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n2doc's JournalConservative Christian Voyagers Who Were Lost In The Pacific Plan To Leave Again
SUBMITTED BY Brian Tashman on Monday, 9/16/2013 3:25 pm
An Arizona family that fled the US by boat only to be lost at sea is planning to leave again, once again by boat. Back in August, the Gastonguay family cited “abortion, homosexuality [and] the state-controlled church” as reasons for leaving the US to the island nation of Kiribati. However, the voyage did not go as planned as damage to their boat left them “adrift for weeks.” “They were eventually picked up by a Venezuelan fishing vessel, transferred to a Japanese cargo ship and taken to Chile,” the Associated Press reported.
Sean Gastonguay appeared on TruNews with Rick Wiles yesterday to discuss his plans to leave with his wife and children once again to escape what he perceives as anti-Christian persecution.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/conservative-christian-voyagers-who-were-lost-pacific-plan-leave-again-fear-immigration-refo
I feel badly for the kids.
Time Magazine Pushes Phony ‘Global Cooling’ Meme With Cartoon Penguin
In a Time magazine issue dated September 23, 2013, the “Briefing” section that quotes Russell Brand, Michele Bachmann, and John Kerry also briefly mentions global warming. But using less than two dozen words, it gets it very, very wrong.
The blurb, right in the front of the magazine, suggested that a one-year jump in Arctic sea ice extent could mean “global cooling”:
60%: Increase in ice-covered ocean water since last year, leading some scientists to believe that the planet is actually undergoing “global cooling”
It even has a graphic of a chilly-looking penguin wearing a scarf and a hat with a pom-pom. Blurbs like this make even the most casual reader perk up and ask some questions.
Do penguins live in the Arctic?
No. Not at all.
Is there really “global cooling”?
No. Across the world in August, the average temperature was the 4th-highest on record, according to NOAA.
more
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/09/17/2627501/time-global-cooling-pushback/
The deficit scare mongers are back
Today's CBO report on the deficit has good news:
But that is predictably being ignored in favor of reporting the 'bad' news:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/09/17/cbo-deficit-to-improve-before-getting-much-much-worse/?mod=wsj_streaming_stream
Let's see....2038- 2013 is 25 years. Back in 1975, do you think they were predicting a balanced budget in 2000? In 2000, do you think they were predicting a trillion dollar deficit in 2010? The answer is No, both estimates would have been laughed at, at their times. No one can predict how the economy will be doing in 25 years, or 10 years, or what sorts of tax changes we might make in the meantime. What one (i.e. me) can predict is that this sort of worthless prediction will be used to try and cut food stamps, SS, Medicare and Medicaid.It will not be used to justify cutting defense the NSA or homeland 'security' budgets. The real question is, will people fall for this again?
Do College Professors Deserve a Living Wage?
by KEITH HOELLER
When running for reelection last year, Vice President Joseph Biden specifically singled out professors as one of the major reasons for the skyrocketing cost of college tuition: “Salaries for college professors have escalated significantly,” he said. Last month President Obama released his plan to hold down the costs of tuition and make college more affordable, which would certainly make it more difficult to raise faculty salaries.
Both President Obama and Vice President Biden should be experts on professors’ salaries. Obama was a nontenure track “senior lecturer” of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago prior to his serving in the Senate and Biden’s wife Jill is an Associate Professor at Northern Virginia Community College.
Yet Obama and Biden have completely neglected the huge income disparity on college campuses between the comparatively well off tenure-track faculty, such as Jill Biden who earns $82,000 annually, and the deplorable situation of the nontenure-track faculty, whose plight is so bad that last year the Chronicle of Higher Education ran a story entitled, “From Graduate School to Welfare: The Ph.D Now Comes with Food Stamps.”
Indeed, one million college professors now teach off the tenure-track with poverty-level wages that have long-rivaled Wal-Mart and MacDonald’s workers. With the recent clamor for higher wages for unskilled labor, should our nation’s highly skilled “contingent” professors also receive the minimum wage for each and every hour they work, and time and a half for overtime?
more
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/09/17/do-college-professors-deserve-a-living-wage/
Financial Terrorism
by MIKE WHITNEY
The Lehman Brothers default on September 15, 2008, was the biggest incident of financial terrorism in US history. When Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke convened an emergency meeting with leading members the US Congress and their aides on September 18, 2008, they had already developed a “break the glass” strategy for extorting $700 billion dollars from US government to make up for the losses on trillions of dollars of toxic “subprime” assets that were at the center of Wall Street’s massive predatory lending swindle.
The plan was to precipitate a financial catastrophe so immense that elected officials would comply with Wall Street’s demands as presented by former Goldman Sachs CEO, Paulson. To that end, Bernanke warned the congressional assembly that if they refused to meet their extortionist demands of $700 billion no-strings-attached bailout, that “We may not have an economy on Monday”. This was clearly a lie that was intended to coerce congress. As it happens, the so called Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP was not implemented for a full month later (October 14th). The economy was still intact although the markets and Bernanke’s friends on Wall Street had suffered severe losses.
