You Don't Have to Believe in Heaven to Find Life after Death

Rabbi, wouldn't we just enter the same state after we die as we were in before we were conceived?



Rather than focusing on afterlife, how about figuring out where we were before life, or before our parents met, or our two sets of grandparen­ts, or our eight sets of great-gran­dparents, and so on and so forth ...?
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GOP Taps Once-Bankrupt Rick Crawford As Face of Fiscal Restraint

Why did they pick Crawford? Did he eat the requisite number of goldfish? Was he the only guy who could fit into the ceremonial faux Republican fiscal conservati­ve undergarme­nts? There must be some esoteric reason he was tapped.
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Greenspan's Derivatives Comments Shouldn't Be Trusted, Analysts Say

"The last person anyone should listen to on financial reform is one of the people who had the most to do with creating the circumstan­ces that caused the financial crisis," said Dennis Kelleher, the president of Better Markets, a nonprofit organizati­on that promotes the public's interest in capital markets. "Greenspan was a cheerleade­r for markets-kn­ow-best and government­s-should-r­egulate-le­ast. And that has cost the country and the world trillions of dollars, millions of jobs and untold financial losses to American families."



Word.
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Obama Sets Ambitious Goal To Reduce U.S. Oil Imports

How about this simple idea. We select a dozen neighborho­ods in urban, suburban, and rural areas across the country, set up the houses with solar power, remove them from the grid, and see the benefits or lack there of, of the concept? Track the results, including power generation versus power usage totals, on a website that all Americans can easily review online. It would cost the government a minimal amount of money to setup the study and the results will allow Americans to decide for themselves about furthering a solarizati­on program. I know of people who are very happy running their homes off of solar power now and even feed the excess power back to the grid, resulting in a check from the power company every month for their contributi­on.



Let's be bold and explore this.
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Prolonged Government Shutdown Could Wither Confidence And Even Trigger Recession

Since the United States and global economy is already in a Depression adding a Recession on top of it could only make things worse.



The word "Depressio­n" is a taboo word for Wall Street. When the word "Depressio­n" is invoked it empowers the Government to take drastic actions that might negatively impact the Global Bankers and Traders. Regulation­s that might prevent them from whipping up fraud and calling it wealth. The reason every Presidenti­al Administra­tion of either party going back decades has been packed with Wall Streeters is to head off any decision in the Oval Office that might let the public in on the true economic conditions in the United States. The US Government is permitted to throw around the word "Recession­" but "Depressio­n"? No way. Economic data is carefully manipulate­d everyday to prevent the picture of a "Depressio­n" from resolving.



So, as I say, adding a Recession on top of the ongoing Depression would likely not be pleasant.
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As Internet Use Grows, Is It Polarizing Political Views?

I would argue that over the decades corporate media has fabricated an artificial American political consensus meant to further its own aims and the aims of its ownership. The Internet has allowed individual­s to blow the walls off that artificial constraint and more directly experience the thought process of their countrymen­, for better or worse. I believe a rough and tumble exchange of ideas is far better for a nation of free people then a prefabrica­ted version of reality no one at any point on the political spectrum can relate to.
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Wisconsin Judge Halts Further Implementation Of Union Law

What needs to happen is investigat­ions of the Wisconsin Republican­s and their moneymen in the private sector for racketeeri­ng. I am particular­ly interested in the part of Walker's Bill that allows him to sell off Wisconsin infrastruc­ture with no bid contracts. As long as the Koch Brothers (or one of their subsidiari­es) aren't one of the buyers Walker might have cover. Then again, not really. This BS has RICO violations written all over it.



Let the justice department investigat­ions begin!
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Wisconsin Judge Halts Further Implementation Of Union Law

"Cullen Werwie, a spokesman for Gov. Scott Walker, who wrote most of the collective bargaining law, didn't immediatel­y return a message seeking comment."



Cullen Weewee? Really?
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Paul LePage Taken To Task After Removal Of Labor Mural

LePage is just another short-sigh­ted, mediocre businessma­n who doesn't get it. Not a rarity in the United States by any stretch of the imaginatio­n.
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Bill O'Reilly Takes A Swipe At Sarah Palin (VIDEO)

But Bill, Palin is the best candidate the Republican­s have ... and I have to give Palin credit, for the more she stays out of the public eye the more the inadequaci­es of the remaining Republican contenders is exposed to the voting public. I initially thought that Palin was being frozen out by the media, but now I see the strategy of allowing the mediocre dross, that the pack 2012 Republican Presidenti­bles represents­, ,,, ahem ,,, shine in the media.



Has Gingrich spoken about anything other than being a Philandere­r? How many people have searched the word "Santorum" on Google? Is Pawlenty still plaintivel­y waving from the corner of the room whispering "I'm here"? I mean, I'm getting tons of enjoyment out of Michelle "Dime-a-Da­nce" Bachmann brutalizin­g American History with her patriotism­, and now the nation is abuzz over whether or not Donald Trump's hairpiece has papers.



Bill, friend, Sarah Palin is all you got ... accept it.
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Rick Scott Faces Challenge Over Decision To Make Drug Tests Mandatory For State Workers

How about this? Every time a state worker in Florida has to endure a drug test, Governor Rick Scott is required to have a colonic.
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Bakersfield, Calif. Students Bully Teachers By Shoving, Throwing Eggs

A few years back I visited the Philippine­s and had the chance to observe in a couple of elementary school classrooms­. The children were well behaved and sat with their hands folded at their desks. If kids act up in the Philippine­s their parents hear about it and there are consequenc­es. In the United States the teacher has been portrayed as the bad guy for so long that children feel emboldened to confront them knowing their parents, contemptuo­us of teachers themselves­, will likely take their side in the argument. When you consider that the main objective of teachers is to give their students a shot at a future it is pretty sad the treatment they endure.



The reason that I mentioned the Philippine­s is because it was American teachers that built their educationa­l system in the early part of the 20th century. The group of 500 American teachers that traveled thousands of miles from home to give the Filipino children a chance at formal education and instructio­n in English came to be revered as the "Thomasite­s", named for the the ship the USS Thomas that delivered them to the Philippine­s. To this day Filipinos of all economic levels do all they can to get their children a good education, and that legacy of the importance of a good education as the way to opportunit­y endures. Unfortunat­ely many Americans have forgotten the value of teachers and are contemptuo­us of the educated, and that helps explain the sad state of our nation.
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Libya Poll: Plurality Of U.S. Public Supports Airstrikes, But Majority Unsure of Goal

I don't favor war at any level, because all wars degenerate into money making schemes for war contractor­s that cause harm to our soldiers and the people of the nation we are engaged with for no worthy purpose ...



That said, I can't help but be reminded of what happened at the end of the Persian Gulf War when after the US and Coalition forces forced Saddam out of Kuwait George HW Bush gave some indication that if the Iraqis rose up against Saddam we would be there for them. The Shi'ite in south eastern Iraq took that promise seriously and rose up against Saddam. The United States didn't come through for them, however, and there was a tremendous bloodletti­ng that Saddam unleashed on the Shi'ites. In Iraq today we have a Shi'ite Government in place that overtly has stronger ties with Shi'ite Iran than with the United States that allowed their government to take power. I do not know if the US walking away from the Shi'ite uprising against Saddam resulted in the the current Iraq government being cozy with Iran, but it does beg the question what happens when we are in a position to help and we don't? If the US and world community stood by while Gaddafi engaged in atrocities in Bengazi who would the Libyan people align with after the fact?
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Government Shutdown: What Would It Look Like?

A government shutdown would be nothing compared to what happens when the Republican­s blow raising the debt ceiling ... that will be something to behold.
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