Trends That Will Affect Your Future …

meanwhile... here in the United States small business doctors are going broke...

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Doctors Going Broke

The Illness Profit system is breaking down. A profit first healthcare model is inherently unstable, and will ultimately serve no one but the vampire corporate special interests that feed off of our illnesses.

PARIJA KAVILANZ - CNN Money

NEW YORK -- Doctors in America are harboring an embarrassing secret: Many of them are going broke.

This quiet reality, which is spreading nationwide, is claiming a wide range of casualties, including family physicians, cardiologists and oncologists.

Industry watchers say the trend is worrisome. Half of all doctors in the nation operate a private practice. So if a cash crunch forces the death of an independent practice, it robs a community of a vital health care resource.

"A lot of independent practices are starting to see serious financial issues," said Marc Lion, CEO of Lion & Company CPAs, LLC, which advises independent doctor practices about their finances.

Doctors list shrinking insurance reimbursements, changing regulations, rising business and drug costs among the factors preventing them from keeping their practices afloat. But some experts counter that doctors' lack of business acumen is also to blame...
Read More - http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/05/smallbusiness/doctors_broke/index.htm?hpt=hp_t3&hpt=hp_c1

DON"T TREAD ON ME

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Meet the Libertarian Utopians Trying to Take Over New Hampshire


I have been following this movement for several years ever since a friend, who is also a Libertarian, told me he was moving to New Hampshire as part of a plan to take over the state. In states with low population, such as North Dakota or Montana, for instance, I actually think this could be done. New Hampshire may be a test case. The problem of course, as this report points out, is that fractious people can never agree on anything for long.

TIM MURPHY - Mother Jones

Ian Freeman's campaign of civil disobedience started on the autumn day in 2008 when the Blue Light Gang came for his couch. It was a plaid three-seater, anonymous even by the standards of living-room furniture, except that it occupied prime real estate on the front lawn of his two-story, white-and-green renter in Keene, New Hampshire. His tenants used it for bird-watching. But in this quiet college town near the Vermont border, that put him on the wrong side of a city ordinance that considers such exterior furnishings "rubbish." A neighbor lodged a complaint. Code enforcement-the Blue Light Gang, as Freeman calls them-asked him to get rid of the couch. He refused. A man has to stand for something.
Plus: Read about the myth of the independent New Hampshire voter.

In court, Freeman (whose given surname is Bernard) represented himself and grilled the lone witness, a city code enforcer. He ...

Read More - http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/10/new-hampshire-libertarian-movement

♫ 'Baby You Can Drive My Car' ♫

Oh ...they got it bad

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China Communist Party Bureaucrats Like Their Cars High End

Throughout history corruption has afflicted whatever Chinese system was in power. Few seem to remember that one of the reasons the Communists were able to win was the rampant corruption of the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party). It is a deeply ingrained part of the Chinese culture and, it seems, is still very much alive today. This trend over time may prove to be an important factor both internally and internationally.

Thanks to Carl Bogenholm.

BARBARA DEMICK - Los Angeles Times

BEIJING -- Even the police are driving Porsches.

Chinese officials love their cars - big, fancy, expensive cars. A chocolate-colored Bentley worth $560,000 is cruising the streets of Beijing with license plates indicating it is registered to Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party headquarters. The armed police, who handle riots and crowd control, have the same model of Bentley in blue.

And just in case it needs to go racing off to war, the Chinese army has a black Maserati that sells in China for $330,000.

"Corruption on wheels is an accurate description of this problem," said Wang Yukai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance in Beijing, who has been advocating restrictions on officials' cars for years.

A remnant of a decades-old party perks system, the luxe wheels are a conspicuous target of growing public outrage over the privileges of the elite.

Armed with cellphone ...

Read More -http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-corruption-on-wheels-20120108,0,2054481,full.story

i can remember... "that kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens."

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The Joy of Quiet

An interesting trend is emerging: the desire to disconnect. I began picking it up last year, here is the latest manifestation of it I have seen.

Pico Iyer is the author, most recently of 'The Man Within My Head.”

Thanks to David Goodman.

