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POPSGay Marriage Ban Overturned By Cal Supreme Court IN THE SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA ) ) ) S147999 ) In re MARRIAGE CASES. ) Ct.App. 1/3 Nos. A110449, ) A110450, A110451, A110463, 1 ) A110651, A110652 ) ) San Francisco County ) JCCP No. 4365 ___________________________________ ) In Lockyer v. City and County of San Francisco (2004) 33 Cal.4th 1055 (Lockyer), this court concluded that public officials of the City and County of San Francisco acted unlawfully by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the absence of a judicial determination that the California statutes limiting marriage to a union between a man and a woman are unconstitutional. Our decision in Lockyer emphasized, however, that the substantive question of the constitutional 1 City and County of San Francisco v. State of California (A110449 [Super.validity of the California marriage statutes was not before this court in that proceeding, and that our decision was not intended to reflect any view on that issue. (Id. at
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POPSAhmadinejad: Israel Is Doomed Ahmadinejad used an Arabic word, ismihlal, that can also be translated as destruction, death and collapse. "Nations of the region hate this criminal fabricated regime (Israel) and will uproot this fabricated regime if the smallest and shortest opportunity is given to them," Ahmadinejad said Wednesday in an address broadcast live on state television. He spoke hours after President Bush arrived in Israel for the anniversary celebrations.
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POPSPhysicists Demonstrate How Information Can Escape From Black Holes Hawking's idea was generally accepted by physicists until the late 1990s, when many began to doubt the assertion. Even Hawking himself renounced the idea in 2004. Yet no one, until now, has been able to provide a plausible mechanism for how information might escape from a black hole. A team of physicists led by Abhay Ashtekar, Holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Physics and director of the Penn State Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, now has discovered such a mechanism. Broadly, their findings expand space-time beyond its assumed size, thus providing room for information to reappear.
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POPSUri Avnery: 1948 At the time, the Jews constituted only a third of the population. The hundreds of Arab villages throughout the country dominated the main arteries that were crucial to our survival. We suffered heavy casualties in our efforts to open them, especially the road to Jerusalem. We honestly felt that we were "the few against the many". Our side was preparing for the massive attack of the Arab armies and we could not possibly leave a large hostile population at our rear. This military necessity was, of course, intertwined with the more or less conscious desire to create a homogeneous Jewish territory. ccording to the UN resolution, the "Jewish state" was to include more than half of Palestine (as it existed in 1947 under the British Mandate). In this territory, more than 40% of the population was Arab. In the second half of the war, after the advance of the Arab armies was halted, a deliberate policy of expelling the Arabs became a war aim on its own.
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POPSCalifornia Cuts Schwarzenegger wants you to buy a lottery ticket -- it's going to fund our budget shortfall.
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POPSWomen as Appliances Should women be regarded as incubators by the state? Can the idea of "souls" be used in a legal venue to justify such treatment?
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POPSLipstick on a Pig No matter how you skew it, all three candidates carry baggage with them that affects people's opinions. Never before have we had such clear cut issues facing the electrorate than we do today. Whether it's racism, sexism, or ageism, voters either confront or hide from the facts. What other conclusions can be drawn in WV except that the majority of voters in this 95% white state harbor racism. Whether it is blatent or hidden, it exists. The issues are too close between the Democratic contenders for one not to ask this question. In some states it's been to Obama's favor. It's the scope of the win and the demographic of the state that makes this a true indicator of people's motivations.
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POPSPrisons for Profit More at the source, with links, if you want to do a little research of the prison system in America.
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POPSIslam and Secularism Volkhard Krech, professor for religious studies , has come to the conclusion that some religious traditions, such as Judaism and Protestantism, represent "secularization factors." Other faiths, such as Islam and evangelical churches have a tendency to combine a strong sense of both national and religious identity, mixing politics with religion. The Berlin Islamic scholar Gudrun Krämer made clear that a "massive rejection" of secularism prevails in most Muslim countries. In Islamic discourse, secularization is regarded as a "hostile takeover" of Muslim society. Instead of the notion of the separation of religion and state, the idea of "empowerment" is stressed. Islam calls for believers to actively participate in the power structures of the state. As a mixture of nationalism and Islamism, the so-called "national Jihad" is pushing its way into the political arena and has given birth to the notion of the "Islamic welfare state."
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POPS"Forget a two-state solution" Palestinians must have right of return and Jewish presence in occupied territories grows 3X faster than Israel itself. The mix is here to stay. Only a single, democratic, secular, multi-cultural state can protect the rights of all.
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POPSHigher Suicide Rates Under Conservative Government The researchers took into account periods of drought and World War II, because of their economic and psychological impact. Suicide rates were higher during periods of drought and lower during WWII. But after adjusting for these factors, the figures clearly showed the highest rates of suicide occurred when both Conservative state and federal governments were in power. Conversely, the lowest rates occurred when state and federal governments were both Labour. Middle aged and older people were most at risk. When the Conservatives ruled both state and federal governments, men were 17% more likely to commit suicide than when Labour was in power. Women were 40% more likely to kill themselves. Conservative rule traditionally implies a less interventionist and more market-orientated policy than Labour rule
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POPSTry Spending Less I'm tired of hearing state and federal government officials talking about how they need to bring more tax revenue in. Instead of trying to get more money out of us that they'll just waste on useless programs anyway, why not spend less to get budgets into shape. Oh yeah, to do that, we'd likely need less government officials to manage it all, which means they may be out of jobs. I guess it's too much to ask that elected officials do what we elect them to do (represent the needs of their constituents) vs what's in their own best interests.
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POPSUnclaimed Money Over $30 billion worth of state unclaimed property sitting in the various Treasury Departments in the US. The money piling-up because most owners of unclaimed funds aren't aware they have money waiting for them.
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POPSBlood Money: Chiquita Banana Pays Paramilitaries Protection Money Of course, Chiquita has a bad record South of the border, just as the Guatemalans. They have operated in these countries for decades, they knew what was what. When the Army failed them, they called in the AUC. The CEO of Chiquita admitted on camera that if they had not "volunteered" the info, nothing would have happened. And the State and Justice Departments are not investigating, even after a former AUC leader volunteered to turn state evidence.
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POPSArizona State Senator(R): 9/11 Controlled Demolition
Her commentary appeared in this newspaper. She makes a well sustainable argument that cannot be denied has merit. • The theory that the buildings collapsed due to controlled-demolition explosives, however, is consistent with scientific principles and the facts. The “demolition” theory, in fact, is the only one which scientists have been able to corroborate. That is, “… all observations are in accord with the use of explosives in a time sequence.” (Legge and Szamboti, December, Journal of 9/11 Studies.) The events of 9/11 led immediately to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and passage of the Patriot Act (what double-speak), both of which deprive us of Constitutional rights and have brought us to the brink of becoming a police state. Homeland Security is currently trying to force a national ID card down our throats, although some governors have politely (or not so politely) told Secretary Michael Chertoff where he can go.