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POPSCall Your Mother "Whenever I’ve had the honor of giving a college graduation speech, I always try to end it with this story about the legendary University of Alabama football coach, Bear Bryant. Late in his career, after his mother had died, South Central Bell Telephone Company asked Bear Bryant to do a TV commercial. As best I can piece together, the commercial was supposed to be very simple — just a little music and Coach Bryant saying in his tough voice: “Have you called your mama today?” On the day of the filming, though, he decided to ad-lib something. He reportedly looked into the camera and said: “Have you called your mama today? I sure wish I could call mine.” That was how the commercial ran, and it got a huge response from audiences. So on this Mother’s Day, if you take one thing away from this column, take this: Call your mother. I sure wish I could call mine. " I found this too late for Mother's Day this year but the message is important for any day. Call your mother.
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POPS Dumb as We Wanna Be
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN he goes on: Are you sitting down? Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies. These credits are critical because they ensure that if oil prices slip back down again — which often happens — investments in wind and solar would still be profitable. That’s how you launch a new energy technology and help it achieve scale, so it can compete without subsidies. The
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POPSTriple-A Failure This is a long read, but worth the effort if you want a better understanding of how the big banking and mortgage institutions got into this mess. What is really comical is how they try to blame the mortgage holders, as the following quote illustrates: ================= "Moody’s and S.&P. have announced reforms. But they reject the notion that they should have been more vigilant. Instead, they lay the blame on the mortgage holders who turned out to be deadbeats, many of whom lied to obtain their loans." ====================== The only "deadbeats" I see here, are the ones that allowed this rediculous situation to develop.....in the name of MONEY....more and more of it!
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POPSDaniel Pink interviews Thomas Friedman Yesterday, Alan November visited the school and held a workshop. He talked about global learning and how students need to be prepared for the future and need a world view. He discussed ways to incorporate web tools so that students can use these tools in a new context, not just a social one. At one point, he talked about Thomas Friedman's books and that triggered Daniel Pink in my head. Then Karl Fisch posted this link on his blog, The Fischbowl. I thought it would be a good one to share.
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POPSGolden Falsie Award--Left Cup The Iraq war funding triangulation continues today. In early December, the Wall Street Journal reported that Democratic leaders, in order to avoid being seen either as capitulating to Bush on Iraq or as under-funding the military, "are looking at the option of advancing more money for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan." Meanwhile, "responsible" war critics are being encouraged to wait for General David Petraeus's spring 2008 report, much as they were previously for Petraeus's September 2007 report. It reminds us of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's infamous, never-ending six month timeframe for evaluating progress in Iraq.
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POPSClassical Liberalism During the early to mid 20th century, there was an entire group of writers, business owners, and academics who argued for laissez faire capitalism that affected the philosophies and actions of economists like Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan. I think it is good to know the historical roots of various movements and how they are used for good or ill. It reminds me of what happened to an author on the other side of the political road. As a result of the writings of Thomas Payne, when he tried to help the French, unscrupulous people , namely Robespierre, took advantage of the situation, and Thomas Paine was imprisoned, barely escaping the guillotine. While Classical Liberalism is attractive, I believe what we see today is often a perversion used by those who don't really believe in its basic precepts.
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POPS"A Love Story" gone sour. "Our Best Friend in EU" GONE ??? "America, America: After a visit to Poland, veteran New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman approvingly quoted Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign affairs expert, who described it as "the most pro-American country in the world - including the US." "The Poles are especially grateful to the United States for its support of the Solidarity movement during the period of the communist regime, for its part in the toppling of the Berlin Wall, and for the co-option of Poland to NATO in 1999. "Schooled in humiliation, and having lost its independence time and again, Poland is today linking its security and its future to maintaining close ties with the world's only superpower." ...Haaretz Oct 21 2007
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POPSIs China Developing? This raises the next important question: is China's economic growth real or just a neo-liberal fantasy? Friedman and others have said that China is catching up to the US, but is that really the case? Certainly, they are making money, but without a free and dynamic society, it seems to me that it will be impossible for China to ever take the lead. It will continue to make money as the world's factory for a bit, but eventually it will become to expensive and the jobs will move elsewhere. To survive that transition, (which even America is struggling with right now) the country will have to step forward with innovations and new ideas of their own. I don't believe China is ready to do this, nor will it be in the forseeable future. Thus, the idea of a "flat" world is a dangerous day dream. China's rapid development is a siren song luring the greedy but not savy into an investment disaster.
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POPSYou Know You Are In An Arab Country - - a poem (Artlcle from all places - NY Time. Thomas Friedman is right on here. For the full op ed, see a copy at http://www.geoprobe.org/silence_that_kills.shtml) "...Occasionally an honest voice rises, giving you a glimmer of hope that others will stand up. The MEMRI translation Web site (memri.org) just posted a poem called “When,” from a Saudi author, Wajeha al-Huwaider, that was posted on Arab reform sites like www.aafaq.org...."
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POPSThe American Muslim Muslims SPEAK OUT against terrorism, suicide bombings, and other acts of violence. This page shows the truth about Islam, and shows how Muslims do NOT support terrorism. MUST-READ, and please pass it around!
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