Good Sunday Morning Conflucians. Sorry to say but I’ve given the staff here at the Bed & Breakfast the weekend off to catch up on the holiday shopping, festivities, and decorating. However, Rico kindly volunteered to whip you up a batch of your favorite pancakes and will have the coffee brewing all day. Feel free to come and go at your leisure, but unfortunately turn-down service will not be available. To accompany your breakfast, here are a few news stories to start the conversation.
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Sunday is a great day to take in an afternoon movie. Avatar anyone? The reviews are mixed. Some think it was amazing, others not so much. If you can wait until Christmas you’ll have another interesting offering – George Clooney in “Up in the Air.” Frank Rich offers an interesting analysis of the movie’s themes as they are cast against the backdrop of our crumbling economy.
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Hooray for Texas!! Houston Elects the first openly gay mayor in the country. Did this really happen first in Texas???
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Several intersecting stories revolve around China’s “One Child” policy. First, it was reported that China is considering reversing it’s One Child Per Family policy; however, they’re still defending it on the world stage as an important component of climate change strategies. ; and Canada thinks the whole world should adopt a similar strategy.
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Did you know you’re not permitted to insult French politicians via the internet? Dominique Broueilh found out the hard way.
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It wouldn’t be a news roundup without a little Tiger — Tiger speaks! but it was to New Zealand, not the U.S. . And Gillette backs away slowly: First Gatorade and now Gillette. Major sponsor limits exposure to Tiger Woods.
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It seems like every day there’s another article urging less meat and dairy consumption to reduce our human carbon footprint. Will America begin to transform into a country of vegetarians to save the planet?
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Ruh roh…looks like iPhone users are getting ‘rick-rolled.’
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Ten Brands that will disappear in 2010. Hint: one of them is NOT Goldman Sachs.
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That’s my list for this morning. What’s caught your eye? Share links and conversation.
Happy Sunday Everyone!
SoD
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Filed under: General
Somebody mentioned this story in one of the previous threads:
Win or lose, Hillary Clinton just goes from strength to strength
Boy are these Clintons resilient!
Oh and then there’s this:
The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers
One day, all these pseudo-progressives and other haters will come to realize and accept that the Clintons are the best thing that happened to the Democratic brand in the last 40+ years.
I’m still not done. (Don’t stop me, I’m on a roll)
<And the Big Winners?(Of 2009)
Wasn’t Hillary Clinton being mocked not too long ago for being totally irrelevant on Foreign Affairs and that she was just taking care of these “women stuff” that are the purview of First Ladies?
I believe her little “tea parties” that she just held as First Lady that helped prepare her for her task.
Thanks mablue for the Clinton items. We so need these examples of commitment and good will!
Something like — she ONLY served tea — what the Precious said about HRC.
And then Mrs. -0 wanted payment/salary for her “duties”.
Without the Clintons the D party would have probably been dead a long time ago.
But I do think the parties switch — The GOP wasn’t always the family values & God party.
“Robert Ingersoll, noted anti-Christian writer and lecturer, gave the key-note address at the Repbulican Convention in1876.” — I
found this historical note in “The Conquest of Society” by Snell Putney.
There is some sort of major shift going on in the 2 political parties — there are lots of remarks along the line — that it is hard to tell the two parties apart. As the two grow more alike the rank of Independents swell.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Republican Party were the one to change — real change and become the party of the people? For a party that once had an atheist give the Convention Keynote speech to the party that coined the words — “faith based” to describe the government give away to religious charities.
Who said I was done?
Here in Germany, there is a political magazine called Cicero. The current edition features an interview with Gore Vidal.
There’s no English edition but I have to translate the 1st question and his answer thereof.
I’m happy to see that many people are joining us where we have been all along. Only, it’s kinda getting crowdewd here.
Sorry,…I’ll adjust my hat again.
No, honesty has never been a priority. But “something new” has. Will they move on from this musing in time for it not to matter? Remember how they were all “Hillary has it sewn up” in 2007.
I think they are plotting the VP (Hillary thus is been presented as more apealing) thing to re-elect O.
