Well, the good news in this story isSonugn wrote:American investigator educates minorities about friendship, love and human rights
Vedic minded Indian Hindus should take note of this and be thankful that we have such great goras who can civilize us.
Please rest assured, the burden is being manfully carried.A White Christian man is always the victim. That's the point of being a Christian.
Even when he's skinning the slave alive, it's always, "This hurts me more than it hurts you, boy".
Interesting that echandee matters so much more than satyameva jayate - exactly the opposite of what we see in India.Prem Kumar wrote:
Bhy phor did this video disappear from JooTube? Evil whitemen are reading this phorum
A famous quote from the Vietnam War was a statement attributed to an unnamed U.S. officer by AP correspondent Peter Arnett in his writing about Bến Tre city on 7 February 1968:
'It became necessary to destroy the town to save it', a United States major said today. He was talking about the decision by allied commanders to bomb and shell the town regardless of civilian casualties, to rout the Vietcong.[3]
The quote became distorted in subsequent publications, eventually becoming the more familiar, "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."[4] Victor Davis Hanson, writing for the conservative National Review Online, has called into question the accuracy of the original quote and its source.[5]
Arnett never completely revealed his source, but he did say that it came from one of the four officers he interviewed that day. United States Army Major Phil Cannella, the senior officer present at Bến Tre, suggested that the quote might have been a distortion of something he had said to Arnett.[4] At the time, The New Republic attributed the quote to U.S. Air Force Major Chester L. Brown.[6]
In Walter Cronkite's 1971 book, Eye on the World, Arnett re-asserted that the quote was something "one American major said to me in a moment of revelation."[7] However, American veteran Captain Michael D. Miller wrote in 2006 that he heard the comment being made by a Major Booris at a press briefing.[8]
LinkI'm a Member of the American 'Used-to-Haves'
I used to have a house. I used to go on vacations. I used to shop at department stores, get my hair done and even enjoy pedicures. Now, I don't. I'm a member of the American "Used-to-Haves."
Now, I'm renting an apartment and I'm desperately awaiting a check so I can pay the rent. Yet, I'm lucky to have an apartment that includes utilities. Despite my college degree from a prestigious college, and solid employment track record, I can't get a job. It's been so long since my corporate days, I now feel unemployable.
My age doesn't help. But I'm as healthy as a thoroughbred, I appear quite young and would gladly accept a basic salary. I'm a bargain! But no. I'm freelancing for $15 an hour these days, but I used to earn $100 an hour. In fact, all the freelance hourly rates have been driven down to $15-30 an hour. To make ends meet, I also work as an aide ($13.75 an hour) and run a small local company. And my annual earnings are under $20,000.
I'm lucky to be in Massachusetts, where my health care is paid for, and fortunate to be of sound health and mind. But on days when I feel hopeless, I can envision myself 20 years from now, living in hardscrabble poverty. Female friends my age who are in similar financial circumstances are terrified of the future. If we can't get decent paying jobs today, there's little hope of getting a corporate job with benefits in the future. And during the past few years as we've struggled, we went through all of our savings, 401(k)s and anything left in the bottoms of our pocketbooks. So we can see ourselves as old, pathetic bent-over women, living in bus shelters, our ragged belongings in supermarket carts.
For the "Used-to-Haves," every day is a struggle to hold onto hope. Everywhere we look is a reminder of what we used to have.
We "Used-to-Haves" all used to work in the corporate world for big, wealthy companies. We were discarded in layoffs. I've been told, as my employer du jour let me go, what a positive difference I made and the value of my contributions. I agree. I know I made my bosses look brilliant. Fully aware that my contributions built the company's brand image. Yet, I was expendable.
As a new "Used-to-Have," I denied my slide. "I'm not poor!" I nervously chuckled to myself. But as I slid more, the smartest thing was finally acknowledging poverty and applying for the benefits available. I'd never been poor before. I didn't know how to be poor. But finally, I learned. The magnitude of my shame and embarrassment is unspeakable. It's impossible to explain to people who aren't poor -- "The Haves." When I'm beseechingly desperate for a check owed to me, the check writer inevitably has no concept of how frighteningly desperate I am for that money. They say, "Next week? or "The accountant says two weeks." I plead, nicely, sincerely, "Is there no way you could just write me that check?" And the answer is "no." It's just putting a pen to paper, but for "The Haves," I'm just a pain in the neck.
