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POPSIs Florida the Sunset State? Florida was once a swampy rural backwater, the poorest and emptiest state in the South. But in the 20th century, air-conditioning, bug spray and the miracle of water control helped transform it into a migration destination for the restless masses of Brooklyn and Cleveland, Havana and Port-au-Prince. I am a sixth generation Floridian, but I am told there are more than 4000 new people coming to live here every day.
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POPSCongress Should Be Winding Fannie and Freddie Down receivership and restructure them. This could take place without Congress having to pass a resolution explicitly guaranteeing all $5 trillion of the GSEs’ liabilities. That dreaded scenario would double the size of the public debt and drive the dollar to new lows. This episode demonstrates how stupid and dangerous it is to allow any company to operate under the assumption that it keeps the profits while the taxpayers take the losses. For now, the U.S. has to make clear that it is standing behind Fannie and Freddie and will not allow them to fail. But to prevent an even worse catastrophe in the future, Fannie and Freddie should be broken up or dramatically downsized. It may sound strange for conservatives to back a government takeover of any company, but a takeover aimed at restructuring, downsizing, and eventually reprivatizating the GSEs might be the least bad option if a run on them actually materializes.
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POPSPoll: Most Britons Doubt Cause Of Climate Change However Professor Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, said politicians and campaigners were to blame for over-simplifying the problem by only publicising evidence to support the case. 'Things that we do know - like humans do cause climate change - are being put in doubt,' said Lomborg. 'If you're saying, "We're not going to tell you the whole truth, but we're going to ask you to pay up a lot of money," people are going to be unsure.' More than half of those polled did not have confidence in international or British political leaders to tackle climate change, but only just over a quarter think it's too late to stop it. Two thirds want the government to do more but nearly as many said they were cynical about government policies such as green taxes, which they see as 'stealth' taxes.
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POPSMullahs Keep Fighting Us While Destroying Iran
against an official estimate of $45 billion. This sort of discrepancy typically occurs when capital flight is disguised as imports through fraudulent invoices and similar devices. A small current-account deficit would be of little concern for a nation with normal access to world capital markets, but Iran is unable to borrow. There is indeed massive capital flight. As I wrote a couple of years ago, Gulf bankers told me that they can’t handle all the money pouring out of Iran. Wealthy Persians long since saw the doom of the Islamic Republic, and have been looting the country’s resources for their own gain. They are printing money, further pauperizing Iranian workers–who are famously paid very late, if at all, as demonstrated by the ongoing demonstrations and strikes at government-owned companies– The message Spengler delivers is that there is no way out of this war. Left to their own devices, the mullahs will destroy Iran, and, if they can, us as well.
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POPS Last Gasp For Olmert's Political Career? Calls for his resignation came from left, right and center although all acknowledged that by vowing, as he did Thursday night, to resign if charged, Olmert had won himself time. The investigation will probably take another month or two. "The public doesn't have too much more patience," Colette Avital, a member of Parliament from the Labor Party, a partner in the governing coalition with Olmert's Kadima party, asserted in a typical comment. "He is simply discredited. It may take some more weeks or even months, but he won't be able to go on." "We may end up with an Iranian mini-state in Lebanon as well as one in Gaza, and the political trouble in Jerusalem makes it much harder for Israel to react as it should," Steinitz added. "But, of course, this is not just a problem for Israel but for the whole Western world, especially the United States and France."
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POPSBlogging boosts your social life To blog or not to blog. Perhaps blogging is less intimidating that face to face contact, and there is the opportunity to put more thought into what is written, rather than having to have an instant, perhaps reflex reply when 'live' People have the chance to be more introspective and so are able to see themselves more clearly, while knowing that what they write is put on 'public' view. So improving confidence and communication skills. It also helps improve memory, to be able to stop a 'conversation', and pick up where you left off an hour, a day, or even a week later. Of course the text is there but the context must be remembered and it can be seen how attitudes and personal opinions both change and develop. People are becoming interested in the person underneath, rather than having personal appearances get between them Just reminded me of a book/movie "A Patch of Blue" but that's another story.
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POPSIsraeli Report on 2006 War on Lebanon Admits Failure ...but it sets the stage for a new war and fails to condemn the unjust war waged against Lebanon (retaliating against Lebanon's just capture of Israeli spies within their border) by bombing and destroying 70 percent of Lebanon's infrastructure, including electricity and roads, and the the indiscriminate killing of its citizens. This partial report only admits Israel's defeat and sets the stage for another war, which of course the Zionist neocons desire for their "new middle east".
