May you have a mind aware
enough to understand
that you do not have an open mind. ~
Izzy Guaal
|
| The China-Bush-Carlyle
Syndrome
(wanna know why we're so tight with Communist
China?) |
President George (H.W.) Bush,
Siva Yam,President of Us-China Chamber of Commerce
and Prescott Bush, Chairman
|
His Excellency, Premier Zhu Rongji
and Prescott Bush, Chairman (retired)
of US-China Chamber of Commerce |
|
|
|
28" x 20"
|
20" x 28"
|
|
|
|
Bush fulfills H.L. Mencken's prophecy - McClatchy
Joseph L. Galloway |
| It took just eight decades but H.L. Mencken's astute prediction on the future course of American presidential politics and the electorate's taste in candidates came true:
On July 26, 1920, the acerbic and cranky scribe wrote in The Baltimore Sun: " . . . all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily (and) adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." |
My late good buddy Leon Daniel, a wire service legend for 40 years at United Press International, dredged up that Mencken quote several years ago and found that it was a perfect fit for George W. Bush, The Decider. MSNBC's Keith Olberman highlighted the same quote this week. A tip of the hat to both of them, and to Mencken.
The White House is now so adorned by Mencken's downright moron, and has been for more than six excruciatingly painful years. It wouldn't be so bad if the occupant had at least enough common sense to surround himself with smart, competent and honest advisers and listen to them. But he hasn't. |
Published: Sep. 29, 2007
Posted: Sep. 29, 2008 |
|
READ THIS - READ THIS - READ THIS
Whistleblowers on Fraud Facing Penalties - Forbes
DEBORAH HASTINGS |
One after another, the men and women who have stepped forward to report corruption in the massive effort to rebuild Iraq have been vilified, fired and demoted.
Or worse. |
For daring to report illegal arms sales, Navy veteran Donald Vance says he was imprisoned by the American military in a security compound outside Baghdad and subjected to harsh interrogation methods.
There were times, huddled on the floor in solitary confinement with that head-banging music blaring dawn to dusk and interrogators yelling the same questions over and over, that Vance began to wish he had just kept his mouth shut.
He had thought he was doing a good and noble thing when he started telling the FBI about the guns and the land mines and the rocket-launchers - all of them being sold for cash, no receipts necessary, he said. He told a federal agent the buyers were Iraqi insurgents, American soldiers, State Department workers, and Iraqi embassy and ministry employees.
The seller, he claimed, was the Iraqi-owned company he worked for, Shield Group Security Co.
"It was a Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) for guns," he says. "It was all illegal and everyone knew it."
So Vance says he blew the whistle, supplying photos and documents and other intelligence to an FBI agent in his hometown of Chicago because he didn't know whom to trust in Iraq.
For his trouble, he says, he got 97 days in Camp Cropper, an American military prison outside Baghdad that once held Saddam Hussein, and he was classified a security detainee.
Also held was colleague Nathan Ertel, who helped Vance gather evidence documenting the sales, according to a federal lawsuit both have filed in Chicago, alleging they were illegally imprisoned and subjected to physical and mental interrogation tactics "reserved for terrorists and so-called enemy combatants." |
Published: Aug. 24, 2007
Posted: Aug. 28, 2008 |
|
Airport to Overhaul Men’s Room Stalls - NY Times
|
| Let's all understand; this is because of a United States Senator ~ Izzy |
Dividers intended to make soliciting sex much more difficult will be added to stalls in two men’s rooms at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
The metal dividers will fall two or three inches above the floor, an airport spokesman, Patrick Hogan, said Friday. Stall partitions are now a foot off the floor.
The two restrooms include the one where Senator Larry E. Craig, Republican of Idaho, was arrested in a sex sting in June. Those two sites have elicited the most complaints regarding sexual activity, Mr. Hogan said.
It will cost about $25,000 to buy and install the dividers, he said, calling that “a drop in the bucket” compared with the expense of prosecuting Mr. Craig on a disorderly conduct charge and handling the 40 arrests made in sexual solicitation cases since May. |
Published: Sep. 29, 2007
Posted: Sep. 29, 2007 |
|
Japan inquiry into reporter death - BBC
|
| Mr Nagai was shot as he filmed a protest in Rangoon |
Japan is sending its deputy foreign minister to Burma to investigate the death of a Japanese journalist, who was covering the anti-government protests.
Japan said it would review its aid programmes to Burma over the fatal shooting of Kenji Nagai on Thursday.
TV footage has emerged which raises the possibility that the 50-year-old may have been deliberately targeted rather than caught in police cross-fire.
Japan's PM, Yasuo Fukuda, said he would decide how to proceed after the visit.
"We will have to think carefully to figure out what is the best thing to do - what is the best choice for Japan."
By sending Mitoji Yabunaka to Burma, he said Japan would "find the way to solve this issue and to make further decisions. Sanctions are not the best step to take now."
Japan is a leading aid donor to Burma and has been criticised for failing to take a tougher line against the regime.
Tokyo has withheld some aid from Burma since pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was detained in 2003.
But it funds emergency and humanitarian projects on a case-by-case basis, and is one of the military regime's significant trading partners. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
UK fears Burma toll 'far higher' - BBC
|
| British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he believes the loss of life in Burma has been "far greater" than that reported by the authorities. |
He was speaking after holding talks by phone with US President George W Bush and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.
Burmese officials said nine people were killed on Thursday as troops fired tear gas and bullets to disperse crowds of anti-government protesters in Rangoon.
Most internet links have been severed and mobile phone networks disrupted.
"I am afraid that we believe the loss of life in Burma is far greater than is being reported so far," Mr Brown said.
He said he hoped the combined international pressure from the US, China, the EU and UN would "begin to make the regime see this cannot continue".