Actually the Hillary as VP move would be brilliant. It would get a lot of real democrats to seriously consider voting for Obama where they wouldn’t have bothered otherwise. And it would give a lot of hope to the idea that at the end of that four years, the then VP would be the natural standard bearer for P next time. Ha, maybe this was the deal all along in that meeting at Feinstein’s house.
For me, even with that, I don’t think I’d want another four years of that asshat, even with Hillary there. And I’d feel it was be a demotion from being SoS, so I wouldn’t even like that part either.
But this is what he said about O:
Barack Obama: Quibble all you want about that process stuff, here are the facts: A year ago we were at the economic brink doubting a turnaround would happen for years, he had been elected to bring an end to an unpopular war and switch our focus to Afghanistan, he pledged to do something about health care despite the fact that nothing had been done of substance in about half a century and then he said he’d restore America’s reputation around the world and reverse our stance on global warming while he was at it. Twelve months later despite having had to climb a steep learning curve and deal with the one horse shay up on the Hill, he’s done it all. Perfect? No. Flawed? Plenty. But without question the most impressive first year in office for a U.S. president since Franklin Roosevelt.
From their lips to God’s ears.
umm hell to the no. no way VP in 12…. no way. can’t even sputter out a response to that ah hell NO.
Madam President or retired. She deserves nothing less than the presidency. Plus, we need her there; the world needs her in the top spot.
IMHO
I hope Oby decides to spend more time with this family and not run again. Maybe if his poll numbers get down in the 30′s he will not run again because he would not want to be defeated. I really don’t want Hillary to run as his VP. She is doing great at SOS and I don’t want her any more contaminated by his screwball non-leadership.
I don’t think she would be that stupid. If she runs with him and ties herself to this rancid administration in that way, win or lose, she would be forever politically tarnished. Its not like he’s going to miraculously become competent, non arrogant or even start acting like a real democrat. And running with him would end all future runs. She is SOS for a reason…. and is staying above the fray for a reason.
No. Hillary for President in 2012. She’s moving more and more toward being the shadow President even now, and normally that wouldn’t be a bad thing. A Leo to sit on the throne and a Scorpio to rule from behind it is usually a good set-up. But BO is becoming so toxic so fast that he’ll poison the ticket if he’s left on it.
I agree. If she is being touted as the VP for 2012, I think that’s a maneuver to keep her from challenging him. As SOS, she is not linked in any way to his domestic policies. As his VP, she will be part and parcel of his failures and his political duplicity. This meme, if it’s even at that stage yet, feels like a set-up.
The vice presidency? I don’t think so.
It’s bait and switch. They are floating the rumor that Hill may ride to the rescue to prop his sorry ass up, because they know he is so obviously floundering. It would never happen, of course – they are just trying to soothe alarmed voters and keep them on board.
Won’t work.
me either B.B. potus or nothing.
She is about the only person on the political stage right now who has what it will take to clean up the many messes we face right now. And after more of B0′s legislation passes, there will be even more corrective work to be done.
President Hillary Clinton. That’s it. Now more than ever.
I think the VP scenario in 2012 is the only realistic way I see if Hillary is to run for the presidency in 2016.
She’s not going to challenge Obama in 2012, Obama is not going to resign and I don’t think Hillary wants to run another campaign from scratch.
What is apparent now is that Obama needs Hillary more that she needs him and the only I think any Democrat with anything resembling a brain knows that Hillary may be the only person who may guarantee a win in 2012.
That is if they want to win. {{readjusts straps on hat}}
Defeat by Barack Obama ….
this phrase always pisses me off, the same as the idea that Gore “lost” to bush.
Here comes another email from me to who ever.
It should not have been so close as to come down to 500 votes in Florida.
You forget the constant attacks by the media, the outright lies and distortions.
Had Al gore gone with Bill Clinton’s help the media would have stepped up their attacks on both of them.
Look how long the late night talk show hacks milked Monica jokes.
But the reality was that the American public was not buying any of it. How else to you explain Bill leaving office with nearly a 70% approval rating. it was unheard of.
If Gore had won Tenn he would have taken the election (assuming the Repub cheating stayed constant.) That’s a sad comment on Gore’s effectiveness with Brazille at the helm.
Yep he lost his own state. One that Bill won the election prior.
