big on love, tolerance, and the human potential
The stumbling bullies, Bush, Cheney, and their crew…!
EXCLUSIVE:
Recently Released Gitmo Detainee Talks to ABC NewsHeld Seven Years, Former Aid Worker Tells ABC News He Was Tortured
By JAKE TAPPER, KAREN TRAVERS, and STEPHANIE Z. SMITH
June 8, 2009
Reading this made me sick.
Many folks want blood. Others look to Obama to put banksters on the carpet. Most would like to see an overhaul by replacing failed financial leadership, preventing loose policies and invigorating a fair American Dream.
Six months ago, nobody believed that our banking system was well designed, functioning smoothly or properly regulated, so why then are we so desperately anxious to restore that model as the status quo?
Nearly every new program emanating these days from the Treasury Department — the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, the Public Private Investment Program, the “stress tests” of major banks — appears to have been designed to either paper over or to prop up a system that has clearly failed.
Why is so much effort being put into propping up those at the top of the economic pyramid — the money-center banks, the insurance companies, the hedge funds and so forth — when during a period of deflation like the one we are in, any recovery will come only by restoring the confidence of the people down at the bottom of the pyramid?
Confidence will return only when jobs can be found and mortgage payments are made.
I’m annoyed when wingers complain of socialism but are unaware of the dominance of oligarchy and remain impotent to counter it’s effects. There are top manipulative players in all sectors, generally unseen, that shape and reshape our world while pundits point elsewhere. Nuts.
Little is gained by keeping a handful of bully leaders. Examples of poor results hit our nation where it hurts. Our marketplace is abused.
After trumpeting the breakup of Ma Bell, after years of heralding a ‘free market’, have we deregulated the communications sector? Ha! That’s a laugh. Lack of competition is the reason why broadband speeds in the United States are not faster and at lower prices. Nuts.
Though often sent through a punitive system, those who live recklessly do not characterize the typical bankruptcy.
US News link: Bankruptcies Caused by Medical Bills
High medical bills, which cause almost 2 out of every 3 bankruptcies, are leading many Americans into financial ruin, the New York Times reports.
The costliest medical conditions are neurological problems, which cost patients $34,167 in average out-of-pocket healthcare expenses, according to a study in Thursday’s online edition of the American Journal of Medicine.
The study found that from 2001 to 2007, the number of bankruptcies caused by medical bills rose by about 50 percent.
Insured Americans bankrupted by health problems had an average $17,749 in medical bills; those without insurance had bills amounting to $26,971, on average.
Insurance seems to escape the total bill?
Carrying Attribution licenses, the Boston Public Library has launched dozens of travel posters at Flickr.
The art and nostalgia is terrific.
Glass-Steagall restrained banks from creating churn, pyramids, and inventing product beyond their means.
Should a bank guaranteed by public funds and the FDIC be active operators in speculative markets? Or should they be confined to the more conservative realms of commercial banks as they were under the Glass – Steagall regime?
We think the answer is obvious, especially given the fact that a great deal of the problems we face today are a direct result of the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the mixing of public funds with private greed in a coopted political and regulatory regime.
…and selling product beyond our means.
First there is variphrenia and these days go by:
“But clearly you forget—the Chinese have been seeding thunderstorms for over a decade using silver iodide. And Lee Harvey Oswald once visited China, for a “tourist visit”. And meteors often contain magnetite—traces of which were mysteriously found on the Grassy Knoll … Hey, I’m getting good at this!”
a meteor could have hit Air France 447 but more likely the fuel tank….
thank god we will run out of oil.
Like Flight 3407’s co-pilot, Rebecca Shaw, Capt. Dave Ryter earned around $17,000 in his first year with a regional carrier and flew coast-to-coast just to get to work…
14- to 16-hour duty days, much of that time unpaid and spent waiting in crew lounges.
With no food on planes, pilots grab meals on the run from airport fast-food stands.
…holiday and overtime pay don’t exist.
