Did you see that Diane Sawyer special report about how they removed ALL items from a typical, middle class family’s home that were not made in the USA? Shocking.
There was hardly anything left besides the kitchen sink. Literally. During the special they are going to show truckloads of items – USA made – being brought in to replace everything and will be talking about how to find these items and the difference in price etc..
It was interesting that Diane said that if every American spent just $64 more than normal on USA made items this year, it would create something like 200,000 new jobs!
I was buying food the other day at Walmart and on the label of some products it said, “From China.” Doesn’t Walmart promote American Made? I was so shocked, I spent a few more cents to buy the Dole brand from California.
Are we Americans as dumb as we appear — or — is it that we just do not think while the Chinese, knowingly and intentionally, export inferior and even toxic products and dangerous toys and goods to be sold in American markets?
70% of Americans believe that the trading privileges afforded to the Chinese should be suspended.
Why do you need the government to suspend trading privileges? DO IT YOURSELF, AMERICA!!
Simply look on the bottom of every product you buy, and if it says ‘Made in China ‘ or ‘PRC’ (and that now includes Hong Kong ), simply choose another product, or none at all. You will be amazed at how dependent you are on Chinese products, and you will be equally amazed at what you can do without.
Who needs plastic eggs to celebrate Easter? If you must have eggs, use real ones and benefit some American farmer. Easter is just an example. The point is do not wait for the government to act. Just go ahead and assume control on your own.
THINK ABOUT THIS: If 200 million Americans refuse to buy just $20 each of Chinese goods, that’s a billion dollar trade imbalance resolved in our favor…fast!!
If we can’t live without cheap Chinese goods for one month out of our lives, WE DESERVE WHAT WE GET!
The richest and most advanced country in the world, the United States, has fallen behind other nations in providing affordable health care to its citizens. Americans spend $477 billion a year MORE on health care than other advanced countries, which amounts to $1,645 per person every year. Our friends at Medical Billing and Coding put together this graphic to show exactly why we pay so much for health care compared to other wealthy nations. Part 1 can be viewed here.
See who Mark Zuckerberg is after these days. We hear the Facebook CEO is eyeing the takeover of the much popular Skype. If the grapevine is true to what it manages to churn out, Facebook might end up buying out Skype for a price close to $4 billion.
Some observers out there firmly believe some sort of action is actually happening, but then that doesn’t mean there is a take over bid. They feel that the deal may not be a buy out, but a joint venture between Facebook and Skype.
We need not tell you that Skype and Facebook have been associated with each other for some time now. If you would remember, Facebook had been in the scheme of things at Skype and this was demonstrated by Skype when they rolled out their version 5.0 software for Windows.
The software had a dedicated Facebook tab so as to enable users to chat or call Facebook friends via Skype. This was in fact made possible right from “the Facebook newsfeed which can be viewed from within the Skype application”.
By the way, if you are looking at going into what the $4 billion ‘possible’ takeover would bring to Skype, let us also take you to a situation where Skype had been mulling over an IPO. If you would remember, the Skype IPO was recently delayed by its new CEO until the second half of 2011. And that public offer would have brought to the Skype coffers only around $1 billion. Considering such a scene, the Facebook move, if at all that bears fruit, could mean a lot to Skype. We also hear Google too is looking at a venture with Skype. More details are awaited.
Now, for the flip side of my previous post asking FOX to put a lid on it out of respect to the families of the 911 victims….
I most certainly believe in free-thinking… to explore, gather data, and come to my own conclusions. However, when the facts and truths are limited or skewed, I often find myself not being able to being able to reasonably come to a decision. Therefore, I remain agnostic on the matter… neither believing nor disbelieving what has been laid before me.
I have now come to realize I am in a quandry with 911…. First of all, I most certainly believe without a doubt that the general public, such as myself, will never know the true facts behind the collapse of the Twin Towers and Building 7. Was it Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda fronting an act of terrorism against the “infedel” know as the US? Was it perhaps Bush and part of the US government (or US-International combination) seeking to obtain world-wide power and financial gain? Or another inexplicable reason altogether? The truths behind this day will never be known beyond a doubt. The families of the innocent will forever suffer. Since the day I watched the towers collapse, it has never set right with me that they went down in a manner much like implosion. And then there’s Building 7….
