Mapping Out The Revolving Door Between Gov't And Big Business In Venn Diagrams. Chris Kluwe: Here’s what’s wrong with Ayn Rand, libertarians. So I forced myself to read “Atlas Shrugged.” Apparently I harbor masochistic tendencies; it was a long, hard slog, and by the end I felt as if Ayn Rand had violently beaten me about the head and shoulders with words.
I feel I would be doing all of you a disservice (especially those who think Rand is really super-duper awesome) if I didn’t share some thoughts on this weighty tome. Who is John Galt? John Galt (as written in said novel) is a deeply flawed, sociopathic ideal of the perfect human. John Galt does not recognize the societal structure surrounding him that allows him to exist. However, John Galt is also very close to greatness. John Galt talks about intelligence and education without discussing who will pay for the schools, who will teach the teachers. John Galt lives in a giant fantasy that’s no different from an idealistic communist paradise or an anarchist’s playground or a capitalist utopia. John Galt does not live in reality. John Galt as written lacks this rational empathy. Edward Snowden Threatens the Establishment, Not Our Security.
Just days after the Guardian published news of the NSA’s massive surveillance programs, Edward Snowden, the source of this classified information, has come forward. Already, politicians and pundits alike are calling for his head, outraged that Snowden has compromised national security. But we must ask ourselves: WHOSE security has been jeopardized? And it’s probably not yours or mine. Snowden was employed as a contractor for the NSA for four years, during which time he saw the government’s spying practices against its own citizens up close. In what way, as Snowden’s critics allege, has the national security been compromised?
No, the shocking news in this case is how the NSA tracks Americans. President Barack Obama and members of Congress insist that the program is justified and isn’t really much of a secret. It’s not our personal security that is threatened by knowing we’re being heavily monitored – it’s the establishment’s security. Vocal citizens are something Snowden hopes for. Sandy Garossino: How Facebook Learned Rape is Bad for Business. For years Facebook has maintained an imperious and stony silence against pleas from users and victims about its most objectionable content. Not a word when Amanda Todd took her life after being relentlessly stalked and blackmailed by a sexual predator on Facebook. Even the suicides of teens Rehtaeh Parsons and Audrie Pott (whose gang-rapes were posted to Facebook) brought no response from the $60 billion company. But on May 27th, Facebook finally flinched.
And then it cratered, caved and capitulated in the course of a single phone call after a one-week #fbrape campaign by the smartest feminists on the planet. The Scent of a Dollar In the end, it was all about the money. WAM (Women Action Media), feminist Soraya Chemaly and Everyday Sexism in the UK took direct aim at Facebook's advertising revenue stream. It was too much for Nissan and the insurance giant Nationwide, which both pulled their ads immediately. Followers of the campaign fanned out as if in a coordinated strategy. Hats Off (But Dresses On) to Our Kurdish Feminist Brothers. A remarkable and unusual sort of civil disobedience has been triggered in Marivan, a city in the Kurdistan Province of Iran. On April 15, an Iranian court in the city forced a male convict to wear traditional Kurdish women’s clothes in public, perceiving it as a humiliating punishment.
Kurdish feminists of the Marivan Women’s Community protested against this misogynistic decision on the streets of Marivan in red traditional clothes, similar to the Kurdish bride robe that the convicts had to wear, and they were confronted by violent security forces. Then, in solidarity with the women, Kurdish men took an extraordinary initiative by dressing as Kurdish women and posting their photos on social media. In a café in the heart of Frankfurt, Germany, my friend Çiğdem and I enjoyed tea with Masoud Fathi and Dler Kamangar, two of the feminist men behind this campaign, which has made international news. Masoud Fathi is a poet, journalist, political activist—and feminist.
Bachmann's confusion bubbles over. Dorsey Shaw noted late yesterday that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has had a “horrible, no good, very bad week.” It’s true – even by Bachmann’s awful standards, the ignominious congresswoman has had it rough lately. Her CPAC speech was ridiculous, and left in tatters by fact-checkers. Asked for an explanation, Bachmann literally fled from a reporter confronting her with her own words. Bill O’Reilly invited her on to get back on track, but when Bachmann refused, he turned on her. This, however, was the moment that arguably mattered most. “Let’s repeal this failure before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens,” Bachmann said on the House floor. I’m sure this probably makes some sense to Bachmann, but for those of us living in reality, it’s just crazy. She went on to say, “What [President Obama] demanded and insisted upon is that the government have 100 percent control over health care,” Bachmann said. “100 percent control?