Have you looked into the way Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris ran that election? It took a Brit to investigate it.
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/2002/11/04_Palast.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/02/10/24_palast.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Palast
In moderation. Too many links.
SOD, I agree. Bush’s criminality does not excuse the Dem’s behavior. Despite the fact that Bill was the most successful Democratic president in decades, they HATED him, didn’t want him in the office to begin with, and began cooperating with the GOP in trashing him just as soon as he left office, starting with Al’s distancing himself.
The Powers That Be do NOT like the Clintons, and never have. They were and are the Jokers in the carefully stacked deck. Are Bill and Hill pure angels? Nope. They have done some down-and-dirty deals in their time. They skirted the line and overstepped it at times, I’m sure. I have no illusions about the political purity of the Clintons.
But they never got completely co-opted. They are both practical enough to know they had to work with the Oligarchy Machine, and they’re not crusaders or tilters-at-windmills. But unlike many others, they managed to do that while still maintaining their independence to some degree – leveraging that machine to help the People as best they could, rather than leveraging the People to help the machine.
I’m not sure what acts you are referring to. Much of the negative mythology about Big Dawg is touted to this day as his “failings.” NAFTA, DADT, Glass-Stegall, Welfare Reform, etc were all laid at his feet as horrific liberal betrayals where he was the sole culprit when much of it was just that, negative mythology based on revisionist histories promoted by his detractors.
I’m not talking about his policies. I’m talking about the usual DC back-scratching, deal-cutting, and lobbyist/big donor influence. Not in specific, but in general. No, I don’t think ANY modern politician, if the truth were known, is completely free of even the slightest taint of quid pro quo, EVER. Bill would be no exception to that. But he wasn’t bought, and there’s a BIG difference between adapting to the reality of The Game and making The Game your reality.
Referring to Travelgate, Whitewatergate, FBIfilegate no doubt.
Funny thing about Whitwater, the Clintons lose near $50K on a failed land investment and get investigated … twice. Once by Robert Fisk who cleared them then by political hack Karl Rove.
Obama gets into a deal with Tony Rezko on a property he can’t afford on his own and not a peep out of the media.
MrMike, no, I am most certainly not referring to Whitewater or any of the other trumped-up crap they threw at the Clintons. I’m not even speaking of any illegalities, not at all. I’m speaking in general moral terms – that NO politician in our current system has pristinely spotless hands so far as a bit of horse-trading and back-scratching goes with donors or other monied interests.
Oh, love, love your Clintons addition!
But in the roadblocks to Health Club for Men you missed one: The Nelson/Stupack amendment: It lives!
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/health-club-for-men-still-there-the-zombie-anti-choice-provision-wants-brains/
Does this surprise us???
seems like another version of “Bros before hos”
Also seems like the Constitutional “lawyer” is crapping on the Constitution worse than GWB ever did — and this is only year ONE.
I always thought “Bros before Hos” was a sexual preference sort of code for guys on the D L.
“Did this really happen first in Texas???” We’ll have to revise our expectations. It may be that Texans don’t want the religious right telling them how to vote! Now, about those textbooks.
Best wishes to Annise Parker!
As a New Yorker I am now doubly humiliated for the disastrous defeat of the gay marriage bill in our senate.
My point exactly. Everything we know is wrong anymore. It’s an epidemic.
This is one of the few times I have been proud of living in Texas. Living close to Houston I followed the campaign and what Annise had to say regarding Houston’s future. I am confident she will do a great job and continue to move Houston in a positive direction. Yeah for Houston and that other progressive area – Iowa (for their treatment of G&L’s).
Texas is not conservative in the way that the deep south is conservative (I’ve lived both places.) Texas is actually more libertarian-leaning than fundie-leaning in their conservatism. The whole feel is very, VERY different than true Bible Belt states.
Parker ran as a fiscal conservative, “get the job done” type of candidate. She didn’t hide her orientation, but neither did she discuss it. She came across as “don’t be silly – it’s irrelevant – here are the concrete things we need to do.” She treated the office she aspired to as a JOB, not a platform for a feel-good crusade.
