Barack Obama wins healthcare battle in tight vote

NEWS
Barack Obama wins healthcare battle in tight vote
Monday, March 22, 2010

The US House of Representatives has narrowly voted to pass a landmark healthcare reform bill at the heart of President Barack Obama’s agenda.

The bill was passed by 219 votes to 212, with no Republican backing, after hours of fierce argument and debate.

It extends coverage to 32 million more Americans, and marks the biggest change to the US healthcare system in decades.

“We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things,” Mr Obama said in remarks after the vote.

“This legislation will not fix everything that ails our healthcare system, but it moves us decisively in the right direction,” he said.

Mr Obama is expected to sign the legislation into law shortly.

But a new challenge is expected in the Senate, where Democrats hope amendments to the bill will be enacted by a simple majority. Republicans say the move is unconstitutional and plan to stop it.

We will be joining those who established Social Security, Medicare and now, tonight, healthcare for all Americans.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Historic vote
He has been tough and tenacious – some might say stubborn – in pushing this legislation after so much opposition and so many setbacks, our correspondent says.
This is the most significant victory for the president since he took office 14 months ago.
When the vote count hit the magic number of 216 – the minimum needed to pass the bill – Democrats hugged and cheered in celebration and chanted: “Yes we can!”

Under the legislation, health insurance will be extended to nearly all Americans, new taxes imposed on the wealthy, and restrictive insurance practices such as refusing to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions will be outlawed.

However, our correspondent says it has become a rallying point for Republicans, who are convinced the American people do not want the changes and that it will be a vote winner for them come the mid-term elections in November.

They say the measures are unaffordable and represent a government takeover of the health industry.

“We have failed to listen to America,” said Republican party leader John Boehner.

Speaking moments before the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the health care reform honoured the nation’s traditions.

“We will be joining those who established Social Security, Medicare and now, tonight, healthcare for all Americans,” she said, referring to the government’s pension program and health insurance for the elderly established nearly 50 years ago.

Although Democrats pushed the measure through with three votes to spare, 34 members joined Republicans in voting against the bill, worried about paying a political price in November.

In a last-minute move designed to win the support of a bloc of anti-abortion lawmakers, Mr Obama earlier on Sunday announced plans to issue an executive order assuring that healthcare reform will not change the restrictions barring federal money for abortion.

Next steps
The bill’s final approval represented a stunning turnaround from January, when it was considered dead after Democrats lost their 60-seaty majority in the Senate, which is required to defeat a filibuster.

To avoid a second Senate vote, the House also approved on Sunday evening a package of reconciliation “fixes” – agreed beforehand between House and Senate Democrats and the White House – amending the bill that senators adopted in December.

The president is expected to sign the House-passed Senate bill as early as Tuesday, after which it will be officially enacted into law. However, it will contain some very unpopular measures that Democratic senators have agreed to amend.

The Senate will be able to make the required changes in a separate bill using a procedure known as reconciliation, which allows budget provisions to be approved with 51 votes – rather than the 60 needed to overcome blocking tactics.

The Republicans say they will seek to repeal the measure, challenge its constitutionality and co-ordinate efforts in state legislatures to block its implementation.

But the president has signalled he will fight back.

The White House plans to launch a campaign this week to persuade sceptical Americans that the reforms offer immediate benefits to them and represent the most significant effort to reduce the federal deficit since the 1990s.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the healthcare bill will cut the federal deficit by $138bn over 10 years.

The non-partisan body said last week that the legislation would cost about $940bn over the same period.

The reforms will increase insurance coverage through tax credits for the middle class and an expansion of Medicaid for the poor.

They represent the biggest change in the US healthcare system since the creation in the 1960s of Medicare, the government-run scheme for those aged 65 or over.

[Via http://dominicstoughton.wordpress.com]

HAPPY HEALTHCARE, USA

After decades of debate, attempts, and failures, real Health Care Reform has finally come to America with the passage of HR3590. Obama has brought real change to America.

Final vote: Yay - 219, Nay - 212 PASS!!!

I have followed the debate closely over the past year and have written several posts which can help you to understand the content, context, and importance of this bill: check them out here.

Let’s all hope that Rush Limbaugh now makes good on his pledge to leave the country if this legislation passes:

Good night and good luck!

[Via http://freshmandenial.wordpress.com]

Wind and Dust and Real Wild West

Two days in the desert—driving, hot wind roaring, through the pebbles and boulders, palm groves and dusty towns, the strange angles of the Joshua trees, arching up towards something, a sky as pale as eyes. It’s not hard to imagine infinity in the desert, that’s it’s all still at the bottom of some great prehistoric sea, that the sky were the lid of the sea and we were all swimming through it, rattling highway through it—the wind, waves; the dust, sand; the crunch under your sneakers some kind of ancient asking.

