"Success has a simple formula: do your best, and people may like it." - San Ewing
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Great news... computer therapy helps children recover from depression. So often I hear people complain about computers, say they're changing society (and not for the better), and intimating that they're evil. It is good to read a news story that has something uplifting to say about computers for a change.
A 27-year-old truck driver headed for Phoenix took the wrong turn and ended up in Juarez, Mexico with a truck load of ammo! Either he's guilty of something, or terribly embarrassed, at this point. Possibly unemployed again too. The ammo was intended for "legal hobbyists, legal shooters and legal enthusiasts" in the USA. Still, it makes you wonder, when you read about Mexicans invading the USA.
Today's video:
G4T is still trying to find ways to survive and thrive. Here he interviews a woman who had her children taken from her, in part because she said "I'm unemployed" on YouTube.
Alberta, Canada has released the number of children killed in their foster care system. From April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012 ten children died in Alberta foster care, including Delonna Victoria Sullivan, four month old daughter of Jaime Sullivan. She died in foster care only six days after being taken from her family without a court order by Albert social workers. This kind of transparency must be brought forth in every province, US state, and country. Too many deaths of children in foster care are covered up and concealed so the public won't know how dangerous it is, to children, to separate them from their parents.
Today's Quote:
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." - Robert Frost
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In Arizona - yet another unidentified flying object takes the form of a hovering fireball, mystifying residents and officials.
In the UK government surveillance via the internet is an issue just as it is in the USA. Sir Tim Berners-Lee serves as an adviser to the UK government on internet surveillance matters, and now is concerned that this is a violation of human rights.
Meanwhile a fifty-year-old man who felt harassed by TSA workers at the Portland International Airport decided to take off ALL his clothes in protest. He was charged with disorderly conduct. Some bystanders laughed and took photos while others shielded their children's eyes. I have asked people whether they allowed themselves to be scanned or searched. Most people I know go for the scanners, believing that they are not as dangerous as some think. Personally, my choice is not to fly. I'm not in that much of a hurry.
Today's video:
The debate about the constitutionality of Obamacare continues. Seems like a violation of the tenth amendment at the very least.
A lot of US citizens have chosen to be expatriates and now are giving up their US citizenship as well. Renunciation of citizenship happened in record numbers in 2011. Even I started thinking about moving away. Living in the USA just doesn't have the appeal it used to have. When people settle in other countries but still have to deal with US taxation, they start thinking that US citizenship is not what they really want. According to the US State Department about 1100 people renounce their citizenship every year, however IRS records show that in 2011, 1788 people gave up their US citizenship, and that's most likely an underestimation as some who did it are still waiting to see their names added to the list. Those that leave the USA do so, not only for financial reasons, but to escape excessive regulations and lack of privacy.
Today's Quote:
"He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees." - Benjamin Franklin
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There are federal legislators who are willing to let poor people starve, apparently, as they want to reduce food stamp allotments to $60 for a family of four, and cut a lot of people off the program entirely. If foodstamps are that low, why would anyone want them? Maybe this is a way to convince more people to work. Without a doubt, reforms are needed to our US welfare programs - but this seems kind of severe!
The Taiban in Afghanistan had a great idea for keeping women subjugated and subservient - refuse to allow them any education! However times have changed. The US invaded their country. Now there are schools for women, and apparently someone doesn't approve because 150 Afghanistan high school girls were poisoned - and some are in critical condition. It is unknown who did this and the article doesn't state what kind of poison was used, or how someone against eduction for females could get access to their water supply. It seems these are questions that should be answered before people in haste start accusing Taliban members or anyone else.
A message to the parents of a behavior-problem girl who was handcuffed at school by a police officer in Milledgeville, Georgia last Friday: have you considered homeschooling? There's no substitute for a parent's love, and there's nobody in the public school system who will ever love her as much as you do.
Top Story for April 16, 2012:
In 1986 in India, a boy fell asleep on the wrong train and was transported to Calcutta by error, and lost. After spending time as a homeless street urchin he was helped by an orphanage and adopted by a Tasmanian couple. Years later he used Google Earth to locate his childhood home. He didn't remember the name of the village and had to rely on topography remembered as a child. Now, in 2012, he was reunited with his mother. She had been told by a fortune teller that she would see her son again, and this proved to be true!
Today's Quote:
"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination." - John Lennon
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Sergey Brin, one of the co-founders of Google, is concerned about threats to the freedom of the web. Google is not able to read apps or Facebook, apparently, and they consider Facebook a "walled community". Apple is another. And then there are restrictive governments like Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia, wanting to censor what their citizens can see. Even Hollywood is under attack in this article, for wanting pirate websites shut down. My opinion is that if they only shut down sites illegally distributing their work, that would be understandable, but laws introduced seem to have a broader brush that would harm a lot of innocent website owners as well. That could be from a misunderstanding of how the web works, or it could be yet another diabolical plan to attack the innocent and destroy the lives of the little people who are just trying to earn a meager living on the web, now that their real-time jobs have been destroyed.
In Tom's River, New Jersey, a couple decided to sue their landlord over paranormal activity in the expensive house they rented. Personally, after seeing some of the scary shows like "A Haunting" and "The Dead Files" I think it is perfectly understandable that a landlord should be sued over trying to rent property that is infested with negative spirits. I've lived in a place where a spirit caused some poltergeist type activity, and while investigating that, learned the trailer park was built on the site of an old cemetery. I should have sued! But at the time, I was so poor I had no car to drive to the courts 20 miles away, so I eventually gave the trailer to someone else, and moved out. To those living in the little trailer park on Church St. in the countryside near Kerman, CA, especially around space 2 which is where my trailer was, . . . the truth is you're living in a cemetery! The manager there told me the cemetery was "moved" and church torn down. Then a school was there. Now a trailer park with odd oblong indentations in the ground. Lovely place. As for the New Jersey case - the landlord has counter-sued and apparently the judge will make the final decision.
Apparently Farrakhan is teaching his people that "people tomorrow, maybe in a few days, are going to kill their leaders" ... so what else is new? This "shocking" story was placed at the top of the Drudge Report. I'm sure there have been people wanting to kill leaders at every moment since the beginning of governmental controls. Farrakhan is right to warn his people that being a leader is not as glorious as one might think. There will come a time when nobody will want to be a leader, yet someone will have to do it. I used to live around the corner from the Black Muslim bakery in North Oakland. I walked around the neighborhood with my two preschool-aged children. We were poor then too. The neighborhood was predominantly black and we were white. I never had any trouble with my neighbors, was never robbed or threatened in any way. Of course, my mindset is to love people of all colors and nationalities unconditionally. Whenever I went into the bakery, I felt right at home. I admit I did get a surprised and possibly hostile stare from one man I once saw in there but for the most part everyone treated me kindly.
Top Story for April 12, 2012: South Greensburg, PA, puts limits on yard sales - I know the economy is bad but I tend to agree with this. If people want to make money with a resale business they should bite the bullet and make it official. Get a business license. Support your county or city. Get a storefront, or go e-Bay. Good luck with that. I have a business license for my miniscule internet business and am proud to say that LJ Martin Web, if not a thriving business, is at least supporting me. Have some pride and quit pretending to be having yard sales!
Today's Quote:
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards." - Vernon Law
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Yet another new reason to punish government school students: Student suspended for trying to hug teacher. Ooooo so scary... might be loved and appreciated by a student! No humanity in the schools these days, it seems.
Apparently the Chinese have animals in their medicines. Including endangered species. Personally, I'm appalled. I'm a vegetarian and freak at the thought of having animals foisted off on me in the form of pills.