Despite the disappearance of the middle class and the proliferation of the "Used-to-Haves," Corporate America is as cavalier and unfeeling as they were when I was laid off. I remember working overtime for a New England financial firm on weekends, holidays and New Year's Eve. Getting my arm stuck in a copier while fixing a paper jam. Wearing matching t-shirts as we moved boxes from one location to another. You name it, I made every sacrifice to keep my job in Corporate America.
Watching John Boehner and the Republican Congress during the past few years has been a stunning confirmation of their seeming disregard for the "Used-to-Haves." As they pull down salaries of $174,000 a year, unparalleled benefits and the option of voting themselves a raise, their selfishness is unrivaled as they barricade health care reform, knowingly shut down the government, cut SNAP benefits and eliminate extended unemployment payments.
Congress doesn't have the stones to call up their lobbyist buddies and corporate honchos and insist they hire more unemployed Americans for the American companies they celebrate and boast about.
The press calls it "The Great Recession." It actually was the "Great Theft." In the wake of this very public, often-glossed-over theft from the middle class, the perpetrators have been revealed. We know the American corporations without the courage, scruples or heart to help us, the ones responsible for the recession and the politicians who put the toxic policies in place. We "Used-to-Haves" aren't stupid.
As a "Used-to-Have," I'm beyond angry. I'm not a "Never Had." I know what it's like to pay bills on time and have a little left over. I remember vacations and pedicures and going out to dinner. As a "Used-to-Have," I know exactly what Corporate America, lobbyists and politicians have taken away from me. The "Used-to-Haves" and the children of the "Used-to-Haves" won't forget. The "Used-to-Haves" are educated. Many of us and our children have amazing talent and academic honors. We know how to get things done. And though all of the odds appear to be against us, we must refuse to give up hope.
----
Kathleen's story is part of a Huffington Post series profiling Americans who work hard and yet still struggle to make ends meet. Learn more about other individuals' experiences here.
Have a similar story you'd like to share? Email us at [email protected] or give us a call at (408) 508-4833, and you can record your story in your own words. Please be sure to include your name and phone number.
LinkTaxes: How Congress Lets the Rich Pay Less
Friday, September 27, 2013
(* Editors Note: Please note the date of this post, because some of the information tends to become outdated, such as the wealth rankings on the Forbes 400 list.)
President Obama once proposed the Buffett Rule, named after Warren Buffett (currently the 2nd richest man in America with an estimated net worth of $52.5 billion). The tax bill would have taxed anyone earning over $1 million a year at 30%. But that's still less than someone with a taxable income over $183,250 to $398,350 --- and as the tax code is written now, the top one percent still pays less as a percentage of their income than someone else with a taxable income between $36,250 and $87,850.
That's why capital gains should be taxed as "regular wages" (not as "unearned income") using the current progressive marginal tax rates. Why should a billionaire, earning millions of dollars every year, pay a lower tax rate than a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas?
Bloomberg: "Calculations by the Office of Management and Budget suggest that taxing capital gains and dividend income at the same rate as ordinary income could bring in roughly $1 trillion over the next 10 years. Another $700 billion could be raised if capital gains weren’t "zeroed out at death", requiring heirs to pay taxes on any gains that occurred before they inherited stocks, real estate or other assets."
Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics and Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley built a model and estimated that the optimal tax rate on capital (including bequests, corporate profits and investment income) would be as much as 60 percent."
The skewed tax code (as it's written now) is not only the major driver of income inequality, but it also contributes to a lack of much needed revenue that's necessary to match our government spending:
In the late 70's the capital gains tax rate was much higher than it is today (close to 40% back then). From there it gradually went down. Bill Clinton lowered them to 28%, then later to 20%. In 2003 George W. Bush lowered them again to 15%.
But this past January the capital gains tax rate went up from 15% to 23.8% with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts --- including a 3.8% surtax for Medicaid that was added with the Affordable Care Act.
But even still, the top 1% earns most of their income from capital gains with stocks, and the tax rate for these high-income earners is lower than someone who earns an hourly middle-class wage (25% on taxable income over $36,250 to $87,850).