I arched over the hills, my tired car chugging, and arrived in Joshua Tree, went teeth-chattering down an unpaved road that dead-ended at open lot of strange, scavenged art. I’d read about the Noah Purifoy Foundation on Trazzler, and it immediately rose to the top on my list of things to do .

An LA artist that moved to the desert for more space and peace, Noah Purifoy erected whimsical sculptures out of found and salvaged materials—toilets, old vacuum cleaners, scrapped tin. During the 60s he’d directed the Watts Towers Art Center, and you can definitely see the influence of Simon Rodia—though Purifoy’s creations are more folksy, more political, less abstract. In fact, one of the most powerful pieces in the wind-swept lot was a piece made from materials found after the Watts Riots. To take a tragic, violent event, to sift through its remains and piece them together to create something new, something beautiful—this seems to be what Noah Purifoy was all about.

Admission to the Noah Purifoy Foundation is free; there’s a couple pamphlets at the entrance that guide you through your wanderings. There were only a couple other people there, and I hadn’t read about the place anywhere else. Except that, the next day, I saw on Twitter that it’d been featured in the New York Times. So much for having the edge.

Then it was off into the park itself. You hear a lot about the strange spiritual power of Joshua Tree, and I gotta say, they aren’t exaggerating. The terrain was other-worldly, to say the least. The tumble of boulders looked as though they’d been piled up by a toddler’s hand. The arms of the Joshua trees twisted and reached, fists full of beige spring flowers.  The shrubs had a slight purplish haze, like an old woman’s hair, and the air was full with a charged silence, the sound of wind.

I of course made a beeline to the site of Gram Parson’s impromptu cremation, something of a pilgrimage site for fans and aficionados of the bizarre. I drove out to Cap Rock and walked slowly around the massive formation, searching for the tributes and messages written on the rock that would signal the spot. And you know, I have to say, sitting there, the whole thing seemed much less odd. Well, the bit about stealing the body and having it actually burned on the spot is still a bit far-fetched, but being there—listening to the wind and watching the lizards dart—it seemed less like some kind of opiate-inspired fit of fancifulness, and more like an honest yearning to become a part of the place. It felt like somewhere, very far beneath the surface of it all, those plutonic intrusions that caused the rock formations were still boiling, still shooting up through the crust of the earth, and it didn’t seem so strange to want to become a part of it—to become smoke, twisting; dust, dancing; and at last the wind.

Across the desolation lay a supreme indifference, the casualness of night and another day, and yet the secret intimacy of those hills, their silent consoling wonder, made death a thing of no great importance. You could die, but the desert would hide the secret of your death, it would remain after you, to cover your memory with ageless wind and heat and cold.

John Fante, “Ask the Dust”

The next day it was off find the Wild West. I’d been stoked about Pioneertown, for nothing more than the kitsch factor. An old movie and TV set from the 40s, my trip to Pioneertown seemed ill-fated from the beginning. The Pionnertown Motel suddenly “closed indefinitely” the week before I left, and Harriet and Pappy’s Palace, billed as the best honky tonk west of the Mississippi, was closed the night I wanted to go boogie down. So I headed out in the morning and I have to say, if it would have been monumentally disappointing if Ice Cube hadn’t been there, in a poncho and a sombrero hat, filming a new video.

I headed back on the highway, through squat, peopleless towns of gas stations and boarded-up buildings. Did you know they grow dates in the California desert? I didn’t. Or that a date milkshake is god-damn delicious?

I made it to Niland, a windy little town with a couple shops, a no-name gas station and a stretch of trailers. There were two big sights there that inspired me to go 2 1/2 hours out of my way: Salvation Mountain and Slab City—the real, modern-day Wild West. It’s fitting that most people know about these places, if at all, from the movie and book Into The Wild, because they capture the kind of not-for-profit weirdness that can only take place in California.

Salvation Mountain is Leonard Knight’s neon, latex-paint monument to God. Really. Radioactively bright, the art installation is covered in biblical passages, odes to God, and topped with a cross. The old dude came out to the desert in 1985, shortly after he was saved by Jesus, and began building the tribute, fueled by some kind of insane passion and other-realm vision.

Leonard was there that day, as he is most. Weathered, red-skinned and still mostly coherent, Leonard showed a small group of us around, spouting his message of God’s love and keeping it simple. He had a 10th grade education, he told us, and was one of the dumbest creatures on Earth, but because he’d repented, God had enabled him to build Salvation Mountain. He didn’t do it for money, he didn’t do it for fame—he did it spread the message.