When I was prepping my previous posting which is asking FOX to shut the #*@! up and stop whining on how Obama sent the Seals in to capture/kill Bin Laden (out of respect for the 911 families), I wanted to include an image of the “FBI Most Wanted” poster of Osama Bin Laden. So I googled away… but what I found surprised me.
No where on this wanted poster does it mention 911…. no where.
It states, “Usama Bin Laden is wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. These attacks killed over 200 people. In addition, Bin Laden is a suspect in other terrorist attacks throughout the world.”
Nothing… nada… zero… zilch.
For nearly ten years, we have been led to believe that Bin Laden was behind this horrific event. Have we been lied to this whole time? Placing blame on OBL for ulterior motives?
I’m tired of excuses and lies. What is the truth?
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I am neither affirming nor denying this viewpoint of what occurred on 9/11/2001. Just passing on information for you to decide….
“We got Bin Laden but at what cost and who’s next. Can the president send the Navy Seals to kill the likes of Qaddafi, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong Il…” quoted from FOX Business “Who Will the President Kill Next?”
Seriously… is FOX really comparing what Bin Laden has done to this country, on US soil, to the likes of Gaddafi? Chavez? Kim Jong Il? Mind you, they are all far from being saints, but relative to what each has done directly to the US, there is no comparison.
Yes, there are several conspiracy theories which point the destruction of the Twin Towers at other parties other than Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. However, for the sake of this blog post, let’s go with the predominant theory that the Twin Towers were the victims of a terrorism attack by OBL and his groupies from Al-Qaeda in order to make a point here.
Since 9/11/2001, Bush, the FBI, the government, and especially the families of those who perished on that most devastating day have been hunting for OBL. On May 1st, 2011, they all finally got what they wanted. At first, praises were sung for President Obama, but now the likes of FOX News and their lack-of-common-sense cohorts are now criticizing Obama for sending in the Seals and killing OBL.
WTF….
I mean, SERIOUSLY! Did this man not kill nearly 3,000 innocent people? And on American soil! Brought down three buildings – two of which were architectural phenomenons. And these fools want to berate the shooting of an unarmed mass murderer of thousands of innocent people? The pain that these families of the 911 victims must now be going through by listening to this crap. I can only imagine that the majority of them would have loved to have been the Navy Seal that took down Osama.
And now, FOX Business is comparing OBL to the infamous deeds of Gaddafi… Chavez… Kim Jong Il…. That’s comparing apples to oranges. Or Trump to Lincoln. Or the Happy Hooker to Mother Theresa… I think you get my point.
If FOX, Glenn Beck, and their other idiotic whiners and criers did not like the way this all went down… then why didn’t they do it themselves…..
Please, for the sake of the families of 911… muster up a small amout of respect and put a lid on it.
As many people do in this world… I LOVE DOGS! This has to be one of the best, funniest, and most creative videos of a dog I have seen. I have watched this dozens of times, and sent it to everyone I know. The creation/narration was so well done.
UPDATE May 12, 2011: Video has been broadcast worldwide on TV on such shows as Good Morning America. Congratulations! You most certainly have a viral video worthy of this attention.
Here is the ORIGINAL video of the dog, Clark Griswold “Sir Talksalot”…
(CNN) — The mission that killed one of the world’s most notorious terrorist leaders was carried out by U.S. forces with the cooperation of Pakistan, U.S. President Barack Obama said Sunday night.
Osama bin Laden — the longtime leader of al Qaeda — was killed by U.S. forces in a mansion about 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad along with other family members, a senior U.S. official told CNN.
Members of Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI, were on site in Abbottabad during the operation, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said.
Bin Laden resisted the assault and was killed in a firefight, senior administration officials said.
The Pakistani intelligence official said he did not know who fired the shot that actually killed the terror mastermind.
U.S. sources including a senior official and a congressional source familiar with the operation said bin Laden was shot in the head.
Three other men were also killed in raid, as was a woman who was being used as a human shield, senior administration officials said.
