April 2010
59 posts
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Top Democrats seek broad disclosure on campaign... →
“Leading Democrats proposed bills Thursday that would impose broad disclosure requirements on corporations and unions that help fund political advertising, setting the stage for a debate over campaign financing in the run-up to the 2010midterm elections.
Under the proposals spearheaded by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), companies and unions would have...
“Viewed together, the successive policies tell a clear story. Facebook originally...”
– Facebook’s Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline | Electronic Frontier Foundation (via ayjay)
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Legalize marijuana in California Op-Ed by Oakland... →
“Everybody can see that marijuana prohibition has done nothing to prevent its use, and that arresting tens of thousands Californians every year for misdemeanor possession diverts police resources from violent felonies.
And nobody is blind to the fact that marijuana has funded and empowered the sociopathic drug cartels responsible for untold suffering and violence on both sides of the...
Study links drug enforcement to more violence - El... →
“MEXICO CITY (AP) - The surge of gunbattles, beheadings and kidnappings that has accompanied Mexico’s war on drug cartels is an entirely predictable escalation in violence based on decades of scientific literature, a new study contends.
A systematic review published Tuesday of more than 300 international studies dating back 20 years found that when police crack down on drug users and...
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A Middle East Peace That Could Happen (But Won't)... →
“The fact that the Israel-Palestine conflict grinds on without resolution might appear to be rather strange. For many of the world’s conflicts, it is difficult even to conjure up a feasible settlement. In this case, it is not only possible, but there is near universal agreement on its basic contours: a two-state settlement along the internationally recognized (pre-June 1967) borders...
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CNBC Facebook Discussion Board | Should marijuana... →
the mainstream media is starting to sense public opinion shifting toward legalization. they want to be on the winning end of this debate. you already see some anchors and commentators coming out in favor (or at least strongly implying their support) of legalization. go weigh in and help keep the momentum going.
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Oaklanders Quitting Oxycontin with Cannabis |... →
“East Bay residents are enrolling in twelve-step-like classes that use cannabis to quit heroin, pills, cigarettes, alcohol, and other addictive substances, defying decades of Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous tradition.
Even though NA and AA both mandate abstinence from all illegal drugs, that one-size fits all approach doesn’t work for all addicts, says Harm Reduction...
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There's Grass on the Football Field - WSJ.com →
Mr. Stepnoski believes marijuana is a better treatment than many prescription painkillers. “If given the choice, I think guys would be much better off taking a cannabis extract,” he says. Mr. Turley, the former lineman, says it’s “ridiculous that the NFL makes such a big deal out of a plant that has real medicinal values.”
Frank Lucido, a primary-care physician in...
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Noam Chomsky Has ‘Never Seen Anything Like This’ -... →
He curtly dismisses our two-party system as a mirage orchestrated by the corporate state, excoriates the liberal intelligentsia for being fops and courtiers and describes the drivel of the commercial media as a form of “brainwashing.” And as our nation’s most prescient critic of unregulated capitalism, globalization and the poison of empire, he enters his 81st year warning us that we have little...
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Evidence of Ancient Aliens? - History.com →
According to ancient astronaut theories, intelligent extraterrestrial beings (called ancient astronauts or ancient aliens) have visited Earth and this contact is connected with the origins or development of human cultures, technologies, and/or religions.
Some of these theories propose that deities from most — if not all — religions are actually extraterrestrials, and their technologies were...
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CBS 5 Poll: Most Californians Want Pot Legal →
In the poll, conducted for CBS 5 by SurveyUSA, it found that 56 percent of Californians support legalization and just 42 percent oppose it. Only three percent were unsure. Support for legalizing marijuana was the strongest among young voters, according to the poll. Three out of every four people in the 18 to 34 age group favored legalization.
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(Another) retired law enforcement officer supports... →
I submit it is time to give serious thought to legalization.
I do not come to this opinion lightly. In the course of my law enforcement career, I made hundreds of drug arrests. I worked undercover buying drugs. I fully understand the complex nature of what I’m suggesting. Without question, there are legitimate, cogent arguments to be made against legalization. It would be a complicated,...
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The Unthinkable: A Democratic Challenge To... →
Howard Dean in the hooooooooooooouse. Not going to happen, but I’d rather have him (an actual liberal) as president than Bush III.
“With me the horrid doubt always arises,” he admitted to a friend,...”
– Charles Darwin
Robert Reich: A Short Citizen's Guide to Reforming... →
The real scandal isn’t the Street’s unlawful acts (i.e., Securities and Exchange Commission vs. Goldman Sachs) but legal acts that have reaped the Street a bonanza and nearly sunk the rest of us.
It’s good we finally have an SEC on which three out of five commissioners are willing to enforce laws…
“Apparently you are absolutely allowed to sell to an unsuspecting public...”
– Jon Stewart
There are moments when I’m calling financial industry types assholes just for the sake of their being financial industry types that I wonder if I’m being unnecessarily harsh. Then I remember who and what I’m talking about and start wondering how I might be able to be meaner.