His paint-stained pants were hitched up high, one of the legs tucked into his sock. The Velcro straps of his stained sneakers flapped, and he’d missed a button on his shirt. Three long hairs grew out of the top of his nose; he had a cold sore and one long thumb nail. He looked like a man that had become the desert, was the desert. He gave us each a handful of postcards and asked us to distribute them. He wanted nothing in return, just for us to spread the word. He repeated “keep it simple” like a mantra.

A quarter-mile down the road was the legendary RV squatter encampment of Slab City—”the last free place,” the sign read. Pebbly and stark and covered with trailers, Slab City is a piece of land no one wants. The government bulldozed a military base that was there in the mid-40s, leaving nothing but concrete slabs, covering the ground like graves. Word got out in the squatter community, and it became a wintering place for “snow birds.” There’s no water, no bathrooms—nothing, again, but wind and dust.

There were a number of “yard sales”—tables and blankets were random stuff was displayed, on sale for passer-throughs like myself. I pulled over to one and chatted with the people there, a desert-skinned man with a scabby elbow on a bicycle, and a sun-visored woman with obese ankles and a gap where a tooth once was. I asked them about life in Slab City, about the community and why they were there.

“There’s no rules here,” they told me. “No one bothers you, and you can do whatever you want.” They let the statement linger, and I didn’t ask what “whatever” was. As long as you were sociable with your neighbors and didn’t steal, anything went.

They told me how they easily lived on $200 a month in government assistance and food stamps, how people helped each other without payment or reward, how there were weekly live music shows and how the cops wouldn’t come out there (since Slabbers provide all the income for the nearby town Niland, they claimed). They talked about local goings-on, about drunk neighbors who’d stabbed each other and a dog that had recently died, a new church that had opened and was going to start giving out food on Sundays. Last year a trailer had burned; there was nothing to do but watch it blaze in the night.

“By April 1,” the guy told me, “everyone will be gone.”

“Where do they go?”

He shrugged. “Oregon. Canada. There’s not many free places left, places like this.”

He looked around the shrubs and dirt, squinted under the heavy sun—a place that had etched itself onto his skin, his sharp blue eyes. This was no OK Corral; this was the realeast Wild West I’d ever seen.

[Via http://lonelygirltravels.com]

What's in a name

Another entry in the “US politics is deranged” file – Fox News interrogating Obama about what procedural method the Democrats might use to get a straight vote on the healthcare bill:

“Deem and Pass” sounds so much more sinister when you pronounce it “Demon Pass” and introduce it as “the Slaughter Rule”, doesn’t it?

What next? For the remainder of the Obama Administration, will they start calling the power of the President to veto legislation the “Obama Skullf*cks Your Grandmother Rule”?

[Via http://anonymouslefty.wordpress.com]

Warfare between Christ and Islam

Stand for truth in politics, law, education, media, and culture. However, continue to rest in the works of Jesus Christ. “It is finished.” Indeed, the state of this world distresses us, and we must pray and work in the Spirit against the continuous stream of new versions of the old lie; however, let us not be tempted to think that this is a war against Christians and Muslims.

Muslims are victims of the lie of Islam. Islam shall be defeated by the weaponry of our Lord; pitting foolish Muslim weapons (demographics, politics, war, terrorism, lies, protests) against Muslims will not defeat Islam. The living God is the Powerful. We will not send out a fat Goliath with a flashy costume to impress or intimidate men. We will be weak, we will have faith, and we will be strong in the Lord.

Even as the spirit of Islam conquers Europe and invades North America, it is rotting from the inside-out. Souls in the very heart of Dar al-Islam are crying out for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Nobody can stop the work of our Lord. When they say Christianity is dying, it is a sure sign that it is just beginning.

A Muslim’s greatest shame is that a tiny nation called Israel remains in the middle of Islam’s headquarters. Heavy militant action since 1948 has not removed this thorn that even stuck the gut of prophet Muhammad until his death, even though hungry dogs surround Israel on all borders. This shame cuts to the core, not only of Muslim politics, but also of their personal service to their dead god. This question haunts them: “What have I done wrong, Allah, that this stain will not be removed?”

Even as the strong-man Islam cannot wipe out the puny nation of Israel, so much more shall he not wipe out the kingdom of Jesus Christ. He cannot touch it; God’s will forbids it. Christ’s kingdom is not even of this world. Our citizenship is in heaven, where our King is preparing a place for us.

Let us show love to our Muslim neighbors. Let them see our weakness, for weak we are. But just as the Philistines saw in young David, they will also see that the God of Israel is the living God. Our strength is in the Most High. The Jew, the Muslim, and the Arminian Christian struggle and fuss to please the God of Abraham, but they altogether disgust Him. No dead man can work from his filthy heart to impress God.

