The expertise fallacy: "Because I am an expert about one thing, my opinions in areas far removed from my expertise must be equally respected." The Dalai Lama clearly knows nothing about either economics or Marxism if he has concluded that communism is more moral than capitalism.
#1
I challenge him to take on the Pope, who holds the opposite view, that communism is inherently immoral and evil. Thanks to Pope John-Paul II for laying the foundation and advancing this as a central Christian doctrine, much to the dismay of liberation theologists.
WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. (AP) - Two men armed with AK-47s ambushed and killed two officers who had stopped them on an Arkansas interstate, then died in a shootout with police who had tracked them to a Walmart parking lot, authorities say. Sgt. Brandon Paudert, 39, and Bill Evans, 38, were killed Thursday while "running drug interdiction" on Interstate 40 in east Arkansas. Traffic stopped as authorities searched vehicles on I-40 looking for the suspects, who were spotted about 90 minutes later in the parking lot of a nearby Walmart, officials said.
Dozens of officers swarmed the vehicle after a wildlife officer rammed the minivan with his car, and both suspects were shot and killed, authorities said. Stay tuned. Some links to Aryan nation mentioned.
I SAID . . . VIAGRA MAY BE LINKED TO HEARING LOSS!
It's the little blue pill that works wonders for the sex life. But does taking Viagra increase the risk of hearing loss?
A new study is raising concern about a troubling side effect from Viagra and similar drugs.
Hearing expert Dr. Scott Messenger has learned to ask men of a certain age a certain question when they report sudden hearing loss.
"We are now asking, are you taking any erectile dysfunction medication?" Messenger said.
Soon after Viagra hit the market in 1998 a handful of reports began to surface of men suffering from sudden hearing loss after taking Viagra. Did their wives complain that their husbands suddenly couldn't hear them any more? Err, there may be "other reasons" for this. Better check into the study's assumptions, and include a control group to check for this.
Three years ago the Food & Drug Administration ordered the makers of Viagra and similar drugs to include a hearing loss warning on their lengthy patient information forms.
That's when a researcher from the University of Alabama-Birmingham decided to take a closer look. Click here to read the study.
He studied medical records of more than 11,000 men over the age of 40. Of those reporting hearing loss 3 percent had taken a drug for erectile dysfunction. But of those with "no" hearing loss only 1.4 percent had taken e-d drugs.
In other words, men who self-reported hearing loss were more than twice as likely to have used a type of erectile dysfunction medication in the past.
Is the slight risk of hearing loss enough to scare men off Viagra?
Many we spoke to today laughed at the idea. But aside from the inevitable joke almost everyone had an opinion.
"I don't think so, because if they need it, they're gonna try it whether they die or not," said Lydia Sanchez of Putnam County.
"Yeah, hearing is more important!" another person added.
"I can tell you that I don't think this is gonna be that big of a threat," added Gabe Savarese of Bergen County, N.J.
"I don't need it, thank God, but I wouldn't take it anyway," added another person. Methinks thou doth protest too much.
The experts say Viagra remains safe, but if you take it and suffer hearing loss see your doctor right away.
The maker of Viagra said it is closely reviewing this study. New York-based Pfizer it found discrepancies in earlier research from the same doctor, linking Viagra to sudden blindness.
#5
I wonder if they properly controlled for general health and wellness. Both loss of hearing and impotence can be related through ill-health of various degrees. Also, did they run checks for age cohorts, or just "over 40"?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/21/2010 9:21 Comments ||
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#6
Lots of boomers are also deaf cuz of loud rock concerts and even young un's cuz of loud I-pods stuck in their ears 24-7. Scientific studies need to consider other factors, too.
#7
My Doctor won't give me Viagara. He says there's no point in putting a brand-new flagpole on an old condemned building.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/21/2010 10:35 Comments ||
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#8
As silly as it sounds, the co-inventors of Viagra, Pfizer employees Peter Dunn and Albert Wood, seriously, no joke, whose names are on the patent for the drug, should receive the Nobel Prize.
Other than its original intended use, its second use is as a pediatric pulmonary drug that has already saved or strongly improved the lives of tens of thousands of infants by improving pulmonary function.
On top of that, because the drug works for most mammals, it has already brought back several species from the brink of extinction. And it has also destroyed most of the market for endangered species parts as aphrodisiacs.
So seriously, these two guys deserve accolades far more than most of those who get the Nobel Prize.
Ironically, there is an old English expression "to dunn someone", named after a very persistent bill collector named Dunn. It means to, in effect, "to continually pester and not leave alone." So, 'Peter Dunn'...
Kabul On a recent day when the sun was finally strong enough to dry the Afghan capital's muddy streets, Habiba Sarwe sought her husband's permission to visit a spot that her daughter and all the neighborhood wives were talking about: a park, with swings, benches, flowers and a gazebo. A park for women only.
"Please, let me go," begged Sarwe, who is 44 but whose tired eyes make her look far older. "It's a good place."
Her husband decided it would be OK. So that afternoon, Sarwe put on her favorite fitted gray wool suit under her shapeless, head-to-toe burqa and set out with three of her children for the dusty park on the edge of Kabul.