To earn six to eight hours of pay, “you can come to work at seven in the morning for an eight o’clock departure and park your last flight at nine o’clock that night…”
I wondered if there would be follow up after the commuter airline crash in Buffalo. It’s creepy to think about.
Exhausted, under-trained — and paid less than the bus or cab drivers who’d ferried their passengers to the airport.
“We have been calling for years trying to get the public to understand what their lifestyle is really like,” said Capt. Paul Rice, first vice president of the Air Line Pilots Association, International, the nation’s largest pilot’s union, representing 54,000 flyers.
Newsletter at FrontLineThoughts:
“According to the Economist the total US spend on healthcare is 15.4% of GDP including both state and private . With that it gets 2.6 doctors per 1,000 people, 3.3 hospital beds and its people live to an average age of 78.2.
“UK – spends 8.1% of GDP, gets 2.3 doctors, 4.2 hospital beds and live to an average age of 79.4. So for roughly half the cost their citizens overall get about the same benefit in terms of longevity of life.
“Canada – spends 9.8% of GDP on healthcare, gets 2.1 doctors, 3.6 hospital beds and live until they are 80.6 yrs.
“Now if we look at the more social model in Europe the results become even more surprising:
“France – spends 10.5%, 3.4 docs, 7.5 beds and live until they are 80.6
“Spain – spends 8.1% , 3.3 docs , 3.8 beds and live until they are 81
“As a whole Europe spends 9.6% of GDP on healthcare, has 3.9 doctors per 1,000 people, 6.6 hospital beds and live until they are 81.15 years old.
“The list goes on.
“The truth is that in many cases as is pointed out the healthcare system is better in the US than in some other countries BUT US citizens must therefore get ill more often than any other country in the West in order to achieve the truly appalling statistic that they are the 41 longest living nation on earth with France, Spain, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Andorra, Holland, Greece and Sweden all featuring in the top 20 longest living nations and the UK and Germany at 22.
“This is the big failure of the US system.
“It is unforgivable.
“You may get a better chance of recovering from certain diseases but as a whole you will die younger in the US than most developed countries. …
“Something is severely broken.”
Transcript at whitehouse.gov:
Simply put, the status quo is broken. We cannot continue this way. If we do nothing, everyone’s health care will be put in jeopardy. Within a decade, we’ll spend one dollar out of every five we earn on health care – and we’ll keep getting less for our money.
That’s why fixing what’s wrong with our health care system is no longer a luxury we hope to achieve – it’s a necessity we cannot postpone any longer.
I wonder how this will transpire.
Transcript of Cairo speech posted at WhiteHouse.gov:
Americans are ready to join with citizens and governments; community organizations, religious leaders, and businesses in Muslim communities around the world to help our people pursue a better life.
The issues that I have described will not be easy to address. But we have a responsibility to join together on behalf of the world that we seek — a world where extremists no longer threaten our people, and American troops have come home; a world where Israelis and Palestinians are each secure in a state of their own, and nuclear energy is used for peaceful purposes; a world where governments serve their citizens, and the rights of all God’s children are respected. Those are mutual interests. That is the world we seek. But we can only achieve it together.
I know there are many — Muslim and non-Muslim — who question whether we can forge this new beginning. Some are eager to stoke the flames of division, and to stand in the way of progress. Some suggest that it isn’t worth the effort — that we are fated to disagree, and civilizations are doomed to clash. Many more are simply skeptical that real change can occur. There’s so much fear, so much mistrust that has built up over the years. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward. And I want to particularly say this to young people of every faith, in every country — you, more than anyone, have the ability to reimagine the world, to remake this world.
All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort — a sustained effort — to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.
It’s easier to start wars than to end them.
Women with a professed interest in a man send no more non-verbal signals than do non-interested women.
“In other words,” they explained, “it is hard for a man to determine whether or not a woman is interested in the first few minutes of an interaction.
“With this in mind, since men are not aware of how well they are doing in terms of getting a date, both sexes may feel a direct approach would be most effective.”
