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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
December 24, 2013
I know it's hard to remember sometimes when we have our robust and essential arguments, but what unites us here is much stronger than what divides us. A sincere Seasons Greetings from me.
DU: Peace on Earth, and goodwill toward humankind
I know it's hard to remember sometimes when we have our robust and essential arguments, but what unites us here is much stronger than what divides us. A sincere Seasons Greetings from me.
December 24, 2013
from truthdig:
Bill O’Reilly’s War on Jesus
Posted on Dec 24, 2013
By Robert Scheer
Maybe it is time to put Christ back in Christmas. Bill O’Reilly annually demands we acknowledge that the man, or myth, that has been moved to the center of this once pagan ritual be properly identified with a religion, or philosophy as he puts it, that carries a moral message. True, the nation’s early Puritan settlers considered the holiday somewhat blasphemous, but we obviously are in need of moral guidance from any quarter that is plausible.
So, what would Jesus do about the profound inequality of opportunity that both the pope and our president have identified as the most pressing moral crisis of our time? O’Reilly didn’t cotton to the statements of either man and took particular umbrage over the comments that the spiritual leader of his own Catholic faith made in late November: “... Pope Francis said that income inequality is immoral. ... I don’t know if Jesus is going to be down with that.”
It is a timely question to ponder when many of us honor the purported moment of Christ’s birth with a last minute burst of shopping so desperate as to suggest the gluttony of the Roman Empire that led the early Christians to revolt in disgust. It is an indulgence much in evidence today, as the pope warns: “The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalance and, above all, their lack of concern for human beings. ...”
Score one for the pope. Although there is much to argue about in Christ’s enduring legacy, divinely inspired or not, there can be no doubt that equality of opportunity is explicit in the core Christian doctrine that every infant has a soul as significant as that of any other, and that we all will be judged by how well we respect the sanctity of the lives of those born into the most forlorn of circumstance. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/bill_oreillys_war_on_jesus_20131224
Robert Scheer: Bill O’Reilly’s War on Jesus
from truthdig:
Bill O’Reilly’s War on Jesus
Posted on Dec 24, 2013
By Robert Scheer
Maybe it is time to put Christ back in Christmas. Bill O’Reilly annually demands we acknowledge that the man, or myth, that has been moved to the center of this once pagan ritual be properly identified with a religion, or philosophy as he puts it, that carries a moral message. True, the nation’s early Puritan settlers considered the holiday somewhat blasphemous, but we obviously are in need of moral guidance from any quarter that is plausible.
So, what would Jesus do about the profound inequality of opportunity that both the pope and our president have identified as the most pressing moral crisis of our time? O’Reilly didn’t cotton to the statements of either man and took particular umbrage over the comments that the spiritual leader of his own Catholic faith made in late November: “... Pope Francis said that income inequality is immoral. ... I don’t know if Jesus is going to be down with that.”
It is a timely question to ponder when many of us honor the purported moment of Christ’s birth with a last minute burst of shopping so desperate as to suggest the gluttony of the Roman Empire that led the early Christians to revolt in disgust. It is an indulgence much in evidence today, as the pope warns: “The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalance and, above all, their lack of concern for human beings. ...”
Score one for the pope. Although there is much to argue about in Christ’s enduring legacy, divinely inspired or not, there can be no doubt that equality of opportunity is explicit in the core Christian doctrine that every infant has a soul as significant as that of any other, and that we all will be judged by how well we respect the sanctity of the lives of those born into the most forlorn of circumstance. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/bill_oreillys_war_on_jesus_20131224
December 24, 2013
....... Think I'll hang out here in the lounge for a bit.
Yikes! GD has turned into War of the Sexes.......
....... Think I'll hang out here in the lounge for a bit.
December 23, 2013
Riders on Amtrak's Hiawatha trains, along with passengers on seven other Midwestern routes, will have wireless Internet access by early February, Amtrak said in a release.
The rail company is installing equipment on cars under contracts with the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri, and the service will reach more than 3 million passengers annually. The Hiawatha, which consists of 17 cars running between Milwaukee and Chicago, is the busiest corridor in the Midwest with more than 800,000 riders annually.
Trains getting Internet service aside from the Hiawatha include routes from Chicago to St. Louis, Carbondale and Quincy, Ill.; from Chicago to Detroit and Pontiac, Port Huron and Grand Rapids, Mich.; and St. Louis to Kansas City, Mo.