(via...
“I mean, let’s face it, what’s the Obama administration doing? They’re advocating...”
– Michele Bachmann calls net neutrality an Obama censorship plot
YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.
I cannot decide who frightens me more, Palin or Bachmann
(via thepolitics)
(via donotronix)
(via enemyswim)
Marijuana Is Safer by Steve Fox, Paul Armentano,... →
“Hell is other people.”
– Jean-Paul Sartre
Why take a stand against Christianity? →
(via ageofreason)
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Wisc. court: National Prayer Day unconstitutional... →
“Judge Crabb, an appointee of former President Jimmy Carter, wrote in her decision that ‘“some forms of ‘ceremonial deism,’ such as legislative prayer, do not violate the establishment clause.” But she said the National Day of Prayer goes too far.
“It goes beyond mere acknowledgment of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to...
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Globalization Marches On - Noam Chomsky →
“Adam Smith concluded that the “principal architects” of policy in England were “merchants and manufacturers,” who ensured that their own interests are “most peculiarly attended to,” however “grievous” the effects on others, including the people of England.
Smith’s maxim still holds, though today the “principal architects”...
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Timothy Geithner: How to prevent America's next... →
::huuuuuuuge fuckin’ eye roll::
why do we continue to trust these so-called experts? the ones who’ve expertly bankrupted the country while creating private fortunes. let’s put an end to this financial innovation… MBSs, CDOs, CDSs, ABSs… all this “exotic” derivative bullshit. these schemes should be outlawed.
it’s time for new (slow) money.
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Confusion over health reform? →
“U-M School of Public Health Professor Leon Wyszewianski discusses some of the possible misconceptions about the new health care reform bill.”
This isn’t some hyper-partisan polemic. It’s an evenhanded three minute assessment of what the health reform legislation is and what it isn’t. This is the kind of person who should have been at the center of the reform debate...
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Law in Afghanistan Legalizing Rape in Marriage... →
“It is a new family-law code for Afghanistan’s Shia minority, and while it does not apply to all, women’s groups in Afghanistan fear the precedent, Ms. Gilbert said.
“Women don’t have access to public life. To education, to health care, they can’t leave the house without the approval of their husband … and [wives] cannot refuse sexual relations,”...
depressive realism →
buddhabrot:
dreamboatcourtney:vertebrates:
depressive realism is the proposition that people with depression actually have a more accurate perception of reality, specifically that they are less affected by positive illusions of illusory superiority, the illusion of control, and optimism bias. the concept refers to people with borderline or moderate depression, suggesting that while normal...
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“A celibate clergy is an especially good idea because it tends to suppress any...”
– Carl Sagan (via bringtheruckuss)
“…we don’t learn from history. And there is this persistent, and I think almost...”
– Andrew Bacevich (via azspot: jhnbrssndn) (via generic1)
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When It Comes to Terror, We Can’t Tell You -... →
“The new suit over the FISA amendments points out that the Supreme Court recognized more than 40 years ago that there are few threats to liberty “greater than that posed by the use of eavesdropping devices.” In fact, FISA was originally passed because of spying conducted on anti-Vietnam War protesters and civil rights activists.
Senator Obama promised repeatedly in the 2008 campaign to...
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Monsanto Under Investigation by Seven US States →
“At least seven US state attorneys general are investigating whether Monsanto Company has abused its market power to lock out competitors and raise prices on seed. Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and two other unidentified states are in a working group to investigate the biotech giant. The states are probing whether Monsanto violated laws by offering rebates to seed distributors for...
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Okla. Legislators push for legislation to teach... →
“In Oklahoma, state legislators seem intent on pushing through legislation that encourages public schools to teach from the Bible.
Two bills are making their way through the House and Senate, and the bills’ proponents have made it clear they intend for this legislation to promote Christianity and undermine church-state separation.”
Phony Medical Group Attempting to Peddle Anti-Gay... →
So basically Rekers and the rest of these phony medical professionals are trying to push information to schools which claim that:
1. Gay men are disease ridden sex animals who enjoy playing with feces,
2. Lesbians are equally diseased and irresponsible,
3. Homosexuality is just a changeable condition.
And they want schools to pass along this information.
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Losing the drug war in California - Marijuana... →
“If you need any more evidence of how completely mainstream marijuana has become, this is it. This war is lost. The only question now is how much more blood and treasure we’re going to waste before we all admit it.”
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Comcast Beats FCC In Net Neutrality Battle -... →
“The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has kneecapped the Federal Communication Commission’s Net Neutrality policy in a ruling that could have a major impact on the development of broadband in America.
The court, in vacating an FCC Order issued in 2008, said on Tuesday that the FCC had overstepped its authority in demanding that Comcast, the...
“He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the...”
– Spanish Proverb
“Nowhere in the annals of history does the record show a people delivered from...”
– Robert F. Williams (via fuckyeahradicalquotes) 