Michael Moore has a new movie coming out Friday called "Capitalism: A Love Story."Â NPR's Neal Conan interviews Moore on "Talk of the Nation."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113308531
Moore has a definite point of view and usually makes some points that catch my attention. I'll pull two quotes from this interview.
First, Moore suggests things in the US started getting difficult "around the time of Ronald Reagan." Here's one piece of supporting evidence. A 2005 UCLA study titled "Income and Wealth Concentration in Switzerland over the 20th Century" includes this figure illustrating that around the time of Ronald Reagan the share of income of the top 0.1% income earners in the US more than tripled. The very rich suddenly got very richer:
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This watercolor  by Kirby Vining was one of six childhood memories presented to Theron M. Vining on the occasion of Theron's 72 birthday in 1986. The scene is a now defunct burger joint, Hamburger Junction, then in Carney, MD. Four years younger than Kirby, my own memories of Hamburger Junction in the very early 1960's are less vivid than my brother's. But I do recall the wonder of a burger delivered to your table by electric train. This may partly explain my affection for a good burger to this day.  |
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President Obama on Dave Letterman last night:
"It's important to realize that I was actually black before the election."
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/09/68499503/1
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WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 11 Sep 09 Washington, DC
[snip]
4. CONTRACEPTION: THE CHEAPEST WAY TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS.
While the United States is focusing on reduction of greenhouse emissions by
technological means, the Optimum Population Trust in the UK issued a press
release this week comparing the cost of reducing CO2 emissions by
technological means to the cost of an equivalent CO2 reduction by investing
in family planning. It concluded that family planning is five times more
effective.
[snip]
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googleffffffff8b83e373
English, Please
cvining
Fri, 09/04/2009 - 12:38
A friend in Saskatchewan recently bought a computer and called me for help. "How do I change the language of this thing to English? Everything's in French on this new machine!"
Helpful as any tech support guy I reply without hesitation: "haven't a clue."
"Then why did I call you?"
After a bit of googling and some back and forth we determine several things.
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True story.
In college I had a crush on a very beautiful woman who, at that time,
was having difficulty with her marriage. A mutual friend told this
joke to her to illustrate that sex is all in the mind.
Q: What's a four letter word for intercourse, ending in "k"?
My beautiful friend, petite and fair, instantly turned a very becoming
shade of crimson, but said nothing.
"Why are you blushing?" says our mutual friend. "The answer is
'talk', obviously!"
My beautiful friend was delighted and said she must try the joke on
her husband. Next day she tells this sad story.
Fear of government control and dictatorship greeted local U.S. Representative Mike Rogers when he held a town hall style meeting yesterday at Monarch Estates, a retirement living community here in Auburn, Alabama. The Opelika-Auburn News, the local paper here, sent reporter Brittany Whitley. Click here for her full story, including some reader comments.
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From Nature Materials, February 2009, Volume 8 No 2
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An inconvenient truth about thermoelectrics - pp83 - 85
Cronin B. Vining
doi:10.1038/nmat2361
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