A completion date will be announced next month. ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/11285078/midwest-amtrak-trains-to-get-wi-fi-by-early-2014
Finally! ...... Amtrak trains in the Midwest to get WiFi
Riders on Amtrak's Hiawatha trains, along with passengers on seven other Midwestern routes, will have wireless Internet access by early February, Amtrak said in a release.
The rail company is installing equipment on cars under contracts with the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri, and the service will reach more than 3 million passengers annually. The Hiawatha, which consists of 17 cars running between Milwaukee and Chicago, is the busiest corridor in the Midwest with more than 800,000 riders annually.
Trains getting Internet service aside from the Hiawatha include routes from Chicago to St. Louis, Carbondale and Quincy, Ill.; from Chicago to Detroit and Pontiac, Port Huron and Grand Rapids, Mich.; and St. Louis to Kansas City, Mo.
A completion date will be announced next month. ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/11285078/midwest-amtrak-trains-to-get-wi-fi-by-early-2014
December 23, 2013
Monday, 23 December 2013 10:59
By Dean Baker, Truthout | Op-Ed
In his speech on inequality earlier this month President Obama proclaimed that the government could not be a bystander in the effort to reduce inequality, which he described as the defining moral issue of our time. This left millions convinced that Obama would do nothing to lessen inequality.
The problem is that President Obama wants the public to believe that inequality is something that just happened. It turns out that the forces of technology, globalization, and whatever else simply made some people very rich and left others working for low wages or out of work altogether. The president and other like-minded people feel a moral compulsion to reverse the resulting inequality. This story is 180 degrees at odds with the reality. Inequality did not just happen, it was deliberately engineered through a whole range of policies intended to redistribute income upward.
Trade is probably the best place to start just because it is so obvious. Trade deals like NAFTA were quite explicitly designed to place our manufacturing workers in direct competition with the lowest paid workers in the world. The text was written after consulting with top executives at major companies like General Electric. Our negotiators asked these executives what changes in Mexico's law would make it easier for them to set up factories in Mexico. The text was written accordingly.
When we saw factory workers losing their jobs to imports from Mexico and other developing countries, this was not an accident. In economic theory, the gains from these trade deals are the result of getting lower priced products due to lower cost labor. The loss of jobs in the United States and the downward pressure on the jobs that remain is a predicted outcome of the deal. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/20803-inequality-government-is-a-perp-not-a-bystander
Dean Baker: Inequality: Government Is a Perp, Not a Bystander
Inequality: Government Is a Perp, Not a BystanderMonday, 23 December 2013 10:59
By Dean Baker, Truthout | Op-Ed
In his speech on inequality earlier this month President Obama proclaimed that the government could not be a bystander in the effort to reduce inequality, which he described as the defining moral issue of our time. This left millions convinced that Obama would do nothing to lessen inequality.
The problem is that President Obama wants the public to believe that inequality is something that just happened. It turns out that the forces of technology, globalization, and whatever else simply made some people very rich and left others working for low wages or out of work altogether. The president and other like-minded people feel a moral compulsion to reverse the resulting inequality. This story is 180 degrees at odds with the reality. Inequality did not just happen, it was deliberately engineered through a whole range of policies intended to redistribute income upward.
Trade is probably the best place to start just because it is so obvious. Trade deals like NAFTA were quite explicitly designed to place our manufacturing workers in direct competition with the lowest paid workers in the world. The text was written after consulting with top executives at major companies like General Electric. Our negotiators asked these executives what changes in Mexico's law would make it easier for them to set up factories in Mexico. The text was written accordingly.
When we saw factory workers losing their jobs to imports from Mexico and other developing countries, this was not an accident. In economic theory, the gains from these trade deals are the result of getting lower priced products due to lower cost labor. The loss of jobs in the United States and the downward pressure on the jobs that remain is a predicted outcome of the deal. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/20803-inequality-government-is-a-perp-not-a-bystander
December 23, 2013
Monday, 23 December 2013 09:40
By Arun Gupta, Truthout | Op-Ed
It wasn’t getting a freshly plucked rooster for my birthday that made it so memorable. It was the realization of what a real chicken tasted like.
It was early spring. Michael had just driven down from the Finger Lakes to the city. Hopping out of his prematurely aged Hyundai, he walked toward me with a lopsided grin and a clear plastic bag. "Happy 40th," he said thrusting a naked bird forward in the chilly night air. I took the bag and inspected the tight, vibrant flesh in the streetlight, noticing a few pin feathers attached to the lower leg, revealing this was home-grown fowl.