Both the British and Australian ambassadors in Burma said they believed the number of dead "could be many multiples" of the number given by state media. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
In Big Banks’ Hands, Trusts Often Give Fewer Grants - NY Times
STEPHANIE STROM |
| When Mamie Dues died in 1974, she left the fortune her husband, Cesle, had made in movie theaters to a foundation controlled by a local bank in El Paso, Tex. The couple had no heirs and no other family. |
"They lived modestly in a little apartment house and spent most of their time watching TV," recalled J. Sam Moore Jr., a lawyer who drew up their wills. "They took little or no interest in civic affairs, but they did feel strongly about this place, and they mandated that their foundation be concentrated on crippled children in El Paso, and in Texas more broadly."
Three decades later, however, the foundation’s legal address is in Delaware, and a global bank, J. P. Morgan, manages it from an office in Dallas. While its assets have grown to almost $6 million, from $5.1 million in 2000, its giving has fallen sharply, and the local group that once decided who would receive its money no longer has a say in its operations.
Such is the fate of many "orphan" trusts and foundations around the country that have been left in the hands of lawyers or local banks that have then been swallowed up by multinational financial institutions.
With no family members to encourage gifts to the original donor’s favorite causes, the banks and lawyers have wide latitude to remake the way the trusts operate and to decide which charities will receive grants. Banks can reduce gifts and grow the foundation’s assets, thus increasing their fees. At the same time, banks and lawyers stand to gain personal influence and prestige by selecting new charities.
"Donors who’ve given us money for years die, their money ends up in a foundation controlled by their lawyer or their bank, and we don’t get any more grants," said Juliana Eades, president of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Rare Supreme Court Stay Halts a Texas Execution - NY Times
ADAM NOSSITER |
| In a fresh sign that the use of lethal injection in capital punishment faces an uncertain future, the Supreme Court issued an unusual last-minute reprieve for a death-row inmate in Texas late last night. |
Tommy Arthur, 65, an inmate on Alabama’s death row.
Although the court gave no reason for its decision, the inmate, Carlton Turner Jr., had appealed to the court after it agreed on Tuesday to consider the constitutionality of lethal injection, the most commonly used method of execution in the United States. The decision suggests that until it issues a ruling on lethal injection, the court may be receptive to requests to delay such executions, at least for defendants whose cases raise no procedural issues.
"It’s an indication that the court believes there are real questions about what states are doing in this area," said Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, which opposes executions. "What this signals is that the burden is now shifting to the states to do something about all these problems folks have been talking about."
The vote on the stay of execution was not announced, but at least five justices needed to support it.
Earlier in the day, another rare stay of an execution came in Alabama, where Gov. Bob Riley said the state would not execute an inmate named Tommy Arthur while it came up with a new formula for lethal injection. State officials said they wanted to make sure prisoners were completely unconscious before they were killed.
The full effect of the Supreme Court’s decision is not yet known, but it may interrupt what appears to be emerging as a patchwork, state-by-state response to its decision Tuesday to look at whether lethal injection causes unnecessary suffering.
Some states, even ardent pro-death penalty ones like Alabama, are slowing down. Others, like Texas, had been cruising at full speed; the state executed a prisoner a few hours after the court’s decision on Tuesday and was planning to proceed with its 27th execution of the year last night when the Court intervened. Eleven states have stopped lethal injections altogether, as litigation proceeds.
"It’s going to be a hodgepodge," said George Kendall, a veteran civil rights lawyer in New York. "Some states will shut down, and in some it will be business as usual."
All week, Texas officials had maintained that nothing had changed and that executions could proceed. Mr. Turner, 28, of Dallas, was convicted of having fatally shot his adoptive parents in 1998. Another execution is scheduled in the state next week. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
A Prosecution Tests the Definition of Obscenity - NY Times
NEIL A. LEWIS |
| ...and what will happen to 'Scooter" Libby and his animal-child-rape novel? ~ Izzy |
Sometime early next year, Karen Fletcher, a 56-year-old recluse living on disability payments, will go on trial in federal court here on obscenity charges for writings distributed on the Internet to about two dozen subscribers.
In an era when pornography has exploded on the Web almost beyond measure, Ms. Fletcher is one of only a handful of people to have been singled out for prosecution on obscenity charges by the Bush administration. She faces six felony counts for operating a Web site called Red Rose, which featured detailed fictional accounts of the molesting, torture and sometimes gruesome murders of children under the age of 10, mostly girls.
How Ms. Fletcher came to be selected for federal prosecution among the countless pornography purveyors is a vivid illustration of the fractured and uncertain state of the enforcement of obscenity law in the nation.
Most prosecutors are generally reluctant to bring obscenity cases, regarding them both as difficult and a diversion of resources better spent on other crimes. Moreover, the explosion of Internet pornography from sources around the world has convinced many law enforcement officials that it is all but impossible to have a significant impact on the issue.
The Fletcher case has been brought by Mary Beth Buchanan, the United States attorney for Western Pennsylvania, who is regarded by many people in the pornography industry and by outside analysts as the government’s most aggressive opponent of the spread of pornography in the nation.
Ms. Buchanan, the 44-year-old daughter of a steelworker who went through law school as a single mother, is disdainful of prosecutors who have avoided taking on obscenity cases. Unlike her counterparts, she said in a recent interview, "I’m not afraid of the challenges, legal or otherwise, here."
What has attracted the attention of First Amendment scholars and lawyers is that Red Rose — which Ms. Fletcher says is an effort to help her deal with her own pain from child sexual abuse — was composed entirely of text without any images.
Although a narrowly divided Supreme Court said in 1973 that images were not necessary to label a work obscene, there has not been a successful obscenity prosecution in the country that did not involve drawings or photographs since then.
Courts have overturned or blocked convictions connected to other nonillustrated books, including the well-known "Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure," on the basis that sexual images have a fundamentally different impact than words alone.