Texans are hardy, practical folks, big on individualism and self-sufficiency and minding their own damn business in most cases. She tapped into that libertarian-leaning sentiment very well, in such a firm, no-nonsense way that she made the hysterical religious shriekers (and there were some) look stupid and off-topic.
Wasn’t LBJ from Texas? Do you recall how Nixon (?) got the white Democrats through the Southern strategy? How were the civil rights battles in Texas? I seem to recall that Kay Bailey Hutchison recently defended Roe v. Wade as having been “correctly decided” or something like that.
Yeah, she did. She still a GOPer, so she throws a bone to the religious nuts, but she’s not one. She recently recommended an openly gay man for a federal judgeship in TX, and took some heat for it, but stuck to her guns that he was simply the most qualified in her opinion.
I’m hoping she wins the governor’s race here, since a Democrat has no chance in hell, and Perry is a freaking loon.
Yeah, she seems reasonable on the “divisive” social issues, considering her party label. I think she also worked with Hillary in Vital Voices when they were both in the Senate.
Oh, make no mistake, she’s still a Repub. But compared to “no bombastic batshit crazy photo-op left behind” PERRY? Good grief, please give us Kay!
Perry would’ve been sent packing last term had it not been for “Kinky” Friedman making it a tight 3-way race, peeling just enough votes from the Democrat Chris Bell which allowed Perry a very slim and meager margin of victory.
what I can not believe is that it was Houston, not Austin.
Austin ain’t all that, it’s just the center of the more elitist brand of liberalism in TX (not that all Austin liberals are of that breed, but it’s filthy with fauxgressive Obots.) But if you look at actual results, not words and posturing, lots of places in TX are ahead of Austin, as Houston’s mayoral race demonstrates.
San Antonio (7th largest city in the USA, BTW) has at least one openly gay city council member, and has a FEMALE MAJORITY city council. San Antonio also has the biggest percentage of gay couples raising children of anywhere in the entire country.
Texans are not so backward as many think. I keep telling people they are more libertarian-conservative as opposed to smarmy-fundie conservative. If the only thing you consider “liberal” is the loafered, degreed, crunchy-granola sort, then yeah, Austin is the shit. But if you think actual equality in real life is the measure of success, then lots of places in TX are ahead of more well-known, male-dominated “liberal bastions”.
thanks for the comment, I know exactly what you mean and even if I do not remember the state I was born in (Dumas TX) I have always know that some how the place helped formed my “KMA elitists” outlook.
Note to Teresa, have you seen Kathleen Parker’s column reinventing our own Rick Santorum? He of Penn Hills bungalow fame?
Now that Clinton is starting to look better and better comparatively, the Obama apologists have to find a way to discredit his accomplishments. It is so much harder now! Notice he doesn’t mention that Obama has control of both Houses of Congress, and Bill did not.
Did Clinton have it easy?
Ezra Klein
Noam Scheiber compares the task facing deficit hawks in 2009 to the task facing deficit hawks in 1993:
The decision about whether to rein in the bulging deficit or spend money on the rickety economy divided the incoming Clinton team. But, in retrospect, the challenge was much easier than the one confronting Obama. For one thing, GDP had been growing for almost two years in early 1993, versus only a single quarter today; unemployment was almost three points lower. For another, the deficit was actually far more tractable back then. The end of the cold war promised a peace dividend, and the bill for the baby boomers’ Social Security and Medicare benefits was basically 20 to 25 years away. Today, the entitlement spending boom is right around the corner, we’re surging in Afghanistan, we’ve spent a few hundred billion dollars propping up the financial system, and we already have one pricey stimulus on the books.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/did_clinton_have_it_easy.html
As myiq often says, the Clintons were reviled by everyone except the voters.
Here’s another history rewrite thanks to B0′s minions. IIn fact, B0 waltzed into the presidency (delivered to him on a silver platter) with a congressional majority and a public so sick of Bush even staunch repubs were willing to support him.
If you can’t be successful under those circumstances, you are either completely incompetent, or you don’t want to be successful.
And there are no excuses or rationalizations you can use to explain your failure. Grow up, people.
It’s a wonder that he got anything done in those circumstances.
He kinda has a point on the money stuff though. Course BO has really just opened that door, and he’ll be facing some tough lose/lose decisions in the months to come.