Once inside the two metal gates, she pushed up the visor of her burqa and stood still, the sunshine warm on her face, while her two daughters and youngest son raced to the swings. She smiled as they soared higher and higher.
"This is the one place that's ours," said an out-of-breath Fardia Azizmay, 19, Sarwe's older daughter, as she jumped off a swing and looked over a pile of a dozen blue burqas, tossed off by women as they entered. "For us, home is so boring. Our streets and shops are not for women. But this place is our own."
The small park, protected by a half-dozen gun-toting guards, has become a favorite destination for Kabul women wanting a safe, quiet place to meet with friends, complain about their husbands, discuss their kids, line one another's eyes with black kohl or just shed their burqas and play, female activists here say.
But play is not the only draw. The park, paid for by India, also feels like a miniature college campus. India's Self-Employed Women's Association, or SEWA, which runs it, has set up a training center on the grounds for mothers and daughters who may never have been to school.
In classrooms overlooking the park, women learn embroidery and organic farming. They pickle tomatoes, bottle jam and sew at a row of new machines. It is all part of a $1.3 billion Indian aid program for neighboring Afghanistan that includes building roads and power plants as well as reaching out to women and girls through clinics and classes.
Although women make up more than half of Afghanistan's population, fear of fundamentalist militant groups has caused them to nearly disappear from public life, especially in the rural south, where U.S.-led forces are trying to root out Taliban fighters. Some of those insurgents still pressure women to cover up and to avoid schools and workplaces, defying the Afghan constitution's guarantee of equal rights for both sexes.
"Our classes and our park are so busy - but only because India went to the Kabul slum areas and talked to the women about coming," said Tamana Ghaznewil, 19, an Afghan who works at the park. "For many women, having someone come from another country and offer this little garden was really new. Some asked me, 'Why would they see me, an Afghan woman, as important?' "
Posted by: john frum ||
05/21/2010 17:36 ||
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Prime Minister David Cameron has defended the government's decision to keep Britain out of the euro, during a meeting with the French President. Mr Cameron said Britain needed the eurozone to be a success but added: "We were right not to join the euro and... right to stay out of the euro."
As events have proved.
The Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government has said the UK will not join, or prepare to join, the euro during this parliament. Mr Cameron told a news conference in Paris that pledge was "important".
"I think we were right not to join the euro and I think were right to stay out of the euro.
"But let me be absolutely clear, it's in Britain's interests that the eurozone is a success, that the euro is a successful currency, that the eurozone economies recover," he added.
The UK would "work well" with other nations and play its own part by sticking to a stability pact, agreed by the previous Labour administration, and acting quickly to reduce it own deficit, he said. But he added that as a non-member of the eurozone the UK should not bear the costs of any bail-out.
When he reiterated his "fundamental" concerns about the euro and determination to keep Britain out of it, Mr Sarkozy insisted the single currency had proved "a success".
Following his talks with Mr Sarkozy, Mr Cameron said the leaders shared the view that forthcoming G8 and G20 meetings should address financial reforms including levies on banks, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/21/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
it's in Britain's interests that the eurozone is a success
Translation: we hope the euro doesn't fall sharply and undermine the terms of trade that allow Britain to send >50% of its exports to the eurozone.
China, the world's second-biggest fuel user, is in talks with Russia and France on possible cooperation to build fourth-generation nuclear reactors as global demand for clean energy rises.
China National Nuclear Corp. may cooperate with France on research, with Russia on engineering and construction and with Japan on safety technology, Xu Mi, chief engineer at the China Institute of Atomic Energy, spoke to Bloomberg in an interview in Beijing. China wants to build its own brand of atomic technology for export, Xu Yuming, vice secretary general of China Nuclear Energy Association, said today.
The world's fastest-growing major economy is developing nuclear energy to cut reliance on more polluting coal and oil and meet domestic consumption. China's self-sufficiency in reactor design and construction and its emergence as an exporter of nuclear technology would increase competition for Areva SA and Electricite de France SA, Europe's biggest power producers.
If China is doing 10 pressurized water reactors a year, there'll be a big economic incentive to do something better,' said Steve Kidd, head of strategy and research at World Nuclear Association, referring to China's foray into fourth-generation reactors. The technology could come earlier than people think, could be 2025.'
State-owned China National Nuclear may start building two 800-megawatt experimental fast reactors around 2013 and operations may start before 2020, said Xu Mi. Fourth-generation technology reactors produce minimal radioactive waste and are fuel efficient.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/21/2010 17:59 ||
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#1
FYI NEWS KERALA > seems approxi 2.0 MILYUHN CHIN KIDDIES AGE FIVE OR YOUNGER die every year due to "INDOOR AIR POLLUTION".
Indir anuther reason for the US-World to find the JOHN FORD = "MODEL T" FRANKEN GENIUS OF CHEAP, MASS PRODUC NUCPOWER SOURCES FOR CONSUMER USE.
D *** NG IT, SPRINGFIELD, HIS NAME IS "SCORPIO", HE HAS THE "DOOMSDAY DEVICE" + BIKINI-CLAD TECHNO-ASSASSIN BABE GIRLFRIEND, + HE'S ANGRY AT UN-CRATS FOR THINKING THAT A "US/TEDDY ROOSEVELT" BUILT, MILE(s)-LONG, CHANNEL-WIDE HEAVY BRIDGE WILL COLLAPSE BY ITSELF = SURRENDER LIKE FRANCE!