PICO IYER - The New York Times

ABOUT a year ago, I flew to Singapore to join the writer Malcolm Gladwell, the fashion designer Marc Ecko and the graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister in addressing a group of advertising people on 'Marketing to the Child of Tomorrow.” Soon after I arrived, the chief executive of the agency that had invited us took me aside. What he was most interested in, he began - I braced myself for mention of some next-generation stealth campaign - was stillness.

A few months later, I read an interview with the perennially cutting-edge designer Philippe Starck. What allowed him to remain so consistently ahead of the curve? 'I never read any magazines or watch TV,” he said, perhaps a little hyperbolically. 'Nor do I go to cocktail parties, dinners or anything like that.” He lived outside conventional ideas, he implied, because 'I live alone mostly, in the middle of nowhere.”

Around ...

Read More - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-quiet.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&smid=fb-share

Please note it has already been reported - "Over the past several years, entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and security services to US and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents obtained by The Nation."
source: http://www.thenation.com/article/154739/blackwaters-black-ops

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From the Schwartz Report


Leaked: US to Start ‘Trade Wars’ with Nations Opposed to Monsanto, GMO Crops

Here is the latest in the growing list of examples I have published showing how multinational corporations own the U.S. government, and use it against the interests of American citizens. In this case humanity and the Earth itself are placed at risk. This happens in both Republican and Democratic Administrations, and is a national shame. It is possible only because we passively accept this kind of behavior.

ANTHONY GUCCIARDI - Natural Society

The United States is threatening nations who oppose Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) crops with military-style trade wars, according to information obtained and released by the organization WikiLeaks. Nations like France, which have moved to ban one of Monsanto’s GM corn varieties, were requested to be ‘penalized’ by the United States for opposing Monsanto and genetically modified foods. The information reveals just how deep Monsanto’s roots have penetrated key positions within the United States government, with the cables reporting that many U.S. diplomats work directly for Monsanto.

The WikiLeaks cable reveals that in late 2007, the United States ambassador to France and business partner to George W. Bush, Craig Stapleton, requested that the European Union along with particular nations that did not support GMO crops be penalized. Stapleton, who co-owned the Dallas/Fort Worth-based Texas Rangers baseball team with Bush in the 1990s, stated:

'Country team ...

Read More - http://naturalsociety.com/us-start-trade-wars-with-nations-opposed-to-monsanto-gmo-crops/

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also
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Monsanto Spent $2 Million Lobbying Gov't in 3Q

Here is the proof of how multinationals buy the government. The notable thing to which you should pay attention is how cheap the purchase price is. Two million invested to make billions; seems like a pretty cheap buy in to me. This is why our land is being made toxic, our waters are polluted, and the structure of life itself is placed at risk.

But what are we talking about: abortion, same-sex marriage, things which are without genuine importance yet keep the rubes stirred up so they don't notice their lives and their planet are being raped.

Monsanto in my view is an evil corporation that should be broken up, and its management prosecuted for crimes against humanity.

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Monsanto Co. spent $2 million in the third quarter to lobby the federal government on issues including regulations for genetically engineered crops and patent reforms, according to a recent disclosure report.

That's slightly more than the $1.9 million Monsanto spent a year earlier and up almost 18 percent from the $1.7 million it spent during previous quarter.

The world's largest seed company lobbied Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture over regulations that would affect the distribution of genetically engineered crops like the company's Roundup Ready sugar beets and alfalfa, according to the disclosure the company filed Oct. 18 with the House clerk's office.

The company also lobbied Congress on patent protection reforms. Monsanto spends years, or sometimes more than a decade, developing patented strains of genetically engineered crops. Maintaining those patent rights is key to the company's profit model.

The company lobbied the ...

Read More - http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9RL51J81.htm

excellent follow-up

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The Very Real Danger of Genetically Modified Foods

Read this keeping in mind the stories I ran yesterday. Everything I can find out about the drive to promote GMO foods tells me this is evil because it is becoming increasingly clear the Central Dogma of DNA is inadequate. The simple model that information flows only from DNA to the cells it governs, as this report shows must be changed. If we do not allow science to guide us we and our world will never be the same.

