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Flashback: Global Warming Pathology: How we know they know they are lying
John Brignell
Number Watch
2009-01-01 20:37:00
It is to some extent forgivable when people adopt extreme positions out of misapprehension or delusion. It is quite another matter if they mislead others by deliberate falsehood. Politicians, of course, treat the lie as part of their professional equipment. Indeed, in some circumstances they are obliged to use it (when, for example, telling the truth about the economy would cause a run on the currency). In science, up to recent times, there is no circumstance in which a deliberate falsehood is justifiable. It requires at a minimum being drummed out of one's learned society.
All that has changed with the rise of authoritarian government. In Britain this took the form of nationalisation of the universities, begun under Thatcher and completed under Blair. In the USA it took the form of new state-funded bureaucracies, such as the EPA, who maintained control by the monopoly of funding. The global warming religion changed everything.
There is a contrast in the behaviour of people who speak from conviction and those who speak from convenience. This enables us to uncover those who are lying deliberately and distinguish them from the merely deluded. As M. Maigret once remarked "It is always the clever ones who leave a clue."
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U.S. News
The Ideological Animal
Jay Dixit
Psychology Today
2009-07-01 19:37:00
Cinnamon Stillwell never thought she'd be the founder of a political organization. She certainly never expected to start a group for conservatives, most of whom became conservatives on the same day - September 11, 2001. She organized the group, the 911 Neocons, as a haven for people like her - "former lefties" who did political 180s after 9/11.
Stillwell, now a conservative columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, had been a liberal her whole life, writing off all Republicans as "ignorant, intolerant yahoos." Yet on 9/11, everything changed for her, as it did for so many. In the days after the attacks, the world seemed "topsy-turvy." On the political left, she wrote, "There was little sympathy for the victims," and it seemed to her that progressives were "consumed with hatred for this country" and had "extended their misguided sympathies to tyrants and terrorists."
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Utah's bars no longer just for club members only
Brock Vergakis
Associated Press
2009-07-01 11:49:00
Salt Lake City - Getting into a bar in Utah is now as simple as showing a bouncer a valid ID.
For 40 years, Utah required customers to fill out an application, pay a fee and become a member of a private club before they were allowed to set foot in a bar.
On Wednesday, those requirements were eliminated in an effort to boost the state's $7 billion-a-year tourism industry and make the state appear a little less quirky to outsiders.
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"Tidal Wave" of Young Adults with Autism about to Flood Cash-Strapped California
David Kirby
The Huffington Post
2009-06-30 09:49:00
Broke California will begin the new decade with crushing debt and wholesale elimination of human services. Meanwhile, President Obama has rankled Congressional Democrats with plans to earmark millions of dollars in NIH funds to find the causes and cures of autism.
Are these two things related? You bet they are.
Barack Obama is not a stupid man. He sees the budgetary train wreck hurtling down the track towards the US Treasury. His Administration knows that the number of adults with autism in this country is about to explode. Parents can't foot the bill, so taxpayers will have to. The price tag will be stratospherical.
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Colorado: Abortion Opponents Try Again On State Amendment
Associated Press
2009-07-01 00:59:00
Denver ― Abortion opponents in Colorado and Montana want to try again to pass amendments giving human rights to embryos.
Colorado and Montana Right to Life groups and Personhood USA say they will submit new initiatives this week in hopes of getting the measure on 2010 ballots.
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Gunmen fire on group of Detroit teens, wounding 7
Associated Press
2009-07-01 00:51:00
Gunmen in a green minivan opened fire on a group of teenagers waiting at a bus stop near a Detroit school on Tuesday, wounding seven including two who were in critical condition, authorities said.
Five of the teens had just left Cody Ninth Grade Academy, where they were taking summer classes, when they were shot at the nearby bus stop.
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Al Franken declared winner of Minnesota seat by state supreme court
Ewen MacAskill
The Guardian
2009-06-30 21:12:00
The eight-month saga over a contested US Senate seat today appeared to be coming to an end when the Minnesota supreme court ruled in favour of the Democrat and former comic Al Franken.
The court unanimously declared that Franken, after repeated recounts since the November election, had beaten the Republican incumbent Norm Coleman.
The decision potentially gives the Democrats a 60-seat majority in the Senate, making legislation immune from Republican filibustering and raising the chances of Barack Obama getting more of his ambitious legislative agenda onto the statute books.
It could help him get through legislation on health reform and climate change, and ensure the success of his supreme court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor.
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UK & Euro-Asian News
Ireland commissioner says most EU countries would reject Lisbon Treaty
Martin Banks
The Telegraph
2009-07-01 12:56:00
His admission came as Brian Cowen, the Irish prime minister, was set to announce 2 October as the date when Ireland holds its second referendum on the document.
The treaty, which proposes the first full-time President of the European Council, is highly contentious and was rejected by the Irish in a referendum in June last year.
But current opinion polls suggest the Irish will vote Yes this time.
However, Mr McCreevy, the internal market commissioner, said that if the treaty had been put to a public vote, it would have been rejected by 95 per cent of the 27 member states.
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Energy bills 'too low' to combat climate change: Royal Society tells people to work harder
Alok Jha
The Guardian
2009-07-01 12:02:00
Consumers will need to pay more for energy if the UK is to have any chance of developing the technologies needed to tackle climate change, according to a group of leading scientists and engineers.
In a Royal Society study to be published today, the experts said that the government must put research into alternatives to fossil fuel much higher among its priorities, and argued that current policy in the area was "half-hearted".