#3
I'm personally convinced the future of energy production is in mini-nuclear plants. Amongst other consequences they will obsolete national/large scale power grids. And without the ability to import power of unknown provenance, so called Green power will be killed stone dead, or prove itself in the localities it actually makes sense (probably not many).
#4
It would be interesting to see what the absence of long-distance power transmission would do for energy prices, both in terms of transmission and maintenance costs, but also in terms of Enron's favorite way to up revenues.
Im trying to imagine the thought process these thugs went through when they realized they were being bumrushed by a ninja squad.
That, and what do you say to the ninjas if you're the guy they just rescued?
If only there was a youtube video...
Leading City experts have started raising the prospect of "Great Depression II" amid worries that the European economic crisis could trigger a deeper bout of chaos.
Markets on both sides of the Atlantic dipped to fresh lows as fears surrounding the fate of the euro project transmuted into worries about the wider global economic system.
Bill Gross of bond fund Pimco said that hedge funds were starting to liquidate their positions in a bid to preserve their capital -- a worrying "mini relapse" towards 2008 territory.
Andrew Roberts, head of European rates strategy at RBS, said "Great Depression II" could now be approaching, adding: "It now has potential to speed toward its conclusion; a European $1trn package which does little and political panic tells you we are about to reach the end of the road. The world should be discussing deflation, not inflation."
In the US there was a surprise 25,000 increase in jobless claims to 471,000 in the week ending May 15.
Are you surprised that they're surprised?
The deterioration in the employment picture, coming hard on the heels of Wednesday's drop in inflation, underlined worries that the US is exposed to a possible global double-dip recession.
Mr Gross said investors were now being frightened off by worldwide "fiscal tightening momentum", adding that markets were facing "a mini-relapse of a flight to liquidity as hedge funds and other leveraged positions are liquidated to preserve capital".
One worry is that European leaders are not sufficiently behind the $1 trillion bail-out fund they announced, in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund, last week. A second fear is that other indebted countries could soon be exposed.
#1
It always seemed obvious to me that this latest market runup, ie since Barry took over in March '09, was yet another liquidity-fueled, Fed-engineered market mirage.
Consider: if the US economy is the engine of world growth, and of recovery from recession now, AND if that economic engine is still ca. 70% dependent on the US consumer, ie, on millions of households buying stuff they DON'T NEED with money they DON'T HAVE, then the world's in deep $hit.
Because, aside from purchases of iPhones, laptops, alcohol, porn, and other forms of cheap stimulation, the US consumption engine is exhausted. Households are cutting back. And cutting out a huge hole in the US consumer, hence the US, and the world, economy.
So there's no alternative to a reset at a significantly lower level of wealth and income and economic activity as US households move from their recent negative savings rate to a positive savings one.
Bottom line, the market's runup since March 2009 was a mirage. Stocks are way overvalued. Probably gold, too, for that matter. The only safe haven, really, is US treasurys, and that for a limited time.
#2
Agreed, Lex, except about gold. Gold can be good even in a deflation. I've been a fan since 2003. It's had a 10 year bull run but i think it isn't over. With countries printing fiat currency like nothing else, Gold is no man's liability. A$ dropped 10c in the last couple of weeks - that means my net worth in US$ terms just dropped more than 10% not even counting the share market plunge here.
Gold has spiked though to A$1400 per ounce. If my savings in the bank were gold, my capital would be preserved.
#3
Gold has spiked though to A$1400 per ounce. If my savings in the bank were gold, my capital would be preserved. i still want more gold.
Posted by: anon1
None of this rush to gold has been missed by Barry. Take a look at history and the actions FDR initiated with regard to private ownership of gold.
#4
Do you have to register to buy gold, or would The 0ne rely on our good faith to turn it in?
Or arrest us if we tried to cash it in anyplace?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/21/2010 6:29 Comments ||
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#5
I suspect an amnesty period would be established whereas anyone selling after a certain date would be liable for prosecution. Our friends in Washington would set the Gov't approved USD exchange rate and conditions which might well be entirely different from the current or future exchange rate [imagine that]. All of this would come only after international currency melt-downs. No Nostradomus effect here, it's simply a scenario what has played out previously and bears close watching.
Other preliminary measures might include a mandetory IRS annual filing declaration to include licensing of the private ownership, value, appreciation, sale or trade of "precious metals" declared "essential to national defense." Evil gold hoarder tax loopholes.... they must be stopped!
#7
Glenn Beck is on the sh*t list at the WH anyway, but his advocacy of gold with lots of on-air and on-line ads has come under attack. Gold must just be for the Soros' of the world, who has also stockpiled it.
#10
There's nothing better than gold. You can eat it, drink it and plow a field with it. It will hold off colds, flu, ague and despesia. Old men stand up with an ounce in their pockets, gray haired womens dance like maidens. There is absolutely nothing this fine metal can't do.
#12
Woody Allen and others want to give genius O dicktator powers. What a farce, history and events have come and gone with some of the best people leading the way. I can think of no other less qualified leadership at the helm.