Prof. Laurence H. Tribe of Harvard Law School, a leading constitutional scholar, said that although the court had not ruled out the possibility that text alone might be obscene, "the idea that the written word alone can be prosecuted pushes to the limit the underlying rationale of the obscenity law." But Professor Tribe noted that even though the Fletcher case did not involve images, courts might view "patently offensive descriptions of sexual acts with children" as prosecutable under obscenity laws. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Early Flaws Seen in New Coast Guard Cutter - NY Times
ERIC LIPTON |
| The Coast Guard has found hundreds of deficiencies in the communication and electronics systems being installed in the flagship of its new fleet, threatening to delay the delivery of the ship, known as a national security cutter, internal documents show |
The problems with the electronics in the $640 million, 418-foot ship include design flaws and improper installation of cables for its classified communications systems, according to a written summary of a Coast Guard review of the program.
"When our communications systems are vulnerable to eavesdropping, I consider that a major problem," said Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland and chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees the Coast Guard.
Coast Guard officials and executives at Lockheed Martin, the contractor responsible for the ship electronics, said the shortcomings are to be expected because they turned up in what they said was an unusually early inspection as the equipment was still being installed. This early check, they added, shows that the project managers had learned from earlier problems with the $24 billion fleet rebuilding program known as Deepwater.
"We want to make sure we are catching everything," said Troy Scully, a spokesman for Lockheed, which is building the ship in a partnership with Northrop Grumman. "This is exactly why we test."
Brendan McPherson, a Coast Guard spokesman, said officials had expected that the inspection would find flaws.
"It is almost impossible not to find problems because you are looking even before the work is done," he said, adding that before the ship is delivered, the Coast Guard "fully expects our industry counterparts to meet their contractual obligations."
The first ships produced by the Deepwater program — eight 123-foot patrol boats — were pulled from service late last year, after they suffered repeated hull cracks, mechanical problems and similar flaws in their electronics networks. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Home Sales and Prices Fall Sharply - NY Times
MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM |
| Sales of new homes plunged in August to their slowest pace in more than seven years as tighter credit and rising inventories continued to weigh down the housing industry. The grim statistics could foreshadow further economic weakness in the fourth quarter, analysts said. |
Workers installing windows on a home going up in a development in Richmond, Calif. Economists and executives talked of weakness in the industry that could continue for several quarters.
New-home purchases fell to an annual pace of 795,000, an 8.3 percent decline from July, as the number of months needed to sell off builders’ inventories rose to the highest level since March, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.
The median price for a new home was down 7.5 percent from a year earlier, to $225,700, the steepest monthly price drop since December 1970.
The sales figures were released as KB Home, a large Los Angeles builder, reported a $35.6 million loss in its fiscal third quarter, or 46 cents a share, in contrast to a profit of $153.2 million, or $1.90 a share, in the period a year earlier. KB Home had a 32 percent drop in revenue, to $1.54 billion.
The latest data gave a fuller picture of the distress in housing-related industries, where the subprime mortgage crisis has led to turmoil in the broader credit market and to increases in foreclosures. On Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors reported a 4.3 percent drop in August in sales of existing homes, and another large home builder, Lennar, recorded the largest quarterly loss in its history.
Last month’s drop-off in new-home sales was focused primarily in the South and the West, areas particularly hurt by subprime-lending problems. The seasonally adjusted pace of new-home sales is now down more than 21 percent from last year.
"If sales continue to fall, builders will continue to cut back on construction, which will be a direct drag to economic growth," said Michelle Meyer, a Lehman Brothers economist who specializes in the housing industries. "Inventories remain elevated, home prices will fall as a result, and a decline in home prices will depress consumer spending." |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Settlement Will Cost Freddie Mac $50 Million - NY Times
|
| The mortgage finance company Freddie Mac will pay $50 million to settle federal charges that it fraudulently misstated earnings over a four-year period, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday. |
Freddie Mac neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in the accord, which is subject to court approval.
Four former Freddie Mac executives settled the S.E.C.’s negligent conduct charges by agreeing to pay a total of $515,000 in civil fines and to make restitution totaling $275,548. They are the former president and chief operating officer, David W. Glenn; the former chief financial officer, Vaughn A. Clarke; and two former senior vice presidents, Robert C. Dean and Nazir G. Dossani.
An accounting scandal erupted at the government-sponsored company in June 2003 when it disclosed that it had misstated earnings by some $5 billion for 2000-2, to smooth quarterly volatility in earnings and meet Wall Street expectations.
The company’s top executives — Mr. Glenn, Mr. Clarke and Leland C. Brendsel, then chairman and chief executive — were ousted. The events shocked Wall Street, where Freddie Mac, the nation’s second-largest buyer and guarantor of home mortgages, long had enjoyed a reputation as a steady performer and reliable corporate player.
Freddie Mac paid a $125 million civil fine in 2003 in a settlement with the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which blamed management misconduct for the faulty accounting.
In September 2004, another accounting scandal came to light at the No. 1 mortgage finance company, Fannie Mae. Regulators eventually imposed limits on the multibillion-dollar mortgage debt holdings of the two companies, which they have been seeking to have lifted as a way to provide cash to the mortgage market in the recent turmoil.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created by Congress to make mortgages affordable and to pump cash into the market. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Fidelity Founder’s Daughter Promoted - NY Times
|
|
The changes at Fidelity, the world’s biggest mutual fund company, are the first under its new president, Rodger A. Lawson, who was appointed two months ago. Speculation is simmering over who will eventually succeed the 77-year-old Mr. Johnson, the head of the family that founded the business.
The revamping combines Fidelity’s retirement services and personal investing units into a new entity, Personal and Workplace Investing, to be led by Ms. Johnson, 45, a Fidelity spokeswoman, Anne Crowley, said. The changes do not affect Fidelity’s main money management business.
