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POPS Encounter With The FEMA Genie ***POOF*** The cowboy finds himself in the most beautiful oasis he has ever seen, and he is surrounded with jugs of wine and platters of delicacies. ‘OK, cowpoke, what’s your second wish.’ ‘My second wish is that I was rich beyond my wildest dreams.’ ***POOF*** The cowboy finds himself surrounded by treasure chests filled with rare gold coins and precious gems. ‘OK, cowpuncher, you have just one more wish. Better make it a good one!’ After thinking for a few minutes, the cowboy says… ‘I wish that no matter where I go, beautiful women will want and need me.’ ***POOF*** He was turned into a tampon. The moral of the story: If the government offers to help you, there’s going to be a string attached.
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POPSBeating a Dead Horse I've commented on this topic many times over the past months, so why not give it one more go. There are two groups responsible for the mortgage mess - the individuals who took out exotic mortgages on houses they couldn't afford, and the financial institutions who sold them those mortgages. I understand we can't let the system fail, but I see no reason why my tax dollars have to go towards helping bail these two groups out. They made terrible decisions. All a bill like this does is reinforce stupid behavior, because if we fail, the government will bail us out. If you had your home re-possessed, it's because you couldn't afford it in the first place. If a financial institution is going down because of all the write-downs they've had to take on bad mortgages, it's because their leadership authorized bad decisions. Are there some exceptions to the above - sure there are. But those aren't the situations that this bill is addressing.
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POPSBy hook or by crook, I WON! Indian government wins confidence vote... The drama that had unfolded involving the monumental corruption and horse trading of the MPs all across the parties, that were highlighted by the national media before the no-confidence motion, is a monumental shame to the congress-led Govt... The poor common man looks on, feeling furious and frustrated and this is the so-called largest Democracy in the World, my dear Watson!
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POPSZombies on the Loose! Sometimes you just have to grab a 30.06, a haversack of dry rations, and go hunting the undead. Mind you, I am not all that supportive of the idea as a Reaper may be confused with the Dietary Challenged Afterlife Figures so I will give you a quick lesson in the way to tell the Reaper from the Hungry Dead... 1) Reapers tend to wear Robes - Zombies do not. 2) Reapers are fastidious about their appearance - Zombies look like they wear their clothes in meat-packing plants, stockyards and the occasional Rob Zombie Movie. 3) Reapers carry Scythes and can sometimes be seen on Pale Horses - Zombies can't handle anything more complex than a club and will eat a horse! 4) Reapers travel alone - Zombies travel in Packs usually 5) Reapers collect souls - Zombies collect blood and cranial fluids, usually on their faces and chests. I hope this has helped.
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POPSRussian scientists challenge 'man-made' global warming theory.
“We found that the level of CO2 had fluctuated greatly over the period but at any given time increases in air temperature preceded higher concentrations of CO2,” says academician Kapitsa, who worked in Antarctica for many years. Russian studies showed that throughout history, CO2 levels in the air rose 500 to 600 years after the climate warmed up. Therefore, higher concentrations of greenhouse gases registered today are the result, not the cause, of global warming. Critics of the CO2 role in climate change point out that water vapours are a far more potent factor in creating the greenhouse effect as their concentration in the atmosphere is five to 10 times higher than that of CO2. “Even if all CO2 were removed from the earth atmosphere, global climate would not become any cooler,” says solar physicist Vladimir Bashkirtsev. The hypothesis of anthropogenic greenhouse gases was born out of computer modelling of climate changes. Russian scientists say climate models are inaccurate si
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POPSObama’s No-Brainer on Education The stakes couldn't be higher. The United States now ranks 25th among 30 industrialized countries in math. "If I told you your basketball team finished in 25th place, you'd be outraged," says former West Virginia governor Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education. When the landmark "A Nation at Risk" report was issued 25 years ago, the education system was ailing, but the United States was still No. 1 in college-graduation rates. Now we are No. 21. "We simply have not progressed," says former Colorado governor Roy Romer, who heads a commission that recently updated the report. "The rest of the world has." For example, the average European nation has 13 more school days than we do.
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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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POPSOn the merits of the electoral college As a voter from a country where pure proportional representation has left the body politic prey to any small fringe party willing to horse-trade. the electoral college makes eminent sense...
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POPSFrance the the beneficiary of nuclear growth... even though their construction projects aren't going so well. That great sucking sound you hear is proposed or in-the-works nuclear plants blowing their budgets everywhere. French company Areva's first EPR project, in Finland, is two years behind schedule and at least $1.5-billion over budget. Its second, in France's Normandy region, is headed in the same direction, after construction stalled for several weeks recently. It's not just the skyrocketing price of basic materials, such as concrete and steel, that's driving costs upward. So-called third generation reactors - such Areva's EPR and Atomic Energy's ACR-1000 - are still works in progress. And the two decades during which nuclear power faced desert-like prospects has left the industry grappling with a severe shortage of skilled workers.