As time goes on this will become clearer and clearer. Yet by that time GMO may have altered human DNA, and GMO plants may have altered the DNA of several of humankind's staple plants. This is an extraordinary risk so that a few can become rich.

There is no way in the United States to tell whether you are eating GMO foods so, once again, I urge you to take the time to research where you can obtain locally grown organic food and, if you possibly can, to start your own garden. You can grow a garden on a balcony or a roof, as well as your yard. This is the only way I know to assure your health and the health of your family

Thanks to Terrence Glassman.

ARI LEVAUX - The Atlantic

Chinese researchers have found small pieces of ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the blood and organs of humans who eat rice. The Nanjing University-based team showed that this genetic material will bind to proteins in human liver cells and influence the uptake of cholesterol from the blood.

The type of RNA in question is called microRNA, due to its small size. MicroRNAs have been studied extensively since their discovery ten years ago, and have been linked to human diseases including cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes. The Chinese research provides the first example of ingested plant microRNA surviving digestion and influencing human cell function.

Should the research survive scientific scrutiny, it could prove a game changer in many fields. It would mean that we're eating not just vitamins, protein, and fuel, but information as well.

The Chinese RNA study threatens to blast a major hole in ...

Read More - http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/01/the-very-real-danger-of-genetically-modified-foods/251051/

"Why isn’t a national economy like a corporation?"

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America Isn’t a Corporation


This is polemic, but accurate. Krugman has been correct in all his major assessments since the 2008 collapse, and he is right that the U.S. is not, and should not be, run like a corporation. The trend to do so has borne toxic fruit.


PAUL KRUGMAN - The New York Times

'And greed - you mark my words - will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A.”

That’s how the fictional Gordon Gekko finished his famous 'Greed is good” speech in the 1987 film 'Wall Street.” In the movie, Gekko got his comeuppance. But in real life, Gekkoism triumphed, and policy based on the notion that greed is good is a major reason why income has grown so much more rapidly for the richest 1 percent than for the middle class.

Today, however, let’s focus on the rest of that sentence, which compares America to a corporation. This, too, is an idea that has been widely accepted. And it’s the main plank of Mitt Romney’s case that he should be president: In effect, he is asserting that what we need to fix our ailing economy is someone who has been successful in business.


Read More - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/opinion/krugman-america-isnt-a-corporation.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

Worth reading and noting.



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5 Founding Fathers Whose Skepticism About Christianity Would Make Them Unelectable Today

The idea that America was founded as a "Christian" nation is a pernicious myth that sustains the Theocratic Right but is without merit. To the list of Founders given here one should also add Benjamin Franklin, and George Mason. That is to say virtually all of the "big names" amongst the Founders would have found the nonsense peddled by the Right an offensive and inaccurate representation of their views.

Rob Boston is senior policy analyst at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

ROB BOSTON - AlterNet

To hear the Religious Right tell it, men like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were 18th-century versions of Jerry Falwell in powdered wigs and stockings. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Unlike many of today’s candidates, the founders didn’t find it necessary to constantly wear religion on their sleeves. They considered faith a private affair. Contrast them to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (who says he wouldn’t vote for an atheist for president because non-believers lack the proper moral grounding to guide the American ship of state), Texas Gov. Rick Perry (who hosted a prayer rally and issued an infamous ad accusing President Barack Obama of waging a 'war on religion”) and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum (whose uber-Catholicism leads him to oppose not just abortion but birth control).

There was a time when Americans voted for candidates who were skeptical ...

Read More - http://www.alternet.org/story/153727/5_founding_fathers_whose_skepticism_about_christianity_would_make_them_unelectable_today?page=entire

giovonni wrote:excellent follow-up

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The Very Real Danger of Genetically Modified Foods

As time goes on this will become clearer and clearer. Yet by that time GMO may have altered human DNA, and GMO plants may have altered the DNA of several of humankind's staple plants. This is an extraordinary risk so that a few can become rich.

Right On Giovonni!


These are strong indicators of the orientations for farming and food production forthcoming!

All earth humans this should be avoided! This corruption must not be allowed to materialize!