Fidelity, which manages $1.5 trillion in assets, is struggling to revive its image as a top-performing fund company and to stanch the turnover in its executive ranks after losing market share in mutual funds to rivals like American Funds and Vanguard Group in recent years.
In her new role, Ms. Johnson will continue to report to Mr. Lawson, 60. He returned to Fidelity in July after leading its retail sales division from 1985 to 1991 .
The changes renewed speculation that Ms. Johnson was the front-runner to succeed her father. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Wall St. Firm Settles Case on Handling of E-Mail - NY Times
|
| Morgan Stanley will pay $12.5 million to resolve charges that it failed to produce e-mail in arbitration cases and falsely stated that the messages were lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. |
The settlement, announced yesterday by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which regulates brokerage firms, calls for the firm to pay a $3 million fine and put $9.5 million into a fund to compensate several thousand investors who filed arbitration complaints.
Morgan Stanley did not admit wrongdoing.
The situation arose in part from the destruction of the firm’s New York City e-mail servers in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Millions of e-mail messages were presumed lost. But it was later revealed that they had been backed up on other servers or on the computers of individual employees.
"We didn’t find evidence that Morgan Stanley intended to hold back e-mails, but it was a case of one hand not knowing what the other was doing," the authority’s chief of enforcement, Susan L. Merrill, said in an interview.
A Morgan Stanley spokesman, James Wiggins, said the company was pleased to settle and put the matter to rest.
Morgan Stanley agreed in February 2006 to pay $15 million to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it had failed to produce e-mail needed for investigations into initial public offerings and analyst research.
In December 2002, regulators fined Morgan Stanley and four other firms $1.65 million each for destroying e-mail messages. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Google Hiring Engineers Abroad - NY Times
|
|
| Google said it was expanding its staff of engineers in Europe to improve its products in local markets outside the United States. The company has built engineering hubs in cities like Zurich and London as well as smaller centers elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. A spokesman said the company was building up its presence in Europe. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Stock Loans Are No Place for Secrecy - NY Times
FLOYD NORRIS |
| An opaque market is a market that insiders love, simply because they can take advantage of outsiders. It is also a market that produces prices no one can be sure are trustworthy. |
The American stock market is as transparent a market as you are likely to find. Trades are posted virtually instantaneously, and so are the prices being sought by buyers and sellers. But a related market — vital to the operation of the stock market as we know it — is so opaque that even the insiders can get ripped off.
That market is the stock loan market, the market in which shares are lent to those who need them, usually because they want to sell them short.
Opening up that market to sunlight could help people get fairer prices. It could also make it possible to do something about the issue of "naked shorting," in which traders sell shares without either owning or borrowing them. But if change is going to happen, the Securities and Exchange Commission will have to step in.
Last week, the government brought criminal charges against former stock loan employees at a number of brokerage firms, among them Morgan Stanley and A. G. Edwards. Because the market prices were so obscure, the government says, the employees could rip off their own firms by arranging for the firms to overpay when they borrowed shares.
The S.E.C., which also filed civil fraud allegations, says the actions brought in $12 million for the traders. This is a $700 billion market, according to calculations by Vodia Group, a research firm, but one that is so hidden from view that this suspected fraud could go on for more than five years without being detected.
The stock loan market is quite profitable to brokerage firms because short sales create what amounts to free cash to be invested. The shares that are sold are paid for with cash, but that cash does not go to the seller because he did not own the shares. Instead, it is held as collateral to assure the seller’s repayment of the loan. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Blackwater Shooting Scene Was Chaotic - NY Times
JAMES GLANZ & SABRINA TAVERNISE |
| Participants in a contentious Baghdad security operation this month have told American investigators that during the operation at least one guard continued firing on civilians while colleagues urgently called for a cease-fire. At least one guard apparently also drew a weapon on a fellow guard who did not stop shooting, an American official said. |
The operation, by the private firm Blackwater USA, began as a mission to evacuate senior American officials after an explosion near where they were meeting, several officials said. Some officials have questioned the wisdom of evacuating the Americans from a secure compound, saying the area should instead have been locked down.
These new details of the episode on Sept. 16, in which at least eight Iraqis were killed, including a woman and an infant, were provided by an American official who was briefed on the American investigation by someone who helped conduct it, and by Americans who had spoken directly with two guards involved in the episode. Their accounts were broadly consistent. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Papers Study August Crisis, From First Wave to Last Ripple - NY Times
JENNY ANDERSON |
| Smart investors love crises. People panic, everything gets out of whack, securities get cheaper, and the world gets more interesting. Academic types also love crises because they produce data, which prompts questions and every once in a while produces some answers. |
Professor Andrew W. Lo wrote a paper on the Wall Street turbulence.
August, the month in which everything went awry on Wall Street, offered up fascinating data. The financial world trembled, which it does every so often, and even though everyone seemed to know it was coming, everyone seemed surprised.
Two recent papers, one academic and one written for investors, examine the August unwind. They reach similar conclusions about risk (there is more of it) and the cause of the collapse (an unknown multibillion-dollar fund unwinding), but they differ slightly on what it means for the types of hedge funds that were most affected.
In separate papers, Andrew W. Lo, a professor of finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who just sold his hedge fund, AlphaSimplex, and Clifford S. Asness, the founder of AQR, a $37 billion hedge fund, conclude that the market craziness started when a large multistrategy fund or a proprietary desk suddenly started to dump its positions in early August.
That set off a wave of deleveraging, or selling, that in turn caused stocks to do strange things. Specifically, cheap stocks, or value stocks, got pummeled, and expensive stocks, or popularly shorted stocks, rose. This caused a lot of pain on the street, especially among quantitative hedge funds, or quants.