"We have adapted to an energy price which is unrealistically low if we're going to try and preserve the environment," John Shepherd, a climate scientist at Southampton University and co-author of the report said. "We have to allow the economy to adapt to higher energy prices through carbon prices and that will then make things like renewables and nuclear more economic, as carbon-based alternatives become more expensive."
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Top German court suspends ratification of Lisbon Treaty
Juergen Oeder
Agence France-Presse
2009-06-30 07:41:00
Germany's top court on Tuesday delayed the ratification of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty but leaders expressed confidence that the landmark reforms would still be adopted soon.
In a keenly awaited decision, the Federal Constitutional Court said the treaty -- aimed at streamlining decision-making in the 27-nation bloc -- must be put on ice until a law protecting national parliamentary powers is passed.
"If one wanted to summarise this result, one could say: the constitution says 'yes' to the Lisbon Treaty but demands that parliament's right to participation be strengthened at the national level," the court said.
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Russians crack down on gambling
BBC News
2009-07-01 07:37:00
A new law has come into effect in Russia, confining gambling to four regions far from the capital Moscow. It bans gambling on the internet and at airports, supermarkets and other sites.
But critics say the move will leave more than 300,000 people without jobs and push the industry underground, amid a continuing economic crisis in Russia.
The law was passed by Russian lawmakers in 2006 and was the initiative of the then President Vladimir Putin, who is now serving as prime minister.
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Around the World
Buenos Aires declares swine flu emergency
Press TV
2009-07-01 12:47:00
Authorities in Argentina's capital have declared a health emergency in response to swine flu hitting the city hard and increasing the related death toll to 35.
Following the fast-spreading outbreak of swine flu in Buenos Aires, authorities in the capital and the surrounding province announced Tuesday that they had extended school vacations for hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren to contain the strain.
Together, the areas are home to almost half of the Argentine population. According to officials, students residing in the areas will start the school winter break on Monday -- two weeks early -- and that the break would last four weeks.
"I am asking kids to stay home and to not go to places with a large concentration of people to avoid the infection," the mayor of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri, said during a televised news conference.
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Touché! Iranian delegation walks out on Peres speech
Press TV
2009-07-01 12:30:00
Iranian delegates walked out of an interfaith conference in Kazakhstan after Israeli President Shimon Peres took the podium to deliver a speech.
"We have come to listen to religious leaders... and Peres is not a religious leader." Iranian envoy Mehdi Mostafavi said after leaving the Wednesday morning opening ceremony, the Jerusalem Post reported.
JPost quoted another member of the Iranian delegation leaving the meeting as saying, "Israel won't attack us [Iran]; we're not afraid of Israel or the United States."
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Argentine regions declare swine flu emergency
Associated Press
2009-07-01 07:33:00
Authorities in Argentina's capital and Buenos Aires province declared health emergencies and extended school vacations Tuesday as the nation's swine flu death toll surged to 35.
Together the areas comprise almost half of Argentina's population, and they joined four other provinces that have already declared health emergencies in a nation that in Latin America is topped only by Mexico in number of swine flu deaths.
Health authorities have warned that while the swine flu peak has passed in Mexico, the Southern Hemisphere is at risk as it heads deeper into its winter flu season.
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Organization of American States to deliver ultimatum to Honduras
Susan Cornwell
Reuters
2009-07-01 07:18:00
Members of the Organization of American States have decided to give the interim government in Honduras 72 hours to reinstate democracy or face possible suspension, OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza said on Wednesday.
"Basically the decision is to condemn, very clearly, the military coup" that ousted President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday, Insulza told reporters after hours of talks at the OAS headquarters.
He said the resolution being finished would demand Zelaya's immediate reinstatement as Honduran president and charge himself, Insulza, with taking the "diplomatic and political steps necessary" to try and restore democracy in Honduras.
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Fanatical: Fans commit suicide over Michael Jackson's death
Examiner.com
2009-07-01 01:17:00
12 fans have committed suicide due their grief over Michael Jackson's death. President and owner of the world's biggest online Michael Jackson fan club, Gary Taylor, said "Its is a serious situation that these people are going through but Michael Jackson would never want this. He would want them to live."
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CIA-installed puppet says coup saved Honduras from 'Chavismo'
Press TV
2009-06-30 20:46:00
The newly installed Honduran President claims the military coup that brought him to power saved the country from the shackles of a Chavez-sponsored socialism.
Roberto Micheletti, who was installed as caretaker president hours after a military coup against the constitutional president, told Reuters on Monday that the ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya was trying to follow a socialist model set by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
"President Zelaya was moving the country toward 'Chavismo'," he said. "He (Zelaya) was following this model which is not accepted by Hondurans."
Micheletti pointedly used the Spanish term, 'Chavismo' in reference to the Chavez's socialist style of rule that won him substantial popularity in Venezuela and across Latin America.
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Big Brother
TSA deploys canine teams to Orlando
United Press International
2009-06-29 17:52:00
The Transportation Security Administration has deployed two explosives detection canine teams in Florida following the successful completion of training.
The TSA says it deployed the advanced canine teams to Orlando International Airport to provide explosive threat detection capabilities at the airport's air cargo facilities.
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Blogger Wael Abbas held by security at Cairo airport
Menassat
2009-06-30 22:47:00
Egyptian blogger and human rights activist Wael Abbas was stopped at Cairo airport by security officers early on Tuesday morning as he was returning home from a conference in Sweden, sources told Menassat. Security officers temporarily confiscated Abbas' passport and then proceeded by searching his personal belongings.