We are still talking about the entitlement boom as though it’s going to be huge. I say we hold off on those prognostications until after the next census. And while we are at we could think about replacing some of that borrowed SS money. The chickens have been pecking at that bloodied speck for waaay too long. Plus right now even those of us who ARE retirement age are still working and putting back into the system.
Doesn’t it strain one’s credulity to see the Democrats now championing Medicare and SSS “reforms,” considering that the Democrats of 2005 fought really hard to secure that SSS “lockbox” notwithstanding a Republican majority? How times have changed (even if most of the Democratic senators in 2005 are still in there — oh, except for Hillary and Ted Kennedy)!
Yes, my credulity has been pretty strained lately.
Unemployment is a fuzzy figure. If you want to make it look better, just chop off the length of time that recipients get it- like will happen soon if Congress doesn’t renew ARRA.
“Putney’s Law: If the people of people of a democracy are allowed to do so, they will vote away the freedoms which are essential to that democracy.
The idea that all viewpoints should be heard is a very abstract and difficult doctrine. It is easy to accept as a slogan, but hard to maintain in practice.”
pg. 124, The Conquest of Society, by Snell Putney.
Rick Warren — that’s the guy who prayed at the 0bambam ego day (Inauguration). Seems his religious outfit is involved in the Uganda anti-Gay law (the death penalty for being gay and/or not reporting gays part of the law may be removed.)
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1946645,00.html#ixzz0ZZRKdCQn
I remember an anecdote from the Vietnam War Protest era about a group that rewrote the Bill Of Rights in everyday language as a petition then tried to get people to sign it. They were refused more often than not.
Yep. That about covers it.
I actually prefer Peggy Nooner’s summary of the speech
Larry Summers is on George Steponallofus.
That is idiotic, not possible, not right. Can’t believe he said that. Maybe that’s a new White House electioneering meme, “we’re taking a conservative approach..”
They seem to have tried everything else, why not that? Though it is absolutely idiotic, it is Summers.
How can these nutroots fauxgressives not be flipping out from BO’s steady rightward tack. How do they sleep. How do they face the mirror in the morning. Don’t they feel absolutely reamed. Maybe they’re all trojans after all.
At least Mother Jones still points pure left.
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/12/taibbi-vs-obama-0
thanks for that … the conclusion is interesting:
It basically means a whole lotta people were really fooled if that’s true. Also, it means the vampire squid is with us no matter who is in charge which is a scary conclusion.
Some on the right are claiming that O is a Socialist.
But I’ve never seen this as part of his core values. He spent the time when he would be figuring out how the world worked living with his grandparents and I am highly doubtful that his grandmother was a socialist — she was a bank VP — and certainly 0zero picked up some idea of the importance of banks and keeping banks happy etc. from Granny.
She was also a Kansan — and lived there for a good part of her life. She was from middle upper class Kansas — and even the “liberals” there of that time period were conservatives. There are also mavericks from Kansas — but those are not the ones who enter the financial world.
Those of us who were willing to see 0zero for who he was — and bothered to look past his pretty words aren’t surprised.
Follow the money — which interest groups had the funds to give to wage the all out war for control during the campaign? No one else in the history of politics STARTED out with the $$$$ long before any primary started. That was more than enough to buy the election.
So if the vampire squid is the real government — why bother on voting? The machines are rigged — the election is bought and paid for and they put whoever will maintain the balance as it is.
The ray of hope is that on the local level — they can’t control the outcome. (but they can knock out a Governor or two.)
Sign #1,984,289 of the coming Apocalypse:
Ashley Dupre, the high-end call girl who brought Eliot Spitzer down, is now an advice columnist for the New York Post:
http://tinyurl.com/y9mxnde
oy
“….who brought Eliot Spitzer down….” Aw give him some credit too.
SNL’s opening number last night in case you missed.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/state-of-affairs-snls-gov-sanford-and-john-edwards-suggest-tiger-woods-coverage-is-race-based/
Just to let you know, every time you post the picture of that luscious stack of blueberry pancakes my brain goes: WANT!
The NYTimes offers up a scrumptious recipe for them!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/health/nutrition/10recipehealth.html
I think all recipes should come with a cook….