[Via http://looseassociations.wordpress.com]

Obama Sides with RIAA, MPAA; Backs ACTA

From: OS News

And thus, our true colours reveal. Since Obama was the young newcomer, technically savvy, many of us were hoping that he might support patent and/or copyright reform. In case our story earlier on this subject didn’t already tip you off, this certainly will: Obama has sided squarely with the RIAA/MPAA lobby, and backs ACTA. No copyright and/or patent reform for you, American citizens!

Obama made the remarks in a speech at the Export-Import Bank’s annual conference in Washington.

“We’re going to aggressively protect our intellectual property,” Obama said in his speech, “Our single greatest asset is the innovation and the ingenuity and creativity of the
American people [...] It is essential to our prosperity and it will only become more so in this century. But it’s only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else can’t just steal that idea and duplicate it with cheaper inputs and labor.”

“There’s nothing wrong with other people using our technologies, we welcome it,” Obama continued, “We just want to make sure that it’s licensed and that American businesses are getting paid appropriately. That’s why the [US Trade Representative] is using the full arsenal of tools available to crack down on practices that blatantly harm our businesses, and that includes negotiating proper protections and enforcing our existing agreements, and moving forward on new agreements, including the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.”

It seems that the RIAA, MPAA, and similar organisations have been successful in lobbying the US administration into supporting their cause. This means that the US government will continue to (financially) support an industry that is simply outdated, and has failed to adapt to the changing market – which seems remarkably anti-capitalistic and anti-free market, even for a Democratic president.

Full Article

[Via http://noriots.com]

Affirmative Action part 2 of 7693

There is nothing that winds me up more than affirmative action. In Australia it’s a problem, but nowhere near the level that it is in America where they have affirmative action doctors. God help me if I ever get sick there. However, we have a situation at the Melbourne Fire Brigade (MFB) that desperately needs to be nipped in the bud:

The MFB recently applied for an exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act to give preference in pre-training to indigenous people and ethnic minorities, while the gender plan was trying to boost the number of women firefighters.

Thankfully, the backlash has been significant. And guess what, the main opponents for this moronic plan are the same people that these arseholes are claiming to help.

The Lefty Age reports that:

NEARLY half the women firefighters at the Metropolitan Fire Brigade have publicly rejected claims of a ”closed culture” and say setting diversity targets is ”patronising and forever taints applicants”.

Can we hear that again? Can I underline it, bold it, highlight it, etc. etc. without appearing to labour the point?

”patronising and forever taints applicants”

I couldn’t have put it better myself. This is the evil, yes EVIL, that is affirmative action. When you give a group a preference for employment that trumps merit, you forever doom that group to be looked down upon. This is because you have undermined them. Before, their employment meant that they had met the standard, that they were qualified to deal with the real life demands of the job, that they were competitive and that they deserve to be there. It means that the people they work with view them as equals – they are good enough.

The moment you change that, you instantly destroy all the hard work of the people of that group. Suddenly, they don’t deserve to be there. Future employees of that group may not deserve to be there. They might, because they are hard working and qualified for the job, but they also might not, because there is a short cut available to them. And the reality is that the question mark is how they will be viewed forever.

If you want to help, do it at the source. I don’t have a problem with proactive help to those who were disadvantaged from the moment they were born. But reactive “help” at the point of employment is fucked. It is patronising and it leads to resentment.

If a minority goes for a job who is qualified and hard working, and if they are then denied the job on the basis of their gender, country of birth, or their race, I will be the first to complain. That simply isn’t fair and it goes against the principles of Equal Opportunity. But if you favour a person over others on the basis of their country of birth, gender, or race, then you are basically saying to everyone else who belongs to that group that you can’t cut it… that you are so worthless that the only way you can contribute to society is by hand outs.

That’s bullshit, and it is contrary to everything I believe in.

We need to stop this insanity before it spreads.

[Via http://jesscon.wordpress.com]

China itching for a fight with the US? Bring it on, punk.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Telegraph seems to think so. According to him, the Chinese politburo – like the Iranian Ayatollahs, the inbreds from North Korea, the Okinawans, and more recently, the Mexican drug lords – are acting on the basic assumption that Obama’s spine is as stiff as mee kia that’s been dipped in boiling water for far too long. The script is something you can’t buy with MasterCard: Chinese are accusing the US of “serial villiany”, while the US is starting to love everything made in Taiwan. The Chinese thinks that with the trillions they hold in UST, they have the US by its hairy nut sack, but nothing really stops the US from doing a Mahatir on China, i.e. “Tomollo, we are preparing humbly to announce that China can prease to go fuck itself on US debt obligations. Want to negotiate today, punk?”.