The very slight increase in the capital gains tax (3.8%) was one of the primary reasons why the Republicans are so adamant about repealing and defunding Obamacare (to protect the rich).
Also since the late 70's, the "effective" corporate tax rates are much lower as a percent of GDP than they were 35 years ago. The reduced taxes that are paid on corporate profits --- profits being the engine that drives capital gains through the investments in stocks (realized by corporate executives with stock-options). This also brings in much less needed revenue that's necessary to fund our government.
On their personal income, the wealthiest people in America pays the 3rd lowest tax rate out of 8 tax brackets (see below for 2013 rates). The capital gains tax rate for investment income (unearned income) is inserted among the marginal tax rates for those who earn regular hourly wages or salaries (earned income).
Bill Maher:
Conservatives who love to brag about American exceptionalism must come here to California. Everything conservatives claim will unravel the fabric of our society --- universal healthcare, higher taxes on the rich, gay marriage, medical marijuana --- has only made California stronger. Without a Republican governor and without a legislature being cock-blocked by Republicans, a $27 billion deficit was turned into a surplus, continuing the proud American tradition of the Republicans blowing a huge hole in the budget and then the Democrats coming in and cleaning it up. How was Governor Moonbeam able to do this? It's amazing, really. We did something economists call "cutting spending AND raising taxes."
Rate---Income Bracket---------------------------Notes
10%---On taxable income from $0 to $8,925----Includes those drawing an unemployment check.
15%---On taxable income over $8,925 to $36,250-Includes Social Security and disability benefits if income is over $25,000 .....50% of all wage earners take home $27,000 or LESS, and pays Social Security taxes on 100% of their earnings.
23.8%---On realized long-term capital gains earned with stocks, real estate, art, gold, etc. (see SWAG investments)----No Social Security taxes are paid on capital gains...whether they earn one dollar or $100 million in any given year. The Waltons (the Walmart heirs) earn $1 million every single DAY in stock dividends. Tax attorneys can better tell you how they legally avoid paying taxes (eg. using offshore banking, etc) and many times they don't even pay this very low tax rate. (Also see estate taxes and gift taxes)
25%----On taxable income over $36,250 to $87,850----Pays Social Security tax on 100% of their income. This might be considered a "middle-class" income
28%----On taxable income over $87,850 to $183,250----Social Security taxes are capped at $113,700. Congressional salaries are $174,000 a year, so they also enjoy the cap.
33%----On taxable income over $183,250 to $398,350----About what a small business owner or a neurosurgeon might average.
35%----On taxable income over $398,350 to $400,000-----Trial lawyers, Washington lobbyists and corporate tax attorneys?
39.6%----On taxable income over $400,000----Regular wages in this income category might be base salaries for the CEOs of large corporations, and represents a lesser part of their total annual salaries if they receive stock-options, which are driven by higher stock prices, helped by low "effective" corporate tax rates (if they pay any corporate taxes at all.)
LinkAmerican Exceptionalism is Dead
Submitted by Bud Meyers on February 13, 2014 - 10:41pm
Having the mightiest military, more powerful than the world has ever seen, doesn't make America exceptional. An ever expanding middle-class, equal opportunity for all, fairness in the political process and worker's rights was what had also made America exceptional since World War II—when the rising tide of capitalism had once lifted all boats. Now it just lifts the biggest yachts.
American exceptionalism is what the political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset called "the first new nation"—a country that developed a uniquely American ideology called "Americanism"—based on liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, republicanism, populism and laissez-faire.
However, many people argue that the United States has retained the European-class inequities, race-based inequalities, imperialism and war.
What had once made America exceptional, has seen that beacon of light extinguished by corporate greed—as we've witnessed since the 1970s—since the long decline of the middle-class, stagnant wages, the war on labor unions and the ever-increasing money in politics that's been corrupting the political process and limiting our representation in democracy.
Over the past 40 years the meaning of "American Exceptionalism" has since changed.
Now we have (once again) record inequality, not seen since the Roaring Twenties—with 50% of all wage earners taking home less than $28,000 a year, a decline in unionization (peaking in 1979), poverty at 16%, and over 40 million Americans out of work. A Government Accountability Office report said there were about 42.6 million "contingent workers" — meaning temporary workers (temps), direct-hire temps, on-call workers, day laborers, contract company workers, independent contractors, self-employed workers, and standard part-time workers.
