Author: kimi

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Mr. Bush – give our kids better health care!

An Immoral Philosophy, by Paul Krugman

When a child is enrolled in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (Schip), the positive results can be dramatic. For example, after asthmatic children are enrolled in Schip, the frequency of their attacks declines on average by 60 percent, and their likelihood of being hospitalized for the condition declines more than 70 percent.

Regular care, in other words, makes a big difference. That’s why Congressional Democrats, with support from many Republicans, are trying to expand Schip, which already provides essential medical care to millions of children, to cover millions of additional children who would otherwise lack health insurance. read more

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I love Syrian jokes

I love Syrian jokes and just found a whole website full of them!

Here’s a sample:

Someone told his Homsi friend your wife and your best friend are in the forest together…
The Homsi runs to the forest and after 5 minutes he cames back and says: there is only 2 trees and you say forest !!

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No Quechup Please – say “no” to invites

I was surprised to receive an invitation from a colleague to join the quechup.com network so we can continue our [non-existent] friendship there. I figured G had sent out a notice to everyone in her address book without first removing the people she doesn’t really want to “be friends” with. I only got part of this right.

Every one in G’s address book did get an quechup.com invite, but those invites weren’t sent by G. I’ve been following up on this story since then. read more

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Flunked school but sold his art for 20 million

Willard creates sculptures under a microscope that can fit inside of the head of a pin. His Charlie Chaplin balances perfectly on the end of a eyelash.

But the man can’t read or write! “My teacher made me feel small,” he reports in a YouTube video. “She made me feel like I was nothing. I’m trying to prove that nothing, doesn’t exist,” he says.

Willard’s teacher should rethink the value she places on students with learning disabilities like those Willard suffers from. A collector just bought up Willard’s private stock of his sculptures for USD $20 million. Hah! Good on you, Mr. Willard. read more

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Free museum admissions?

I was looking for a list of free admissions hours to museums in the city. I found out that some museums are always free, some allow people to pay “whatever they wish to pay” [which can be a one penny donation] and some are free on certain days, or during certain hours.

In a New York Times article, Roberta Smith intended to propose a challenge to museums to gradually lower their fees until they were always open to the public at no charge. “. . . it is through [artwork] that we discover and explore important aspects of our humanness. [Museums] should be equally available to all, for the good of the individual and society as a whole.” read more

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Which wolf will win?

Which Wolf Will Win?

A Cherokee elder sitting with his grandchildren told them, “In every life there is a terrible fight – a fight between two wolves.

“One wolf is evil: he is fear, anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and deceit.

“The other is good: joy, serenity, humility, confidence, generosity, truth, gentleness, and compassion.”

A child asked, “Grandfather, which wolf will win?”

The elder looked him in the eye. “The one you feed.” read more

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Ms. Pratibha Patil, President, India

The country of India now has in its 60th year of independence, as of last Saturday, July 21, a woman president, and people in her hometown of Jalgaong are dancing in the streets! Social activists look to Ms. Patil for relief for women from centuries-old struggles related to gender issues such as dowry-related violence, murder, rape and domestic abuse.

In her new position, Ms. Pratibha Patil has the power to structure both state and local governments. Her government counterpart, the prime minister, is the holder of executive power for the state. Reuters article tells more. read more

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Former Treasury officer: constitution is under threat!

Roberts said that because of Bush’s unpopularity, the Republicans face a total wipeout in 2008, and this may be why “the Democrats have not brought a halt to Bush’s follies or the war, because they expect his unpopular policies to provide them with a landslide victory in next year’s election.”

[But] Roberts believes instead that Cheney and Rove intend to use a renewal of the War on Terror to rally the American people around the Republican Party. “Something’s in the works,” he said, adding that the Executive Orders need to create a police state are already in place. read more

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Democrat Billionaires think about the other 99%

Buffett, the third-richest man in the world, is supporting Democratic presidential hopeful in the upcoming elections, because he wants more equitable wealth distribution and taxataion systems in the US.

Buffet criticised the US tax system for allowing him to pay a lower rate than his secretary and his cleaner. Speaking at a fundraiser in New York for Senator Hillary Clinton, Mr Buffett, who is worth an estimated $52 billion (£26 billion), said . . . If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent. read more

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Tallest man meets shortest? man

Two Mongolian men meet and shake hands. Bao Xishun at 7 foot 9 inches and He Pingping, who stands tall at 2 foot 4 [73 centimeters]. Mr. Bao recently married a woman whose head reaches the height of his elbow; Mr. He’s father says his son was the size of a man’s palm at birth. The UK’s Daily Mail tells more.

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End of the Constitution?

Maybe Bush’s outrageous commutation of Scooter Libby’s will help some folks recognize that this president and his cronies have more than normal self-interest or operative pragmatic scheming in mind.

The oft-used term “neo-conservatives,” or “neo-cons,” is thrown around the identify the circles that helped lift this current administration to power . . . these are not just new conservatives . . . At the top, these people have a total overhaul of U.S. Constitutional government in mind. Bush and friends are the first administration that has achieved a level of power high enough to exhibit this. Their goal is the end of democracy as defined by the U.S. Constitution. read more

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Nobel laureate calls for removal of Bush

Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams came from Ireland to Texas to declare that President Bush should be impeached.

In a keynote speech at the International Women’s Peace Conference on Wednesday night, Ms. Williams told a crowd of about 1,000 that the Bush administration has been treacherous and wrong and acted unconstitutionally.

“Right now, I could kill George Bush,” she said at the Adam’s Mark Hotel and Conference Center in Dallas. “No, I don’t mean that. How could you nonviolently kill somebody? I would love to be able to do that.” read more