I love looking at recipes, just hate makin’ em.
Bundling a cook with a cookbook would solve my problem….
@NYT_JenPreston: What tops NYT’s most emailed list this morning? Not Tiger Woods. A recipe for oatmeal blueberry pancakes – http://bit.ly/8Egmpc
LOL!
Me too. Me want pancakes, me want. Mmmm.
More big brother on the web.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/opinion/13sun2.html?src=tptw
http://www.alternet.org/story/144529/are_americans_a_broken_people_why_we%27ve_stopped_fighting_back_against_the_forces_of_oppression?page=entire
From Peter Daou:
The dominant theory in Washington is that the left exists solely as a foil to make Democrats look more moderate http://bit.ly/4Vfc3W
The interesting part of that Noonan article you link is the final inference.
I liked the end:
Ouch.
I said to myself “meh” when I read that.
Emotionally removed. Indifferent.
“….what to do with the clay of your candidate…….” When I first read this, I thought of clay as in immobile. Then there’s the clay of “clay feet”. Not sure, but in Obama’s case he appears to have no affect, be aloof and self-absorbed. Not someone one can easily relate to. They need to highlight his rare moments of humility – “I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize.” “I have no doubt that there are others who may be more deserving.”
Wish he’d said “are” more deserving rather than “may be”, but then I quibble.
By the way, the iPhone worm issue is only for “cracked” or “jailbroken” phones. And if I remember correctly, only those where a default password wasn’t changed like it should have been according to jailbreaking instructions.
I just thought the rick-rolled aspect of the story was humorous. Astley has more lives than a cat because of that little pwnd trend.
Alternet also has “The 6 weirdest, scariest processed foods.” On the list…Spam of course
http://www.alternet.org/food/144395/the_6_weirdest%2C_scariest_processed_foods/?page=2
Oreo filling, cheeze whiz, condensed soup, fake blueberry bits, and avocado-free guacamole round out the list. (avocado free gauc????)
German women made a “meat flavored Jello-O” called suelze, pronounced ‘ziltz’. My grandmother made it for Christmas; and even
though I was a picky eater, I loved it. It contained cut up pork in gelatin.
The Costco cookbook has a recipe for “Spambalaya”
Just sayin….in case all that talk of Spam makes you want it!
From the Let Them Eat Cake Department:
More than 50,000 people have received invitations to attend one of the 17 holiday parties and 11 open houses at the White House that started last week and will continue right up until the Obamas leave for vacation at the end of the month.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-readies-holiday-parties/story?id=9305632
How many prime O’bots on the list?
Kos, Marshal, Marsh?
Re: “Canada thinks the whole world should adopt a similar strategy.” (one child policy).
Dianne Francis is one in 33 million, and the Financial Post is so circling the drain they had to be bailed out in order to publish a few Fridays ago.
Canadian women haven’t even been replacing their numbers since the birth control pill was legalized in 1969. The only reason for rising population in Canada is immigration, and we’re not in danger of running out of space or resources any time soon. In fact, the Canadian government sends out monthly “baby bonus” checks for everyone under 18 to encourage women to add to the numbers. If I recall correctly, many European nations are experiencing the same phenomenon. So Dianne Francis must be wanting all those women in underdeveloped (poor) nations to bite the bullet.
The problem China is facing as a result of their one-child policy is a shortage of women. Not enough girls have been allowed to live to come close to matching up with all those much prized little boys.
I think the UK article on reducing per capita consumption of meat and dairy products (not presented as representing the entire British population) may hold out more hope for eco-sustainability.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8410946.stm
some one evidently punched Berlusconi while he was visiting Milan
How the heck did anyone get that close?
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/144455/meet_the_billionaire_brothers_funding_the_right-wing_war_on_obama/
I don’t know how many of you know this man, but he was a truly great scholar and person …
Paul Samuelson, Nobel prizing winning economist has passed away at 94.
His book was the first one I ever taught out of … he had an incredible mind
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/business/economy/14samuelson.html?_r=1&ref=business&pagewanted=all
Drug Money helped keep banks afloat —
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims
Obama gives himself a B+ ( a solid one)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091214/ap_on_en_tv/us_obama_oprah_2