As I said before, no one is safe from the convenient rationale of security agencies to spy indiscriminately on their own citizens - when we allow them to do so, that is. Of course, and as I discussed previously at length in numerous posts here at APOV (such as here , here or here , as a few exanples), a confluence of attitudes is required for a democracy to arrive at a stage whereby pervasive domestic spying comes to be not only instituted, but furthermore ratified as legal after the fact... Read Full Story
In the U.S., whatever shape and form health care reform will take shall not prevent Big Pharma from satisfying the bottomless pit that is their greed (emphasis added):Drug Makers Raise Prices in Face of Health Care ReformEven as drug makers promise to support Washington’s health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation’s drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry Read Full Story
God bless America - fucking indeed ...Absolutely.And then some.'Nuff said.(Addendum: of course, I should add "God Bless Canada fucking indeed" as well - warm h/t to Chrystal Ocean)(sigh) Read Full Story
Welcome to 21st Century capitalism:Business Groups ‘Worried’ About The Effects Of Banning The Importation Of Goods Made With Child LaborOne of the worst abuses in the international labor markets is the use of child labor. The most recent report on the issue by the International Labor Organization found that as of 2004 more than 218 million children were engaged in illegal work, as defined by Read Full Story
... will always take a back seat to more important things like imposing the church's dogmatic and parochial tenets - even at the risk of actually hurting and harming people (emphasis added):Catholic Church gives D.C. ultimatumThe Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a Read Full Story
I definitely could not have put it better myself (emphasis added):A Multitude of Creatures by Abby Zimet In intriguing news, the Vatican has just finished a five-day conference exploring the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Participants agreed the issue raises difficult questions: Would Jesus save aliens, too? We applaud the open-mindedness the conference Read Full Story
This ignoramus represents what the Republican party is now - a devolution we've witnessed all too well (more examples here , here , here , here , here and here ) during the past U.S. Presidency campaign and which is now fully achieved: Joe the Plumber suggests some members of Congress should be shot On Wednesday, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher said that if he were in Congress, he would “probably be in jail” because he’d be charged with “ slapping some member .” He added, “And that’s not... Read Full Story
A while ago, back in this (quite) old post, I approached the question of what exactly is terrorism - all the while drawing on the inherent double standard in applying the label (you know, like, war crimes and all).With the recent, tragic Fort Hood shooting, many (of the usual) suspects fearmongerers have been decrying this senseless act as terrorism - especially since such an insane act was Read Full Story
The human rights and war crimes of the Bush administration remain unanswered. These are not allegations being loosely brandied about, but rather backed by serious incriminating evidence - which include various bona fides public confessions to this effect. In Canada, all of these were quietly condoned by our refusal to arrest and charge former President George W. Bush when he came into our country - most likely out of our collective guilt at knowing that our very own security agencies... Read Full Story
The following news item pretty much exemplifies what has gone wrong with unfettered greed and our current economic woes (emphasis aded): Nortel seeks court approval to pay bonuses to execs Lawyers for Nortel Networks Corp. will be in court Friday, arguing for the right to award bonuses to a group of eight top executives at the telecommunications company. The company, which has filed for bankruptcy protection, says the payouts are necessary to boost flagging morale at the floundering company... Read Full Story