Peace JT!

giovonni wrote:excellent follow-up

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The Very Real Danger of Genetically Modified Foods

Read this keeping in mind the stories I ran yesterday. Everything I can find out about the drive to promote GMO foods tells me this is evil because it is becoming increasingly clear the Central Dogma of DNA is inadequate. The simple model that information flows only from DNA to the cells it governs, as this report shows must be changed. If we do not allow science to guide us we and our world will never be the same.

As time goes on this will become clearer and clearer. Yet by that time GMO may have altered human DNA, and GMO plants may have altered the DNA of several of humankind's staple plants. This is an extraordinary risk so that a few can become rich.

There is no way in the United States to tell whether you are eating GMO foods so, once again, I urge you to take the time to research where you can obtain locally grown organic food and, if you possibly can, to start your own garden. You can grow a garden on a balcony or a roof, as well as your yard. This is the only way I know to assure your health and the health of your family

Thanks to Terrence Glassman.

ARI LEVAUX - The Atlantic

Chinese researchers have found small pieces of ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the blood and organs of humans who eat rice. The Nanjing University-based team showed that this genetic material will bind to proteins in human liver cells and influence the uptake of cholesterol from the blood.

The type of RNA in question is called microRNA, due to its small size. MicroRNAs have been studied extensively since their discovery ten years ago, and have been linked to human diseases including cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes. The Chinese research provides the first example of ingested plant microRNA surviving digestion and influencing human cell function.

Should the research survive scientific scrutiny, it could prove a game changer in many fields. It would mean that we're eating not just vitamins, protein, and fuel, but information as well.

The Chinese RNA study threatens to blast a major hole in ...

Read More - http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/01/the-very-real-danger-of-genetically-modified-foods/251051/

Chris Thomas contends:

"What it amounts to is that we have been deliberately propagandised into believing the exact opposite of what we should be eating to maintain a healthy body that prepares us for the process of change we are currently undergoing. Most of the advice we are fed by doctors, scientists, dieticians, etc. is deliberately intended to prevent us from undergoing soul reintegration."

Cholesterol is, arguably, the most important substance that the body produces for its own well being.
We all “know” about cholesterol:
It comes from eating saturated fat.
We must keep our blood cholesterol levels below 3 millimoles per litre (mmol/l) – (actually, the current recommendation is 4 mmol/l but there are moves to reduce it to 3).
Very few people are aware that cholesterol is, in fact, manufactured by the liver.
The liver expends a huge amount of energy producing cholesterol in a very complex chemical sequence that does not involve any kind of fat. The liver does this 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. The liver does this because every single cell within the body, of which there are trillions, needs cholesterol every single day.
The only difference eating food that is high in cholesterol makes is that the body uses the cholesterol taken from food to reduce the amount of cholesterol produced by the liver."

"The route to soul reintegration is not that difficult: all it requires is a little work by each person who has chosen to undergo change.
Ignore all of the Velon propaganda about Ascending to a 5th dimension, ignore the Annunaki fantasy story, ignore this fantasy about Angels and look to yourselves.
Ensure that your physical body has the right nutrients and balance of fats – this will help to raise your body’s frequencies and prepare your cell structures for the higher frequencies of the total soul.
By making use of the giveaway, you will clear out past emotional debris and provide space within the body for your higher self to occupy.
That is it – you need do no more, your higher self will take care of everything else."

http://www.thespiritguides.co.uk/ChrisThomas/ChrisThomasUnderstandingChange.pdf

JesterTerrestrial wrote:

giovonni wrote:excellent follow-up

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The Very Real Danger of Genetically Modified Foods

As time goes on this will become clearer and clearer. Yet by that time GMO may have altered human DNA, and GMO plants may have altered the DNA of several of humankind's staple plants. This is an extraordinary risk so that a few can become rich.

Right On Giovonni!


These are strong indicators of the orientations for farming and food production forthcoming!

All earth humans this should be avoided! This corruption must not be allowed to materialize!

Peace JT!

Thank you ~ Michael
Coming from someone (who really knows the food business) like you do ~ is a true affirmation of all this GMO crap !

And thank you ~ Dana

For posting this excellent essay from Chris Thomas to all this ... As it plainly notes ...