Professor Lo’s research, which builds a very basic quantitative model and then tests what would happen to it during the August unwind, concludes that the proliferation of hedge funds using similar investment strategies has led to more risk in the system. If this seems obvious, be mindful that a lot of people have argued otherwise, and Professor Lo is trying to prove it, not grandstand about it, which is unusual when it comes to any topic related to hedge funds.
According to his analysis, assets in certain strategies — quantitative and long/short equity, both of which generally try to buy cheap stocks and sell expensive ones — have soared and returns have plummeted (these are data points, not conclusions). |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Baby Furniture Maker Recalls Playpens - NY Times
|
| Kolcraft Enterprises, the maker of baby furnishings, recalled about 425,000 playpens after the strangulation of a 10-month-old boy, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said yesterday. |
The agency said in a statement that it received a report of a boy strangled by a looped restraining strap hanging from a changing table on the company’s Sesame Beginnings Travel Play Yard.
The voluntary recall by Kolcraft, based in Chicago, covers 12 different play yards made in China. The products were sold from January 2001 through this month and cost $50 to $130, the statement said.
"This is not a made-in-China issue," a safety commission spokeswoman, Patty Davis, said in a telephone interview. "This is a defect in the design of the product by the U.S. company."
A Kolcraft spokeswoman, Diane Steed, said the incident involved misuse of the product, which carries a warning against leaving a child in the playpen with the changing table on top.
A list of recalled playpens and model numbers is available at www.cpsc.gov, the agency said.
On Wednesday, about 670,000 Chinese-made toys, children’s chairs and gardening tools were recalled by the RC2 Corporation and five other companies over concerns about lead-paint levels and safety.
On Sept. 21, the maker of Graco and Simplicity products recalled one million Chinese-manufactured cribs.
While Mattel has recalled 21 million toys since August, the toy maker apologized to China last week for design issues that led to the recall of 18 million of them because of small magnets. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Artificial-Joint Makers Settle Kickback Case - NY Times
BARNABY J. FEDER |
| Four of the nation’s biggest makers of artificial hips and knees have agreed to pay a total of $310 million in penalties to settle federal accusations that they used fake consulting agreements and other tactics to get surgeons to use their products. |
Under the settlements, which were announced yesterday by the United States attorney in Newark, the four companies were charged with criminal conspiracy to violate anti-kickback laws. But they will not be prosecuted if they follow new compliance procedures under federal monitoring for 18 months.
"This industry routinely violated anti-kickback statutes by paying physicians for the purpose of exclusively using their products," said Christopher J. Christie, the United States attorney in Newark. "Prior to our investigation, many orthopedic surgeons in this country made decisions predicated on how much money they could make — choosing which device to implant by going to the highest bidder."
The fines will settle potential civil charges against the companies and preserve their ability to receive federal Medicare reimbursements. None of the companies admitted any wrongdoing.
A fifth big maker of orthopedic devices, Stryker Orthopedics, accepted federal supervision for 18 months. But the Justice Department agreed not to file criminal charges because Stryker was the first company to cooperate in the investigation, according to the government. The company admitted no wrongdoing.
Stryker Orthopedics, which is based in Mahwah, N.J., and is a unit of the Stryker Corporation of Kalamazoo, Mich., did not reach any settlement of potential civil charges. But Dean Bergy, Stryker’s chief financial officer, said the company was not aware of anything in connection with the investigation that might lead to civil charges or any restriction on Medicare reimbursements.
The other companies involved included Biomet; the DePuy Orthopaedics unit of Johnson & Johnson; and Zimmer Holdings, all based in Warsaw, Ind. The fourth was Smith & Nephew, a British company whose orthopedics subsidiary has headquarters in Memphis.
The government said the five companies represented 95 percent of the hip and knee implant market.
Although no doctors were cited in the settlements, the investigation is continuing, Mr. Christie said. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Verizon Reverses Itself on Abortion Messages - NY Times
ADAM LIPTAK |
| Reversing course, Verizon Wireless announced yesterday that it would allow an abortion rights group to send text messages to its supporters on Verizon’s mobile network. |
"The decision to not allow text messaging on an important, though sensitive, public policy issue was incorrect," said Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon, in a statement issued yesterday morning, adding that the earlier decision was an "isolated incident."
Last week, Verizon rejected a request from the abortion rights group, Naral Pro-Choice America, for a five-digit "short code." Such codes allow people interested in hearing from businesses, politicians and advocacy groups to sign up to receive text messages.
Verizon is one of the two largest mobile carriers. The other leading carriers had accepted Naral’s request for the code.
In turning down the request last week, Verizon told Naral that it "does not accept issue-oriented (abortion, war, etc.) programs — only basic, general politician-related programs (Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton, etc.)."
In yesterday’s statement, Mr. Nelson called that "an incorrect interpretation of a dusty internal policy" that "was designed to ward against communications such as anonymous hate messaging and adult materials sent to children." The policy, Mr. Nelson said, had been developed "before text messaging protections such as spam filters adequately protected customers from unwanted messages."
But the program requested by Naral would have sent messages only to people who had asked to receive them.
Nancy Keenan, Naral’s president, expressed satisfaction yesterday. "The fight to defeat corporate censorship was won," she said. But Ms. Keenan added that her group "would like to see Verizon make its new policy public."
Verizon did not respond to repeated requests for copies of the policy or an explanation for why it is withholding it. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Complaint Offers Window on Chinese Drug Ring - NY Times
DAVID BARBOZA & DUFF WILSON |
| The chief executive of a leading Chinese pharmaceutical company used e-mail aliases, offshore bank accounts and a network of drug traffickers to illegally distribute millions of dollars worth of human growth hormone in the United States, federal officials said in a criminal complaint, provided to The New York Times on Wednesday. |
A 62-page affidavit by a special agent of the Food and Drug Administration details an extraordinary level of personal involvement in the trafficking and sale of the powerful hormones by Jin Lei, the founder and chief executive of the GeneScience Pharmaceuticals Company, one of China’s largest drug makers, based here in Changchun, in northern China.
