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Monday, January 14, 2013

Undies ground

A participant of "No Pants Subway Ride" stands in a subway train in Mexico City on Sunday, January 13, 2013. The event is organised by Flashmob Mexico where participants have to strip down to their underwear as they go about their normal routine, said organisers. Mexico City - Hundreds of people in Mexico City doffed all but their smalls to take part in the “No Pants Subway Ride” on Sunday, just for laughs, around the world. Young and old, men, women and children got in on the 12th annual round of the prank held once a year in 50 cities, the well-ventilated movement said on its website. It was the third time people in Mexico City took part in the underwear fununderground.

Facebook unites siblings years later

Davenport, Iowa - A man has been reunited with his sister 65 years after they were separated in foster care thanks to a seven-year-old friend who searched Facebook. Clifford Boyson met his sister, Betty Billadeau, in person on Saturday. Billadeau drove up from her home in Florissant, Missouri, with her daughter and granddaughter for the reunion at a hotel in Davenport. Boyson, 66, and Billadeau, 70, both tried to find each other for years without success. They were placed in different foster homes in Chicago when they were children. Then seven-year-old Eddie Hanzelin, the son of Boyson’s landlord, got involved. Eddie found Billadeau by searching his mom’s Facebook account with Billadeau’s maiden name. He recognised the family resemblance when he saw her picture. Boyson said he’s looking forward to visiting Billadeau near St Louis and meeting more family. – Sapa-AP

Friday, January 11, 2013

Obama’s Fair Deal: Violate Your Tax Pledge So I Can Keep My Pledge to Reform Entitlements

This debt debate comes down to negotiables and non-negotiables for each side. Negotiables are things they are willing to put in play to achieve their goals. Non-negotiables are things they need to keep of the table at all costs. Both sides, not surprisingly have non-negotiables that involve keeping their chances alive for next year’s elections. Let’s start with those. For their part, House Republicans refuse to raise taxes. That’s their non-negotiable and has been all along. Many of these folks were elected in a Tea Party wave that was all about limited government. Many of them made an explicit pledge not to vote for a tax increase. They simply can not raise taxes and expect to survive. Tax increases are off the table. Meanwhile, President Obama has refused any short term deal which would force him to face this issue again next year. He knows he can’t negotiate with his re-election on the line, so he wants this off the table for 2012. Last week, Jake Tapper did a fine job of pointing out how transparently political this demand was. But the President repeated this demand again yesterday. Election year debt negotiations are off the table. So those are the non-negotiables on each side. Here’s the difference. Speaker Boehner isn’t asking for a short term deal. In fact, he was asked this question yesterday and explicitly said he was not interested in one. In other words, he is not pushing the President on his non-negotiable. Meanwhile, on Thursday the President demanded $400 billion in additional revenues which Speaker Boehner says would come from tax increases. The President does not deny that he asked for the additional revenue at the last moment. When asked a sharp question about moving the goalposts by Norah O’Donnell the President’s reply was halting: What this came down to was…there doesn’t seem to be a capacity for them to say yes. Well, when you’re asking people to negotiate their non-negotiables after you’ve already agreed to something else, they do tend to balk. And in case you’re wondering, there is no doubt the President knows just how non-negotiable this is for GOP House members. In fact, he talked about the tax pledge many of them had signed yesterday, saying this left them “boxed in.” Boxed in is just another way to say they made tax increases a non-negotiable. And yet the President seems to think House GOP members should violate a pledge they made to their constituents, one which a) they believe in as a matter of principle and which b) helped get them elected. He just expects them to “say yes” anyway. Here’s the most frustrating part. Obama has a pledge of his own in this debate, something he promised more than two years ago. Obama pledged to reform Social Security and Medicare from the earliest days of his administration: President-elect Barack Obama pledged yesterday to shape a new Social Security and Medicare “bargain” with the American people, saying that the nation’s long-term economic recovery cannot be attained unless the government finally gets control over its most costly entitlement programs. So while Paul Krugman and others on the far left may not like it, Obama will certainly claim the reforms that the GOP are demanding from him are a promise kept, not one he has broken. Entitlement reform isn’t a concession for him, it was a goal! That’s where things stand. President Obama is demanding the GOP violate their non-negotiable pledge on taxes so that he can fulfill his pledge to reform entitlements. The President repeatedly called this a “fair deal” yesterday. Well, it certainly is fair to him. from: hotair by John Sexton

Norway, with a substantial rate of gun ownership, is normally noted for non-violence