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POPSBritain's 'Secret Tax System' For Society's Elite The fact that anyone's tax or personal information might be insecure is appalling, but I'm not too surprised by the fact that there are two groups. It makes sense to work on the basis that some people's data will always be more valuable than others - because of potential for abuse - and theoretically, requires greater protection.
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POPS British Spy Chiefs: CIA 'Hoodwinked' By Iran British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons programme, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran. Analysts believe that Iranian staff, knowing their phones were tapped, deliberately gave misinformation The timing of the CIA report has also provoked fury in the British Government, where officials believe it has undermined efforts to impose tough new sanctions on Iran and made an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities more likely. The security services in London want concrete evidence to allay concerns that the Islamic state has fed disinformation to the CIA. The report used new evidence - including human sources, wireless intercepts and evidence from an Iranian defector - to conclude that Teheran suspended the bomb-making side of its nuclear programme in 2003.
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POPSArab Israeli Conflict and Modern Anti-semitism --<< "For Jews to act like citizens, to use the laws for protection, to thrive by the rules of an international market place of ideas, technology, and goods, posed inconceivable challenges to Muslim and Arab self-definition. For Jews to declare independence, to take a core territory out of the realm of dar al Islam, could not stand. Just as the Russians cannot permit the Chechens to become the first ethnic group to establish their freedom from Russian rule, so the Muslims could not allow the Jews to become the first dhimmi people to declare independence. They had to nip it in the bud" .>>--
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POPSNORTHERN ROCK CHAIRMAN RESIGNS I think the Northern Rock problems are overblown. They actually have a chance of making it. However, maybe the resignation of the Chairman and the appointment of a new can restore confidence in the shareholders and public.
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POPSCanada in Afghanistan Canada is trying to lead the Afghan people into freedom, democracy, and a better life. Cultural and social values have to change significantly to allow the economic growth needed to support the country. By building schools, hospitals, and the needed infrastructure, the country has hope of seeing a better future. Certainly, the old ways with the Taliban and drug exports did not give the Afghan people much of a life. Canada is committed to helping Afghanistan build a better economic future with a government representing the population.
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POPSNo Gays in Iran… But Many Same-Sex Couples: US Professor
William O.Beeman is professor and chair of the department of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He has been conducting research in Iran for more than 30 years, and is a fluent speaker of Persian. "Active partners in Iran do not consider themselves to be “homosexual.” Indeed, it is a kind of macho boast in some circles that one has been an active partner with another male. Passive partners are denigrated and carry a life-long stigma if their sexual role is known, even after a single incident. They have been deflowered, as it were, in the same way that women might lose their virginity, and they are considered to be "xarob" or "destroyed." "In actual fact, many men are "versatile" in their sexual activity but if they are known to have relations with other men, they will always claim in public to be the active partner. Same-sex relations between females are undoubtedly practised, but this is the deepest secret in Iran, and rarely talked about at all."
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POPSDemocrats want to see interrogation memo The Memos are a threat to the interrogation. The Democrats can hold their ground in Congress, but the recent history of the Administration suggests that if the opinion of Congress condemns the methods as proscribed by the inner circle, it is irrelevant. "What are they going to do ?" The democrats have Congress, but in the opinion of the Republicans, the Administration has the Armed Forces, Law enforcement, the Justice department,homeland security, and the C.I.A. at their disposal. They are obviously prepared to use them for the sake of the Administration, at the expense all else including anything the U.S. had a right to be proud of.
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POPSCommon Sense We are the nation whose President Nixon reached out to and met with China’s Mao Tse Tsung at the same time Mao was funding and arming the North Vietnamese to kill our soldiers in Vietnam. We’re the nation whose President Reagan confronted Soviet President Gorbachev, who at the time had thousands of nuclear warheads armed and pointed at us and was actively funding and arming proxy wars we were fighting in more than a half-dozen nations. We’re the nation whose President Roosevelt said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
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POPSWhy has Congress failed Americans? I add emphasis on the words the two-party duopoly's grip on the US-American political system . I'd like to learn something about actual endeavors to change this political system. Also I'd like to know, whereby the rinky-dink voter turnout of US-American elections is caused. Is it for instance, because too many citizens muddle politics and political elections with entertainment ? If this is the case: 1) What's your developmental-psychological age, American people? 2) Why are you so discontented with the results of your latest elections?
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POPSenjoy solo traveling: it is the real freedom.... there is something amazingly adventurous in traveling solo anywhere and taking care of your own stuff...roam around on your own, eat what you want...I love solo traveling...read the complete article for useful information...
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