""The route to soul reintegration is not that difficult: all it requires is a little work by each person who has chosen to undergo change"...
read more
http://www.thespiritguides.co.uk/ChrisThomas/ChrisThomasUnderstandingChange.pdf


GMO substances !

Ubetcha Gio

I read last summer where corporations are buying up all the farmland

thank you giovani for all your postings and beautiful pictures. We glad you are with us.

devakas

devakas wrote:

thank you giovani for all your postings and beautiful pictures. We glad you are with us.

devakas

why thank you ~ devakas ~ likewise

"deregulation of the financial markets contaminated the food market and made speculation possible" ...
Sure... Along with pure and simple greed


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'UN Food and Agricultural Chief 'Speculation Is an Important Cause of High Prices'



The great social transformation that is coming I am increasingly convinced is the one that make wellness a national and planetary goal. The food crisis, like the financial crisis of 2008 arises from placing profit above all other priorities.

SUSANNE AMMAN and MICHAELA SCHIESSL, Interviewers - Der Spiegel (Germany)

In a SPIEGEL interview, José Graziano da Silva, 62, the new head of the United Nations aid organization FAO, discusses his plans to combat hunger as well as his efforts to limit speculation and the impact it has on dramatically fluctuating food prices.

SPIEGEL: Mr. da Silva, as the new head of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), you have made it your chief goal to eradicate hunger in the world. Isn't this an extremely ambitious objective, in light of skyrocketing food prices, a continually growing world population and ongoing economic crises?

Da Silva: My plan is ambitious. But you can only motivate people with big objectives. This is precisely what we have to achieve -- to mobilize all parts of society and the international community in the fight against hunger. The FAO or a government alone cannot eradicate hunger on earth.

SPIEGEL: ...

Read More - http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,809289,00.html

From Me ...

good news ... looks like the Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is waning in congressional support

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From ~

Five key senators abandon online piracy bills amid Web protest

Congressional support for controversial online piracy legislation eroded dramatically on Wednesday in the face of an unprecedented online protest supported by tech titans such as Google, Wikipedia and Facebook.

Several key senators withdrew their support from the Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA), including Tea Party favorite Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), an elected member of his party's leadership...


read more - http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/204749-websites-strike-to-protest-online-piracy-bills

The Bottom Line ~
"It's a deliberate strategy to keep the public in the dark about who is really buying our elections."

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This is what is behind probably the worse Supreme Court decision since Dred Scott vs Sanford, March 6, 1857, unless you happen to be a conservative Republican -- as the winning Justices are -- in which case it was a license for legal bribery, and a event to be celebrated. This is why our government is more corrupt than any other advanced democracy in the world.

The Republicans' Dark-Money-Moving Machine
"Inside the GOP group that skirts election rules by shuffling millions across state lines and then "wiping the fingerprints off the money."


ANDY KROLL, Reporter - Mother Jones

Michigan's 2010 elections had just concluded, and Rich Robinson, the state's leading campaign finance reform advocate, was conducting his usual postmortem. As he tallied the big money behind the conservative groundswell that swept Republican Rick Snyder into the governor's mansion and placed the state Legislature solidly under GOP control, one particular political action committee caught his eye.

Created in December 2009 and shut down shortly after the election, RGA Michigan 2010 had come out of nowhere to spend nearly $8.4 million-54 percent more than any other PAC had poured into any election in Michigan history. Ninety-six percent of the group's donors lived outside the state, and its top three funders included Texas homebuilder Bob Perry, Koch Industries' David Koch, and New York City hedge fund CEO Paul Singer. On the other side of the ledger, RGA Michigan 2010 had given $5.2 million to the Michigan Republican Party-no surprise there-but, ...

Read More - http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/republican-governors-association-perry-michigan

Change is happening so quickly now ... It's getting hard to keep up

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Flood of ‘De-baptisms’ Worries European Church Leaders

This trend is reshaping Europe. It has already changed the public conversation there. Although it is often described in terms of the sexual abuse of young people by priests I think that is only the tip of the spear for this trend. After centuries of religious conflict and millions of deaths, Europe seems to have made a collective decision that religion is not worth fighting about. This is an example of how individual choices reflecting a collective shift in the zeitgeist can change society.