Naturally, this analysis veers from the specious narrative presented in the MSM, which characterizes the behavior of Paulson and Bernanke as selfless and even “heroic”. Nothing could be further from the truth. The two men deliberately blew up the century-old investment bank to blackmail congress and to provide emergency assistance to the many broken and insolvent banks and financial institutions who were at the end of their rope. Bernanke himself alluded to the dismal condition of the country’s biggest lenders in testimony to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in 2011. Here’s what he said:
They were all broke, according to Bernanke. All, except one. Even worse, “12 were at risk of failure within a period of a week or two”, so something had to be done fast, which is why both men were committed to creating a big enough implosion to scare congress in compliance.
more
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/09/17/financial-terrorism/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=financial-terrorism
Bill Nye Discusses Why We Must Keep Religion Out Of Science Books
by JEAN ANN ESSELINK on SEPTEMBER 17, 2013
Yesterday, The New Civil Rights Movement let you know that people who live in the real world are gathering in Austin, Texas, in an attempt to keep religious fantasy out of the science books that high school students across the country will be using for the next ten years. The Texas Freedom Network is sponsoring the gathering, where you can come and have your picture taken with a dinosaur. (I think that refers to an actor in a costume, and not actual members of the Texas Board of Education.)
I am glad the protesters are there to Stand Up For Science, but’s it’s probably a fool’s errand. The fifteen-member board is well-stocked with creationists, including the chair, Barbara Cargill. They have been negotiating with the publishers of fifteen new science books (all of whom are looking at a multi-million dollar payday if their book is chosen) over what “facts” they would be wiling to fudge.
Meanwhile, a panel of right wing volunteer appointees has been advising them on the suitability of the material with advice like this:
Today, the citizens of Texas will speak, as the board holds a public comment session. Realists and religionists (I made that word up, I don’t know what to call them that doesn’t sound pejorative.) will take to the microphone to express their opinion on including biblical information as a counter-argument to scientific theory. The Stand Up For Science Rally will be held outside the hearings.
more
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/bill-nye-discusses-why-we-must-keep-religion-out-of-science-books/news/2013/09/17/75215
My New Pink Button
While waxing and grooming of pubic hair has long been de rigueur, the increasing popularity of labioplasty and other cosmetic procedures for women's private parts suggests that the appearance of the nether regions is becoming something of an obsession for appearance-concious women.
However the latest product to hit the market aimed at the transformation of 'greying' feminine areas may be a step too far for some.
My New Pink Button is a cosmetic genital dye that claims to be able to restore women's labia to a 'youthful pink'.
The darkest shade is described as for the 'woman who wants to be daring' to give a 'bold burgundy pink colour'.
'Perfect for everyone, and your own base colour will determine the depth of this shade. Tonight it's Show time!!' the website states.
However for those less willing to make a statement with their lady-parts there is Marilyn 'for beginners'.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2419876/Who-knew-greying-genitals-problem-Amazon-stocking-30-labia-dye-restore-rosy-hue.html
Cerberus Capital still hasn’t unloaded the maker of the AR-15 but is making tons of money from it
When you’re holding a hot potato, it seems no harm can come to you as long as you keep throwing it in the air.
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For the last nine months Cerberus Capital Management has been trying to sell off the Freedom Group, an agglomeration of firms that sells more firearms and ammunition than any other company in the United States.
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Among other weapons, Freedom Group is the leading manufacturer of the most popular, but also the most controversial gun in America: the AR-15, a semi-automatic, military-style rifle used in the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre that killed 28, in a rampage this summer that killed six in Santa Monica, and now today’s attack at the Washington Navy Yard, which has so far resulted in 13 deaths.
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It’s not clear yet whether the particular gun used today was made by Freedom Group, or how the alleged gunman, Aaron Alexis, obtained it.
more
http://qz.com/124999/cerberus-capital-still-hasnt-sold-freedom-group-manufacturer-ar-15-assault-rifle/
The most depressing discovery about the brain ever
Yale law school professor Dan Kahan’s new research paper is called “Motivated Numeracy and Enlightened Self-Government,” but for me a better title is the headline on science writer Chris Mooney’s piece about it in Grist: “Science Confirms: Politics Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math.”
Kahan conducted some ingenious experiments about the impact of political passion on people’s ability to think clearly. His conclusion, in Mooney’s words: partisanship “can even undermine our very basic reasoning skills…. [People] who are otherwise very good at math may totally flunk a problem that they would otherwise probably be able to solve, simply because giving the right answer goes against their political beliefs.”
In other words, say goodnight to the dream that education, journalism, scientific evidence, media literacy or reason can provide the tools and information that people need in order to make good decisions. It turns out that in the public realm, a lack of information isn’t the real problem. The hurdle is how our minds work, no matter how smart we think we are. We want to believe we’re rational, but reason turns out to be the ex post facto way we rationalize what our emotions already want to believe.
more
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/17/the_most_depressing_discovery_about_the_brain_ever_partner/
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