magekillr

However valid your insight may be, I find it hilarious coming from an American. LOL! Well done. Yeah, let's see you come up with a decision UNANIMOUSLY, snipersas. Especially after the US' debt debacle. Big decisions in Europe need to be made by unanimous vote of all 27 EU members, even those that arent part of the euro.

This was probably my favorite costume that I've done. I recommend it, and you can easily find everything you need for it at the local Goodwill:

I don't know that this will fix it. I'm waiting to read some experts' opinions first. The only one I've seen is Yves Smith. As usual, she's critical: Eurozone Leaders Agree a Few Rescue Details, Like 50% Haircut on Greek Bonds; Plan to Develop a Plan Gooses Markets The US also returned to its pre-recession peak growth numbers of 2.5%. This isn't enough to get us back to full employment, or close the output gap indefinitely into the future, but at least it alleviates fears of a double dip. Hopefully that will also help Europe.

Hahaha, omg, after riku posted what he did, I almost said, "Probably because it reminds you of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery."

They found Jesus? wat Well initially they told me that we had to worry about terrorism and anthrax. They said terrorism at the time, or something about 9/11. It was only when I was older that I thought, "Well maybe they were referring to the anthrax attacks?" So I guess I was 13 at the time rather than 12. Anyway, this was the story I believed until later I got into an argument with my mom over allowing me to go with my friends around the neighborhood at the age of 16. Halloween to them is a holiday of the occult and Satan. I think this is the real reason why they wouldn't allow me to participate, as the events of 9/11 occurred right around the time they joined their cult known as Calvary Chapel. Ok, it's not a "cult," but some cult experts have stated that it has cult-like tendencies. Rather than celebrating Halloween, the church has "Harvest Parties".

My parents stopped allowing me to participate when I was 12 years old, as around that time is when they found Jesus. It's my favorite holiday of the year, and I can't celebrate it this year because my parents are going out of town for the weekend; I have to watch my sister. Ugh, foiled by them again. Looks like I'll be spending it at home this year. At least I went to a Zombie Apocalypse birthday party last weekend... [hide][/hide]

"They're just concerned with abortion, guys! It's not about birth control at all. We're not misogynists!" The next front in the abortion wars: Birth control Also see Jezebel: Mississippi Personhood Advocates Are Extra Scary in Person It's also worth mentioning -- as the link does -- that "the number of babies who die as infants in Mississippi is double the number of abortions annually. It also has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy nationwide, alongside a child welfare system that remains dangerously broken." If they really cared about babies, all their energy would be spent correcting that abysmal infant mortality rate. But they don’t.

I still don't support Obama's decision to go into Libya -- until there's a new government there I doubt I'll have the information necessary to admit I was wrong or right, either. I think the reason we helped was because of Europe's fragile situation; what would happen if thousands (or worse, millions) of refugees fled there? Anyway, events seem to show that he met the situation with near-perfect balance. The contrast between him and Bush on international conflict is extreme.

Because holding someone and denying them all the rights that they deserve as a prisoner, and then releasing Palestinians who have committeed crimes which included the killings of many people is just a way of denouncing Palestinians. Right. How exactly was Netanyahu secretly working with Hamas? The whole negotiations were done through the Egyptians... Please know something related to this before you post. Yawn. Are you seriously saying that Netanyahu did not just cut a deal with Hamas? And you're saying I don't "know something"? Christ. Please, do you honestly take international dialogue at face value? Learn how to analyze diplomacy. Egypt was involved so that they will be trusted to be involved in the future. It's well known that Egypt's population hates Israel -- with good reason -- and its revolution could prevent it from being involved in the future. That's why they were involved now; they might be precluded in the future. This deal was designed to undermine the Palestinian Authority and empower Hamas. Hamas is losing support, they need a nice jolt to show that their methods are far more effective, and they get results. Netanyahu wants to undermine non-violent resistance. Why do you think Israel made Hamas into what it is in the first place? So long as Hamas is in power, the Israeli right can safely state that it has "no partner" with whom to negotiate which means it can keep doing what it likes doing (build settlements and make life miserable for Palestinians). And keep the war going. As per usual, Chomsky states the obvious:

I notice how everyone in the media talks about the one Israeli occupier, and there's barely any notice of the Arabs released. The analysis acts as if he was some tourist who innocently wandered off in the land and got lost. Just more racism in the Western media when it comes to Arabs; I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. And I have to hand it to Netanyahu. He might be a racist and a fascist, but he's very cunning and smart. Continuing to privately work with Hamas while in public denouncing them, and simultaneously subverting any process of recognizing the Palestinian people. Not a new strategy, but he's a genius at it. Continue to undercut the fraudsters Abbas and Fayyad, so they can go back to defending the settlements, because there is no viable interlocutor. Well done.