There is nothing "exceptional" about that. Where are all the full-time jobs that paid a living wage, offered healthcare, paid vacations and sick days? America is not making progress, we're regressing. A recent Rasmussen poll notes that 63% of voters now think the country is headed down the wrong track.
Corporations have been making records profits and CEOs have been raking in multi-million-dollar salaries, year after year, with little of the rewards for all the increases in productivity trickling down to the 99% for the past 40 years.
America isn't the richest country in the world, only 0.01% of it's citizens are the richest in the world. Most Americans don't live in an "exceptional" country, only 0.01% of its citizens enjoy America's "exceptionalism". Just to say that living in America might be better than most other countries, doesn't make her "exceptional"—not without fairness and justice for all. Not without more egalitarianism.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently pontificated: "You want income equality? That’s mediocrity. I don’t think the American people want income equality. What they want is income opportunity."
While discussing Christie's comments on a Fox News segment today, one pundit quipped [paraphrased]: "If the man on the street is making $50,000 a year and someone else is making $5 million, what's the problem? It would be a pretty boring country if we all drove the same car...we'd be a mediocre country."
Are these people really so out of touch with reality? That's just the point: If most people earned $50,000 a year, there wouldn't be a problem. The problem is, 77% of all wage earners earn less than $50,000 a year—and 40% earn less than $20,000 a year; while some CEOs aren't just making $5 million a year, there raking in over $96 million a year in annual salaries. (The AFL-CIO'stop 100 list is here.)
And if you count those who are cashing in on investment income, we're talking billions:
Mark Zuckerberg profited nearly $2.3 billion on his share options when Facebook went public
Richard Kinder received just $1 in wages but more than $1.1 billion in restricted stock profits.
Mel Karmazin (Sirius XM Radio) had share options worth $244 million.
And it's true—they all pay a lower tax rate than Warren Buffett's secretary (and a lower tax rate than the man on the street). Someone with an income of over $36,250 a year (or more) is taxed at least 25% — and pays Social Security taxes on 100% of their income up to $113,700. While the aforementioned upper-income earners only pays a 23.8% tax on capital gains and pays no Social Security tax at all on capital gains. So why does the media consistently ignore this fact? (Read Taxes: How Congress Lets the Rich Pay Less).
Somewhere along the way—since the 1970's maybe—our political and corporate leaders have lost their moral compass. There are very few real patriots in the halls of Congress or in the corporate boardrooms these days (some are not only tax dodgers, but they are draft dodgers as well). Most of the American workers (the people that gave them their power and created their wealth) have been squeezed to the point where they are barely holding on anymore—even with multiple household incomes and/or government subsidies, they can barely sustain themselves any longer.
Rather than give their employees a small raise, the big corporations have been spending billions of dollars buying out their supposed "competitors" (Comcast to buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion).
And earlier, Verizon bought out Vodafone's 45% interest in Verizon Wireless for $130 billion. Here are a few more examples:
AOL acquires Time Warner, 2000, $186.2 billion.
Time Warner bought AOL for $164 billion, renamed AOL Time Warner
Pfizer acquires Warner-Lambert, 1999, $87.3 billion.
AT&T acquires BellSouth, 2006, $83.1 billion.
Exxon acquires Mobil, 1998, $80.3 billion.
Comcast acquires AT&T Broadband, 2001, $76.1 billion.
Bell Atlantic acquires GTE, 1998, $71.1 billion.
Citicorp merges with Travelers Group, 1998, $69.9 billion.
SBC Communications acquires Ameritech, 1998, $68.2 billion.
Pfizer acquires Pharmacia, 2003, $64.3 billion.
Pfizer acquires Wyeth, 2009, $64.2 billion
Yahoo! bought out Broadcast.com for $6 billion in 1999
@Home bought out Excite for $7 billion
AT&T bought out T-Mobile for $39 billion
Express Scripts bought out Medco for $29 billion
But these wealthy "job creators"—the multi-billionaires—can't find any old rusty quarters buried beneath their mattresses to give to their hard-working and over-worked employees (so that maybe they too might have a better life). Instead they say, "We have to be globally competitive", all while milking us out over every damn penny they can squeeze out of our own torn and worn out mattresses. Now many once-middle-class workers have become "used to haves".