"They're checking every single paper in his bag. I can see him from out here," Egyptan blogger Wa7damasrya who was at the airport waiting for Abbas told Menassat.
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UK government pretends biometric ID cards won't be compulsory
James Slack
Mail Online
2009-07-01 22:15:00
In a dramatic break with years of Labour policy, the new Home Secretary last night scrapped plans for compulsory ID cards.
Alan Johnson said the scheme - which has already cost as much as £200million - would always remain voluntary.
The project will now focus on persuading youngsters to pay £30 for a card so they can prove their age when trying to buy alcohol in pubs and bars.
Mr Johnson is also considering plans to give the cards away free to those over 75.
Opposition MPs said the climbdown effectively sounded the 'death-knell' for the entire £5billion ID cards regime, which was once described as vital to the fight against terrorism.
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After Outcry, China Delays Requirement for Web-Filtering Software
Michael Wines
The New York Times
2009-06-30 07:54:00
Facing strong resistance at home and abroad, China on Tuesday delayed enforcement of a new rule requiring manufacturers to install Internet filtering software on all new computers.
The delay by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was announced through Xinhua, the official news agency, one day before the July 1 deadline for the software to be installed on all computers sold in China.
The software, called Green Dam-Youth Escort, has caused a torrent of protests from both Chinese computer users and global computer makers, including many in the United States, since the government order became public in early June.
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Axis of Evil
$2.775 billion in US aid supports Israeli nuclear weapons program
Grant F. Smith
Online Journal
2009-07-01 21:41:00
President Barak Obama's fiscal year 2010 budget request for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel is proceeding smoothly through the Congress.
On June 17, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs held a "mark-up" session on the budget. The subcommittee came under pressure from an antiwar group that sought to suspend or condition foreign aid over Israel's use of US weapons which left 3000 Palestinians dead during the Bush administration. The subcommittee held its session in a tiny Capitol room denying activists and members of the press access. The budget quickly passed and is now before the full House Appropriations Committee.
Israel enjoys "unusually wide latitude in spending the [military assistance] funds," according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Flashback: Drawn and Quartered: The plan to carve up Pakistan
Selig S. Harrison
New York Times
2008-02-01 14:11:00
Whatever the outcome of the Pakistani elections, now scheduled for Feb. 18, the existing multiethnic Pakistani state is not likely to survive for long unless it is radically restructured.
Given enough American pressure, a loosely united, confederated Pakistan could still be preserved by reinstating and liberalizing the defunct 1973 Constitution, which has been shelved by successive military rulers. But as matters stand, the Punjabi-dominated regime of Pervez Musharraf is headed for a bloody confrontation with the country's Pashtun, Baluch and Sindhi minorities that could well lead to the breakup of Pakistan into three sovereign entities.
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'US forces attempt to hijack Iranian oil field'
Press TV
2009-07-01 13:06:00
American forces have attempted to take over an Iranian oil field near the country's western border with Iraq, a security official says.
"US forces backed by tanks entered the Mousian area of the Dehloran County, laying around 100 meters of pipeline in Iranian territory," the source, talking on condition of anonymity, said Monday.
The source added that the pipes, marked with Iraqi flags, were blocked after Iranian forces pushed the "intruders" back across the border.
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'I was only following orders': The world premiere of a CIA agent on trial
Press TV
2009-07-01 12:35:00
Former US CIA agent Robert Seldon Lady has confessed to his role in the abduction of a Muslim Egyptian cleric for questioning.
In an interview with the Italian Il Giornale newspaper, the former CIA operative admitted to his involvement in the 2003 kidnapping of Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr known as Abu Omar under the suspicion that he had links to 'terror' groups.
The former US spy said that Abu Omar was temporarily held in US bases in Italy and Germany before being transferred to Egypt for interrogation.
He acknowledged that Abu Omar had been tortured as part of CIA's 'rendition program' in Egypt before being released.
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The suppressed fact: Deaths by U.S. torture
Glenn Greenwald
Salon
2009-06-30 09:19:00
After numerous delays sought by the Obama administration, it is expected that a 2004 CIA Inspector General's Report -- aggressively questioning both the efficacy and legality of Bush's interrogation tactics -- will be released tomorrow. A heavily redacted version of that document was released by the Bush administration in response to an ACLU lawsuit and it remains to be seen how much new information will be included in the report.
In anticipation of the release of that report, there is an important effort underway -- as part of the ACLU Accountability Project -- to correct a critically important flow in the public debate over torture and accountability. The premise of so many media discussions of torture is that "torture" is something that was confined to a single tactic (waterboarding) and three "high-value" detainees accused of being high-level Al Qaeda operatives. The reality is completely different.
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Middle East Madness
Pirates of the Mediterranean
Paul Craig Roberts
The Rebel
2009-07-01 21:24:00
On June 30, the government of Israel committed an act of piracy when the Israeli Navy in international waters illegally boarded the "Spirit of Humanity," kidnapped its 21-person crew from 11 countries, including former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Laureate Mairead MaGuire, and confiscated the cargo of medical supplies, olive trees, reconstruction materials, and children's toys that were on the way to the Mediterranean coast of Gaza. The "Spirit of Humanity," along with the kidnapped 21 persons is being towed to Israel as I write.