A year ago, Germany's financial regulator BaFin warned that the toxic debts of the country's banks would blow up "like a grenade" once hidden losses from the credit crisis caught up with them.
9.5bn flowed into Swiss franc deposits in a matter of hours on Wednesday morning
An internal memo at the time showed that BaFin feared write-offs might top 800bn (£688bn), twice the reserves of Germany's financial institutions. Nobody paid much attention. But the regulator's shock move on Tuesday night to stop short trading on banks, insurers, eurozone bonds -- as well as a ban credit default swaps (CDS) on sovereign debt -- has left markets wondering whether the slow fuse on Germany's banking system has finally detonated.
BaFin spoke of "extraordinary volatility" and said CDS moves were jeopardising "the stability of the financial system as a whole". It is unsettling that the BaFin should opt for such drastic measures a week after EU leaders thought they had overawed markets with a 750bn rescue package and direct purchases of Greek, Portuguese and Spanish debt by the European Central Bank. BaFin's heavy-handed move seems to proclaim that the rescue has failed.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/21/2010 0:18 Comments ||
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#2
He said the CDS ban deprives reserve managers of a crucial hedging tool for non-securitised loans
Yeah. Naked short-selling.
It's nice how this whole thing is Germany's fault now. Nobody breathes a word about how an EU socialist government spent like a drunken sailor and now expects others to pay.
#3
9.5bn flowed into Swiss franc deposits in a matter of hours on Wednesday morning
I've been considering Switzerland, too. I don't think we're particularly safe here, either.... Wouldn't be all bad to live in a prosperous, northern, no-BS, hard-currency nation surrounded by a barrier of towering mountains.
Never thought I'd say it but living in the US these past few years has made me into a pessimist. It feels wrong. Un-American. But if America's abandoned me, maybe it's time to abandon America.
#6
Know it well. If I didn't have a family I'd be there, but the air is so terrible that it's not a good place for small children to grow up. All the Russians with significant cash send their kids abroad to school.
It's kind of like a slow-motion nightmare in which up is down, black is white etc: the US has a shrinking middle class and declining financial security; Russia's middle class is growing and security's increasing. The US has deep and seemingly irreversible structural fiscal deficits, which are growing; Russia's fiscal health now is good and getting better, with rising surpluses. US demographics are steadily tilting toward Mexico's, with a massive and growing illiterate underclass of imported campesinos; Russia's demographic catastrophe has been halted and now shows signs of reversing, with a population that has a literacy rate far above America's and a tough no -BS attitude toward immigration of unskilled, uneducated workers from third world nations.
But Russia is completely dominated by oligarchic criminals and has a criminalized state with no rule of law. Our government is merely clueless, incompetent, and only mildly corrupt. Hooray!
#8
Let's form a circle and whine, buy gold it's divine.
Rube a little behind your ear and soon you'll find a gal!
History teaches us that gold is all you need for a fine fertile life. Listen and read your history. GOLD! GOLD! GOLD!
#9
"But the regulator's shock move on Tuesday night to stop short trading on banks, insurers, eurozone bonds -- as well as a ban credit default swaps (CDS) on sovereign debt"
Both is untrue or at least uncorrect. Only naked shorting was banned, and only CDS on sovereign debt by people who don't hold any debt titles.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/21/2010 18:59 Comments ||
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BERLIN - Germany and France agreed Thursday to cooperate on proposals to shore up European economic policy in the current crisis, Berlin said Thursday, on the eve of a key finance ministers' meeting. During an extensive' telephone conversation, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed that France and Germany would coordinate closely' at Friday's meeting in Brussels with EU president Herman van Rompuy.
The two leaders also agreed on joint preparation' for a meeting of EU heads of state on June 17 as well as the forthcoming meeting of the Group of 20 major economies at the end of June, Merkel's spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said.
The statement came after a perceived spat between Paris and Berlin, when French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde rebutted in public an earlier statement by Merkel that the euro was in danger' due to its ongoing debt crisis. At an international conference on financial market regulation Thursday in Berlin, officials were at pains to smooth over differences, with Lagarde saluting the very strong alliance' between the two close allies.
Germany is poised to present proposals at the Brussels meeting that would firm up the fiscal rules governing Europe the Stability and Growth Pact. The pact states that countries may not run public deficits above three percent of gross domestic product (GDP) or have debts above 60 percent of GDP.
In theory, countries can be fined for transgressing these laws, but this has never happened in practice. Berlin wants to withhold EU funds from fiscal sinners and take away voting rights if a country is in breach of the pact.
Earlier Thursday, Sarkozy also took a step towards tighter budgetary controls, saying that France's constitution should be altered to require new governments to sign up to a timetable to balance their budgets.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/21/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Bring back the Hanseatic League, with its own currency. We should have a bilateral free trade agreement with 'em.
H/T Hotair.com
The Mojave Cross saga took yet another unexpected turn Thursday, when the contested symbol that vanished last week reappeared briefly before being taken down by federal officials.
National Park Service officials learned Thursday morning that a cross again was on top of Sunrise Rock, about 10 miles south of Interstate 15 near Cima Road, a sparsely traveled route into the Mojave National Preserve. It's about 30 miles east of Baker.