The Washington Post

In Britain, a de-baptism certificate offered as a joke by the National Secular Society has since turned serious after tens of thousands of people downloaded it.

'Some people actually do feel actively hostile toward churches,” said society president Terry Sanderson. 'And they want to express that by saying, ‘I’m not one of your members.’”

In Germany, a record 181,000 Catholics formally split from the Catholic Church in 2011 - the first time that Catholic defections outpaced Protestants leaving. Rather than requesting de-baptisms, Germans fill out government paperwork saying they no longer want to pay church taxes.

'I don’t think they want to get rid of their belief, their connection to Jesus and the baptism, but they don’t want to be connected with the church hierarchy,” said Christian Weisner, German spokesman for the international lay reform movement We are Church.

At stake for many cash-strapped European churches ...

Read More -http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/flood-of-de-baptisms-worries-european-church-leaders/2012/01/18/gIQACX3m8P_story.html

i don't feel it is always necessary nor possible to be coupled with another being while living upon this plane,
but we are and always have been spiritually social beings...so this really should not come as a surprise to anyone here.

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Couples Happier With Couples as Friends

This is a pretty small study from which to draw such grand conclusions, but I do think it is correct.

ArcaMax

BALTIMORE -- Married couples who form and keep friendships with other couples often have happier marriages, a U.S. researcher says.

Geoffrey Greif and Kathleen Holtz Deal, both of the University of Maryland School of Social Work, co-authors of the book, "Two Plus Two: Couples and Their Couple Friendships," said the findings were based on interviews with 123 couples with both partners present, 122 individuals who were alone when questioned about their relationships and 58 divorced individuals.

The research found differing motivations behind couples' friendships, with some preferring to share emotions while others see the purpose as fun and recreation, the researchers said.

Deal, who has been married 43 years, said she was surprised to find she and her husband were in the minority because they set out as a pair to make friends with other couples -- how friendships begin vary, but the majority grow out of ...

Read More - http://www.arcamax.com/health/healthtips/s-1045050

I must add ... This student loan debt will truly affect the future lives of anyone (of all ages) in the United States that are saddled with this debt repayment. Those who owe the government (and who are now in default), are now facing the government's full raft (via full enforcement) by automatically garnishing any future wages for years to come. The use of bankruptcy for relieve, is not available in regards to this type of financial debt. This along with the (current) dire and nightmarish prospects, of ever finding any kind of future sustainable employment - will truly enslave anyone obligated to these government sponsored loans !

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Will the Young Rise Up and Fight Their Indentured Servitude to the Student Loan Industry?

If you are 18-30, as I have been told over and over, student debt is a major life distorting factor in your life, and it can continue into your 40s. This article is too polemic, but it accurately spells out the issues involved. It isn't clear to me yet whether this will lead to civil strife, but there is no question it is an issue great significance to a very large part of our population, which explains its appearance in the President's State of the Union

BRUCE E. LEVINE - AlterNet

In October 2011, the White House announced, 'Currently, more than 36 million Americans have federal student loan debt.” By the end of 2011, student loan debt had exceeded $1 trillion. Two-thirds of college seniors graduate with student loans, including over 62 percent of public university graduates. According to the Project on Student Loan Debt, they carried an average of $25,250 in debt in 2010, but many have far greater debt than that average. And nowadays, with high unemployment, even higher underemployment, the inability to pay bills, and accumulating interest and penalties, the lives of student loan debtors can quickly turn into financial nightmares.

Indentured Servitude? I’ll be paying for my student loans for the rest of my life....A large portion of my earnings goes to the Wall Street elites that have commoditized and securitized my loans....I knew at the time I signed the ...

Read More - http://www.alternet.org/story/153879/will_the_young_rise_up_and_fight_their_indentured_servitude_to_the_student_loan_industry?page=entire

No surprise here folks...




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Obama Appoints Monsanto Vice President as Senior Advisor to the Commissioner at the FDA

While I consider Obama still the only choice for a social progressive in the upcoming election -- each week the Theocratic Right seems to be nastier and more irrational than the week before -- I have no illusions that he is the optimal choice from a compassionate life-affirming perspective. His appointment of Michael Taylor illustrates the point. This report is too polemic, and I almost didn't use it, but could not find another that made the apposite points.