Gaza has been described as the "world's largest concentration camp." It is home to 1.5 million Palestinians who were driven by force of American-supplied Israeli arms out of their homes, off their farms, and out of their villages so that Israel could steal their land and make the Palestinian land available to Israeli settlers.
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Iranian police say Neda's death was a 'prearranged scenario'
Press TV
2009-07-01 21:19:00
Iran's Police Chief says the mysterious death of Neda Aqa-Soltan, who became a symbol of post-election street rallies in Iran, was a 'prearranged scenario'.
Neda, 26, was shot dead on June 20 in an alley away from the scene of clashes between security forces and demonstrators in Tehran.
She immediately became an international icon after graphic videos of her death grabbed the attention of world media outlets.
Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam, commander of the Iranian Police, said Wednesday that the unfortunate incident - which has been hyped and dramatized by Western media outlets - was in fact a 'premeditated act of murder'.
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Grenade planted at mausoleum in northern Tehran
Press TV
2009-07-01 12:53:00
An official breaks the news of a grenade having been planted at a mausoleum in a northern area of the Iranian capital Tehran.
People working at a mausoleum called -- located at Tajrish Square -- on Tuesday night found a grenade that had been planted in a trash can in the women's restroom, the Fars news agency quoted the head of the Tehran section of the Charity Organization, Yadollah Shirmardi, as saying on Wednesday.
The official added that the safety pin of the grenade had been removed and that a piece of tape had been put in its place. Shirmardi suspected that the culprit wanted the grenade to explode ahead of the evening prayers when the area is usually crowded.
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Iran to Secret Team: We know your game - Detained Newsweek reporter comes clean about his role in propagandising
Press TV
2009-07-01 12:13:00
Newsweek's Canadian-Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari has admitted to giving "false and biased" reports about the recent post-election events in Iran.
Bahari, who also had connections with the BBC and Britain's Channel 4 news, was arrested in Tehran during the unrest that followed the announcement of the result of the 10th presidential election.
In a Tuesday press conference that was held while he was still in custody, Bahari explained the nature of some of his activities in Iran over the past years and the role that Western media had played in the events, which unfolded in the country.
"Most of the work I did for BBC and Channel 4 had to do with highlighting problems in various areas... the journalist work I did revolved around daily news and issues such as the parliamentary and presidential elections," Bahari told reports.
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The Media's Premature Celebration of US Withdrawal From Iraq
Allison Kilkenny
The Huffington Post
2009-06-30 08:16:00
It has been widely reported that Iraqis are celebrating the withdrawal of US forces from their country. But what the media has failed to emphasize is that 130,000 residual forces will still be operating inside of Iraq, and that President Obama intends to keep as many as 50,000 troops stationed in Iraq until 2011, though that date might change, and that there is no withdrawal timeline for thousands of private contractors.
The 2011 date is tentative as explained by the top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen:
"Conditions could change in that period of time. And, if we get to a point where this [Status of Forces Agreement] is agreed to, and have a relationship with the government of Iraq tied to it, that we will continue to have discussions with them over time, as conditions continue to evolve."
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Israel turns back a boat delivering medical supplies to Gaza
Mel Frykberg
The Christian Science Monitor
2009-06-30 07:26:00
Bringing fresh attention to its blockade of the Gaza Strip, Israel on Tuesday turned back a boat attempting to deliver three tons of medical supplies to Gazans.
After a radio message asking the small ferry to turn back was ignored, the Israeli Navy boarded the boat and redirected the vessel to the Israeli port of Ashdod. Reuters quoted a police source as saying that the activists aboard, members of the US-based Free Gaza movement, would "likely be deported."
"Yesterday evening the Israeli Navy contacted the boat while at sea clarifying that it would not be permitted to enter Gaza coastal waters because of security risks in the area, and the existing naval blockade," the Israeli military said in a statement, adding that humanitarian aid would be sent to Gaza "subject to authorization."
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Grand Theft Economics
U.S. pathocrats: China hoarding building blocks to recovery
Barrie McKenna and Brian Milner
The Globe and Mail
2009-07-01 22:13:00
Europe teams up with Washington to launch sweeping WTO complaint over China's export controls
The United States and Europe say China is strategically hoarding many of the vital building blocks of industrial production as tough economic times inflame global trade tensions.
The Obama administration and the European Union launched sweeping World Trade Organization complaints Tuesday, alleging that China is using export controls to give its manufacturers cheap access to the key raw materials used in products ranging from aluminum and steel to solar cells, pharmaceuticals and microchips.
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Goldman Sachs: The Wall Street Bubble Mafia
Matt Taibbi
Cryptogon
2009-07-01 20:04:00
Comment from Kevin Flaherty at Cryptogon:
This was published last week in Rolling Stone issue 1082-83. As of now, Rolling Stone has not posted this article online.
I know what you'll be thinking as you read this: That my last job in the U.S. (Wall Street Chop Shop and "We Americans Were Very Clever") was with Goldman Sachs. Good guess, but no. The firm I worked for is dead now.
From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression - and they're about to do it again
The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled-dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates.