#1
My own government has become a bunch of bastards with no regard or respect for the American people.
Our government has become so out of touch and so patronizing that it just isn't any fun being an American anymore. Are we soon going to need permission from the government to grill a burger in the backyard and own a hammock?
Will we need a "church permit" to go to Sunday services or will they begin banning churches altogether (except mosques)?
#2
This is shameful, and I am officially disgusted.
It's getting to the point where I can't read or watch the news every day because, with out fail, I come across something in the daily news that completely disgusts me, right down to the bone. Usually, it has something to do with "soft" tyranny imposed by government.
Liberal politicians. When they are against something, they start howling, hoping the monkey next to them in the tree will start howling too.
I agree with Rand. The government should be required to have provisions for equal access, but not private business. It's too expensive for some. Besides, it's a private choice, not a public one. The business owner can talk to whomever on the phone, or arrange to meet him in the parking lot and take care of business. Done. Way cheaper. Less unconstitutional government overreach of authority.
Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul scrambled to explain his criticism of the landmark U.S. Civil Rights Act, which outlawed racial discrimination, saying he agrees with its goals but questions the federal government imposing its will on businesses.
#4
shares many of the libertarian views of his father, Republican Rep. Ron Paul
Oi vey.
Posted by g(r)omgoru
He KNOWS who you are g(r)om. He's a mad, racist Baptist, gold hoarding dentist and has ObamaCare computer copies of your most recent panorex and fillings. [evil snark off - sorry g(r)om, I simply don't know what came over me]
#5
NPR and MSNBC's goal is to get sound bites for his opponents. If he doesn't realize that the MSM is out to destroy him, he's too naive to be playing in the big leagues.
#7
Blow the shit out of your ears, KBK. He swore up and down a stack of bibles that he was fundamentally hostile to racial discrimination, and that the CRA was settled law. His only point is that moral issues ought to be legislated as close to the local level as possible.
I'm not a libertarian, but I tend to agree - localized state reform is preferable to federal-level reform, because it offers a safety valve - the "laboratories of democracy", wherein the adventurous and path-breaking states can experiment with new legislation, while limiting the damage if the innovation turns out to have disastrous, unintended consequences.
Prohibition, for instance.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/21/2010 9:29 Comments ||
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#8
So, "Blacks need not apply" is fine with him? He's toast, or should be.
#9
"I support the Civil Rights Act because I overwhelmingly agree with the intent of the legislation, which was to stop discrimination in the public sphere and halt the abhorrent practice of segregation" Can that be any clearer to the MSM?
#10
Sorry to go against the grain here, but Paul stepped in it, big time. The whole point of desegregation was that the state was forced to prevent business owners from denying citizens their basic rights. Paul's gun owner analogy is idiotic. Having a certain amount of melanin in your skin is not the same as carrying a weapon. That Paul can't see this distinction suggests that he is indeed a nut. His father has long been associated with racist idiocy.
This is EXACTLY why I want nothing to do with the libertarian wackos. There's a deficit of common sense among them, and we shouldn't be putting these goofballs in office.
Reducing the deficit? Go for it. Returning to the gold standard, standing up for companies' "right" to discriminate racially? Pu-leeze.
#11
Agree with KBK. He's probably toast, like his dad.
Reopening our national wound around civil rights legislation from half a century ago is the LAST thing this country needs now. The first thing we need is a decent, intelligent, level-headed anti-deficit movement, one without libbertrarian nuttiness.
#12
I did read the article. I know nothing about this guy except what I read there (and that he's the son of a loon).
He supports civil rights in the abstract, but waffles on the implementation. When asked a direct question about desegregating a lunch counter, he deflected, raised a strawman, and didn't answer.
I'm in favor of localizing (and minimizing) government, also. But civil rights proved to be a special case, and wasn't being addressed at the local level. Maybe it would have been in another 100 years.
At what level should segregation be addressed? At the state level? OK, Mississippi decides to allow segregation in the private sector and Alabama doesn't? The same holds down to the city level. Businesses can make individual choices about it? That didn't work. To stop the abuse, we had to pass national laws covering the public and private sectors.
It seems to me that this guy's libertarian instincts trump his support of civil rights in practice.
You should be able to exclude a guy from your restaurant because he stinks. He can always take a bath. But he can't change his skin color.
And, yes, the definition of "civil rights" has been abused.
If Paul doesn't actually support segregation in the private sector, he should have realized he was being set up. He should have had a better answer to an obvious question.
So it sounds like "Blacks need not apply" is not fine with him, but you feel he would not take care of the issue effectively because it requires the federal government to step in.
Maybe. But how does this balance against a private business owner's ability to make decisions that suit him, for whatever good or bad reason?
It seems like it is starting down the slippery slope of the federal government overreaching its Constitutional authority.
Although I believe it would have happened later, I also believe that some states would eventually have passed legislation mirroring civil rights, and the problem would have begun the process of going away.
"Do you believe that if someone doesn't want to sell their house to someone else based on the color of their skin, that's OK?"
