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Author Topic: News & Current Events  (Read 1113873 times)

Offline WhenPigsFly

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #420 on: March 16, 2009, 10:44:51 AM »
...somehow, as a coat hanger is straightened to open a locked car and then bent again to its original shape, they torqued things almost to where they had been, for what they'd said was no news.  Nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved...

Offline WhenPigsFly

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #421 on: March 16, 2009, 11:12:10 AM »
And here's a pro-regulation and anti-bailout-money-without-true-transparency petition (to be delivered to Frank on Wednesday):

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/Transparency
...somehow, as a coat hanger is straightened to open a locked car and then bent again to its original shape, they torqued things almost to where they had been, for what they'd said was no news.  Nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved...

Offline brokebacktom

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #422 on: March 16, 2009, 11:59:48 AM »
And here's a pro-regulation and anti-bailout-money-without-true-transparency petition (to be delivered to Frank on Wednesday):

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/Transparency



I signed, but the thing is if AIG does goes under what happens to my 401K. I have them thru my work. I cannot take it out without paying a penalty.

Offline Ellen (tellyouwhat)

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #423 on: March 16, 2009, 12:27:48 PM »
Tom, I don't think it's about AIG going under -- it's about AIG execs deciding they need their so-called "retention" bonuses.  yikes.

when in fact they should be getting "laid off" in order to save money for the company.


Obama is trying to block the payout:


http://apnews.myway.com//article/20090316/D96V8NH00.html
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Offline michaelflanagansf

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #424 on: March 16, 2009, 12:50:48 PM »
Here's another article on the 'Kindle' from yesterday's Chronicle.  Although I may have to revise my opinion - reading from a kindle makes a whole lot more sense than sending messages saying 'I'm waiting for a train' in twitter.  BTW, read the comments - you get the idea as to how rabid some of the techno-supporters in the Bay Area are:

The Kindle 2: a thin read
John McMurtrie, Chronicle Book Editor
Sunday, March 15, 2009

"Without books, we might melt into the airwaves, and be just another set of blips."

With characteristic eloquence, John Updike wrote those words in 2000, when bemoaning the growing popularity of what he coolly referred to as "electronic text-delivery systems." (The rest of us know them simply as e-book readers.)

In his essay, Updike argued that if we abandon the printed book for its electronic rival, we will lose the book as furniture ("Shelved rows of books warm and brighten the starkest room"), sensual pleasure ("the average book fits into the human hand with a seductive nestling, a kiss of texture, whether of cover cloth, glazed jacket, or flexible paperback"), souvenir ("One's collection comes to symbolize the contents of one's mind") and ballast ("Books hold our beams down; they act as counterweight to our fickle and flighty natures").
Turning the page

The elegant persuasiveness of Updike's essay stayed with me long after I first read it in the New York Times. The piece was later published in a book of the author's essays, titled "Due Considerations," and it was equally convincing when I reread it the other day - on Amazon's latest electronic text-delivery system.

And yet, consider this: Updike, who wrote at home on Boston's bucolic North Shore, probably never tried reading his 736-page, carpal-tunnel-inducing "Due Considerations" with one hand while standing in a herky-jerky subway car, the book jabbing the sternum of a fellow commuter.

Also, Updike no doubt had plenty of space for any number of 700-page books, his house being bigger than a two-bedroom home lined with overstuffed shelves ready to give way. (OK, so I'm behind a few spring cleanings.)

Yes, there are some good things to be said for Amazon's new e-book reader, the Kindle 2.

There's more: If you happen to be in a rush to get Updike's book (let's just say you're on deadline and can't make it to a bookstore or library), thanks to the Kindle, you can buy the e-book (for $9.99) and download it with a wireless connection (in a minute) - and add it to your personal Kindle collection of 1,500 titles. (The Sony Reader, by contrast, doesn't offer wireless access.)

The thing can also download newspapers and magazines, for those who don't mind reading the paper on a screen the size of a half sandwich. (Competition in this market will arrive by year's end: The Hearst Corp., which owns The Chronicle, plans to introduce its own large-format e-book reader.)

continues:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/15/RV5O16C8Q4.DTL&hw=kindle&sn=001&sc=1000
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. - Karl R. Popper

Offline Sandy

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #425 on: March 16, 2009, 02:55:53 PM »
And here's a pro-regulation and anti-bailout-money-without-true-transparency petition (to be delivered to Frank on Wednesday):

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/Transparency



I signed, but the thing is if AIG does goes under what happens to my 401K. I have them thru my work. I cannot take it out without paying a penalty.

As long as you roll it into an IRA, you need not pay the penalty for early withdrawal.

Offline Lyle (Mooska)

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #426 on: March 16, 2009, 03:05:02 PM »
Interesting read, Michael.  The old saying, if you were on a
deserted island, what book would you want to have with you,
can now be answered, "I'd like to have a kindle with me and
1500 books!"  (Of course, there's the power source problem,
you'd eventually end up with none.)

I suppose there's a place for kindles, but what I hate is the
seeming attitude by some advocates that because it's new
and do-able, that it is superior.  I liked the article author's
references to just the mere aesthetics and pleasures and
even artistry of printed and bound books.  The fact that actual
fonts and types are chosen, etc.

Quote
Despite all this, however, the simple fact is that printed books will always
be better than their electronic imitators, for the reasons Updike elucidated
and for others [which the article author then elucidates].

Thought:

Definition of Elucidate--Using a computer for communication, what you
would call Lucy Ricardo's attempts to have Ricky take her out for an
evenings entertainment.  E-luci-date.