The U.S. team was at the compound for about 40 minutes, the officials said. There were no casualties on the American side, although a U.S. helicopter crashed during the raid due to mechanical problems. The helicopter was then destroyed for security reasons, senior administration officials said.
A senior administration official told reporters that Obama’s administration did not share intelligence gathered beforehand with any other country — including Pakistan — for security reasons.
The official said only a small group of people inside the U.S. government knew about this operation ahead of time. Another official said a “small U.S. team” was involved in the operation; but the official would not confirm any U.S. military involvement.
However, a senior defense official said U.S. Navy SEALs were involved.
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Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there is still a group that lots of Americans just don’t like much: atheists. Those who don’t believe in god are widely considered to be immoral, wicked and angry. They can’t join the Boy Scouts. Atheist soldiers are rated potentially deficient when they do not score as sufficiently “spiritual” in military psychological evaluations. Surveys find that most Americans refuse or are reluctant to marry or vote for nontheists; in other words, nonbelievers are one minority still commonly denied in practical terms the right to assume office despite the constitutional ban on religious tests.
Rarely denounced by the mainstream, this stunning anti-atheist discrimination is egged on by Christian conservatives who stridently — and uncivilly — declare that the lack of godly faith is detrimental to society, rendering nonbelievers intrinsically suspect and second-class citizens.
Is this knee-jerk dislike of atheists warranted? Not even close.
A growing body of social science research reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be. On basic questions of morality and human decency — issues such as governmental use of torture, the death penalty, punitive hitting of children, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, environmental degradation or human rights — the irreligious tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious.
Consider that at the societal level, murder rates are far lower in secularized nations such as Japan or Sweden than they are in the much more religious United States, which also has a much greater portion of its population in prison. Even within this country, those states with the highest levels of church attendance, such as Louisiana and Mississippi, have significantly higher murder rates than far less religious states such as Vermont and Oregon.
As individuals, atheists tend to score high on measures of intelligence, especially verbal ability and scientific literacy. They tend to raise their children to solve problems rationally, to make up their own minds when it comes to existential questions and to obey the golden rule. They are more likely to practice safe sex than the strongly religious are, and are less likely to be nationalistic or ethnocentric. They value freedom of thought.
While many studies show that secular Americans don’t fare as well as the religious when it comes to certain indicators of mental health or subjective well-being, new scholarship is showing that the relationships among atheism, theism, and mental health and well-being are complex. After all, Denmark, which is among the least religious countries in the history of the world, consistently rates as the happiest of nations. And studies of apostates — people who were religious but later rejected their religion — report feeling happier, better and liberated in their post-religious lives.
More than 2,000 years ago, whoever wrote Psalm 14 claimed that atheists were foolish and corrupt, incapable of doing any good. These put-downs have had sticking power. Negative stereotypes of atheists are alive and well. Yet like all stereotypes, they aren’t true — and perhaps they tell us more about those who harbor them than those who are maligned by them. So when the likes of Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Bill O’Reilly and Newt Gingrich engage in the politics of division and destruction by maligning atheists, they do so in disregard of reality.
As with other national minority groups, atheism is enjoying rapid growth. Despite the bigotry, the number of American nontheists has tripled as a proportion of the general population since the 1960s. Younger generations’ tolerance for the endless disputes of religion is waning fast. Surveys designed to overcome the understandable reluctance to admit atheism have found that as many as 60 million Americans — a fifth of the population — are not believers. Our nonreligious compatriots should be accorded the same respect as other minorities.
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Gregory Paul is an independent researcher in sociology and evolution. Phil Zuckerman, a professor of sociology at Pitzer College, is the author of “Society Without God.”
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TRIPOLI, May 1 (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi survived a NATO air strike on a Tripoli house that killed his youngest son and three grandchildren, a government spokesman said on Sunday.
Libyan officials took journalists to the house, which had been hit by at least three missiles. The roof had completely caved in places, leaving mangled rods of reinforcing steel hanging down among splintered chunks of concrete.
“What we have now is the law of the jungle,” government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told a news conference. “We think now it is clear to everyone that what is happening in Libya has nothing to do with the protection of civilians.”