Pulitzer-Winning Reporting Duo Don Barlett and James Steele on "The Betrayal of the American Dream" This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN: Democrats and Republican lawmakers are in a deadlock over whether to extend the politically decisive Bush-era tax cuts. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is planning to vote this week to extend all the cuts, but Obama says those Americans making above $250,000 a year should return to the tax levels they paid before Bush took office.
Pointing to the Senate’s passage of the White House-backed proposal, Obama called on House Republicans to support the bill in his weekly address on Saturday. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: This week, the Senate passed a plan that I proposed a few weeks ago to protect middle-class Americans and virtually every small business owner from getting hit with a big tax hike next year—a tax hike of $2,200 for the typical family. Now it comes down to this. We’re joined now for the hour by Don Barlett and James Steele, the award-winning investigative reporters. JAMES STEELE: Absolutely. When Mormons were socialists - Religion. “You are cursed because of your riches!”
It was a bummer message that nobody wanted to hear. Samuel the Lamanite stood alone atop the great wall of the city of Zarahemla to warn the inhabitants of their pending destruction. Now you have probably never heard of this Samuel, nor the capital city that was once the center of the Nephite nation. But Mitt Romney certainly has. Sound familiar? God had called Samuel to essentially Occupy Zarahemla, to stand up and speak out against corporate greed and wealth accumulation.
They had been warned. The rise and fall of the Nephite nation is a cautionary tale included in the Book of Mormon. It’s an ontological dilemma facing every millionaire Mormon. One hundred and eighty-two years after its founding, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is certainly prospering. Mitt Romney and City Creek represent the culmination of a great transformation within Mormonism.
Young’s egalitarian separatism has long been superseded. He has been warned. Komen Foundation Controversy Spurs Website Hack. The website of Susan G. Komen for the Cure was briefly tampered with by hackers early Thursday morning. Komen, the highest-funded breast cancer organization in the U.S., has been coming under fire for its decision to end financial support of Planned Parenthood. The hack, first noticed by Gather, affected users visiting the site around 12:30 a.m.
ET Thursday. The hack was a redirect, sending users from Komen's site to a fake site. The dummy site looked nearly identical to the real thing, save an advertisement for a running marathon designed to raise money for Komen. The original, which reads "help us get 26.2 or 13.1 miles closer to a world without breast cancer:" And the hacker's version, "help us run over poor people on the way to the bank:" According to Gather, the hacking effort was so thorough, it even redirected search engine results for Komen. Komen's past monetary contributions to Planned Parenthood number in the millions, mostly for breast cancer screenings and services. The New York Times Sunday Review has a Mormon Problem. Bra that turns into a gas mask finally on sale everywhere. The Emergency Bra, a brassiere that can turn into two life-saving gas masks for victims of biological warfare won the 2009 Ig Nobel Public Health Prize. It just went on sale via this website, which describes the invention as "an "Emergency Bra, Nursing Bra, Two Face Masks [and] Strapless bra.
" The bra, available in sizes 32B to 40C, came as a result of Chernobyl. Seriously. [Dr. You may recall my write-up of another Ig Nobel winner on Scanner: the MRI sex tape. Obama Critic Apologizes Now That She Has Cancer. It’s a hard way to learn a lesson about administration policy, but for one California woman, the experience has literally been lifesaving.
In a letter to the L.A. Times, California mother and artist Spike Dolomite Ward apologized to President Barack Obama, admitting that during his time in office she had gone quickly from supporter to opponent, believing that the president had done nothing to help the country since being elected. But like many Americans, especially the self-employed, Ward and her family eventually found themselves in a personal budget crunch where they could either pay their mortgage or pay their health insurance premiums, but not both. The choice at the time seemed obvious — keep their home. Then she found out she had cancer. Ward was able to use the Obama health care reform laws to get access to affordable insurance without being turned down because of her condition. A Mormon Speaks Out Against Prop 8 While in Church. Time magazine reveals Person of the Year 2011 - Today Celebrates 2011.