By now, most of us know the major players. As George Bush's last Treasury secretary, former Goldman CEO Henry Paulson was the architect of the bailout, a suspiciously self-serving plan to funnel trillions of Your Dollars to a handful of his old friends on Wall Street. Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's former Treasury secretary, spent 26 years at Goldman before becoming chairman of Citigroup - which in turn got a $300 billion taxpayer bailout from Paulson. There's John Thain, the rear end in a top hat chief of Merrill Lynch who bought an $87,000 area rug for his office as his company was imploding; a former Goldman banker, Thain enjoyed a multibillion-dollar handout from Paulson, who used billions in taxpayer funds to help Bank of America rescue Thain's sorry company. And Robert Steel, the former Goldmanite head of Wachovia, scored himself and his fellow executives $225 million in golden parachute payments as his bank was self-destructing. There's Joshua Bolten, Bush's chief of staff during the bailout, and Mark Patterson, the current Treasury chief of staff, who was a Goldman lobbyist just a year ago, and Ed Liddy, the former Goldman director whom Paulson put in charge of bailed-out insurance giant AIG, which forked over $13 billion to Goldman after Liddy came on board. The heads of the Canadian and Italian national banks are Goldman alums, as is the head of the World Bank, the head of the New York Stock Exchange, the last two heads of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York - which, incidentally, is now in charge of overseeing Goldman - not to mention ...
But then, any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain - an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.
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Citi raises rates on millions of credit cards: report
Hezron Selvi
Reuters
2009-07-01 13:50:00
Citigroup Inc has increased interest rates on up to 15 million U.S. credit card accounts just months before curbs on such rises come into effect, the Financial Times reported citing people close to the situation.
Citigroup had upped rates on 13 million to 15 million credit cards it co-brands with retailers such as Sears, the paper said.
In a statement, Citigroup said "We have adjusted pricing and card terms for some customers as part of our regular account reviews. This is an ongoing process to ensure we offer terms, interest rates, credit lines and products based on individual needs and risk profiles."
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Bernie Madoff: Fall Guy or First of Many?
Eric Lotke
Campaign for America's Future
2009-07-01 11:44:00
Bernard Madoff has been sentenced to 150 years in prison for one of the biggest investment frauds in Wall Street history. The punishment seems to fit the crime....
But there is no closure here. We can't let Madoff's sentence distract us from the underlying problems.
This isn't just about Madoff. This is about the system in which Madoff's scam took place. This is about systemic fraud and malpractice, the cultural trade of due diligence for easy profit. It's about conflicts of interest where companies paid ratings agencies for their ratings. It's about ideological blinders that let regulators and the Federal Reserve look the other way while banks turned into betting parlors.
So Madoff got 150 years for breaking into the bank. Fine.
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China Plans to Start Yuan Settlement With Asean Soon
Chua Kong Ho, Shanthy Nambiar and Judy Chen
Bloomberg
2009-06-30 07:12:00
China may soon allow companies in its southern provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi to use yuan to settle cross-border trade with Southeast Asia to reduce foreign- exchange risks, a government official said.
The scheme will protect exporters from swings in currencies and help promote trade with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Nong Rong, vice secretary general at the China-ASEAN Expo, said today. The trade fair, sponsored by China and Asean countries, has been held annually since 2004 in the city of Nanning, capital of Guangxi province.
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Russia, China to Promote Ruble, Yuan Use in Trade
Lyubov Pronina and Alex Nicholson
Bloomberg
2009-06-17 07:09:00
The leaders of Russia and China agreed to expand use of the ruble and yuan in bilateral trade to lessen dependence on the U.S. dollar a day after they took part in the first summit of the so-called BRIC countries.
"We agreed to take further steps in this direction, including, perhaps, by adjusting contracts and laws that already exist," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told reporters in the Kremlin today after talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.
Russia, the world's biggest energy supplier, wants to start selling oil to China in rubles, said Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who is also chairman of OAO Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil company. Energy sales in rubles are a "strategic" issue for Russia, he said, adding that oil exports to China over the next 20 years will surpass $100 billion.
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The Living Planet
Real Climate's Misinformation
Roger Pielke Sr.
Climate Science
2009-06-30 05:43:00
Real Climate posted a weblog on June 21 2009 titled "A warning from Copenhagen". They report on a Synthesis Report of the Copenhagen Congress which was handed over to the Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen in Brussels the previous week.
Real Climate writes:
"So what does it say? Our regular readers will hardly be surprised by the key findings from physical climate science, most of which we have already discussed here. Some aspects of climate change are progressing faster than was expected a few years ago - such as rising sea levels, the increase of heat stored in the ocean and the shrinking Arctic sea ice. "The updated estimates of the future global mean sea level rise are about double the IPCC projections from 2007″, says the new report. And it points out that any warming caused will be virtually irreversible for at least a thousand years - because of the long residence time of CO2 in the atmosphere."
First, what is "physical climate science"? How is this different from "climate science". In the past, this terminology has been used when authors ignore the biological components of the climate system.
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Next generation questions for global warming
Thomas Fuller
Examiner
2009-06-27 05:14:00
As with all scientific hypotheses, global warming will have to stand up under scrutiny over time. As there is no recognised clearinghouse that presents objections and answers in a structured fashion, this leads to scattergun efforts where multiple objections are raised and only partially addressed in the same forum. Popular websites such as Grist, RealClimate and Skeptical Science have tried to offer responses to some 'skeptical' talking points, but there is no forum for exchanging views and referencing papers outside the rather impenetrable associations of individual specialties, which in any event limit their discussion to issues within the specialty.
Those supporting an activist solution to the threat of anthropogenic global warming complain (sometimes loudly) that they are forced to answer the same 'primitive' objections repeatedly, only to see them resurface shortly thereafter, something that I am sure is frustrating. It's a pity that a central resource can't be agreed on and that an exchange of both views and peer-reviewed papers cannot be established.