From the Telegraph “Is China’s Politburo spoiling for a showdown with America?”

The long-simmering clash between the world’s two great powers is coming to a head, with dangerous implications for the international system.

China has succumbed to hubris. It has mistaken the soft diplomacy of Barack Obama for weakness, mistaken the US credit crisis for decline, and mistaken its own mercantilist bubble for ascendancy. There are echoes of Anglo-German spats before the First World War, when Wilhelmine Berlin so badly misjudged the strategic balance of power and over-played its hand.

Within a month the US Treasury must rule whether China is a “currency manipulator”, triggering sanctions under US law. This has been finessed before, but we are in a new world now with America’s U6 unemployment at 16.8pc.

“It’s going to be really hard for them yet again to fudge on the obvious fact that China is manipulating. Without a credible threat, we’re not going to get anywhere,” said Paul Krugman, this year’s Nobel economist.

China’s premier Wen Jiabao is defiant.

“I don’t think the yuan is undervalued. We oppose countries pointing fingers at each other and even forcing a country to appreciate its currency,” he said yesterday. Once again he demanded that the US takes “concrete steps to reassure investors” over the safety of US assets.

“Some say China has got more arrogant and tough. Some put forward the theory of China’s so-called ‘triumphalism’. My conscience is untainted despite slanders from outside,” he said

Days earlier the State Council accused America of serial villainy. “In the US, civil and political rights of citizens are severely restricted and violated by the government. Workers’ rights are seriously violated,” it said.

“The US, with its strong military power, has pursued hegemony in the world, trampling upon the sovereignty of other countries and trespassing their human rights,” it said.

“At a time when the world is suffering a serious human rights disaster caused by the US subprime crisis-induced global financial crisis, the US government revels in accusing other countries.” And so forth.

Is the Politiburo smoking weed?

I let others discuss the rights and wrongs of this, itself a response to the US report card on China. Clearly, Beijing is in denial about is own part in the global imbalances behind the credit crisis, specifically by running structural trade surpluses, and driving down long rates through dollar and euro bond purchases. No doubt the West has made a hash of things, but the Chinese view of events is twisted to the point of delusional.

What interests me is Beijing’s willingness to up the ante. It has vowed sanctions against any US firm that takes part in a $6.4bn weapons contract for Taiwan, a threat to ban Boeing from China and a new level of escalation in the Taiwan dispute.

In Copenhagen, Wen Jiabao sent an underling to negotiate with Mr Obama in what was intended to be – and taken to be – a humiliation. The US President put his foot down, saying: “I don’t want to mess around with this anymore.” That sums up White House feelings towards China today.

We have talked ourselves into believing that China is already a hyper-power. It may become one: it is not one yet. China is ringed by states – Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India – that are American allies when push comes to shove. It faces a prickly Russia on its 4,000km border, where Chinese migrants are itching for Lebensraum across the Amur. Emerging Asia, Brazil, Egypt and Europe are all irked by China’s yuan-rigged export dumping.

Michael Pettis from Beijing University argues that China’s reserves of $2.4 trillion – arguably $3 trillion – are a sign of weakness, not strength. Only twice before in modern history has a country amassed such a stash equal to 5pc-6pc of global GDP: the US in the 1920s, and Japan in the 1980s. Each time preceeded depression.

The reserves cannot be used internally to support China’s economy. They are dead weight, beyond any level needed for macro-credibility. Indeed, they are the ultimate indictment of China’s dysfunctional strategy, which is to buy $30bn to $40bn of foreign bonds every month to hold down the yuan, refusing to let the economy adjust to trade realities. The result is over-investment in plant, flooding the world with goods at wafer-thin export margins. China’s over-capacity in steel is now greater than Europe’s output.

This is catching up with China, in any case. Professor Victor Shuh from Northerwestern University warns that the 8,000 financing vehicles used by China’s local governments to stretch credit limits have built up debts and commitments of $3.5 trillion, mostly linked to infrastructure. He says the banks may require a bail-out nearing half a trillion dollars.

As America’s creditor – owner of some $1.4bn of US Treasuries, agency bonds, and US instruments – China can exert leverage. But this is not what it seems. If the Politburo deploys its illusiory power, Washington can pull the plug on China’s export economy instantly by shutting markets. Who holds whom to ransom?

Any attempt to retaliate by triggering a US bond crisis would rebound against China, and could be stopped – in extremis – by capital controls. Roosevelt changed the rules in 1933. Such things happen. The China-US relationship is no doubt symbiotic, but a clash would not be “mutual assured destruction”, as often claimed. Washington would win.