Offline brokebacktom

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #427 on: March 17, 2009, 09:00:39 AM »
The GOP wants Coleman to take his lew suit in MN to teh supreme court. If he does it will back fire here in MN.


http://dyn.politico.com/members/forums/thread.cfm?catid=1&subcatid=1&threadid=2188786

Offline michaelflanagansf

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #428 on: March 17, 2009, 10:17:55 AM »
During the 80s, when I was working for an AIDS info organization, I used to document this sort of thing for our newsletter.  I'm just amazed that the church is still saying nonsense like this:

On Africa trip, pope says condoms won't solve AIDS
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer Victor L. Simpson, Associated Press Writer – 6 mins ago

YAOUNDE, Cameroon – Pope Benedict XVI said on his way to Africa Tuesday that condoms were not the answer in the continent's fight against HIV, his first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even clergy working with AIDS patients.

Benedict arrived in Yaounde, Cameroon's capital, Tuesday afternoon to a crowd of flag-waving faithful and snapping cameras. The visit is his first pilgrimage as pontiff to the African continent.

Benedict had never directly addressed condom use, though his position is not new. His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, often said that sexual abstinence — not condoms — was the best way to prevent the spread of the disease.

Benedict said that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against AIDS.

"You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms," the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."

The pope said that a responsible and moral attitude toward sex would help fight the disease.

About 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, according to UNAIDS. In 2007, three-quarters of all AIDS deaths worldwide were there, as well as two-thirds of all people living with HIV.

Rebecca Hodes with the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa said if the pope is serious about preventing new HIV infections, he will focus on promoting wide access to condoms and spreading information on how best to use them.

"Instead, his opposition to condoms conveys that religious dogma is more important to him than the lives of Africans," said Hodes, director of policy, communication and research for the action campaign.

While she said the pope is correct that condoms are not the sole solution to Africa's AIDS epidemic, she said they are one of the very few HIV prevention mechanisms proven to work.

Even some priests and nuns working with those living with HIV/AIDS question the church's opposition to condoms amid the pandemic ravaging Africa.

The Roman Catholic Church rejects the use of condoms as part of its overall teaching against artificial contraception.

Senior Vatican officials have advocated fidelity in marriage and abstinence from premarital sex as key weapons in the fight against AIDS.

The late Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo made headlines in 2003 for saying that condoms may help spread AIDS through a false sense of security, claiming they weren't effective in blocking transmission of the virus. The cardinal, who died last year, headed the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family.

continues:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090317/ap_on_re_af/af_pope_africa;_ylt=AkYytDqZagQSEpZ2ugd6DUQDW7oF
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. - Karl R. Popper

Offline pattieono

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #429 on: March 17, 2009, 11:23:09 AM »
Quote
During the 80s, when I was working for an AIDS info organization, I used to document this sort of thing for our newsletter.  I'm just amazed that the church is still saying nonsense like this:

On Africa trip, pope says condoms won't solve AIDS
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer Victor L. Simpson, Associated Press Writer – 6 mins ago

    As a worker of a Public Health Dept., STD division, all I can say is; unf****believable!!! >:( ::) >:(

Offline garyd

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #430 on: March 17, 2009, 11:45:16 AM »
I'm just amazed that the church is still saying nonsense like this:

Talk about an organization that should be put on trial for "crimes against humanity".
I know my bias is showing but, trust me, my anger is not limited to the Catholic church.

Offline michaelflanagansf

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #431 on: March 17, 2009, 01:23:33 PM »
Talk about an organization that should be put on trial for "crimes against humanity".
I know my bias is showing but, trust me, my anger is not limited to the Catholic church.

I'm with you Gary (and Pattie).  This is just disgusting - the message given is 'it doesn't matter if you suffer horribly in this life, as long as we save your soul.'  However, as the son of a woman who had 9 children (and 14 pregnancies) I can tell you this isn't a new message.
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. - Karl R. Popper

Offline Lyle (Mooska)

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #432 on: March 17, 2009, 02:06:42 PM »
What number were you, Michael?

Offline michaelflanagansf

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #433 on: March 17, 2009, 06:08:30 PM »
What number were you, Michael?

Just like the Beatles song, I'm #9.  I used to like to say my mother had 4 boys, 4 girls and me.  ;D
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. - Karl R. Popper

Offline graylockV

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Re: News & Current Events
« Reply #434 on: March 18, 2009, 02:06:58 AM »

Sources: US to sign UN gay rights declaration


WASHINGTON – The Obama administration will endorse a U.N. declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality that then-President George W. Bush had refused to sign, The Associated Press has learned.

U.S. officials said Tuesday they had notified the declaration's French sponsors that the administration wants to be added as a supporter. The Bush administration was criticized in December when it was the only western government that refused to sign on.

The move was made after an interagency review of the Bush administration's position on the nonbinding document, which was signed by all 27 European Union members as well as Japan, Australia, Mexico and three dozen other countries, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Congress was still being notified of the decision. They said the administration had decided to sign the declaration to demonstrate that the United States supports human rights for all.

When it was voted on in December, 66 of the U.N.'s 192 member countries signed the declaration — which backers called a historic step to push the General Assembly to deal more forthrightly with anti-gay discrimination.

But 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality — and in several, homosexual acts can be punished by execution. More than 50 nations, including members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, opposed the declaration.

Some Islamic countries said at the time that protecting sexual orientation could lead to "the social normalization and possibly the legalization of deplorable acts" such as pedophilia and incest. The declaration was also opposed by the Vatican.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090318/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_gay_rights
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