There is a new generation of skeptical arguments advanced against the theory of anthropogenic global warming. I hope they win--not because I am on their side, but because I want very much for the Earth not to face a serious threat--we have enough of them already. So far, it appears to me that this new generation of counter claims is not receiving individual attention, but is rather being classed in with earlier skeptical arguments.
So let me try and articulate some of them here and ask for a response.
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The Lying EPA
Alan Caruba
Warning Signs
2009-07-01 05:08:00
"A suppressed EPA study says old U.N. data ignore the decline in global temperatures and other inconvenient truths. Was the report kept under wraps to influence the vote on the cap-and-trade bill?
"This was supposed to be the most transparent administration ever. Yet as the House of Representatives prepared to vote on the Waxman-Markey bill, the largest increase in U.S. history on 100% of Americans, an attempt was made to suppress a study shredding supporter' arguments.
"On Friday, the day of the vote, the Competitive Enterprise Institute said was releasing 'an internal study on climate science that was suppressed by the Environmental Protection Agency.'"
You can read the EPA document here.
All this, of course, makes "official" what this commentator and others, many of whom credentialed meteorologists and climatologists, have been saying now for YEARS.
There is no global warming. The warming that began around1850 was an entirely NATURAL cycle, a response to a mini-ice age that had begun around 1300. There was and is no proof that the presence of so-called "greenhouse gases" such as carbon dioxide had anything to do with the warming that occurred, nor that human activity contributed to it.
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Global Warming Is a Fraud
David Deming
Lew Rockwell
2009-06-29 04:31:00
As the years pass and data accumulate, it is becoming evident that global warming is a fraud. Climate change is natural and ongoing, but the Earth has not warmed significantly over the last thirty years. Nor has there been a single negative effect of any type that can be unambiguously attributed to global warming.
As I write, satellite data show that the mean global temperature is the same that it was in 1979. The extent of global sea ice is also unchanged from 1979. Since the end of the last Ice Age, sea level has risen more than a hundred meters. But for the last three years, there has been no rise in sea level. If the polar ice sheets are melting, why isn't sea level rising? Global warming is supposed to increase the severity and frequency of tropical storms. But hurricane and typhoon activity is at a record low.
Every year in the US, more than forty thousand people are killed in traffic accidents. But not one single person has ever been killed by global warming. The number of species that have gone extinct from global warming is exactly zero. Both the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets are stable. The polar bear population is increasing. There has been no increase in infectious disease that can be attributed to climate change. We are not currently experiencing more floods, droughts, or forest fires.
In short, there is no evidence of any type to support the idea that we are entering an era when significant climate change is occurring and will cause the deterioration of either the natural environment or the human standard of living.
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US: Senator Inhofe Calls for Inquiry Into 'Suppressed' Climate Change Report
Judson Berger
Fox News
2009-06-29 04:12:00
A top Republican senator has ordered an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency's alleged suppression of a report that questioned the science behind global warming.
The 98-page report, co-authored by EPA analyst Alan Carlin, pushed back on the prospect of regulating gases like carbon dioxide as a way to reduce global warming. Carlin's report argued that the information the EPA was using was out of date, and that even as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased, global temperatures have declined.
"He came out with the truth. They don't want the truth at the EPA," Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., a global warming skeptic, told FOX News, saying he's ordered an investigation. "We're going to expose it."
The controversy comes after the House of Representatives passed a landmark bill to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, one that Inhofe said will be "dead on arrival" in the Senate despite President Obama's energy adviser voicing confidence in the measure.
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At least 15 earthquakes hit Taiwan's Hualien region in single day
Taiwan News
2009-06-28 02:10:00
At least 15 earthquakes hit the Hualien region of East Taiwan Sunday, with the heaviest measuring 5.6, the Central Weather Bureau said. The most serious tremor hit at 5:34 p.m. and was felt across most of Northern Taiwan, though no immediate damage was reported.
A total of 14 quakes had their epicenter located at a distance roughly between 16 and 21 kilometers northeast of the Hsiulin Earthquake Monitoring Station. An additional temblor, at 5.52 p.m., hit 21.4 kilometers south of Nan'ao in Ilan County, in an area on the east coast not so far from the Hualien area.
The Central Weather Bureau explained the high number of quakes as a rarely seen series of small quakes leading up to the main tremor, and followed by aftershocks.
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Health & Wellness
The Emperor Wears No Clothes
Jack Herer
JackHerer.com
2009-07-01 18:19:00
Chapter 6
The Body of Medical Literature on Cannabis Medicine
Our authority here is the 'Body of Literature,' starting with ancient materia medicae:
Chinese and Hindu pharmacopoeia and Near Eastern cuneiform tablets, and continuing all the way into this century, including the 1966-76 U.S. renaissance of cannabis studies - some 10,000 separate studies on medicines and effects from the hemp plant.
Comprehensive compendia of these works are designated as the prime sources for this medical chapter, as well as ongoing interviews with many researchers.
Affordable, Available Herbal Health Care
For more than 3,500 years, cannabis/hemp/marijuana has been, depending on the culture or nation, either the most used or one of the most widely used plants for medicines. This includes: China, India, the Middle and Near East, Africa, and pre-Roman Catholic Europe (prior to 476 A.D.).
