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POPSNaomi Klein: Bush Sees Crises in Fuel, Food, Housing and Banking as Chance to Exploit Us More
... Food, fuel, housing, climate change -- talk about these crises. First, start with oil. Klein: There really is a kind of a tsunami of shocks facing not just the economy but people's lives, people's real lives. They're all intersecting. They're making each other worse. And I think we really are seeing some very live examples of what a write about in the book, which is how there is a strategy. And this is what I mean by "the shock doctrine." There is a clear political strategy, and has been for several decades, to exploit these moments when people are desperate for quick-fix solutions and more inclined to believe in a kind of a magical cure, to push through very, very unpopular policies that don't actually solve the crisis at hand, that don't actually help people, but are incredibly profitable for multinational corporations. And I think we are seeing a very vivid example of this with this speech from George Bush yesterday, where he is taking a very real crisis, which is demandi
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POPSInternational law should govern release of GM mosquitoes This brings up an interesting point - what is the role of the nation state as the world "internationalizes"? What good are EPA regulations when we breath polluted air from China? What good are European regulations on CO2 when the U.S. wont regulate? How does the U.S. compete in stem cell research when it has restrictions on funding? The nation state is no longer the venue for prevention of things like cloning, bacterial engineering, genetic selection, GM foods, etc. We may restrict cloning in the States, but then cloning moves to Mexico or China.
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POPSThree Orphaned Lion Cubs Being Bottle-Fed By Zookeepers
White lions are regarded as a rarity in the wild. In captivity, however, it seems a different story. In fact three white cubs were born to another lioness at the zoo in Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock, south-west of Hamburg, at exactly the same time. She however, was happy to raise her litter herself. Fortunately these two-week-old white lion cubs are in good hands with the zoo keepers adopting the maternal role. In captivity, both male and female lions, who are unusually social compared to other cats, can live for over 20 years. The German public has a soft spot for orphaned animals. Knut, the first polar bear born in Berlin Zoo for 30 years, became a national celebrity after his mother rejected him. Life, however, hasn't been easy for the bear who attracts at least 200 visitors a day. He is said to have become addicted to human attention. 'Knut is a problem bear who has become addicted to human beings,' German animal rights activist Frank Albrecht said.
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POPSMarkey (D-Mass) Global Warming Led To ‘Black Hawk Down’ Markey was speaking to 25 students from the World Wildlife Fund's Allianz Southeast Climate Witness Program. The students had come to the Capitol to brief members of Congress on the risks of global warming. The students were from the Gulf States. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House (Select) Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, also equated the drive for global warming legislation with the drive for women’s suffrage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. “Yes, that part of the world is subject to drought at times, but it has very little to do with global warming,” said Ebell. (Myron Ebell, director of Energy and Global Warming Policy at CEI) “It is subject to drought whether the global average temperature is going up, down, or staying the same. To say you know the conflict was caused by global warming is to show how really ignorant you are of the scientific issues involved.”