Heh, another reason I like Apple: gtfo, AT&T and Verizon: Free Texts Pose Threat to Carriers It looks like Apple has figured out a way to take a huge chunk of Verizon's business and give it back to the people who use iPhones. It couldn't happen to a bigger set of swindlers. I hope Apple confiscates all that business and gives the money back to the people. The mark-up on text messages is nothing less than theft. Imagine, a third of Verizon's operating income is based in a simple crime that Apple can now rectify.

Jobs was a part of a corrupt system -- I don't see any value in denouncing him in this particular context, though. He benefited from an exploitative system; yes, we in the West are seeing this filtered through a very privileged, very western worldview. However, I think I'd rather save these denunciations when we're discussing the exploitative nature of our system writ large rather than pointing to one particular person who succeeded from it. On another aspect of Jobs that I think is going unnoticed but that the generally thoughtful Glenn Greenwald has pointed out, was Jobs' drug use, how it served him, and a critique of the drug war in general: Unlike many people who have enjoyed success, Jobs is not saying that he was able to succeed despite his illegal drug use; hes saying his success is in part in substantial part because of those illegal drugs (he added that Bill Gates would be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once). These quotes (first published by a New York Times reporter) have been around for some time but have been only rarely discussed in the recent hagiographies of Jobs: a notable omission given that he himself praised those experiences as an integral part of his identity and one of the most important things he ever did. A surprisingly good Time Magazine article elaborates on this Jobs-LSD connection further: Americas harsh prohibitionist drug policies are grounded in the premise that the prohibited substances have little or no redeeming value and cannot be used without life-destroying consequences. Yet the evidence of its falsity is undeniable. Here is one of the most admired men in America, its greatest contemporary industrialist, hailing one of the most scorned of these substances as integral to his success and intellectual and personal growth. The current President commendably acknowledged cocaine and marijuana use while there is evidence suggesting the prior President also used those substances. One of Americas most accomplished athletes was caught using marijuana at the peak of his athletic achievements. And millions upon millions of American adults have consumed some or many of those criminally prohibited substances, and themselves will say (like Jobs) that they had important and constructive experiences with those drugs or know someone who did. In short, the deceit at the heart of Americas barbaric drug policy that these substances are such unadulterated evils that adults should be put in cages for voluntarily using them is more glaring than ever. In light of his comments about LSD, its rather difficult to reconcile Americas adoration for Steve Jobs with its ongoing obsession with prosecuting and imprisoning millions of citizens (mostly poor and minorities) for doing what Jobs, Obama, George W. Bush, Michael Phelps and millions of others have done. Obviously, most of these banned substances like alcohol, gambling, sex, junk food consumption, prescription drug use and a litany of other legal activities can create harm to the individual and to others when abused (though Americas solution for drug users prison also creates rather substantial harm to the drug user and to others, including their spouses, parents and children: at least as much harm as, and usually substantially more than, the banned drugs themselves). But no rational person can doubt that these substances can also be used responsibly and constructively; just study Steve Jobs life if you doubt that. Full article here: Steve Jobs and drug policy

And the U.S. is still occupying Germany from WWII. what The US still has bases in Germany. I'm not sure how that's an argument in favor of continuing the Afghan Occupation, considering our Empire is drowning the United States in debt. Oh, just like every Empire before it. Other than the USSR, another good example is the French Ancien Regime: The state was constantly at war. The rich were exempt from taxation. The constant wars and tax cuts for the rich resulted in an enormous debt. Innovation was focused on moving money, not investments that generated wealth. The elite were entirely self-absorbed in their own interests, regarding the common people with contempt. Elections were corrupted and eventually eliminated. All Empires collapse; that's probably one of the few good things to come of this occupation -- what emerges from the ashes could be bad, though. Also, it is true that surveys suggest women's lives have improved.

Get. Out. Now.

ECB to Europe: drop dead: European Central Bank offers new emergency loans to banks, leaves rates unchanged ECB: "We tightened money a few months ago, growth sucked and made the debt crisis horrible in Spain and Italy, and as a result the entire EU might go into recession. Rather than admit we were wrong and reverse course, we're going to continue with the current policies!"

Oh look at this news goodie from Reuters: More: Secret panel can put Americans on "kill list' I'm sure it won't be abused, and it's ok because our government says they're dangerous!