.......(snip).......
"The breed is a standard Cornish Cross, which is 99 percent of the chicken that’s raised. But this rooster lived outdoors for nine months, so the meat is more flavorful and muscular than a chicken that spent its short life crammed in a cage," Mike explained. "It needs a lot of wine and time to make the meat tender."
.......(snip).......
But there’s another way to describe it. That outdoor-living, pasture-strutting rooster didn’t taste bland or mushy or dull or chemically. In Pandora’s Lunchbox, author Melanie Warner talks to a food scientist who suggested a taste test. Take three chickens: a factory-farmed inmate, a mass-produced organic chicken and a true pastured chicken, like my rooster.
"The cheap chicken," Warner writes, "will have minimal flavor, thanks to its short life span, lack of sunlight and a monotonous diet of corn and soy. The organic chicken "will have a few ‘roast notes and fatty notes.’" The pastured chicken is a "happy chicken" that "spent its life outside, running around and eating an evolutionary diet of grass, seeds, bugs, and worms." Eating one is hitting the culinary jackpot as it will have a "deep, succulent nutty taste" that’s "incomparable" to the other chickens. ..........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/20713-it-doesnt-taste-like-chicken
It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken
It Doesn't Taste Like ChickenMonday, 23 December 2013 09:40
By Arun Gupta, Truthout | Op-Ed
It wasn’t getting a freshly plucked rooster for my birthday that made it so memorable. It was the realization of what a real chicken tasted like.
It was early spring. Michael had just driven down from the Finger Lakes to the city. Hopping out of his prematurely aged Hyundai, he walked toward me with a lopsided grin and a clear plastic bag. "Happy 40th," he said thrusting a naked bird forward in the chilly night air. I took the bag and inspected the tight, vibrant flesh in the streetlight, noticing a few pin feathers attached to the lower leg, revealing this was home-grown fowl.
.......(snip).......
"The breed is a standard Cornish Cross, which is 99 percent of the chicken that’s raised. But this rooster lived outdoors for nine months, so the meat is more flavorful and muscular than a chicken that spent its short life crammed in a cage," Mike explained. "It needs a lot of wine and time to make the meat tender."
.......(snip).......
But there’s another way to describe it. That outdoor-living, pasture-strutting rooster didn’t taste bland or mushy or dull or chemically. In Pandora’s Lunchbox, author Melanie Warner talks to a food scientist who suggested a taste test. Take three chickens: a factory-farmed inmate, a mass-produced organic chicken and a true pastured chicken, like my rooster.
"The cheap chicken," Warner writes, "will have minimal flavor, thanks to its short life span, lack of sunlight and a monotonous diet of corn and soy. The organic chicken "will have a few ‘roast notes and fatty notes.’" The pastured chicken is a "happy chicken" that "spent its life outside, running around and eating an evolutionary diet of grass, seeds, bugs, and worms." Eating one is hitting the culinary jackpot as it will have a "deep, succulent nutty taste" that’s "incomparable" to the other chickens. ..........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/20713-it-doesnt-taste-like-chicken
December 23, 2013
An Oregon man set himself and his car on fire in a disastrous attempt at stealing gasoline -- while smoking a cigarette.
Police say that Harry Frederick Suniville, 62, stole a partially-filled gas can from a truck parked next to his own at a Portland gas station. He poured the gas while enjoying a smoke just after 11 a.m. Sunday, when things got a little hot.
According to KATU:
Portland firefighters extinguished the fire and medical personnel treated Suniville for injuries. His vehicle was towed from the scene, according to KGW. .......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/23/harry-frederick-suniville_n_4492489.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=4157027b=facebook
Man Smokes Cigarette While Stealing Gas, The Obvious Happens
An Oregon man set himself and his car on fire in a disastrous attempt at stealing gasoline -- while smoking a cigarette.
Police say that Harry Frederick Suniville, 62, stole a partially-filled gas can from a truck parked next to his own at a Portland gas station. He poured the gas while enjoying a smoke just after 11 a.m. Sunday, when things got a little hot.
According to KATU:
The gas caught on fire, burning his socks and pants and singeing his hair and eyebrows, police said. Suniville’s vehicle had to be towed away because it suffered fire damage. Police said the truck Suniville stole the gas from also suffered fire damage.