The affidavit adds intriguing details and a rare look inside a major drug ring and the alleged role of a renowned businessman. It was unsealed Monday, but was not released publicly until The Times requested and received a copy of the electronic file on Wednesday.
As early as 2004, according to investigators, Mr. Jin was smuggling Jintropin, a growth hormone he named after himself, to the United States.
American investigators claim that through the use of various aliases, including Jack Edwards, John and Luis, Mr. Jin made deals with middlemen and distributors outside China and also instructed them to wire money to banks in the United States, Panama and China.
GeneScience even sold an insurance program offering to resend any package seized by customs officials, the government says. Investigators also say some of the GeneScience Jintropin drug shipments were labeled as toys, glassware or hair treatment.
In January 2006, a person the F.D.A. has now identified as Mr. Jin using an alias wrote to an American customer, warning, "US custom is tighten control, you should stop email directly to gensci anymore and delete all your records." |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Iran sanctions decision delayed - BBC
|
| The world's major powers will delay until November a decision on whether to impose tougher sanctions on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme. |
The five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany said they would wait until they saw reports from the UN and EU before drafting a resolution.
Tehran denies Western accusations that it is trying to build a nuclear weapon.
On Tuesday, Iran's president said the sanctions were "illegal" in a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the debate over his country's nuclear programme was "closed" and that the issue was now in the hands of the UN's nuclear watchdog.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently reached agreement with Tehran on a "work plan" to resolve outstanding questions about its nuclear activities. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
(Burma's) Junta tightens media screw - BBC
|
| As Burmese soldiers crush dissent on the streets on Rangoon, the country's military rulers have moved to cut the flow of images and information leaving the country. |
Images of a Japanese video journalist gunned down in the street and blood-stained protesters and monks have galvanised international condemnation and calls for restraint from the authorities.
But now correspondents and Burmese dissidents in exile now say it is very difficult or impossible to communicate with anyone in Burma by e-mail, mobile phone or landline.
Most of the country's internet link to the outside world has been cut, mobile phone signals are blocked and telephone lines are almost completely down.
A telecoms ministry official told AFP news agency that the country's main internet link was down because an underwater cable was damaged. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
Nigeria arrests foreign 'spies' - BBC
|
| A well-known US aid worker and her two German companions have been arrested in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region. |
Security officials say Judith Burdin Asuni, Florian Alexander Opitz and Andy Lehmann are being held on suspicion of "espionage and terrorism".
The Germans had been filming masked youths from the Ijaw community in Delta State, allegedly without clearance.
Delta militants have been conducting a violent campaign for the oil-rich area to get a larger share of the oil money.
The BBC's Alex Last in Lagos says the two German nationals had come to Nigeria to do a preliminary research for a possible TV documentary about the Niger Delta.
Our correspondent says the Niger Delta is a sore subject for the Nigerian authorities, particularly the international attention given to militant groups. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2007
Posted: Sep. 28, 2007 |
|
|
Subject of FBI probe tells of Weldon ties - Philadelphia Inquirer
John Shiffman and Mark Fazlollah |
| Lawyer John J. Gallagher says their dealings go back 30 years, with a mutual interest in Russia |
When Center City lawyer and Russian trade expert John J. Gallagher lost a $2.5 million investment in a cognac distillery in a former Soviet republic, a family friend stepped up to help - in a big way.
The friend, U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, first called the president of Moldova. When that didn't work, Weldon went to the House and proposed cutting all U.S. aid to Moldova until Gallagher got his money back. |
Published: Nov. 27, 2006
Posted: Nov. 28, 2006 |
|
Exxon Mobil CEO warns against congressional Democrats' plan to end industry tax breaks - SignOnSanDiego.com
Mark Jewell |
|
AP Proposals by congressional Democrats to eliminate oil industry tax breaks and subsidies would set a bad example overseas and discourage new industry investments, Exxon Mobil's top executive said Thursday.
Rex W. Tillerson said moves suggested by leaders of the incoming Democratic congressional majority would encourage similar steps by governments abroad, where Exxon Mobil Corp. generates the bulk of its profit.
I think the bigger concern I have is not so much the economic direct effect of the fact that they want to take a tax break off here or there. But it's the message it sends the rest of the world that you don't have to provide stable (regulatory) frameworks, Tillerson told reporters after a speech to the Boston College Chief Executives' Club. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
Weldon-backed antinuclear venture falls short - Philadelphia Inquirer
Mark Fazlollah |
|
The plan was promising: train Russia's nuclear scientists to make computer software - helping world peace and, maybe, making money at the same time.
U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, with old friend John J. Gallagher by his side, presided at a 2001 event announcing what was billed as a major step in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.
"Hoping Software Will Help Keep the Peace" was the headline in the magazine Science.
The federal government has spent $1.4 million on the project, which has fallen short of expectations - training far fewer Russian scientists than expected and failing to develop marketable software. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
U.S. gov't terror ratings draw outrage - Yahoo! News
Michael J. Sniffen |
|
A leader of the new Democratic Congress, business travelers and privacy advocates expressed outrage Friday over the unannounced assignment of terrorism risk assessments to American international travelers by a computerized system managed from an unmarked, two-story brick building in Northern Virginia.
Incoming Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) of Vermont pledged greater scrutiny of such government database-mining projects after reading that during the past four years millions of Americans have been evaluated without their knowledge to assess the risks that they are terrorists or criminals. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
U.S. Considers Ending Outreach to Insurgents - Washington Post
Robin Wright |
|
The Bush administration is deliberating whether to abandon U.S. reconciliation efforts with Sunni insurgents and instead give priority to Shiites and Kurds, who won elections and now dominate the government, according to U.S. officials.
