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POPSEuropean Court bans classroom crucifixes "Those societies which cannot combine reverence to their symbols with freedom and revision, must ultimately decay either from anarchy, or from the slow atrophy of a life stifled by useless shadows" - A.N. Whitehead
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POPSBMW to Cap Executive Pay - wundervoll! Now let me get this straight. GM, Ford, and Chrysler have all lost market share in the US and complain that worker wages and benefits made them uncompetitive. Germans assembly line workers average $60,000 a year and BMW sales have not plummeted as US car makers have. And now, BMW says they are capping executive pay by establishing the current ration of difference 25-1 as THE ratio. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average U.S. worker earned $29,544. The ratio of CEO pay to average pay is 364:1 and to minimum wage is 885:1. So... Why is it that US car companies have trouble competing?
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POPSMonsanto guilty in 'false ad' row Earlier this month, Monsanto reported a fourth quarter loss of $233m (£147m), driven mostly by a drop in sales of its Roundup brand. It would be quite a result if this led to some of their other products like Aspartame being investigated publicly.
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POPSClassic Liquidity Trap Such a Brilliant man...lol... Only a Foolish Fed falls for the Classic Liquidity Trap. Read more about it at:Google... doctrader liquidity trap.
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POPSThe United States’ Place in The World … and he needs to grow a set via Weekly Standard, Lieberman, Kyl and Bayh, “Whatever it takes … crippling sanctions.” I dunno, I can think of other measures that might be more effectively crippling. Whatever … Also at WS, Steven Hayes, hurtfully, “Speak timidly and don’t carry a stick.” Ralph Peters, NYPost, cruelly: “Appease-y does it for weak Prez on the road to a Mideast apocalypse.” Greenwald, Should any Iraq lessons be applied to Iran? I can think of a few quick applicable Iraq lessons off the top of my head. Whack one tyrant, the rest notice. Also, whacking tyrants effectively neutralizes their ability to cause trouble. Also, follow-on is important, don’t let the Euros weasel out of it, and ignore the Dems and the anti-war American left. They are loud, but harmless.
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POPSIn Which Obama Has A General Problem, Just Like A Real President*
The tug-o-war playground politics of the matter aside, there is still the fact of war in Afghanistan, a persistent global threat, and the rapidly diminishing credibility of the United States as a stalwart, moral force in the world, from the limp handling of Iran to the delivery of tribute to Vladimir Putin, and now the dawdling and dithering over the erstwhile good war. For all their squawking about us, the Euros don’t need us to be another EU member. They need someone to do the dirty work. Ditto the Arabs. China and Russia have got to be enjoying this, though. On second thought, there is a sort of double-reverse presidential precedent to this crisis. It’s Obama as McClellan. Not exactly Lincolnesque, but very Lincoln-proximate. Totally related: Victor Davis Hanson at NRO looks at Two-Front Wars, Theirs and Ours and comes away with something other than the currently fashionable doom-and-gloom mongering. It’s al-Qaeda after eight years of war, on the ropes and desperate.
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POPSDirty layers hid painting's penis more: The painting however once belonged to the Spanish royal family, and Ms Moreira says she thinks this was when the post-production modesty came in. Removing layers of dirt, dust and paint specks that accumulated over more than three centuries cost 150,000 euros ($257,500).
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POPSThe Hypocrisy of Barack Obama
Gary Samore, a White House adviser on arms control, indicated that Mr. Obama’s call for ridding the world of nuclear weapons should not be taken too literally. ‘In terms of a nuclear-free world, we recognize this is not a near-term possibility,’ he said. Rather, the call was an attempt to ’seize the moral high ground’ in order to increase pressure on countries such as North Korea and Iran." The Obama method goes way beyond mere hypocrisy. It is a conscious technique of inverting the true meaning and intent of his policies. Obama ran for president as the spokesman for the underdog – the little guy just managing to make ends meet, whose volunteerism and contributions over the Internet catapulted the Illinois senator into the running. Yet the reality is that Obama was corporate America’s candidate from the very beginning Check out this brilliant short video of John Pilger, clipped by {{foxyarse}}; http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/7396BCCF-D50E-41ED-9126-346DBC8366AB/
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POPSSilvio Berlusconi's wife Veronica demanding divorce - sick of his lying and cheating Miss Lario, 52, who has three grown-up children by the prime minister, accused him of lying about the encounter, during which he gave Miss Letizia a gold and diamond necklace worth 6,000 euros. "He said to me, 'You know, I have to go down to Naples, I have an important summit on rubbish disposal early tomorrow morning,' she said. It was, she added, "the umpteenth lie."