Source = The Nation
I came across this awhile ago, finally got around to documenting it...

The twenty-five-to-one ratio ought to become our national pay standard, not just for bailed-out companies but for all enterprises that get government support, whether through contracts or subsidies or tax breaks. Last year Mark Hurd, Hewlett-Packard's CEO, took home $42.5 million. HP's biggest subsidiary gets more than $2 billion a year in federal contracts. Our tax dollars are, in effect, subsidizing CEO pay windfalls.

How do we start reversing this outrage? California Representative Barbara Lee is pushing legislation that would cap the amount of executive compensation firms are permitted to deduct from their corporate income taxes at twenty-five times the pay of their lowest-paid worker. If that became law, corporations could opt to continue paying their top executives tens of millions of dollars a year. But they would have to find somebody other than taxpayers to help them foot the bill.

Source = Alternet.org

*sigh* ... killing ... war ... violence .. when will humanity learn how to solve problems correctly?

Source = Alternet.org

Okay, i found this story interesting for several reasons. First, the statistics: "The United States has produced more serial killers than any other nation on earth, and 85 percent of them have been white men, according to a study by Apsche. The average age that serial killers take their first victim is 28; 62 percent target strangers exclusively and 71 percent operate in a specific geographic area."

Second, this article slams the news media for painting a desireable perception of these "young white males" by making it seem like such a suprise that this demographic could committ such heinous crimes. The media was "suprised" by how a "good looking", "normal", "high achieving", "clean-cut", "all american" guy would do such things and seemed to place the blame elsewhere:
"Rather, Markoff was served by the media on a silver platter, described as a great-looking, charming, rich guy (none of which were true), whose alleged crimes were ostensibly all the more shocking for one simple and disturbing reason: Markoff had stepped outside of our racist culture's perceived norm for his type."

The article correctly points out that it is because of our culture's perceptional norms. I think it should have focused more on socioeconomic, evironment, and personality factors rather than keeping the focus on PHYSICAL, outward appearances. We need to learn to judge people or analyze them by looking at all those not immediately perceivable factors that really make a person what they are, rather than outward appearances.

Source = Wikinews

I am very curious to see how this will turn out. I think this would work better in the U.S. vs. Mexico. Mexico the problem is drug trafficking to supply the U.S.! The problem is so huge that they can only target the big players, whereas in the U.S. we target the users as well.

"The bill, which passed with 87 votes and 10 abstentions, would make it legal to carry quantities up to 5 grams of marijuana, 500 milligrams of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin, or 40 milligrams of methamphetamines for personal use. Those found with greater quantities or convicted of the intent to distribute or sell any quantity of the specified drugs face a sentence of 5–15 years of prison."

Then again, it will boost tourism!

I recently installed Google Chrome. Probably the only google product i have installed to date. I have always been wary of Google and their privacy policies and the data they collect on people. My fears were confirmed when i noticed my firewall notifying me every 5minutes that googleupdate.exe was trying to connect to googleanalytics and other google domains.

I did what i usually do...killed the process. It comes back! wtf? I check my registry, startup, services...nothing. So I looked on the internet. Aha! Scheduled Tasks! tricky, i never thought to look there. GOTCHA! die die. Normally i would not care so much, but i hate it when programs do things behind my back and do not give me the option to disable them.

I got my information from here: The Invisible GoogleUpdate.exe

Source = Now Public, et. al.

This is extremely interesting. One of those "true" conspiracy stories. The last big scare, the avian flu, profited many people associated with the creation of a vaccine. Donald Rumsfeld was one of these people - he made millions. He is one of the big players associated with the medical company responsible for creating the vaccine.

"The largest shareholder of Gilead Sciences is the FMR Corporation. This company is owned by Grover Glenn Norquist, a well-connected Republican activist with close ties to business and the media. "

Soooooo....the Republicans are hurting..they need money...create a pandemic! yea! This also peaks my interest as to why the Voting Rights Act that protected against discrimination in the South is now being debated. Seems like another push by Republicans so that they can enact their discriminatory voting practices that we have seen evidenced in the last 3 elections. Funny too since one of the arguments is that since we now have a "Black" president, this means there is no more racism in the South..give me a break. And these are supreme court justices...

Source = HuffingtonPost

This sums it up nicely!:
"Let me blunt, you can't assume you're electing the right leaders to handle all the problems facing our nation when you make your choice based on one issue. More and more people are finally getting that."

Source = HuffingtonPost

Ya know, I despise a lot of Congress members on both sides. I definitely respect more Democrats than Republicans though. What I hate the most is this B.S. where it is one-party sided. Holy shit, no-one has any balls or guts anymore to stand up for what they believe in! It is all politics. There is no way that the stimulus bill could have been all Democrats vs. all Republicans. Some on both sides definitely felt the opposite way of their party, but still...everyone stuck to party lines! Now, they want to do the same B.S. with Health Care.

Obama seems not to care so much. He just knows what the ethical thing to do is (Health Care) and will get that done no matter what it takes. I can respect that.

"In a meeting with House Republicans at the White House Thursday, President Obama reminded the minority that the last time he reached out to them, they reacted with zero votes -- twice -- for his stimulus package. And then he reminded them again. And again. And again.
Obama also offered payback for that goose egg. A major overhaul of the health care system, he told the Republican leadership, would be done using a legislative process known as reconciliation, meaning that the GOP won't be able to filibuster it.
"

Source = Commondreams.org

Israel has informed the United Nations it will refuse to cooperate with a probe of war crimes allegedly committed during the military offensive in the Gaza Strip, a senior official said.

Okay, the more and more we deviate from global methods of resolution and collaboration and oversight the more self-centered countries become and alienated from one another. This leads to more differences and more conflict and more wars. Especially when countries are refusing peaceful actions for conflict resolution!!! my god...i am so ready for computers to take over some sensible oversight of humanity before we kill all possibility of life in this solar system. People do not learn from history because they do not remember it, have not experienced it, do not study it, do not care...and hence do no understand it. Also, egos and emotions destroy sensible reality.

The reality here is that only because the U.S. backs Israel can they get away with such B.S. If this were any other smaller country the U.N. would be all up in their business.