The proposal, put forward by the State Department as part of a crash White House review of Iraq policy, follows an assessment that the ambitious U.S. outreach to Sunni dissidents has failed. U.S. officials are increasingly concerned that their reconciliation efforts may even have backfired, alienating the Shiite majority and leaving the United States vulnerable to having no allies in Iraq, according to sources familiar with the State Department proposal. |
Published: Dec. 01, 2006
Posted: Dec. 02, 2006 |
|
Halliburton Unit to Pay $8 Million for Overbilling - Washington Post
Griff Witte |
| KBR Settlement Ends Kosovo Case |
A Halliburton subsidiary agreed to pay the government $8 million to resolve accusations of overbilling related to the firm's work for the Army in the Balkans, the Justice Department said yesterday.
The allegations against KBR, formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root, stemmed from orders placed with 10 foreign subcontractors that were working for KBR on military logistics support in 1999 and 2000. The accusations, made under the federal False Claims Act, included double-billing, inflating prices and providing products that didn't fit the Army's needs during the construction of Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
Justices to Decide if Citizens May Challenge White Houses Religion-Based Initiative - New York Times
Linda Greenhouse |
|
The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether private citizens are entitled to go to court to challenge activities of the White House office in charge of the Bush administrations religion-based initiative.
A lower court had blocked a lawsuit challenging conferences the White House office holds for the purpose of teaching religious organizations how to apply and compete for federal grants. That constitutional challenge, by a group advocating the strict separation of church and state, was reinstated by an appeals court; the administration in turn appealed to the Supreme Court. |
Published: Dec. 02, 2006
Posted: Dec. 03, 2006 |
|
New Rules Make Firms Track E-Mails, IMs - My Way News
|
|
U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees thanks to new federal rules that go into effect Friday, legal experts say.
The rules, approved by the Supreme Court in April, require companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce "electronically stored information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared by both sides before a trial. |
Published: Dec. 01, 2006
Posted: Dec. 02, 2006 |
|
Key Rumsfeld aide resigns - Yahoo! News
|
|
The Defense Department's top intelligence official will resign at the end of the year, the Pentagon announced.
Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, is the most senior Pentagon official to announce he is leaving since US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tendered his resignation last month.
Cambone, who came to the Pentagon with Rumsfeld in January 2001, has been a key player in his efforts to transform the US military into a lighter, high tech force and in carving out a larger role for US military intelligence. |
Published: Dec. 01, 2006
Posted: Dec. 02, 2006 |
|
Off YearKen Mehlman gives Republicans more reason to kill themselves - Slate
Bruce Reed |
|
Belly of the Beast: Last year, the big rage was sudoku. These days, the most popular Japanese craze in Republican circles is seppukuthe "belly-cutting" ritualistic suicide better known as hari-kiri.
Republicans have been practicing all week long. On Iraq, James Baker has generously offered to hold the sword; all President Bush has to do is fall on it. Bill Frist changed his mind about doctor-assisted suicide, pulling the plug on his presidential bid rather than pretend a miracle would revive his chances. Yesterday, it was RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman's turn, in a speech to GOP governors about how Republicans had offed themselves in the midterm elections. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
As Pensions and Health Care Benefits Shrink, Life Gets Riskier - AlterNet
David Moberg |
| As employers and governments cut back on pensions and health insurance, the burden of taking care of ourselves increasingly rests on our own shoulders. |
| For three decades, the gap between the rich and everyone else has grown in the United States. At the same time, working people have faced greater economic uncertainty, their incomes have fluctuated more dramatically, and both employers and governments have cut back on measures such as pensions and health insurance that helped mitigate the uncertainties of life. Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker calls this the great risk shift -- transferring the burden of risks in life from collective institutions to individuals. |
Published: Dec. 01, 2006
Posted: Dec. 02, 2006 |
|
Record high temperatures in snowless Moscow - Yahoo! News
|
|
Russia's capital, renowned for its trademark frosty winters, started the calendar winter with the warmest day recorded in December, the state weather monitoring unit said on Friday.
Russia started to record temperatures in 1879. December 1 this year is likely to beat the previous record set on December 4, 1953, a Rosgidromet spokeswoman said. |
Published: Dec. 01, 2006
Posted: Dec. 02, 2006 |
|
Outcry Over Congressional Pensions for Convicted Members - Blotter
Dana Hughes |
|
The new Democratic leadership faces pressure to end taxpayer-funded pensions to misbehaving members of Congress.
But even a new law will be too late for former Congressmen Duke "Randall" Cunningham, Bob Ney and Mark Foley, who all left Congress in disgrace this year. They will still get their generous Congressional pensions no matter what.
Over 20 civic organizations claiming to have millions of members sent a letter to the new Democratic leadership demanding that they immediately pass a law taking away pensions from members of Congress who've been convicted of a felony. |
Published: Nov. 30, 2006
Posted: Dec. 02, 2006 |
|
Chavez wins Venezuela re-election - BBC
|
| President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has won a third term in office, securing a clear lead over rival Manuel Rosales. |
With most of the ballots counted, Mr Chavez had taken more than 60% of the vote, officials said.
The president, who has secured the support of the poor by using oil to fund welfare, told crowds his left-wing "Bolivarian revolution" had triumphed.
Admitting defeat, his social democrat rival said he would go on "fighting for democracy" in the streets if necessary. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
Danes acquitted over Iraq secrets - BBC
|
| Three Danish journalists who published secret intelligence reports on Iraq have been acquitted of endangering national security. |
The court ruled that Niels Lunde, Michael Bjerre and Jesper Larsen had acted in the public interest.