It seems increasingly clear that the fix is in for increased corporate control of the FDA.

Jeffrey M. Smith is the author of Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating and Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods from Chelsea Green Publishing. Smith worked at a GMO detection laboratory, founded the Institute for Responsible Technology, and currently lives in Iowa-surrounded by genetically modified corn and soybeans. For more information, visit Chelsea Green.

JEFFREY M. SMITH - Birth of a New Earth

Michael Taylor was just appointed senior advisor to the commissioner of the FDA. This is the same man that was in charge of FDA policy when GMO's were allowed into the US food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety. He "had been Monsanto's attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA [and then] he became Monsanto's Vice President and chief lobbyist. This month [he] became the senior advisor to the commissioner of the FDA. He is now America's food safety czar. This is no joke."

Here's the back story.

When FDA scientists were asked to weigh in on what was to become the most radical and potentially dangerous change in our food supply -- the introduction of genetically modified (GM) foods -- secret documents now reveal that the experts were very concerned. Memo after memo described ...

Read More - http://networkedblogs.com/lMhWu

"The exercises are designed to ensure the military’s ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments,
and meet mandatory training certification requirements, police said."



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LAPD: Joint Military Drills In Downtown LA Won’t Disrupt Public’s ‘Daily Routines’

This is latest in the growing trend of militarizing the police, and linking them with the military. It is very ominous development because it is going to radically escalate the potential for violence with any large demonstration like Occupy99. It is just a matter of time until we have another Kent State demonstration catastrophe. If you don't know what Kent State is Google it. This gets very scary, very quickly.

CBS News

LOS ANGELES (CBS) - If you notice a heavy military presence around downtown Los Angeles this week, don’t be alarmed - it’s only a drill.

Joint military training exercises will be held evenings through Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The LAPD will be providing support for the exercises, which will also be held in other portions of the greater Los Angeles area, police said.

Training sites 'have been carefully selected to ensure the event does not negatively impact the citizens of Los Angeles and their daily routine,” a department official said.

The training, which a department official said would involve helicopters, has been coordinated with local authorities and owners of the
training sites, police said.

Police said safety precautions have been taken to prevent risk to the general public and military personnel involved.

The exercises are closed to the public, ...

Read More - http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/01/24/lapd-joint-military-drills-in-downtown-la-wont-disrupt-publics-daily-routines/

What happened to Canada ?

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Canada: Climate Criminal

SR reader Rex Weyler has written an excellent take on what is going on in Canada, a country being taken over by corporate interests. He told me, "Canada has gone for fascist right wing, Bush-Reagan-Thatcher style strong-arm corporate government. this is because Canada became a petrol-state .. like Nigeria .. the oil companies now run Canada -- Shell, Sinopec, Imperial, etc . -- mostly Chinese dollars to dig up tar sands to run china's power plants for next century.

"But we are making huge progress in stopping ALL THREE major pipeline projects from the tar sands: Keystone, Enbridge, and Kinder Morgan. We're working closely with the First Nations in Canada. Oil companies have a lot of money, but not much soul."

This is an example of what people can and must do if they wish to preserve a society focused on wellness instead of profit.

REX WEYLER - Greenpeace

At the dawn of the 21st century a new political regime has transformed Canada from global hero – once standing up for peace, people, and nature – to global criminal, plunging into war, eroding civil rights, and destroying environments.

What happened to Canada? Oil. And not just any oil, but the world’s dirtiest, most destructive oil. Canada’s betrayal at the Durban climate talks – abandoning its Kyoto Accord commitments – is the direct effect of becoming a petro-state.

By the late 20th century, oil companies knew that the world’s conventional oil fields were in decline and oil production would soon peak, which it did in 2005. These companies, including sovereign oil powers such as PetroChina, turned their attention to low-grade hydrocarbon deposits in shale gas, deep offshore fields, and Canada’s Alberta tar sands. Simultaneously, inside Canada, oil companies began promoting the political career of the son of an ...

Read More - http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/canada-climate-criminal/blog/38567/