I don't get why people keep saying this. It's not like he took Apple down with him, and he resigned from being the CEO a couple of months ago. Because of his great leadership. When he left Apple the first time, the company turned to [cabbage]. He came back to Apple when it was at its weakest launch and went on to launch the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. It would not surprise me to see the company sink again without him. But who knows? Perhaps the empire he built is now officially self-sustaining and doesn't truly need him anymore. And regarding what else he did, he is the man behind Pixar and Toy Story.

~Barack Obama I'm guessing not many CEO's get an actual statement from the POTUS upon their passing? I've always been a fan of Apple products, mostly because of how solid the OS was. It's not just the products, but the style of marketing. That in itself was revolutionary. There's a reason why everyone was psyched up over the possibility of an I-phone5. Any time I think of Jobs' genius, I come back to this interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF-tKLISfPE What a smart answer, in the face of an insulting question. edit, I found this interesting, too:

If you force a woman to give birth against her will, that is by definition taking away her rights. That is sexism. And even if you don't want to cede that, there's no question that the leaders of the pro-life movement are sexist. They don't like it that women control their own sexual reproduction, and want to control it themselves (it's why the leaders are also opposed to contraception). Plus, overwhelming evidence shows that poverty is correlated (and yes, causative) with women controlling their reproduction.

Yeah I know you're not concerned yourself, but it was a question to those other people out there. A fetus cannot feel pain, that's my point. There's scant evidence that it can feel pain at all, even beyond 24-26 weeks, as the fetus is both sedated and anesthetized in the womb. It's dumb to cede ground on an issue that doesn't exist but in the minds of the sexists.

Oh, and just for fun, big bankers and CEO's are growing concerned: Link Marie Antoinette famously said, "Let them eat cake!" (although there's no true 'evidence' that she said this). And then heads started to roll. FDR instituted the New Deal because the threat of communism becoming a reality was very real. The opposite of the New Deal is not some idyllic paradise of free-market bliss. The opposite is rampaging mobs who light [cabbage] on fire just to show you that they can do whatever they want. Eventually, that can include burning down your business or your house, or, maybe, even taking your life.

How did I miss this? Have you even seen the number of abortion restrictions that have been passed by state governments? I live in Virginia. All of our Planned Parenthoods might shutdown in January because they don't meet hospital requirements. A lot of states have made getting an abortion effectively impossible. [cabbage], they got the Partial Birth Abortion Ban passed, and we cannot challenge it until the Supreme Court is changed. I wouldn't say they "can't change anything" at all. in fact, they've been quite successful. In response to this, and I don't mean to sound condescending (even though virtually everyone is being condescending to these brave people), but did you watch the entire spectacle of August 2009 to the elections of 2010? The Tea Party ravaged this country and pushed the Republicans even farther to the right than they already were. The Republicans right now on any political scale would be akin to the BNP. I doubt we'll even get a budget until January of 2013; until then we'll probably continue surviving on Continuing Resolutions. They pushed these people so far that any amount of tax increases are off the table. But this is how democracy works. The Tea Party didn't just vote. The Tea Party mobilized so many voters because of its activism prior to the 2010 mid-terms. Change happens over a long-scale. It doesn't happen over night. Do you think the Feminists of 1848 (Seneca Falls Convention) wasted a bunch of time protesting and organizing? They wouldn't get the vote until 1920. I doubt that any of the attendees to that convention would make it alive to 1920. Was what they did "useless"? Did boycotts give us the 40-hour workweek, weekends, child safety laws, environmental protection? No. It was democratic action and community organizing, followed by mass movements to the polls. That's how you change things -- barring a total revolution. That was Howard Zinn's point! The ballot box is important, but it's only a small part of the process.

Which brings me back to the Great George Carlin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvF1Q3UidWM

Why are you concerned about what is "humane" when the fetus is less of a person than a small mammal? Beyond that, it's less of a person than a lot of other organisms -- it can't feel, for instance. What defines when "humane" treatment is needed in the first place?

I see no contradiction in using a corporation's product while calling for a more fair and just economic system. That's like saying RATM "sold out" because they signed onto a record deal. BS. There's nothing wrong with using the Machine against itself. What we have cannot continue. The Earth simply cannot handle infinite growth. I'd say we're headed towards "the end of growth" in many developed countries. Every recession is harder to get out of in the post-WWII world. I'd say we're about to go into another recession, and that doesn't even include if we have a giant shock (Greece, Spain, and Italy).