Portland firefighters extinguished the fire and medical personnel treated Suniville for injuries. His vehicle was towed from the scene, according to KGW. .......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/23/harry-frederick-suniville_n_4492489.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=4157027b=facebook
December 23, 2013
A pair of New Jersey realtors are being taken to court after hidden cameras caught them having "sexual escapades" in a client's vacant house.
A lawsuit filed Dec. 6 claims that Robert Lindsay, a former Coldwell Banker real estate agent and past president of the Passaic County Board of Realtors, listed a North New Jersey home artificially above market value so that he could carry on a series of trysts with fellow agent Jeannemarie Phelan.
Lindsay and Phelan, who is also named in the suit, are accused of using the client's home "as their play pad to have sexual relations in the... bedroom, among other places." A copy of the suit obtained by NorthJersey.com alleges that the couple violated the home 10 times over several months.
The plaintiff in the suit said that hidden security cameras recorded the couple having sex multiple times, beginning shortly after the home, listed at $650,000, went on the market. The clients only found out about the rendezvous in January, after they witnessed intruders with flashlights on a live feed and called the police. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/23/robert-lindsay-jeannemarie-phelan-real-estate-agents-sex-caught-on-video_n_4492570.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news
Real estate agents who bring all-new meaning to 'Screwing Over Their Clients'
A pair of New Jersey realtors are being taken to court after hidden cameras caught them having "sexual escapades" in a client's vacant house.
A lawsuit filed Dec. 6 claims that Robert Lindsay, a former Coldwell Banker real estate agent and past president of the Passaic County Board of Realtors, listed a North New Jersey home artificially above market value so that he could carry on a series of trysts with fellow agent Jeannemarie Phelan.
Lindsay and Phelan, who is also named in the suit, are accused of using the client's home "as their play pad to have sexual relations in the... bedroom, among other places." A copy of the suit obtained by NorthJersey.com alleges that the couple violated the home 10 times over several months.
The plaintiff in the suit said that hidden security cameras recorded the couple having sex multiple times, beginning shortly after the home, listed at $650,000, went on the market. The clients only found out about the rendezvous in January, after they witnessed intruders with flashlights on a live feed and called the police. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/23/robert-lindsay-jeannemarie-phelan-real-estate-agents-sex-caught-on-video_n_4492570.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news
December 23, 2013
from In These Times:
Why Edward Snowden Is the Definition of a Whistleblower
The verdict on Snowden is in.
BY David Sirota
For months, a debate over Edward Snowden’s status has raged. In the back and forth, one question about this icon who disclosed NSA abuses has dominated: Is he or is he not a whistleblower with all the attendant protections that should come with such a designation?
As of this week's federal court ruling saying the NSA's data collection programs are probably unconstitutional, that debate is finally over. After all, if the most basic definition of a government whistleblower is one who uncovers illegal or unconstitutional acts, then the ruling proves Snowden is the dictionary definition of a whistleblower.
Of course, there still remains a cottage industry of tough-talking saber rattlers slamming Snowden not merely for being in a foreign country, but more revealingly, for the disclosures themselves. These demagogues often invoke the age-old law-and-order cliches about classified information. Yet, based on what we now know, their criticism of Snowden actually puts them on the side of those who are systemically violating the very laws and constitution, which they purport to love. .......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/16021/edward_snowden_whistleblower
David Sirota: Why Edward Snowden Is the Definition of a Whistleblower
from In These Times:
Why Edward Snowden Is the Definition of a Whistleblower
The verdict on Snowden is in.
BY David Sirota
For months, a debate over Edward Snowden’s status has raged. In the back and forth, one question about this icon who disclosed NSA abuses has dominated: Is he or is he not a whistleblower with all the attendant protections that should come with such a designation?
As of this week's federal court ruling saying the NSA's data collection programs are probably unconstitutional, that debate is finally over. After all, if the most basic definition of a government whistleblower is one who uncovers illegal or unconstitutional acts, then the ruling proves Snowden is the dictionary definition of a whistleblower.
Of course, there still remains a cottage industry of tough-talking saber rattlers slamming Snowden not merely for being in a foreign country, but more revealingly, for the disclosures themselves. These demagogues often invoke the age-old law-and-order cliches about classified information. Yet, based on what we now know, their criticism of Snowden actually puts them on the side of those who are systemically violating the very laws and constitution, which they purport to love. .......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/16021/edward_snowden_whistleblower
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Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit, MI
Member since: Fri Oct 29, 2004, 12:18 AM
Number of posts: 77,072