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Emerging Clinical Applications For Cannabis & Cannabinoids
NORML
2009-07-01 17:31:00
A Review of the Recent Scientific Literature, 2000 - 2009
Despite the ongoing political debate regarding the legality of medicinal marijuana, clinical investigations of the therapeutic use of cannabinoids are now more prevalent than at any time in history. A search of the National Library of Medicine's PubMed website quantifies this fact. A keyword search using the terms "cannabis, 1996" (the year California voters became the first of 13 states to allow for the drug's medical use under state law) reveals just 258 scientific journal articles published on the subject during that year. Perform this same search for the year 2008, and one will find over 2,100 published scientific studies.
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Flashback: Cannabis and the Brain: A User's Guide
LewRockwell.com
2006-03-02 17:16:00
Preclinical data recently published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation demonstrating that cannabinoids may spur brain cell growth has reignited the international debate regarding the impact of marijuana on the brain. However, unlike previous pseudo-scientific campaigns that attempted to link pot smoking with a litany of cognitive abnormalities, modern research suggests what many cannabis enthusiasts have speculated all along: ganja may be good for you.
Cannabinoids & Neurogenesis
"Study turns pot wisdom on its head," pronounced the Globe and Mail in October. News wires throughout North America and the world touted similar headlines - all of which were met with a monumental silence from federal officials and law enforcement. Why all the fuss? Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon found that the administration of synthetic cannabinoids in rats stimulated the proliferation of newborn neurons (nerve cells) in the hippocampus region of the brain and significantly reduced measures of anxiety and depression-like behavior. The results shocked researchers - who noted that almost all other so-called "drugs of abuse," including alcohol and tobacco, decrease neurogenesis in adults - and left the "pot kills brain cells" crowd with a platter of long-overdue egg on their faces.
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Gliomas and cannabinoids activity
NORML
2009-07-01 16:43:00
Gliomas (tumors in the brain) are especially aggressive malignant forms of cancer, often resulting in the death of affected patients within one to two years following diagnosis. There is no cure for gliomas and most available treatments provide only minor symptomatic relief.
A review of the modern scientific literature reveals numerous preclinical studies and one pilot clinical study demonstrating cannabinoids' ability to act as antineoplastic agents, particularly on glioma cell lines.
Writing in the September 1998 issue of the journal FEBS Letters, investigators at Madrid's Complutense University, School of Biology, first reported that delta-9-THC induced apoptosis (programmed cell death) in glioma cells in culture.[1] Investigators followed up their initial findings in 2000, reporting that the administration of both THC and the synthetic cannabinoid agonist WIN 55,212-2 "induced a considerable regression of malignant gliomas" in animals.[2] Researchers again confirmed cannabinoids' ability to inhibit tumor growth in animals in 2003.[3]
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Flashback: Marijuana ingredient helps fight brain tumors
Science Blog
2004-08-15 16:34:00
Cannabinoids, the active ingredients in marijuana, restrict the sprouting of blood vessels to brain tumors by inhibiting the expression of genes needed for the production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). According to a new study, administration of cannabinoids significantly lowered VEGF activity in laboratory mice and two patients with late-stage glioblastoma.
From American Association for Cancer Research:
Marijuana ingredient inhibits VEGF pathway required for brain tumor blood vessels
Cannabinoids, the active ingredients in marijuana, restrict the sprouting of blood vessels to brain tumors by inhibiting the expression of genes needed for the production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).
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Pot Shrinks Tumors; Government Knew in '74
Raymond Cushing
Alternet
2009-07-01 15:52:00
The term medical marijuana took on dramatic new meaning in February, 2000 when researchers in Madrid announced they had destroyed incurable brain tumors in rats by injecting them with THC, the active ingredient in cannabis.
The Madrid study marks only the second time that THC has been administered to tumor-bearing animals; the first was a Virginia investigation 26 years ago. In both studies, the THC shrank or destroyed tumors in a majority of the test subjects.
Most Americans don't know anything about the Madrid discovery. Virtually no major U.S. newspapers carried the story, which ran only once on the AP and UPI news wires, on Feb. 29, 2000.
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Science & Technology
Toyota Research Achieves Brain Control of Wheelchair
Martyn Williams
PCWorld
2009-06-29 08:32:00
Researchers in Japan have developed a brain-machine interface (BMI) system that allows for control of a wheelchair using thought.
The system processes brain thought patterns and can turn them into left, right and forward movements of the wheelchair with a delay as short as one-thousandth of a second. That's a vast improvement over other systems that can take as long as several seconds to analyze and react to the user's thoughts.
It was developed by scientists at the BSI-Toyota Collaboration Center, a research and development center established in 2007 by Japanese government-related research unit RIKEN, Toyota Motor, Toyota Central R&D Labs and Genesis Research Institute.
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Uranium Found on the Moon
Clara Moskowitz
Space.com
2009-07-01 00:58:00
Uranium exists on the moon, according to new data from a Japanese spacecraft.
The findings are the first conclusive evidence for the presence of the radioactive element in lunar dirt, the researchers said. They announced the discovery recently at the 40th Lunar and Planetary Conference and at the Proceedings of the International Workshop Advances in Cosmic Ray Science.
The revelation suggests that nuclear power plants could be built on the moon, or even that Earth's satellite could serve as a mining source for uranium needed back home.
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Zero-emission cars to race round world in 80 days
John Pickrell
Cosmos Online
2009-07-01 00:40:00
London: The world's first major racing challenge for renewable vehicles will see six modified sports cars zip around 40,000 km of the northern hemisphere, through mountains and deserts, and across six continents.