NATO denied targeting Gaddafi, or his family, but said it had launched air strikes on military targets in the same area of Tripoli as the bombed site seen by reporters.
“NATO continued its precision strikes against regime military installations in Tripoli overnight, including striking a known command and control building in the Bab al-Aziziyah neighborhood shortly after 1800 GMT Saturday evening,” the alliance said in a statement.
NATO’s commander of Libya operations, Canadian Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard, said the target was part of a strategy to hit command centers that threaten civilians.
“All NATO’s targets are military in nature … We do not target individuals,” he said in a statement.
Ibrahim said Gaddafi’s youngest son, Saif Al-Arab, had been killed in the attack. Saif al-Arab, 29, is one of Gaddafi’s less prominent sons, with a limited role in the power structure. Ibrahim described him as a student who had studied in Germany.
The grandchildren killed were pre-teens, Ibrahim said.
The appearance of an assassination attempt against Gaddafi is likely to lead to accusations that the British- and French-led strikes are overstepping the U.N. mandate to protect civilians.
“I am aware of unconfirmed media reports that some of Gaddafi’s family members may have been killed,” said Bouchard. “We regret all loss of life.”
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a long-time ally of Gaddafi, called it attempted murder.
“There is no doubt the order was given to kill Gaddafi. It doesn’t matter who else is killed, kill Gaddafi … a murder, this is a murder,” he said in Caracas.
SECOND CLOSE CALL IN 24 HOURS
Gaddafi, who seized power in a 1969 coup, is fighting an uprising by rebels who have seized much of eastern Libya. He describes the rebels as religious extremists and Western agents who seek to control Libya’s oil.
Inside part of the villa hit late on Saturday, a beige sofa was virtually untouched, but debris had caved in on other striped upholstered chairs. The blasts were heard across the city.
A table football machine stood outside in the garden in a wealthy residential area. Glass and debris covered the lawns and what appeared to be an unexploded missile lay in one corner.
It appeared to be the second NATO strike near to Gaddafi in 24 hours. A missile struck near a television station early on Saturday when the Libyan leader was making an address in which he said he would never step down and offered talks to rebels.
The rebels insist they cannot trust Gaddafi. The last few days have seen fierce shelling of rebel outposts in the west. A rebel spokesman in the mountain town of Zintan said government forces has showered the city with up to 30 powerful Grad missiles late in the evening.
Tripoli has also declared a sea blockade on the western outpost of Misrata, potentially robbing the rebels of a vital aid link to their eastern heartland.
“FIGHT AND FIGHT”
Celebratory rifle fire and car horns rang out in the rebels’ eastern capital of Benghazi as news of the attack spread.
“The leader himself is in good health. He wasn’t harmed,” Ibrahim said. “His wife is also in good health.
“This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country. This is not permitted by international law. It is not permitted by any moral code or principle.”
The announcement of the attack was made live on state television which later showed Tripoli residents marching on the streets, chanting “the martyr is the beloved of God”. Some fired guns into the air.
U.S. White House press secretary Jay Carney said the White House was aware of Libyan media reports Gaddafi’s son had been killed and was monitoring the situation.
Gaddafi’s daughter was killed in a U.S. air strike in 1986, ordered after a bomb attack on a West Berlin discotheque killed two U.S. servicemen. Washington linked Tripoli to the attack.
“We will fight and fight if we have to,” Ibrahim said. “The leader offered peace to NATO yesterday and NATO rejected it.”
Fighting in Libya’s civil war, which grew from protests for greater political freedom that have spread across the Arab world, has reached stalemate in recent weeks with neither side capable of achieving a decisive blow.
Libyan forces had reached the gates of Benghazi last month when Gaddafi appeared on television declaring he would crush the rebellion, showing “no pity, no mercy”. Days later the United Nations passed its resolution allowing the air strikes and saving the rebels from defeat.
PERSONAL NOTE: The death of the grandchilden is tragic, and they have become victims of Gaddafi’s murder upon his own people and country. In no way, shape, form or manner do I condone the killing of children for any reason. Yet, lest we forget what he has done in this video:
