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POPSBorn 1920-1979? Congratulations...
No one was able to reach us all day.And we were OK. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computer! s, no Internet or chat rooms....... WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just wal
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POPSWal-Mart "You Bastards"!!!! The company persuaded a federal district court judge and the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to award it the full amount, even though Shank's family had paid for the lawsuit. Nor did it matter that the settlement covered a fraction of her expenses and losses. Wal-Mart's healthcare plan clearly states that it gets first dibs on any money recovered by injured employees. Such provisions aren't uncommon in health plans, and Wal-Mart isn't the first to enforce one. Doing what the law allows isn't the same as doing the right thing, however. The company made itself whole at the expense of a helpless former employee who will never be whole again. Instead of having some resources to improve her care, Shank will receive only the basic services afforded her by Medicaid and Social Security. Nor will the trust fund be in a position to reimburse Medicaid (i.e., taxpayers), which stood to collect any unspent money upon Shank's death.
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POPSThe truth about recycling Far too much valuable info here to fit in a clip, so go to the source for interesting discussions of the history of recycling, current status, innovations and concerns about what happens to recyclables being shipped to China and other developing nations. China is now the largest importer of recyclable materials in the world! The explanation of how single stream collection of recyclables works is fascinating. I was not aware of all the new technology being employed to sort and separate recyclable materials. The section on the future of recycling discusses the need for product design to take into account recycling of the product materials to create "closed-loop" cycles where there is no waste. Sustainable packaging emphasizes the use of renewable, recycled and non-toxic source materials to benefit the environment and cut costs. Wal-Mart is jumping on this bandwagon. "Waste is really a design flaw."
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POPSBan The Plastic Bag Bangladesh slapped an outright ban on all polythene bags in 2002 after they were found to have been the main culprit during the 1988 and 1998 floods that submerged two-thirds of the country. Discarded bags had choked the country's drainage systems. Nylon fishing nets, fishing line, bags, 6-pack rings etc, kill hundreds of thousands of animals every year and will continue to do so for hundreds, if not thousands of years to come. Horrible, panicked and painful deaths by drowning, suffocation or internal damage. If Bangladesh can ban the plastic bag and get by, surely so could we!
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POPSWe Deserve to Be Robbed Matt Taibbi's article is absolutely right on the mark. Unfortunately I found it impossible to clip in a way that would bring out the important points he makes to their fullest extent. Please read the entire piece at the link above. It certainly will have you thinking about where the priorities of country are leading us, and make you wonder if we really do not deserve to be ripped off as Matt says.
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POPSThe side effects of Ritilin "How many future Beethovens, Thomas Jeffersons, Ernest Hemingways, Martin Luther Kings and Maya Angelous are we currently drugging into stupors in our schools and nation? Men and women of greatness are probably the least likely to sit still and do the normal schoolwork directed at the average student. How many non-drugged kids would have never become famous, but would have been able to hold a job at Wal-Mart, get married, have kids, go bowling, collect the next Beanie Babies, attend church, and enjoy life but are now doomed to become drug addicts, felons, and just plain psychotic?"
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POPSUncle Sam, Your BANKER Will See You NOW!!!
No country on earth, except for Israel, supports the Bush regimes’ desire to attack Iran. It is China’s decision whether it calls in the US ambassador, and delivers the message that there will be no attack on Iran or further war unless the US is prepared to buy back $900 billion in US Treasury bonds and other dollar assets. The US, of course, has no foreign reserves with which to make the purchase. The impact of such a large sale on US interest rates would wreck the US economy and effectively end Bush’s war-making capability. Moreover, other governments would likely follow the Chinese lead, as the main support for the US dollar has been China’s willingness to accumulate them. If the largest holder dumped the dollar, other countries would dump dollars, too. The value and purchasing power of the US dollar would fall. When hard-pressed Americans went to Wal-Mart to make their purchases, the new prices would make them think they had wandered into Marcus. Americans would not be able t
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POPSGenetic Experiments Most Likely to Destroy Humanity "If there's one thing scientists have a knack for (other than avoiding sexual contact with other human beings), it's turning seemingly innocent things into horrifying specters of terror. Atoms were just innocent old building blocks of matter up until they were used to level two Japanese cities. Apparently bored with the military weapons as an outlet for their evil, scientists are upping their pant-soiling quotient by genetically engineering monsters out of our livestock and pets. So, strap on some night-vision goggles, go buy up all the ammunitions at your nearest Wal-Mart and prepare yourself for:"
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POPSI Love When The Courts Smack Walmart I make no bones about it; I despise Walmart and everything it stands for. The exploit and take total advantage of the workers they so condescendingly refer to as "associates." They thrive off the cheap and child labour or the third world and make it sound like they are doing the world a favour. And they have so many poor Americans believing they are getting bargains without ever admitting to the way they are able to keep their prices low or how they are keeping their employees on week to week subsistence levels of income. I am glad the courts are cracking down. Problem is, they can so easily afford these judgments that it probably won't hurt them a bit. The only thing that will actually do them so real damage, is when or if the American people wake up and stop falling for Walmart's so-called bargain prices.
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POPSWalmart Once Again Proves It Puts Money Above Life Every time I read a story like this about Walmart, I just wanna cry and/or scream. And yet, with all the abuse this company inflicts on its employees, the workers who manufacture some of their products, and the way they continue to ruin small town America and beyond, I see people streaming into their stores to take advantage of the ultra-cheap prices. I wonder how many of these people ever stop for even a moment to think about the high cost of these cheap prices. The high cost in human suffering and degradation that makes it possible to save some dimes on their purchases of cheap, plasticized crap.
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POPSCoke man punched out by Pepsi delivery man It was classified as common assault even though the Coke man's nose got broken. Coke don't want to talk about it, and there have been no charges laid. Seems if you're a Pepsi man, you can break someone's nose, in front of many witnesses, and only be described as a known suspect. A man who pushed a clerk while stealing a donut was charged with a felony, and given $ 100,000 bail. perfect sense.
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POPSHarvard's decision on financial aid puts other colleges in a tough spot
Harvard has pledged that no family making under about $180K will have to pay more than 10% of its income in tuition. This makes other college administrators very nervous, since they can't come close to duplicating that deal, especially without raising tuition for other students. One tuition-payer's advocate says it's a step in the right direction because it "puts pressure" on other institutions to start cutting costs, such as in areas of faculty salaries and "internet services," and adds that schools should operate more like businesses. Sorry for the rant, but that's a crock of shit. Only in America, where everything is supposed to be a saleable commodity, and where education is treated as a consumer product, do people go around saying this kind of crap. Why on earth is "operating like a business" a sensible ideal for a college to aspire to? It's not a fucking business, it's an institution of learning. It's not like a Wal-Mart or a travel agency, okay?
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POPSHello! Is Sanity in the House? By some people's reasoning it should be allowable for Jews to riot because Joe's BBQ opens and serves pulled pork platters? Christians should storm the gates because Wal-Mart is not keeping the Sabbath holy? Catholics should go berserk when someone doesn't genuflect before Mary? Why aren't more people standing up and saying these crazy people are crazy? We're all supposed to adhere to Sharia law? How utterly absurd and pointless.
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POPSAnother Insightful Perspective By Bill Maher Bill Maher creates an interesting analogy between Bush's manipulation of the Iraq war and Ken Lay's similar tactics at Enron. My clips do not do the piece justice, and I urge all of you to read the entire commentary.
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POPSJoke on MySpace costs Wal-Mart cashier his job Social McCarthyism? A Michigan attorney suggests so, stating that this is a "knee-jerk overreaction" and that "Michigan law prohibits employers from gathering or keeping records on the off-duty activities or publications of employees and provides for monetary penalties for those that do." Hmmm...perhaps Wal-Mart's treatment of their ex-employee will prove that the joke really is on them. Re: the joke on MySpace--it may be in questionable taste, but I find it satirically witty
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POPSMexican Migrant Workers in "Slave-Like Conditions" "So they decided to organize. The workers invited us to a meeting and described their conditions. We told them that as African Americans, we recognized what they were describing, and we were with them. The next day the workers walked off the plantation to demand their dignity. A delegation of African Americans attempted to conduct a citizen’s arrest of Relan on charges of violating the federal laws that define slavery, peonage, human trafficking, and servitude in the United States. We read him his rights, and told him that he was violating the laws our ancestors fought for. He was forced to return the passports but Relan still struck back: He fired the workers and illegally evicted them."
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