"Good morning, George, Good morning, Robin. When does my honeymoon period start? I had a big victory. I've just been trashed up and down and they have been saying things that are untrue. And when they say I'm for repealing the Civil Rights Act, it's absolutely false. It's never been my position and something that I basically just think is politics.
Again, deflected the question, never answered it. My opinion is that he does support not selling. Plus, he's a whiner.
This guy is a political disaster for the Tea Party. Watch him get distanced.
[Note, the last part of the above quote is a cut/paste from later in the interview, when he repeated almost exactly the same thing he said at the outset. Easier for me than getting the precise words off the video.]
#15
Not to pile on, but the guy is obviously a political babe in the woods. It has been obvious now for over a year-- actually several years, given the brutal (but completely justified) attack by Jamie Kirchick on Paul's father's anti-semitic bedfellows-- that the achilles heel of the far-out libbetrarian movement was its views on race, and that the MSM would attack them on this point.
That Paul had no idea such a line of attack would materialize, and would be unrelenting (note his pathetic "honeymoon" plea), and would be politically fatal if he didn't get out front of the issue, hunt-kill-and-eat it, indicates that he's not ready for the political big leagues.
The nation needs and deserves better. The Tea Partiers need to distance themselves from him and his dad, pronto, or they'll be MSM roadkill before they know it.
#16
Paul and his dad come out of the racist neo-Confederate fringe of the libertarian movement. Kirchick-- hardly a liberal-- explains this wing and its intellectual home, the von Mises Institute, here:
The people surrounding the von Mises Institute--including Paul--may describe themselves as libertarians, but they are nothing like the urbane libertarians who staff the Cato Institute or the libertines at Reason magazine. Instead, they represent a strain of right-wing libertarianism that views the Civil War as a catastrophic turning point in American history-- the moment when a tyrannical federal government established its supremacy over the states. As one prominent Washington libertarian told me, There are too many libertarians in this country ... who, because they are attracted to the great books of Mises, ... find their way to the Mises Institute and then are told that a defense of the Confederacy is part of libertarian thought.
Pauls alliance with neo-Confederates helps explain the views his newsletters have long espoused on race....
#17
...a strain of right-wing libertarianism that views the Civil War as a catastrophic turning point in American history. Lex
Over 600,000 Americans killed on the fields of battle must surely qualify as a great "catastrophe." The Civil War as a "turning point" for the nation cannot be disputed. I can only recommend a reading or re-reading of some of Foote's excellent writings.
#18
By describing them as "neo-Confederates", I think it's pretty obvious that Kirchick means that these types view as catastrophic the outcome of the Civil War, ie the wrong side won.
The Judiciary Committee asks for letters, memos, e-mails and more, before hearings on the Supreme Court nominee begin June 28. A library official says meeting the deadline would be 'very difficult.' Better get to work. Get the interesting ones first and the not so interesting later. I want to know what her legal opinions are. Schedule her hearing for later. Hire more attorneys. It's imporant so it's worth it.
Reporting from WashingtonThe Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday set June 28 as the start date for hearings on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, and asked the Clinton presidential library to turn over voluminous documents related to Kagan's time as a top presidential assistant in the 1990s.
But Terri Garner, director of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, said in an interview Wednesday that it would be "very difficult" for her facility to meet the deadline. She said the records request is overly broad and "too general in scope" and that, under the Presidential Records Act, attorneys for both Clinton and President Obama have the right to read and review each document before it is released to the committee.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Are we suggesting Clinton is somehow helping The 0ne? I find that hard to believe!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/21/2010 6:30 Comments ||
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#2
I recommend 'temp hire' readers and reviewers, scanning, word searches, the use of technology. "Jobs createds and jobs saved" .... that sort of thing. DOJ will be weighing in soon, ordering the library to close the books for 75 years.
#4
"We have to vote to support the health care bill nominee to find out what's in it how qualified she is"
/San Fran Nan
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2010 10:21 Comments ||
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#5
With all the dollars that have flowed to the Clinton Money Laundering Operation Library, you'd think they'd have the staff to comply. Try to pull something like this if you are a private business being subjected to a congressional fishing expedition document request
Posted by: regular joe ||
05/21/2010 12:29 Comments ||
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#6
I'm sure our esteemed elected officials have constructed the law to protect presidents scoundrels like billy jeff, but to any reasonable observers, ALL the paperwork generated by the gummint is the property of the taxpayer, and unless it has National Security implications, it should ALL be in the PUBLIC DOMAIN...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/21/2010 14:03 Comments ||
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"The court also emphasized its belief that the officers had violated Mena's constitutional rights by inquiring unnecessarily into her immigration status."
SCOTUS unanimously reversed the 9th Circus:
"The Court also concluded that the questioning of Mena about her immigration status also did not violate her 4th Amendment rights."
#1
It should also be able to apply the layered algorithmic technique to text. Right now, computer systems can parse sentences to categorize them as positive or negative, based on how often different words appear in the text. By applying layers of analysis, the Deep Learning machine will LeCun and Fergus hope spot sarcasm and irony too.
#1
It won't work - there's no chance of graft for the politicians.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/21/2010 14:06 Comments ||
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#2
This type of thinking is what makes America great.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/21/2010 14:19 Comments ||
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#3
It's simple, effective amd cheap.