The development of electric vehicles that are up to the challenge may encourage improved technology that could eventually filter down into electric consumer cars, says one of the teams involved in the project.
Vehicles are one of the greatest sources of carbon dioxide pollution. One possible solution to this will be the switch from petrol-driven to electric vehicles, but the widespread adoption of electric cars faces a challenge in that people perceive them to be low-performance vehicles.
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Our Haunted Planet
US: Public Utilities Group Confirms "Sewer Monster" Is Real, But Don't Know What It Is
Annalee Newitz
io9
2009-07-01 20:23:00
If you've been following the ongoing sewer monster story from North Carolina, I've got some seriously crazy news for you. First of all, the video of the throbbing poop-esque creature has been confirmed as real. But what is it?
[View Video]
We've been tipped off by an anonymous source about how the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, is responding as the viral video of a seething blob in the city sewers made its way across the internet yesterday. Marti Gibson is the Environmental/EMS Coordinator for Public Utilities in the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, and she has been as confused as the rest of us. When she first looked at the video, she emailed our anonymous source to say it was a slime mold that was in the phase of its lifecycle where it looks like a throbbing, breathing animal (see io9's report on slime molds from a few weeks ago where we talked about this exact thing).
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England: Strange shape seen in sky
Catherine Roche
Shropshire Star
2009-07-01 17:38:00
A UFO-spotter has photographed this strange grey shape hovering in the skies above Bridgnorth following a hand-glider.
Col Foster, who never goes anywhere without his camera after taking up an interest in UFOs three years ago, spotted what he describes as a "grey and partially transparent sphere" at Hampton Loade near Bridgnorth.
Mr Foster, from Wordsley, near Stourbridge, joins the scores of people who have seen other-worldly shapes over county skies this year.
Mystery surrounds the flying objects - some glow, some hover and others have strange shapes.
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England: UFO mystery is solved
Express and Star
2009-07-01 17:38:00
The truth is out there - on page 1,520 of the Argos catalogue to be exact.
The mystery of the cylindrical UFO spotted hovering in the skies above the Black Country was today solved, revealed as a £6.49 children's balloon.
The picture in Monday's Express & Star created a huge amount of debate among UFO watchers and the story on our website attracted more than 10,000 hits worldwide. The suspected UFO, spotted in Walsall by reader Mike Tunnicliffe, looked like a giant sausage and had people looking skywards.
But the answer to the mystery is close to home - any Argos store in fact, where the National Geographic solar balloon is currently being offered.
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US: Another Large Gray Triangular Object Spotted in Night Sky
UFOs Northwest
2009-06-30 17:25:00
Posted: June 30, 2009
Date of Sighting: June 23, 2009
Time of Sighting: 11 PM CDT
Location of Sighting: Dallas, Texas
Description: Listen to Interview With Witness's Sister (MP3)
The witness's sister called and reported the sighting after having an extensive discussion with the witness after the event. The witness's sister has a responsible position as a magazine writer and is too preoccupied with "deadlines" to file a formal report. Also the witness has been ridiculed by associates which makes her more reluctant to file a report for fear of additional criticism. The witness apparently was driving on the night of the sighting with two other passengers in her car. She noticed a hovering dark gray triangular object with red, white, and blue lights that would blink on and off. No sound was heard. She saw the object for about 12 minutes. The other passengers were not convinced that the object was unusual.
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England: Beeston, Nottingham - Object Looked Like it was on Fire
UK UFO Sighting Reports
2009-06-30 17:25:00
Posted: June 30, 2009
Date of Sighting: 30/06/2009
Time: 10.00pm
Witness Statement: At first we thought it was a hot air balloon, but it was moving faster about 50 ft high. It moved across our garden from Nottingham area towards Long Eaton. It was as if it was on fire, no noise and like a small balloon basket. It started to climb high and eventually disappeared out of sight. It ended up much higher than a commercial airplane that passed over some 10 mins later..
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England: Bridgwater, Somerset - A Ball of Fire
UK UFO Sighting Reports
2009-06-30 17:04:00
Posted: June 30, 2009
Date of Sighting: 23rd May 2009
Time: approx 9pm
Witness Statement: Had a phone call from my husband, he said that there was a big orange light in the sky almost like a ball of fire that we had seen a few times before. It was hovering silently to begin with, then it started to move slowly. After a while it got a bit faster and disappeared into thin air. I tried to film it on my phone but didn't have much luck. There was no noise or anything. what is this strange light that so many of us have seen?
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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Flashback: George Carlin's Last Interview
Jay Dixit
Psychology Today
2008-06-23 19:08:00
Ten days ago, on Friday, June 13th, 2008, I had the extraordinary privilege of talking to George Carlin. As far as I know it was the last in-depth interview he gave before he passed away yesterday at age 71. Originally it was slated to run as a 350-word Q&A on the back page of Psychology Today. But I was so excited to talk to him - and he was so generous with his time - that I just kept on going. By the end I had over 14,000 words.
On stage, George Carlin came across as a grouch, often vulgar and sometimes misanthropic. But with me he was patient and warm, happy to talk through the minutiae of his creative process and eager to share stories about his childhood, his evolution as a comic, and his influence. What struck me most was the joy in his voice as he talked about the wonderful feeling he got in his gut while writing. I was also moved by the gratitude he expressed for his mother, who he said "saved" him and his brother - leaving her bullying, alcoholic husband when George was just two months old, getting a job during the worst years of the Depression, and raising two boys on her own.
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