The nation of Norway was an especially unlikely setting for a shooting rampage that left at least 85 dead. The country of 4.9 million residents has one of the lowest per-capita homicide rates in Europe. Interestingly, however, gun ownership is relatively common in Norway, the Los Angeles Times reports. Gun ownership in Norway is common, although strict gun regulations and limitations are in place on ammunition for certain kinds of guns. According to GunPolicy.org, an Australian university-based website, the estimated number of guns held by civilians in Norway was 1.4 million in 2007, the most recent year for which the site has such statistics for Norway. Citing the “Small Arms Survey 2007: Guns and the City,” published by Cambridge University Press, the website give the rate of private gun ownership in Norway as 31.32 firearms per 100 people[.] In the wake of a shooting, after the initial shock and sorrow subside, two reactions predictably emerge — calls for greater civility in discourse and calls for greater gun control. Such was the case, at least, after Jared Lee Loughner shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (R-Ariz.) in January. And, indeed, some have already begun to criticize the rhetoric in Europe that has supposedly contributed to the sort of climate of hate that would prompt someone to release fire as at Oslo: The attacks in Oslo on Friday have riveted new attention on right-wing extremists not just in Norway but across Europe, where opposition to Muslim immigrants, globalization, the power of the European Union and the drive toward multiculturalism has proven a potent political force and, in a few cases, a spur to violence. The success of populist parties appealing to a sense of lost national identity has brought criticism of minorities, immigrants and in particular Muslims out of the beer halls and Internet chat rooms and into mainstream politics. While the parties themselves generally do not condone violence, some experts say a climate of hatred in the political discourse has encouraged violent individuals. “I’m not surprised when things like the bombing in Norway happen, because you will always find people who feel more radical means are necessary,” said Joerg Forbrig, an analyst at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin who has studied far-right issues in Europe. “It literally is something that can happen in a number of places and there are broader problems behind it.” Perhaps the calls for increased gun regulations are not far behind. Both reactions are understandable. Natural to want to make sense of senseless violence and even more natural to want to forestall it by tempering tongues and enacting obstacles to gun ownership. But we must not seek solutions where they will not be found. On some level, perhaps the wisest course is to remain a while longer in the spell of shock and grief that evil casts, allow ourselves to feel the full extent of its horror — precisely so we will realize that no carefully crafted words, no perfectly strategized policy will ever eliminate it entirely. Perhaps in that realization we will then awaken to a new realization — that evil will only fully and finally be overcome by something greater than ourselves.

Cornel West: Best. Interview. Ever.

Dr. James Joyner picks up on an interview with one of President Obama’s staunchest former allies, but also more recent critics, in the person of Professor Cornel West. Joyner titles his piece, “Cornel West is Crazy.” I’m not going to jump immediately to that point, but I’ve got to tell you, for a “highly sought after” guy with a doctorate from Princeton, this interview is… well, I suppose “remarkable” works. What’s with the black suit, white shirt, black tie outfit you always wear? Do you have anything else in your closet? I’ve got four black suits that I circulate, and they are my cemetery clothes — my uniform that keeps me ready for battle. Your cemetery clothes? It’s ready to die, brother. If I drop dead, I am coffin-ready. I got my tie, my white shirt, everything. Just fix my Afro nice in the coffin. So for somebody who dedicated his life to getting Barack Obama elected, what turned things around? So let me ask you: in 2007, you introduced Barack Obama as your “brother, companion and comrade.” But in May, you referred to him as “the black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs” and the “head of the American killing machine.” What in the world happened? It was a cry from the heart. What happened was that greed at the top has squeezed so much of the juices of the body politic. Poor people and working people have not been a fundamental focus of the Obama administration. That for me is not just a disappointment but a kind of betrayal. But you have also acknowledged that this is more than just political — you’ve said that after campaigning for him at 65 events, you were miffed that he didn’t return your phone calls or say thank you. I think he had to keep me at a distance. There’s no doubt that he didn’t want to be identified with a black leftist. But we’re talking about one phone call, man. That’s all. One private phone call. If you’re waiting for some sort of lesson from this media event or deeper meaning, I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint you. Aside from this being yet another symptom of far left elements jumping ship as Obama tacks toward the center in hopes of securing a second term, I don’t think there’s much more to be gained from it. But, to quote Dr. Joyner, “it’s no wonder that Barack Obama feels more comfortable around sane Jewish brothers than this cat.” That’s one crazy cat.

Elly Tran Ha - Vietnamese model pictures

Elly Tran Ha is an American-borned-Vietnamese, who has recently moved back to Vietnam from the USA. She works as a part-time model while furthering her studies.From 2009,she got famous on the Internet as her photos are circulated. Profile: Real name: Tran Kim Hong Nick name: Elly Tran Ha Birthday: 6/8/1987 Height: 5′6″ (168 cm) Weight: 104 lbs (47 kb) Measurements (inches): 35-23-35 Measurements (cm): 88-58-90 Blood group:...

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