Time magazine revealed the 2011 choice for its iconic Person of the Year cover live on TODAY Wednesday. The Protester is this year’s choice, managing editor Rick Stengel told Matt Lauer and Ann Curry. “There was a lot of consensus among our people,” Stengel told the TODAY anchors as he revealed the magazine’s cover. “It felt right.” As it has for the past 84 years, the weekly newsmagazine selected the person (or sometimes group, or thing) that its editors deemed had the single greatest impact during the past year, for better or for worse. Time’s Person of the Year has been a perennial topic of year-end debate ever since aviator Charles Lindbergh was chosen the first Man of the Year back in 1927 (the title was amended to Person of the Year in 1999). Slideshow: Time Persons of the Year 1999-2013 (on this page) Other candidates Polled online earlier this week, hundreds of TODAY.com readers came up with many other nominees for 2011, including late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Rep.
Veto the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 as several provisions of the bill pose a threat to civil liberties. Frustration with Congress Could Hurt Republican Incumbents. GOP Base Critical of Party's Washington Leadership Overview Public discontent with Congress has reached record levels, and the implications for incumbents in next year’s elections could be stark. Two-in-three voters say most members of Congress should be voted out of office in 2012 – the highest on record. And the number who say their own member should be replaced matches the all-time high recorded in 2010, when fully 58 members of Congress lost reelection bids – the most in any election since 1948. The Republican Party is taking more of the blame than the Democrats for a do-nothing Congress.
To be sure, neither party’s leadership is viewed positively right now. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Dec. 7-11, 2011 among 1,521 adults, finds that Republicans are as eager to see big changes in Congress as they were two years ago. Yet independents have few positive things to say about the Democratic Party either. The summer. When an adult took standardized tests forced on kids - The Answer Sheet.
Update 12/12: QUIZ: Take part of the test that the local school board member took in the story below: Reading Quiz | Math Quiz. Questions come from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) for 10th grade. Update 12/6: Revealed: The school board member who took standardized test Original post: This was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author. By Marion Brady A longtime friend on the school board of one of the largest school systems in America did something that few public servants are willing to do. By any reasonable measure, my friend is a success. He called me the morning he took the test to say he was sure he hadn’t done well, but had to wait for the results. “I won’t beat around the bush,” he wrote in an email. He continued, “It seems to me something is seriously wrong. “I have a wide circle of friends in various professions. Here’s the clincher in what he wrote: There you have it. But maybe there’s hope.
He’s wrong.
STRONG Response from a Teacher. Bottom of the Heap. Soraya Chemaly: Women Own 1% of the World's Property -- Occupy That. It must be what they're wearing. 1% One Percent. O.N.E. P.E.R.C.E.N.T. That's the number between ZERO and TWO. Plus a "%" symbol behind it. There must be a good reason for this startling fact. Especially since, according to UN gender reports, women perform 66% of the world's work, produce 50% of its food and earn a whopping 10% of its income.
Nah! But, maybe it's because girls and women: Don't get to go to school when their brothers do Get married off (don't worry, at a good price) Are deprived of food when it's scarce Aren't allowed to own anything themselves Don't inherit Aren't paid for their labor Are property. How much poorer do we want women to get in the world? If you doubt what I'm saying just because you have to then look at Half The Sky, or We Are Equals or The Girl Effect or any number of readily available sources.
I know, I know, Oprah and the Queen are both on the Forbes List. Which goes to show, money isn't everything. And we, men and women both, get to live with that. Congress' Approval Rating 9%; President Obama at 46% in CBS/NYT Poll. Wall-Street-Economy. Mitt Romney: Nuclear Iran Would Be Consequence Of Obama Re-Election. SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Unsparing in their criticism of President Barack Obama, Republican presidential hopefuls disagreed in campaign debate Saturday night about the right course in Afghanistan, the use of waterboarding and the wisdom of a pre-emptive military strike to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon. "If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon," vowed the former Massachusetts governor.
On waterboarding, Herman Cain and Rep. Michele Bachmann both said they would reinstate the technique designed to simulate drowning. Cain went one step further, adding that he would leave it up to military leaders – rather than their civilian superiors – to decide what forms of interrogation amount to torture, which he said he opposes. As for the war in Afghanistan, former Utah Gov. While the Republicans were talking about foreign policy, Obama was on the world stage, as America's diplomat in chief. Former Sen. With 'I'm a Mormon' campaign, church counters lily-white image. Paul Ryan Tells Student He Should Work Three Jobs To Pay For College, Not Use Pell Grants.