Contrary to myth, the slide to protectionism after the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act did not cause the Depression. Trade contracted more slowly in the 1930s than this time. The Smoot-Hawley lesson is that tariffs have asymmetrical effects. They devastate surplus countries: then America. Deficit Britain did well by retreating into Imperial Preference.

Barack Obama has never exalted free trade. This orthodoxy is, in any case, under threat in the West. His top economic adviser Larry Summers let drop in Davos that free-trade arguments no longer hold when dealing with “mercantilist” powers. Adam Smith recognized this too, despite efforts by free-trade ultras to appropriate him for their cause.

China’s trasformation has been remarkable since Deng Xiaoping unleashed capitalism, but as ex-diplomat George Walden writes in China: a Wolf in the World? you cannot feel at ease with a regime that still covers up Mao’s murderous nihilism. He reminds us too that China has never forgiven the humilations inflicted by the West when the two civilizations collided in the 19th Century, and intends to exact revenge. Handle with care.

[Via http://singaporeuncletrader.wordpress.com]

A clear-skinned Amy Winehouse sticks to natural highs as she shops for healthy food and vitamins

(Daily Mail)

With a bit more weight on her bones and a smooth, glowing complexion it would definitely take a second glance to spot this troubled star. And if it hadn’t been for her trademark beehive hairdo, Amy Winehouse could well have gone unrecognised as she shopped in central London yesterday.

The singer looked happy and healthy as she pottered round Marylebone, stopping at a health food shop. The singer, 26, was snapped filling her shopping basket inside Holland & Barrett and left with a paper carrier bag that was bursting at the seams.
As she strolled down the high street and made her way to Boots, she stopped outside the pharmacy’s entrance to stop and chat to a charity worker. She looked deep in conversation with the man, even laughing out loud at one point, before she dropped some cash into his collection tin.

It’s a rarity to see Amy looking so well, especially in recent years, so these photos of her looking healthy and happy will come as a relief for her fans and her family. Or maybe she’s just in a great mood having reconciled with ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil. Today, a source close to the singer dismissed several reports that she and Blake are planning to re-marry in Las Vegas “as soon as possible” and that they have bought a £2.5million Camden home in which they plan to raise their children.

The pair originally tied the knot in Miami, Florida, in 2007, before divorcing last September. Reports said the couple want to tie the knot in a quickie ceremony as soon as her US visa application is approved after she was denied a previous visa for possessing cannabis. But a source said she and Blake had not spoken about re-marrying and there was “no wedding on the horizon”.

They also pointed out that as Blake is a convicted criminal, he would not be allowed into the US and it would be an “impossibility for them to consider that option”.

Meanwhile, Amy today announced that she has teamed up with clothing brand Fred Perry to create her 17-piece apparel and accessories collection. She said: “I’m really excited about doing this collection with Fred Perry. We’ve been working on it for a while and it’s great to see it finally come to fruition.”

[Via http://newboobsandpanties.wordpress.com]

Why are Zionists the only ones allowed to work at the US State Department near east section?

[Via http://thepeopleofpakistan.wordpress.com]

Your irascible kid will be ordered to get psychiatric treatments

Your irascible kid will be ordered to get psychiatric treatments; (Mar. 9, 2010)

            Any single behavior of yours has now a psychological label attached to it.  An irascible kid is diagnosed “humor deregulation with dysphory”; an eccentric adolescent is treated for “syndrome of psychotic risk”; and if you are into much sex activities then you are labeled “hypersexual troubled person”

            A few expert psychiatrists of the American Psychiatry Association (APA) have been efficaciously working for a decade on categorizing and revisiting the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).  The proposed revisions are published on the APA site www.dsm5.org are opened for comments till April 20, 2010.  The definitive version DSM-V is due on May 2013. Comments, validation studies, complementary evaluations, and the vote of the administration council of APA will deliver the final acceptance decision of this version.

            Mental illnesses are intrinsically related to family and community supports, health structures, and mental customs in treatments; all these factors are irrelevant to multinational pharmaceutical companies with interest to globalize definitions of psychiatric syndromes and treatments.

            Based on globalize diagnostics and criteria, individuals will be considered suffering from mental troubles, prescribed standardized psychotrops, and health insurance coverage encouraged.  The president of APA, Alan Schatzberg, said “The DSM may have incidences on the way individuals perceive others and perceive themselves. It influences the nature of research and their methodologies.  There are repercussions in justices, industries, and public health.”

            There is no doubt that millions of people will be taking pills that were not necessary in many societies in the first place; they will suffer secondary effects that are more dangerous and harmful than the original ailments. Worse, the revised DSM-V will be imposed globally to include all societies as the definitive Psychiatric Bible. APA will enjoy hegemony in that troubled field.