Their articles said Danish intelligence services knew there was no evidence Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the US-led invasion in 2003.
The Danish media had said the case was an important test of press freedom. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
Anger at UN chief's Iraq comments - BBC
|
| Iraq's national security adviser says he is shocked by UN head Kofi Annan's suggestion that the average Iraqi is worse off than under Saddam Hussein. |
Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie also accused the UN of shying away from its responsibility towards the Iraqi people.
The UN secretary general, who leaves office after 10 years on 31 December, told the BBC that the situation in Iraq was now "much worse" than a civil war. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
US report derides Afghan police - BBC
|
| Afghanistan's police force is incapable of carrying out routine law enforcement duties, a US government report says. |
The report blames corruption, illiteracy, low pay, bad equipment, the insurgency and failings in a $1bn training programme.
It comes five years after Afghanistan's former Taleban rulers were driven from power by a US-led coalition.
The report, by the state department and the Pentagon, says long-term assistance and more than $600m a year is needed. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
Deal signed on .com domain future - BBC
|
| The US government has given its blessing to a controversial deal over the future of the lucrative .com net domain. |
The deal gives .com administrator Verisign control over the domain until 2012.
The US Department of Commerce retains some oversight of Verisign and has final approval of any price rises to renew .com net addresses.
Critics said the deal gave Verisign a monopoly hold on the iconic domain. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
Big ice shelf's disappearing act - BBC
|
| Sediments extracted from the Antarctic seafloor show the world's largest ice shelf has disintegrated and reappeared many times in the past. |
Fluctuations in the Ross Ice Shelf are revealed by an early look at cores drilled from the seabed underneath the giant ice slab.
The investigation is being carried out by scientists drilling near the US and New Zealand bases on Ross Island. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
Video Is a Window Into a Terror Suspects Isolation - New York Times
Deborah Sontag |
| Today is May 21, a naval official declared to a camera videotaping the event. Right now were ready to do a root canal treatment on Jose Padilla, our enemy combatant. |
One spring day during his three and a half years as an enemy combatant, Jose Padilla experienced a break from the monotony of his solitary confinement in a bare cell in the brig at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, S.C.
In the videotape, Mr. Padilla's feet were shackled.
That day, Mr. Padilla, a Brooklyn-born Muslim convert whom the Bush administration had accused of plotting a dirty bomb attack and had detained without charges, got to go to the dentist. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
Bush, Shiite leader to meet in D.C. - Yahoo! News
Terence Hunt |
|
Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, after what he called a "very clear" meeting with Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice on Monday, told reporters in Arabic that "we have asked for the American forces to stay in Iraq" to enable Iraqi security to deal with terrorists. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
La. rep. tries to save political career - Yahoo! News
Cain Burdeau |
|
Embattled U.S. Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) hunted for votes among churchgoers Sunday as he headed into the final week of a campaign to hold onto his seat and salvage his political fortunes.
ADVERTISEMENT
FBI raids on his homes and his congressional office, including allegations in an FBI affidavit that he hid $90,000 in bribe money in a freezer, have left Jefferson vulnerable for the first time since he won the seat in 1990.
In the Nov. 7 open multiparty primary, the Democratic congressman netted 30 percent of the vote, considered a poor showing for an incumbent. |
Published: Dec. 04, 2006
Posted: Dec. 04, 2006 |
|
|
| Click
here for more news... |
|
28"x20" |
|
28"x20" each |
|
I feel that we are at a point
in time on our planet and in this country in particular where
serious and truly meaningful actions must be taken - actions
precisely defind in our Constitution and in our system of
laws. Actions to take for reasons well defined and thoughtfully
and courageously expressed in our Declaration of Independence:
|
|
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen
Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united
States of America,
"When in the Course of human events, it
becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands which have connected them with another, and to assume
among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station
to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them,
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
|
|
|
|
As for what is happening now...
There can be no king - ever.
There has not been/cannot be/will not be one
all-powerful, all-knowing elitist religion established in
this country.
There must be respect for the rule of law in
both formulation and execution, but intolerance to the point
of eradication of those laws that cynically murder the Spirit
of equitable guidance of our society.
There must be swift and sure legal retribution
against all those who would seek to predatorily gain from
the losses our country and our people face from time to time
in the course of history. There should be an incorporation
of enumerated treasonous business practices in a newly defined
Sedition Act. As an example, there can be no doubt that Enron's
vicious and open attack upon the state of California - the
most populous and one of the most commercially active states
in the United States if America - was a treasonous act.
If we expect our Fathers, Mothers, Sons, Daughters,
Brothers, Sisters - and, yes, now Grandfathers and Grandmothers
to take up arms and give their lives to protect another people
in another country so that those people may vote for their
freedom, then there must be a verifiable paper trail of votes
for us in this country. There absolutely must be - no excuses.
The death of the American vote is the death of our country.
We must stop and reverse the loss of control
of our public airwaves, and we must bring back the Fairness
Doctrine. Money is not Free Speech - it is the amplificaton
of a minority of voices over the will of the people.
There must be term limits. Things do not rot
when kept fresh.
We must rely on the advice of experts in their
fields before we create a war by preemptively invading another
sovereign country on forced, bogus "intelligence".
We must stop quashing scientific truths –this
will destroy us. There is evidence the destruction now is
exponentially accelerating.
We must stop rewarding failure with continuance
and condeming wisdom with censorship and the fear of the
loss of a livelihood.
We must stand up for what we believe in –even
if it means that we have to prepare ourselves to be shot
down.
|
I'll
be adding to this site as I go along. I've seen enough to make
me mad enough to start saying something. That's what my wife
and I have been yelling at the TV - "Why doesn't somebody
say something?" Well, I'm going to start...
|
We all need to
start.
|
|
| |
|