Or, if these huge corporations aren't buying out other companies, they're buying back their outstanding company shares to increase the value of the CEO's stock options. Over the past year Apple bought back $40 billion is stock to help with Mister Tim Cook's multi-million-dollar pay package—no doubt, a reward for displacing American workers with H-1B visas.
Many investors believe that stock buybacks are a waste of shareholders' money. Investors would rather that companies "show them the money" by paying better dividends. So it seems that these big companies are not only stiffing their employees, but they have also been screwing their investors too—as well as the government by dodging corporate taxes. (New Study: Corporate Welfare Makes the Rich Lazy — even though some billionaires claim they work harder than everybody else).
In 2012-2013 (as of April of last year), here are some other stock buybacks:
Naturally, there were many more buyouts and stock buybacks, but you get the general idea.
- Home Depot bought back $17 billion in outstanding company shares
AT&T bought back $11 billion in outstanding company shares
GE bought back $10 billion in outstanding company shares
PepsiCo bought back $10 billion in outstanding company shares
United Parcel Service bought back $10 billion in outstanding company shares
American Express bought back $9.9 billion in outstanding company shares
3M bought back $7.5 billion in outstanding company shares
United Technologies bought back $5.4 in outstanding company shares
Texas Instruments bought back $5 billion in outstanding company shares
Lowe’s Cos. bought back $5 billion in outstanding company shares
Qualcomm bought back $5 billion in outstanding company shares
Bank of America bought back $5 billion in outstanding company shares
And all while our "captains of industry" and our "pillars of the community" are doing this, they are also giving millions of dollars every year to politicians and superPACs to usurp democracy—to weaken labor laws and dodge taxes (rather than give their employees a fair share of the American pie).
Pretty soon we'll have one corporation running the entire damn country!
We lose $450 billion a year from tax evasion alone. Multi-national corporations (and ultra-wealthy individuals) have been addicted to hoarding trillions of dollars in offshore tax havens.
But yet, they whine and complain about taxes like greedy and unethical spoiled brats who refuse to share their toys with the neighbor's kids—paying record low "EFFECTIVE" tax rates on their capital gains and corporate earnings.
And while they bitterly complain about taxes, they're also paying their "think tanks" to wage their class war by spreading their propaganda—such as claiming America has the highest tax rates in the world. But if the tax rate was 100%, and they only paid 1% (because of the loopholes they bribed from Congress), what difference does it matter what the "statutory" tax rates actually are if they aren't obligated to pay them?
Then our esteemed top 0.01% will also spend millions of dollars every year to bust labor unions as they bicker like cheap ******** over raising the minimum wage, keeping millions of American workers on food stamps. And they also believe that only THEY should be entitled to afford access to good healthcare.
Rather than create jobs, the "job creators" have paid themselves millions of dollars every year by manipulating the market and their stocks, while also killing the economy for everybody else.
Capitalism has failed in America starting in 1979, with the decline of unions, the offshoring of jobs, dirty money in politics and congressional corruption. America really is in decline—as inequality is at record levels—as it has been, for decades. Just look across the nation at all the shuttered factories, the crumbling infrastructure and the abandoned ghost towns (Detroit is on the way, and now their are stealing our pensions too.).
They call this "creative destruction", but it's really been the destruction of America's Exceptionalism.
An excellent article on this subject is in the National Journal and argues that most Americans used to have much more faith in capitalism; but when you just look at young people today, American Exceptionalism is basically gone.
Reagaonomics? Trickle-down? Starve the beast? But the article goes on to argue that it's the belief in limited government and free enterprise that we lost, and that too many people have less religious affiliation, and that's another reason why we are in decline. But the article also goes on to note:"Where Gingrich and company go wrong is in claiming that the Obama presidency is the cause of this decline. It's actually the result. Ironically, the people most responsible for eroding American exceptionalism are the very conservatives who most fear its demise."
Fifty percent of Americans over 65 believe America stands above all others as the greatest nation on earth—but only 27 percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 believe that."Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, Newt Gingrich in the 1990s, George W. Bush in the 2000s—pushed many of the policies that have boosted inequality [and] decades of conservative policy have contributed to America's relative lack of economic mobility...Since the 1970s, the conservative movement has used the myth of a classless America to redistribute wealth upward, thus hardening class divisions, at least relative to other nations. It's no surprise that the young, having no memory of the more equal, more mobile America of popular legend."
Thirty years ago, a vast majority of Americans identified as members of the middle class. But since 1988, the percentage of Americans who call themselves members of the “have-nots” has doubled. Today’s young people are more likely to believe success is a matter of luck, not effort, as it once was in earlier generations.
If American Exceptionalism isn't already dead, then it has been dying a very slow and painful slow death for the past 40 years. Meanwhile, Shanghai, China has done exceptionally well over the past 40 years.
The officer, who has been placed on administrative leave, broke down after she realized that she had shot the teen at point-blank range, witnesses said.
“She put her head in her hands and she was sobbing,” Ken Yates told WSBT. "Supposedly, he opened the door with a BB gun and in my opinion I think he was playing a game with his neighborhood buddies."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... z2uJGQ0S7H
....In her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, legal scholar Michelle Alexander writes that many of the gains of the civil rights movement have been undermined by the mass incarceration of black Americans in the war on drugs. She says that although Jim Crow laws are now off the books, millions of blacks arrested for minor crimes remain marginalized and disfranchised, trapped by a criminal justice system that has forever branded them as felons and denied them basic rights and opportunities that would allow them to become productive, law-abiding citizens.
"People are swept into the criminal justice system — particularly in poor communities of color — at very early ages ... typically for fairly minor, nonviolent crimes," she tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies. "[The young black males are] shuttled into prisons, branded as criminals and felons, and then when they're released, they're relegated to a permanent second-class status, stripped of the very rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement — like the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, the right to be free of legal discrimination and employment, and access to education and public benefits. Many of the old forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind during the Jim Crow era are suddenly legal again, once you've been branded a felon."
Also:
"I think it's very easy to brush off the notion that the system operates much like a caste system, if in fact you are not trapped within it. I have spent years representing victims of racial profiling and police brutality and investigating patterns of drug law enforcement in poor communities of color, and attempting to help people who have been released from prison attempting to 're-enter' into a society that never seemed to have much use to them in the first place. And in the course of that work, I had my own awakening about our criminal justice system and this system of mass incarceration. ... My experience and research has led me to the regrettable conclusion that our system of mass incarceration functions more like a caste system than a system of crime prevention or control."
nvishal wrote:After the recent globally publicised case of the delhi rape, some activists of gender violence from around the world have started looking within. Their national media doesn't entertain these reports but some do find space.
Australia’s sexual assault shame: One in six women a victim, putting Australia way above world average
Despite our greater gender equality, we rank third after the war-torn Congo and the southern African nations of Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe for rates of sexual assault against women.
One in six Australian women have been the victim of a sexual assault by a non-partner, compared to one in 14 women around the world, a new study shows.A major review of sexual assaults by someone other than a partner published in The Lancet was prompted by recent highly publicised rapes and murders of young women in India.......Percentage of women who have been sexually assaulted by someone other than their partner. (global figure and by country/countries)
Global — 7.2%
Japan — 12.2%
Kazakhstan — 6.4%
Hong Kong — 5.8%
India, Bangladesh — 3.3%
Philippines, East Timor, Maldives, Thailand, Sri Lanka — 5.2%
New Zealand, Australia — 16.4%
Belize — 10.3%
Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Kosovo — 10.7%
Lithuania, Ukraine, Azerbaijan — 6.9%
Switzerland, Spain, Isle of Man, Sweden, UK, Denmark, Finland, Germany — 11.5%
Peru — 15.3%
Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Jamaica — 11.8%
Uruguay, Argentina — 5.8%
Brazil — 7.6%
Turkey — 4.5%
USA, Canada — 13.0%
Samoa, Kiribati — 14.8%
Democratic Republic of the Congo — 21.0%
Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia — 11.4%
Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe — 17.4%
Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Ghana — 9.1%
Source: The Lancet
this is an interesting issue. I may be wrong, but in 2000 prez elections, florida was decider and Bush was declared winner by only a few thousand votes. felons cannot vote in florida and you can imagine why...because blacks tend to vote democrats.npr wrote:stripped of the very rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement — like the right to vote,..
her crime -A magistrate ruled last week that a Florida woman must hook up to city utilities or face possible eviction from her home.
it is a crime for being eco friendly in america.Speronis said she intends to dispose of her waste as dog owners do for their pets, and she plans to collect wastewater in containers and use it for her garden.
