- Minister of Justice Yaakov Neeman.
Citing the illegality of home demolitions, in this case of Arab Israeli citizens, they urged halting them immediately and finding a durable solution for unrecognized village residents. In Salim Abu- Medeghem v. The Israel Land Administration (April 14, 2007), Israel's High Court proposed replacing demolitions with solutions based on dialogue, Justice Arbel ruling:
Buffett Thanks "Uncle Sam" for Big Bailout Payday
Michael Collins
The people's oligarch Warren Buffett just wrote a thank you letter to "Uncle Sam" published in the New York Times. It is the height of cynicism. (Image)
Buffett has a carefully crafted public image as a brilliant but people-friendly master of investments. We hear about his regular table at an Omaha diner where he conducts business (just plain Warren) and we see his occasional public stands for reasonable policies like the inheritance tax.
He claims that "Uncle Sam", the government, saved us from a financial catastrophe that would have swallowed up his company. He then endorses the notion that the housing bubble was based on "mass delusion" - meaning it was our fault. But he forgets to mention that he took advantage of the 2008 crisis to purchase a $5 billion interest in Goldman Sachs. And he forgets whose money "Uncle Sam" stole from the Treasury to save him and the rest of his cronies. What an asshole.
GERD is Gone but WhatReallyHappened
By Robert Palmer
It’s been 36 hours and I feel a lot better without the GERD that burns but I am still coughing from all that junk in my mouth and throat.
[Note: One minor correction to “GERD gone in 60 Seconds”, “I did not leave the pharmacy with a generic. I left with the over-the-counter (OTC) Prevacid and Maalox.” I have NOT opened either bottle.]
I am going back a year to figure out what caused my Reflux laryngitis.
Must have something to do with “congestion” since a decongestant stopped the burning and belching.
Abraham Maslow developed a Model of our Hierarchy of Needs and number 1 is:
Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
SLEEP is really high on my list and about a year ago I discovered Benadryl, an Allergy and Cold medication, helped me sleep.
People take it to treat allergy related symptoms, NOT TO SLEEP.
Drowsiness is a side effect, but like the huddled masses I was under the false impression over-the-counter means it’s safe and the fine print on the package was too small for any of us to read.
Over-the-counter really means the side affects are so subtle you will have trouble suing the drug companies.
In the case of Benadryl, try and bring a lawsuit against Warner Lambert Consumer Healthcare for a drug that treats some for sinus congestion and others for the opposite, a runny nose.
Hell is for Children
by Keith Johnson
Somewhere in America, a seventeen-year-old boy is living the last year of his life.
He is in the first semester of his senior year. His grades have been good, and he expects to have enough credits to finish school early. He feels like he’s been in school his entire life. But he has no regrets. Along the way, he has made many friends. He took up an interest in baseball and found that he had a talent for playing the drums. He is in his prime. He’s lean, fit and healthy. His mind is sharp and he has an insatiable appetite for life.
He has also fallen in love—for the first time. She is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. He thinks about her all the time, and pines when she is not near. When they are together, they share wild fantasies about how they’d like to start a family and go into business for themselves selling sporting goods. He also wants to start a band—just for fun—and perform on the weekends at local venues.
Americans Voted Few Incumbent Bums Out
Joel S. Hirschhorn
For some years a number of groups have been advocating voting out incumbents in Congress, both the House and the Senate, as a path to reform and improve the US political system. You might have thought that with this year’s incredible widespread public anger with both major parties and the remarkably low confidence level in Congress this anti-incumbency movement would have scored a huge victory. It did not happen.
Even more surprising, perhaps, because for many months before the elections there was endless media predictions that incumbents were at risk of losing their seats, which was backed up by hundreds of polls showing historical high levels of voter dissatisfaction with Congress.
Palestinians’ white knight blots his escutcheon
Stuart Littllewood
From champion of the vulnerable to betrayer in one bound… Nick Clegg, Britain’s new deputy prime minister, is surprisingly agile.
Betrayal started with Sheffield Forgemasters, a well-respected company in Clegg’s own constituency, who were promised a government loan to enable them to compete for large contracts in the nuclear industry. This was cancelled as soon as the new government was formed with Clegg as deputy prime minister.
WHAT’S REALLY BEHIND QE2?
Ellen Brown
The deficit hawks are circling, hovering over QE2, calling it just another inflationary bank bailout. But unlike QE1, QE2 is not about saving the banks. It’s about funding the federal deficit without increasing the interest tab, something that may be necessary in this gridlocked political climate just to keep the government functioning.
On November 15, the Wall Street Journal published an open letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke from 23 noted economists, professors and fund managers, urging him to abandon his new “quantitative easing” policy called QE2. The letter said:
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We believe the Federal Reserve’s large-scale asset purchase plan (so-called “quantitative easing”) should be reconsidered and discontinued. . . . The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed’s objective of promoting employment.
Scanners - The Prequel
Michael Collins
How did we get to the point of full body scans at airports, the massive personal intrusion that represents, and the tens of millions spent for machines that irradiate us as a consequence of merely flying from here to there?
The proximate cause is the attempted bombing of a December 25, 2009 Northwest airlines flight. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, an engineering student, attempted to mix, then detonate a bomb as Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam made its descent to Detroit's Metropolitan Airport. Mr. Abdulmutallab somehow got on the flight with the chemicals undetected, hidden in his underwear. (Image)
There was furor followed by calls for tighter airport security. Specifically, Michael Chertoff, former Bush Homeland Security chief, claimed full body scanners were the solution. One thing led to another and here we are today. Full body scanners are in 68 airports and planned for 1,000 across the United States by the end of 2011. Those who refuse the full body scans will be subject to "pat-downs, which include searches of passengers' genital areas."
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