There really is no excuse for this shit anymore:
Shrinking habitat remains a daunting challenge, but conservationists say the biggest threat to Asia's largest predator is the Chinese appetite for tiger parts. Despite a government ban on the trade since 1993, there is a robust market for tiger bones, traditionally prized for their healing and aphrodisiac qualities, and tiger skins, which have become cherished trophies among China's nouveau riche.
Happy fucking Year of the Tiger, you bastards.
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It's not just four states. These bastards are doing it nationwide. In DC, my CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield rates went up "only" 15% this year. Previous years were, I believe, in the 20% to 25% range per year.
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Poison alert! A rose by any other name...
Aspartame has been renamed and is now being marketed as a natural sweetener
In response to growing awareness about the dangers of artificial sweeteners, what does the manufacturer of one of the world's most notable artificial sweeteners do? Why, rename it and begin marketing it as natural, of course. This is precisely the strategy of Ajinomoto, maker of aspartame, which hopes to pull the wool over the eyes of the public with its rebranded version of aspartame, called "AminoSweet" (my em).
Emphasis added so you'll know what to look for in the 'ingredients' panel.
I use Splenda which, though it has chlorine in it, has not had the kind of controversy about it that aspartame has. It has had some, a good deal of which I suspect is from other artificial sweetener manufacturers and the sugar lobby.
None of this shit is very good for you, but we like sweet.
Here's another awesome piece of news about the rocket scientists in the tea party movement:
Of all the very information that came out of the recent CBS News/New York Times poll, one question stuck out, that of taxes.Here's the poll question: "In general, do you think the Obama Administration has increased taxes for most Americans, decreased taxes for most Americans or have they kept taxes the same for most Americans?"
The answer:
• 24 percent of respondents said they INCREASED taxes.
• 53 percent said they kept taxes the same
• And 12 percent said taxes were decreased.Of people who support the grassroots, "Tea Party" movement, only 2 percent think taxes have been decreased, 46 percent say taxes are the same, and a whopping 44 percent say they believe taxes have gone up.
The power of the wurlitzer. Taxes were decreased for 95% of the country.
It really is quite amazing what you can do with a group of people who are completely uninterested in the truth, unwilling to believe anything that comes from someone other than Rush or Glenn Beck or an "acceptable" source of information, and who have a vested interest in believing what they want to believe, reality be damned. It is why they can freak out about the stimulus bill as 800 BILLION IN PORK when damned near half of it was tax cuts and another 250 billion of it was simply money to prop up holes in state and local budgets.
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Go Joe, Go!
It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the current financial collapse of the Greek government, which is in turn dragging down the Euro, has Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street players all wrapped up in it (and profiting handsomely from the deal). Goldman and the rest have essentially done over there what they did to the housing market here: Figure out a way to pump it up and then make money from both the inflation and the crash.