            For example, a “depressed” Nigerian would say he has burning in the head; a Chinese would say he has pain in the shoulders or stomach; a Salvadorian would claim to have sensation of intense corporal heat.  Ethan Watters published “Crazy like Us: The globalization of the American Psyche”. There is a terrifying global tendency to de-humanizing people by imposing unified cultural outlooks.

            Western, more specifically US, repertory of mental symptoms and treatments is trying to homogenize it globally, as if there are no specificities to various societies differing vastly from Western concepts of mental illness.  Since it is Western States that are contributing mostly to natural disasters and catastrophes, then the US medical teams have disseminated their diagnostics related to post-traumatic ailments.

            Multinational pharmaceutical industries are heavily lobbying to redefining mental symptoms so that they sell medical pills that DSM might be recommending, especially allowing public health institutions and health insurance to cover the mental disorders expenses.

[Via http://adonis49.wordpress.com]

Jump ...!

On the new 425m / 1400ft  glass-floored ledges of the Willis (ex-Sears) Tower at lunchtime today.  An apt visual metaphor for the the fact that – as most of you already know – after 22 amazing years, and many “Will I? Won’t I?” moments, I’m finally leaving the Office.

Jump into the unknown … no visible means of support, and all that.  Seriously scary … but also OhMyGODThisIsSoEXCITING!!

The sudden move helps explain the tidying frenzy described in the previous post;  although I couldn’t at that stage be frank about what had raised me from slobbishness as the news wasn’t yet official.

So far, the glass hasn’t given way;  and, amazingly, I don’t believe it will …

[Via http://softedges.wordpress.com]

Why Malaysia do make films that touches the heart like this "Crazy Heart" movie..a story of a Great Musician which Malaysia also have plenty...

video clips of “Crazy Heart”

By the way,Jeff Bridges,the lead actor for this film won the Academy Award for Leading Actor category.Congratulations Jeff!

Ramli also love country music and the blues…there’s lots of soul to these music…you know….

Is it so easy to win an Academy Award?What about winning it again the second time,third time or even for the fifth time?

[Via http://pramleeelvis.wordpress.com]

Milennium Park Walkabout

Stunning stunning weather yesterday and I took my camera out to give it a runabout.

Anish Kapoors Cloud Gate

I am a pretty fair weather photographer I have to say but I got some great shots of the city yesterday. As we are leaving Chicago, permanently, soon I wanted to take lots of typical scenes of the city to remember it by. I have many good memories here and the architecture is amazing.

BP Bridge over to the park.

[Via http://anthonyjstewart.wordpress.com]

Precision Turned Components

Karachi Engineering & Foundry Works has an undisputed reputation of being one of leading manufacturer & exporter in India. Fly Press Machine, Brass Precision turned parts for electrical & wiring industry, cable glands and lamp parts for Lamp & Lighting Industry, Automobiles Industry, Brass forge parts, Brass precision component for Hi-tech Applications as per drawing/samples and C.I casting.

With an experience that spans over 50 years Karachi Engineering has achieved excellence in quality by incorporating cutting edge technologies. We have an immaculate reputation for providing quality products as per the specifications of the customers. At Karachi engineering we have a highly skilled staff with enormous experience; needless to say we at Karachi Engineering are fully equipped to face any challenging situation.

Manufacturing Fly press, Precision Brass, Turned Components, Brass Lamp Parts and  Brass Forge Parts in India. We are exporter of Goldsmith Tools, Blacksmith Tools, Bending Machine, Cutting Machine, Embossing Machine, Punching Machine, Pressing Machine, Stamping Machine, Deep Drawing Machine. In Brass Components we are exporting Brass Precision Turned Components, Brass Forged Parts, Brass Lamp Parts Precision Turned Parts, Brass Products, Brass Nuts & Bolts, Brass Parts, Brass Plumbing Fittings, Brass Components, Brass Parts from India.

Karachi Engineering & Foundry Works primary business involves the manufacturing and supply of high quality turned part fitting and assemblies into the following market sector :-

• Brass lamp Parts
• Plumbing Fitting
• Fusegear & Switchgear
• Sanitary Fittings
• Electrical Industries
• Hydraulic & Pneumatic Fitting
• Inserts for Moulding
• Hose & Garden Couplings
• Automotive Industries

KEFW Components

High percision turning diameter from 5mm to 50mm.
Turning length up to 70mm

High quality Manufacturer of both precision turned parts and automatic machined components, mainly in brass materials.

Large/ medium/ small volume production.