It'll never be used BECAUSE it's simple, effective and cheap.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/21/2010 14:20 Comments ||
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#4
Ummm, just had a sudden thought, ask all the lawnmowing firms to put lawn grass trimmings in a trailer truck and deliver to the coast, this would be almost free, just the fuel for the semis and boats already there.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/21/2010 14:30 Comments ||
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#5
Too simple. A university professor with a pHd in environmental impact of hay on water will need to be study it for 10-12 years first.
Besides, a redneck came up with it - what do they know?
#6
Well shit! That's fucking awesome! All we need is 5,000 sq miles of hay! Then it can be moved into barges (we'll need some barges) and used to distill ethanol! Damn! this is huge!
tl;dr;
Hay is already used in estuaries. Cows would starve, everyone be hungry and kookier if we took all teh hay.
#9
Hay is fine for small spills but not something of this magnitude.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/21/2010 20:29 Comments ||
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#10
Costner may handle the bulk of it but the hay idea would hopefully work on the barrier islands and closer coastal area. I think this something the fishermen could do.
#11
Hay is fine for small spills but not something of this magnitude.
It would be interesting to see how long it would take for all that oil to surface. If it would surface in a reasonable time, I think this guy may be on to something. It could be combined with napalm or something, too. They would need a cargo ship or oil tanker to ring the affected area with hay, and then a few more to get to work inside the ring.
Thai authorities say they have restored order in most of Bangkok a day after launching a deadly operation to clear thousands of opposition Red Shirt activists from a protest site in the capital. Security forces fired warning shots Thursday in parts of the capital as they searched for militants who resisted Wednesday's government raid on the Red Shirts' encampment.
Officials say the number of people killed in the raid has risen to 15 with another 100 people wounded. The dead include six people whose bodies were recovered from a Buddhist temple within the protest zone.
Militants responded to the raid by setting fire to at least 35 Bangkok buildings, leaving many in ruins, including the Center World mall, one of the region's biggest. Some buildings were still smoldering Thursday as firefighters tried to put out the flames.
City workers also started to clean up the area the Red Shirts had occupied in Bangkok's commercial hub for more than two months.
The protesters had demanded early elections to replace a government they deemed illegitimate and elitist. Most of the protesters are rural poor and working class activists who support deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn expressed understanding Thursday for the frustrations of the Red Shirts. But he also said arson attacks and looting carried out by some protesters were criminal acts that amount to organized terrorism.
Three Red Shirt leaders turned themselves in to police Thursday, raising the number in police custody to eight. One of the three who surrendered, Veera Musikapong, appealed for calm and told supporters that democracy can not be built on revenge and anger.
Thai officials said they were transferring the Red Shirt leaders to a military camp south of Bangkok for interrogation. Authorities also extended a nighttime curfew in Bangkok and 23 provinces to Saturday morning. Thailand's unrest spread this week to the northeastern cities of Udon Thani and Khon Kaen, where militants carried out arson attacks on government buildings.
Violence in Bangkok has killed at least 82 people and wounded 1,800 others since the Red Shirts began their demonstrations in March.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/21/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
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This whole issue is threatening to cross the line into terrorism, and expand it from an overwhelmingly Islamic phenomenon.
More than 100 demonstrators demanding that that Pres. Obama pass immigration reform blocked off Seattle streets as well as people inside an office building. And they say they're prepared to do it again, soon.
The group started the day outside the Federal Building, but surprised some by moving into a building that houses an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency office and court.
The group, including Seattle City Councilman Larry Gossett and El Centro de la Raza Executive Director Estela Ortega, locked arms during the noon hour and blocked the elevators. When some people tried to get through the human blockade, they were pushed away.
"We want Obama to live up to the promise that he made to the Latino community that he would address immigration reform in 2010," said Ortega.
The rally included a coalition of groups organized by the OneAmerica organization. Group leaders say they will conduct another demonstration in a couple of weeks. They say it will have an element of surprise and will be an escalation of what happened Thursday.
E-mails to and from Ariz.state Sen. Russell Pearce reveal the immigration enforcement debate may not stop with SB 1070, the controversial immigration law.
Pearce, R-Mesa, the author of Arizona's immigration law, has been writing to some of his constituents about what he plans to accomplish next. In e-mails obtained by CBS 5, Pearce said he intends to push for a bill that would enable Arizona to no longer grant citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants born on U.S. soil.
That's a bridge too far. He should be content with his success. It's the federal government's explicit responsibility to handle citizenship, and he'll just succeed in upsetting a number of people who are happy with SB1070.
Pearce writes in one e-mail: "I also intend to push for an Arizona bill that would refuse to accept or issue a birth certificate that recognizes citizenship to those born to illegal aliens, unless one parent is a citizen."
For 15 years, Kevin Costner has been overseeing the construction of oil separation machines to prepare for the possibility of another disaster of the magnitude of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.
Does this evoke his tagline from "Field of Dreams?" It seems that Mr. Costner, the 55-year-old actor, environmental activist and fisherman, was ready for the current spill in the gulf. Disturbed by the effects of the Valdez spill in Alaska, Mr. Costner bought the nascent technology from the government in 1995 and put $24 million of his own money into developing it for the private sector.