Wait there’s more…
Male and female participants agreed that [opening] lines demonstrating the men’s helpfulness, generosity, athleticism, ‘culture’ and wealth were likely to be effective, whereas jokes, empty compliments and sexual references were given the thumbs down.
If all the cars on the planet were completely eliminated, less than 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions would be affected, and far less of other pollutants.
There are about 90,000 huge container ships worldwide that typically run on high sulfur bunker fuel oil.
New research indicates that each of the biggest ships emit as much as 50 million cars.
That means the 15 largest ships may be emitting more than all the world’s cars.
I don’t see China getting into a land war on any foreign continent. But there is an obvious generation gap building.
There are all kinds of social revolutions hiding just below the surface but no one with influence, neither public officials nor ordinary members of the middle class, seems willing to see the reality.
One other thing. We keep worrying that China is about to overtake us economically. Forget it.
China is a young country today but thanks to the one-child policy, it is aging rapidly.
I could build a separate spa just off the bath to soak in a tub of my stem cells.
University of New South Wales medical team used stem cells on a contact lens to restore sight.
Sight was significantly improved within weeks of the procedure, which is simple, inexpensive and requires a minimal hospital stay.
Yes.
More at Next Big Future
Psychologists have developed a “disgust scale” based on how queasy people would be in 27 situations, such as stepping barefoot on an earthworm or smelling urine in a tunnel. Conservatives systematically register more disgust than liberals.
For liberals, morality derives mostly from fairness and prevention of harm.
For conservatives, morality places relatively more emphasis on upholding authority and loyalty — and revulsion…
“The easiest way to lead people by the nose is through their morality.” – Nietzsche
It is nearly 2010; we should not need to seek out adjectives like “heirloom”, “organic”, “artisanal” in front of fruits and vegetables in order for them to have some kind of identifiable flavor.
After Bush’s appointee Christopher Cox became chairman of the SEC in mid-2005, he adopted practices that undermined the enforcement division’s efforts to investigate cases of corporate wrongdoing and punish those involved, according to interviews with 19 current and former SEC officials.
From the man who brought the world-record gathering of Afro wigs comes another one for the record books:
The world’s largest gathering of bikini-clad women and Speedo-clad men.
“If you’re 7 or 97, skinny or fat, it doesn’t matter.”
“We want all shapes and sizes, more personalities, as long as you’re fun.”
Part of what makes the smart grid “smart” is its ability to know a lot about the energy-consuming devices in our homes.
In addition to reaching into homes to regulate devices, information about usage and activities could be extracted from homes.
Home energy consumption patterns could be gathered and analyzed on a room-by-room and device-by-device basis to determine which devices are used and at what time of day.
What else will smart appliances “tell” others?
Salon’s Frances Kissling asks, “Are six Catholics too many for the Supreme Court?”
If Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, six of the nine justices will be Roman Catholic. Two of the other three justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, are Jewish. John Paul Stevens, at age 89 the oldest and longest-serving justice, would be the only Protestant left on the court.
Should that worry us?
After all, for most of the court’s 220-year history, all the members were white Protestant males.
BusinessWeek:
Whether, and to what extent, the nation’s business schools laid the groundwork for the economic crisis is a debate that’s engulfing the world of management education these days.
…the charge is serious and systemic.
“Business schools fell into the same trap as business media. They were not critical enough of what was going on, which made them complicit to the problem.”
The Industrial Age just seems to be falling, falling, falling…
One of the world’s most well known lock picker makes it a practice to publicly expose how easy it is.
In another revealing and disturbing development, the former chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson, has suggested what is possibly as scandalous a deception as the false case Bush and Cheney made for invading Iraq. Colonel Wilkerson writes that in their zeal to prove a link between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein during the months leading up to the Iraq war, one suspect held in Egypt, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, was water tortured until he falsely told the interrogators what they wanted to hear.
That phony confession that Wilkerson says was wrung from a broken man who simply wanted the torture to stop was then used as evidence in Colin Powell’s infamous address to the United Nations shortly before the invasion of Iraq in 2003.