[Via http://precisionturnedcomponents.wordpress.com]

McChrystal sells Taliban fued

Arrest of No 2 may signal Taliban feud, says McChrystal

SPIN BOLDAK: The arrest of the Afghan Taliban’s former number two figure may have been the result of an internal feud and purge among Taliban leaders, US and NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal said on Thursday.

The arrest in Pakistan of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in a US-Pakistani operation confirmed last month, was described as a major intelligence coup and a possible sign Islamabad is becoming more willing to help fight Afghan Taliban. A theory in some intelligence circles, however, is that Baradar was captured only after he had already effectively been expelled from the Taliban after an internal tribal feud, leaving behind a more radical rump Taliban leadership.

McChrystal said it was not entirely clear why Pakistan arrested Baradar now, but that an internal Taliban feud was one plausible explanation. “I think that’s very possible,” McChrystal said in an interview with Reuters and the New York Times, when asked about reports that an internal Taliban purge had led to the arrest. “I did hear that. I can’t confirm it but I find it possible.” reuters

[Via http://pakistanledger.com]

Israel vs S Africa: "the most awkward difference between the two cases"

From Chas Freeman:

South Africa’s whites did not have a dedicated cadre of coreligionists or ethnic kin abroad who labored to protect them from the consequences of their deviance from the norms of humane behavior as defined by Western civilization at large. Nor, despite open sympathy for South African whites in the American South and among ardent anti-Communists, did apartheid enjoy international ideological support outside the neo-Nazi fringe. Israel’s policies are supported morally, politically, and financially by large Jewish communities and a vocal minority of Christians abroad, especially in North America, which is where global power remains concentrated. Without that support and those subsidies, Israel manifestly could not act as it does. – Chas Freeman

[Via http://filasteen.wordpress.com]

DHEC Asks SC Cops To Investigate Them?

Weird report at the wspa.com site: The Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) asked the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) to “look into allegations that DHEC documents were found in the City of Columbia public recycling bin.”

This is  followed by the following:

“DHEC has recovered and secured the documents, and turned them over to SLED. SLED officials say they’re looking into the matter. The agency would only confirm that the documents contained personal information.”

Let me take some time to understand the situation…the DHEC asks the LSED to look into whether their (DHEC) documents were found in a recycling bin, after DHEC recovered said documents and turning them over to SLED?

Allegations?  What allegations?  The word allegation implies that the veracity of a statement cannot be proved or disproved.  I’d say, based on the above, seeing how the DHEC recovered their own documents and handed them over to the SLED that the allegations can be verified…is there something I’m missing on this story?

[Via http://datasecurityguy.wordpress.com]

My Name is Khan is different

My Name is Khan was a good effort from Karan Johar

After the hype generated for “My Name is Khan” by the Shiv-Sena threat and SRK himself after he got detained at the Chicago airport for questioning, I thought to myself what could be so different about a Karan Johar movie? But after watching the movie yesterday I was pleasantly surprised. I never liked Karan Johar type of movie making. His movies are monotonous and his hero worship of Shahrukh Khan often gets on my nerves.

This movie though was completely different from his other efforts in the past. The movie is heavily inspired by “The Rain man” where Dustin Hoffman had played the role of a person suffering from Autism brilliantly. Shahrukh has copied the mannerisms of Dustin Hoffman to perfection and also speaks and behaves exactly like Raymond (Name of the character Hoffman plays) of Rain Man. His repeating of some sentences, avoiding eye contact and also the way he walks are heavily inspired by Dustin Hoffman.

Even though MNIK (My Name is Khan) also has a Tom Cruise sort of brother for Shahrukh’s character, but the similarity ends there. This movie is mostly based on the 9/11 tragedy and one man’s endeavor to meet the president of United States to say “My Name is Khan and I am not a terrorist”. So this movie is about an Autistic Muslim man (Shahrukh Khan) who wants starts off in search of the president of USA after his step son’s death.

The movie on its own was very good and the lead actors performance was very nice. Jimmy Shergil as Shahrukh’s brother was absolutely wasted in a role which seems to have been created just to get the protagonist to US. Shahrukh as Rizwan Khan was absolutely brilliant and has carried off his role with élan. Kajol though doing a good job, has played a character which she has done before on numerous occasions in Karan Johar movies.

The others in the movie are just adequate and do their roles as required. Karan Johar as a movie maker has surely made me change my opinion about his capabilities and I hope that this marks a turning point in his career. Shahrukh also has gotten away from his stereotypes and has tried something different which he had not done since Swades. Overall MNIK is a great effort. Even though the movie suffers from certain clichés associated with Indian cinema, the overall message doesn’t get lost in the same.

I never thought I would ever say this about a Karan Johar movie but I definitely liked this one and I hope that this is his foray into meaningful cinema.

[Via http://girisopinion.com]