Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Christmas Eve 1914
This is a story from World War I worth sharing. It is the tale of an unusual peace. It was told in Parade magazine by the writing team of Irving Wallace, David Wallichinsky, and Amy Wallace in their "Significa" column. Here is the story as they wrote it:
Amid the horrors of World War I, there occurred a unique truce when, for a few hours, enemies behaved like brothers. Christmas Eve in 1914 was all quiet on France's Western Front, from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps. Trenches came within 50 miles of Paris. The war was only five months old, and approximately 800,000 men had been wounded or killed. Every soldier wondered whether Christmas Day would bring another round of fighting and killing. But something happened: British soldiers raised "Merry Christmas" signs, and soon carols were heard from German and British trenches alike. Christmas dawned with unarmed soldiers leaving their trenches, as officers of both sides tried unsuccessfully to stop their troops from meeting the enemy in the middle of no-man's land for songs and conversation. Exchanging small gifts—mostly sweets and cigars—they passed Christmas Day peacefully along miles of the front. At one spot, the British played soccer with the Germans, who won 3-2. In some places, the spontaneous truce continued the next day, neither side willing to fire the first shot. Finally the war resumed when fresh troops arrived, and the high command of both armies ordered that further "informal understandings" with the enemy would be punishable as treason.
Amid the horrors of World War I, there occurred a unique truce when, for a few hours, enemies behaved like brothers. Christmas Eve in 1914 was all quiet on France's Western Front, from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps. Trenches came within 50 miles of Paris. The war was only five months old, and approximately 800,000 men had been wounded or killed. Every soldier wondered whether Christmas Day would bring another round of fighting and killing. But something happened: British soldiers raised "Merry Christmas" signs, and soon carols were heard from German and British trenches alike. Christmas dawned with unarmed soldiers leaving their trenches, as officers of both sides tried unsuccessfully to stop their troops from meeting the enemy in the middle of no-man's land for songs and conversation. Exchanging small gifts—mostly sweets and cigars—they passed Christmas Day peacefully along miles of the front. At one spot, the British played soccer with the Germans, who won 3-2. In some places, the spontaneous truce continued the next day, neither side willing to fire the first shot. Finally the war resumed when fresh troops arrived, and the high command of both armies ordered that further "informal understandings" with the enemy would be punishable as treason.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Martha Nussbaum on 21st Century Enlightenment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY7TWiZlLt4&feature=uploademail
“I will say right away that we didn’t need this science to tell us that we are not totally dominated by self interest.“ Martha Nussbaum
“I will say right away that we didn’t need this science to tell us that we are not totally dominated by self interest.“ Martha Nussbaum
Dude, Where's My Mortgage? How an Obscure Outfit Called MERS Is Subverting Our Entire System of Property Rights | Economy | AlterNet
Dude, Where's My Mortgage? How an Obscure Outfit Called MERS Is Subverting Our Entire System of Property Rights Economy AlterNet
BEFORE MERS: “America's long-standing real estate recording laws, which required lenders to file all mortgage transactions—the origination of a new loan, for instance, or the transfer or sale of a mortgage between banks—with the county in which the property is located”
AFTER MERS “Mortgages would be changing hands dozens of times, going from loan originators to banks to Wall Street investment houses, which would collect them by the thousands and package them into complex debt instruments that would be chopped up into shares and sold off to multiple investors all over the world.”
BEFORE MERS: “America's long-standing real estate recording laws, which required lenders to file all mortgage transactions—the origination of a new loan, for instance, or the transfer or sale of a mortgage between banks—with the county in which the property is located”
AFTER MERS “Mortgages would be changing hands dozens of times, going from loan originators to banks to Wall Street investment houses, which would collect them by the thousands and package them into complex debt instruments that would be chopped up into shares and sold off to multiple investors all over the world.”
Sunday, December 12, 2010
The Economics of Happiness
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_economics_of_happiness/
"...It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile." RFK on the GDP.
"...It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile." RFK on the GDP.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
S 510 Food Safety bill is still alive and may unleash a new army of FDA agents
S 510 Food Safety bill is still alive and may unleash a new army of FDA agents
Once an FDA inspection occurs, if the government believes the food grower is producing anything that might pose a risk to the public (and note carefully that "belief" is the only thing required, not actual scientific evidence of harm), that food grower is then "suspended" from producing food.Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030672_Food_Safety_bill_FDA.html#ixzz17dcTkx5E
Once an FDA inspection occurs, if the government believes the food grower is producing anything that might pose a risk to the public (and note carefully that "belief" is the only thing required, not actual scientific evidence of harm), that food grower is then "suspended" from producing food.Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030672_Food_Safety_bill_FDA.html#ixzz17dcTkx5E
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
`The truth will always win’ - Julian Assange writes
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/mediadiary/index.php/australianmedia/comments/julian1/
In its landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, the US Supreme Court said “only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government”. The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth.
In its landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, the US Supreme Court said “only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government”. The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Top ten lies about Senate Bill 510
http://www.naturalnews.com/030587_Senate_Bill_510_Food_Safety.html
(NaturalNews) The Food Safety Modernization Act looks like it's headed to become law. It's being hailed as a "breakthrough" achievement in food safety, and it would hand vast new powers and funding to the FDA so that it can clean up the food supply and protect all Americans from food-borne pathogens.
(NaturalNews) The Food Safety Modernization Act looks like it's headed to become law. It's being hailed as a "breakthrough" achievement in food safety, and it would hand vast new powers and funding to the FDA so that it can clean up the food supply and protect all Americans from food-borne pathogens.
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