“I know how to live off the grid completely and in a sanitary way,” Speronis said in an email. “That’s what seven months in living in the woods taught me. I do have an alternative toilet from my days of living in the woods.”
Speronis collects rainwater for washing and other purposes and generates electricity with solar panels.
If this is true, then why were not such policies removed when Dems have been in power for 2 terms with black guy at the helm?Gus wrote:this is an interesting issue. I may be wrong, but in 2000 prez elections, florida was decider and Bush was declared winner by only a few thousand votes. felons cannot vote in florida and you can imagine why...because blacks tend to vote democrats.npr wrote:stripped of the very rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement — like the right to vote,..
But, is rainwater enough? Is it really possible to live just on rain water? If that is possible, it would solve lot of water problem in dhesh.krisna wrote:uncle sam is very kind- use me or else!!her crime -A magistrate ruled last week that a Florida woman must hook up to city utilities or face possible eviction from her home.it is a crime for being eco friendly in america.Speronis said she intends to dispose of her waste as dog owners do for their pets, and she plans to collect wastewater in containers and use it for her garden.
“I know how to live off the grid completely and in a sanitary way,” Speronis said in an email. “That’s what seven months in living in the woods taught me. I do have an alternative toilet from my days of living in the woods.”
Speronis collects rainwater for washing and other purposes and generates electricity with solar panels.
Errrr..FL has republican governors. Unless you have state legislature, senate and governor all under your control you cannot push thru such changes. And on top you have conservative majority in supreme court. That rules out a federal intervention.johneeG wrote:
If this is true, then why were not such policies removed when Dems have been in power for 2 terms with black guy at the helm?
What matters is the frequency of rain. This determines the amount of storage one needs. In Dera Florida Khan it rains practically year-round: sometimes for 1 minute, then sun then a minute of rain; sometimes very heavy showers, plus the annual hurricane.But, is rainwater enough? Is it really possible to live just on rain water? If that is possible, it would solve lot of water problem in dhesh.
Total Recall (PK Dick).johneeG wrote:They can also levy fee for breathing in air. Say, 1 cent for each breath...
Stella Awards -
For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico , where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know the kind of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy
Here are the Stellas for this past year -- 2013
* SEVENTH PLACE *
Kathleen Robertson of Austin , Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.
Start scratching!
* SIXTH PLACE *
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles , California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbour ran over his hand with a Honda Accord.
Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbour's hubcaps.
Scratch some more...
* FIFTH PLACE *
Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish.
We
should all have this kind of anguish Keep scratching. There are more...
Double head scratching after this one..
* FOURTH PLACE *
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock , Arkansas , garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbour's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.
Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot..
* THIRD PLACE *
Amber Carson of Lancaster , Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?
Only two more so ease up on the scratching...
*SECOND PLACE*
Kara Walton, of Claymont , Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.
Ok. Here we go!! Drum roll ...
* FIRST PLACE *
This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.
If you think the court system is out of control and America has lost ALL common sense, be sure to pass this one on!!!
But still the news is positive. It doesn't have to be true as long as it shows how you can get rich in America. A bit like the story about Ganesh's trunk being a phallic symbol. All bositiv.Prem Kumar wrote:Sorry to spill hot coffee on the story's lap, but Snopes.com states that these stories are urban legends & false - have been circulating since 2001 apparently
http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp
Cool. Helping the Hispanics keep up with the Joneses by enabling them to buy new cars.ramana wrote:Police in King City California were arrested for confiscating cars from Hispanics and selling them.
Cool. San Francisco PD officers need not ask for a raise and help in keeping PD costs down. More power to them.ramana wrote:San Francisco PD officers indicted by Federal officials for stealing drugs and selling them while working under over in a three year sting operation.