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POPSMcCain Decides to Punish Larry King Over CNN Interview What a petty, angry little man John McCain is. Nothing happened in the interview that required retribution. He just didn't like anyone pulling off the mask on his awful vice presidential pick. The "punishment" is a shot over the bow to the press warning them to back off asking difficult questions. Sadly, the press probably will back off. Who wants to risk losing future interviews and exclusives? It's bad for business.
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POPSLaw and Order in the virtual universes i think it is interesting the way a community is being built. from the article: "In 2006, Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, canceled Marc Bragg's account for violating the world's policies on real estate deals. Bragg sued Linden, saying he legally owned the content he created in Second Life, including land and businesses. The suit was eventually settled, and Bragg's avatar was restored. Authorities also have intervened in crimes committed in online worlds. In the Netherlands, for example, a teenager was arrested for stealing more than $5,000 worth of virtual furniture in a world called Habbo. "This is such a nascent area when it comes to the law," said Sean F. Kane, a partner in the law firm Drakeford & Kane. "If a certain world allows you to be a thief, is it a crime or just an aspect of the game? Should real-world law apply?" there is much thinking to do, involved...
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POPSAnimals strick back I cannot forget terrible odor spreading around slaughter plant on I-10 and the border of Texas and New Mexico. Thousands of poor, trembling cows are standing in a mix of dirt and manure, knowing for sure their fate already. That's how the meat becoming a poison. Cruel and unusual treatment of anybody, even animals before their slaughter, cannot go unpunished. This is the rule of life and we would never escape it, regardless if it from God or the Nature.
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POPSElderly Chinese Women Ordered into Re-Education After Protest Applications Are Ignored It is the toughest penalty to be reported against any of those who followed up a government announcement that it would allow protests in three Beijing parks during the August 8-24 Olympics. So far, the police said they have received 77 applications and none has been approved. On August 17, the two elderly women each received a document from the city authorities ordering them to serve one year of re-education through labour – an administrative punishment that does not require any judicial process – from July 30 this year to July 29, 2009 for “disturbing public order”. Li Xuehui, son of of Mrs Wu, said: ”Wang Xiuying is almost blind and crippled. What sort of re-education through labour can she serve? But they can also be taken away at any time.” The two women had remained at home but were under observation of a neighbourhood watch group, he said…
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POPSMostly African American Children are Assaulted Legally in Schools
Just as slavery, Jim Crow laws and the subjugation of women in the USA are looked upon as primitive and embarrassing practices, I believe that corporal punishment in schools will someday be looked upon as a strange and inexplicably cruel practice. It will also be looked upon as another vehicle of racism as this study indicates. What will the conservative critics say in response? That African American children misbehave more in schools and, therefore, deserve the punishment? But isn't that what they say about higher incarceration rates for African Americans? So what is the picture that emerges from those who rationalize these institutional racist practices? In my view, it tells us that (their denials notwithstanding) conservatives believe that from childhood to adulthood African Americans are naturally more disposed to violate cultural norms, to act out in an anti-social manner. It's a racist orientation masquerading as a pro law and order stance. Corporal punish
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POPSPakistani President Musharraf Resigns Amid Impeachment Threats Many Pakistanis blame the rising militant violence in their country on Musharraf's alliance with the U.S. His reputation suffered blows in 2007 when he ousted dozens of judges and imposed emergency rule. His rivals won February parliamentary elections and have since sought his ouster, announcing impeachment plans earlier this month. Musharraf, who has been largely sidelined since his rivals came to power, had resisted the mounting calls to quit, even after the coalition finalized impeachment charges against him and threatened to send a motion to Parliament later this week. Who will ultimately succeed Musharraf is an open question. There has been speculation that both Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, the leaders of the two main parties are interested in the role.
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POPSWomen Against Sharia Seems to be a good resource for educating oneself about the issues related to Shariah Law. And I am a woman who is against it too!