"Kevin saw the Exxon Valdez spill, and as a fisherman and an environmentalist, it just stuck in his craw, the fact that we didn't have separation technology," said John Houghtaling, Mr. Costner's lawyer and business partner as chief executive with Ocean Therapy Solutions, which developed the technology.
Mr. Costner's brother, Dan, is a scientist who worked on the project and was also in New Orleans this week.
On Wednesday, BP's chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, said that the company had approved six of Ocean Therapy's 32 machines for testing. All boast centrifuge processing technology -- giant vacuum-like machines that suck oil from water, separate the oil, store it in a tanker and send the water, 99.9 percent purified, back into the gulf.
"I'm very happy the light of day has come to this," Mr. Costner said at a news conference in New Orleans. He said he was "very sad" about the spill, "but this is why it's developed."
"It's prepared to go out and solve problems, not talk about them," the actor said of the technology.
Mr. Houghtaling of Ocean Therapy Solutions said that the company had trained independent contractors and were bringing in scientists from U.C.L.A. to deploy the machines, which were waiting on a barge in Venice, La., on Wednesday afternoon. The technology was available for use 10 years ago, Mr. Houghtaling said. "These machines have been very robust, but nobody's been interested in them until now," he added.
BP officials and Ocean Therapy are working to determine where best in the gulf to test the machines, and if all goes well, the technology will be running within the week, he said. "We just need the green light from BP."
He said that the largest four machines have the capability of separating 210,000 gallons of oil from water a day, 200 gallons a minute. Even if it doesn't work, I gotta respect a guy who puts his own money on the line to solve a problem. That's far more than any of the other Hollyweird "environmentalists" have done.
#1
Yup , credit where credit is due. Fair play Mr Costner , just dont make Waterworld 2 !
Posted by: Oscar ||
05/21/2010 9:15 Comments ||
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#2
Obviously, it will be a good thing if it works. Win or lose, it points up that the big oil companies never would have developed such a thing, as it would be an admission that "spills will happen."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/21/2010 9:54 Comments ||
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#3
I hope he makes a good profit on his investment.
#4
Thought for the day: BP's main business is reselling imported oil. Drilling for oil here is just a sideline to them. Look at the situation out there in the Gulf now. They didn't own the drillship, they don't own the drillships trying to drill the relief well now, they don't own the BOP's. I don't know if they own the riser pipe or just rent it from ABB Vetco (who's now owned by GE). They probably rent their drill pipe from some other rental company. I don't know if they owned their BOP's or just rented them from Cameron.
Why would they develop oil separation machines when it doesn't look like they've developed anything else.
#5
It should work. One mis-statement though - the largest won't separate 210,000 gallons of oil from water per day, but will separate 210,000 gallons of fluid into its oil and water parts.
#6
Interesting. Costner was pretty convincing in "The Guardian", playing a Coast Guard Search and Rescuer. He is really dedicated about maritime issues. Worth seeing that movie.
A court ruling in a case involving a college professor's racially charged e-mails says First Amendment rights mean people offended should delete the e-mails or engage the sender in debate, not "invoke the power of government to shut them up."
A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling Thursday doesn't outright end a lawsuit filed by Maricopa County Community College District employees. But it provides guidance to the trial judge.
The suit against the Phoenix-based district contends it created a hostile work environment by permitting the e-mails.
The district in 2007 began proceedings that could have led to Professor Walter Kehowski being fired, but a subsequent agreement restricted his e-mail privileges and allowed him to return to the classroom.
#1
Some of his "racially charged" e-mails, quoted in the decision:
"Kehowskis first email had Dia de la raza as its subject line and asked, Why is the district endorsing an explicitly racist event? (Citations and emphasis omitted.) Día de la Raza translates as Day of the Race and is celebrated by some Hispanics instead of Columbus Day.
Kehowskis next email, sent almost a week later, began, YES! Todays Columbus Day! Its time to acknowledge and celebrate the superiority of Western Civilization. Kehowski then offered excerpts from a variety of articles. One article quoted Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. as saying that democracy, human rights and cultural freedom are European ideas. Another promoted a theory that Native Americans actually committed genocide against the original white-skinned inhabitants of North America. (Emphasis omitted.) Yet another argued that America did not become the mightiest nation on earth without distinct values and discrimination and asserted that [o]ur survival depends on discrimination."
Somebody got their widdle feewings hurt. And of course we all know the only possible response if one's widdle feewings are hurt is to whine and moan 'Poor put-upon victim me' file a lawsuit.
Loser. Nice that it's literally true this time.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/21/2010 0:29 Comments ||
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#2
Day of the Race? Shirley it was Memorial Day, and the Indy 500?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/21/2010 6:26 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A year ago, Germany's financial regulator BaFin warned that the toxic debts of the country's banks would blow up "like a grenade" once hidden losses from the credit crisis caught up with them. 
BERLIN - Germany and France agreed Thursday to cooperate on proposals to shore up European economic policy in the current crisis, Berlin said Thursday, on the eve of a key finance ministers' meeting. During an extensive' telephone conversation, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed that France and Germany would coordinate closely' at Friday's meeting in Brussels with EU president Herman van Rompuy.