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POPSLife in these United Police States! "This just isn't very surprising, is it? More and more often, honest, decent and law abiding citizens are finding that the police are at best adversarial, and more often than not, actually seem to take pleasure in agressive, bullying tactics. We are learning, like citizens of police states everywhere, to lie to cops even when we don't have anything to hide. Personally, I would never trust a cop to act decently, honestly or professionally. Punks, thugs and bullies are far too well represented in all branches of police, sheriffs and constable offices today in America." --Falon
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POPSMe, Myself and I The generally accepted linguistic explanation for the capital “I” is that it could not stand alone, uncapitalized, as a single letter, which allows for the possibility that early manuscripts and typography played a major role in shaping the national character of English-speaking countries. So what effect has capitalizing “I” but not “you” — or any other pronoun — had on English speakers? It’s impossible to know, but perhaps our individualistic, workaholic society would be more rooted in community and quality and less focused on money and success if we each thought of ourselves as a small “i” with a sweet little dot. There have, of course, been plenty of rich and dominant cultures throughout history that have gotten by just fine without capitalizing the first-person pronoun or ever writing it down at all. There have also been cultures that committed atrocities even while capitalizing “you.”
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POPSKnights Of The Planet Gore Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis hammered Obama for his insistence on auto job-killing, mandated fuel-mileage standards (so-called CAFE laws). "That shows how out of touch he is with Michigan voters," thundered Anuzis. "He's pandering to San Francisco liberals and environmentalists who would just as soon we not have cars." Yet, those words of support only highlight McCain’s similarities to Obama. On CAFE, for example, McCain himself has been no friend to the auto industry. In 2002, he co-sponsored a bill with John Kerry hiking mileage mandates by 30 percent — a proposal that ultimately became law last year over loud Big 3 protests. On drilling, McCain quickly steps on his message of “oil independence” by opposing drilling in ANWR — just as his opponent does. As for nuclear power, McCain’s strategy has serious flaws — beginning with the fact that the candidate doesn’t seem to know the difference between electricity and motor fuel.
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POPSMoving to the Right? I understand this is arguably the most polarizing topic on peoples minds yet without productive conversation it will not be resolved.
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POPSProposed law to ban spanking Hooray for more government control. We can't be trusted to make any decisions anymore. I welcome the big inclusive handbook for Government Sanctioned Childrearing. Do you think NY and CA will get together and propose criminalizing feeding transfats to a child? Wouldn't it be safer and smarter to just take our kids away at birth and put them in a Government Controlled Childcare Facility? Why take a risk that parents might screw something up?
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POPSUK Children's House Of Horrors:Forensic Teams Find Teeth And Bone Fragments The former Jersey health minister Stuart Syvret said the UK Government must now step in. He said: 'The only hope for justice is if London intervenes and it sends a completely independent judiciary, prosecution and courts.' Investigations at the home started in February after a discovery of what later was found to be part of a coconut. Nonetheless scores of people came forward claiming they were drugged, raped and beaten between the early 1960s and 1980s. Police excavated four secret underground chambers at the site, referred to as punishment rooms by some victims, and found shackles and a large bloodstained bath. Three men have been charged with sex abuse offences as part of the inquiry into historical abuse.
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POPSSenator Brownback: China Preparing Olympic Spy Attack “The Chinese government has demanded that these hotels allow the PSB to install software programs and hardware devices on the hotel networks,” Brownback said. “These measures are designed to assist the PSB to spy on the Internet activities of guests and record websites visited, searches entered and even keystrokes. The text alludes to harsh punishment for failure to comply with the order, including loss of license to operate a hotel in China.” The senator also provided a document that shows one hotel warning its guests that his Internet activity could be monitored. Brownback did not identify the hotel chains, citing concerns that they could be punished.
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POPSSentient Beings Protected I'd say it's high time that we got off our high horse and recognized other sentient beings that we share the earth with and grant them limited rights such as freedom from torture. Ethically, it is the right thing to do. In part, we can blame religion for this ethical blunder.
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POPSSupremes Blow a Big One The existence of this federal statute by itself significantly undercuts the Court's reasoning in Kennedy. Moreover, as the Washington Post observed in an editorial earlier this month, it appears that the Court's decision invalidates an act of Congress based on the erroneous claim that the statute did not exist. Terry Eastland notes that the state of Louisiana has now petitioned the Supreme Court to rehear the case on account of its factual error:
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POPSSend Karl Rove to Jail Not a joke, this is a real option available to our House committee members! Contact them now to hold him in contempt! Pass it on!
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