Thread: What is it with all of the tainted Chinese imports lately?

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  1. #1

    Default What is it with all of the tainted Chinese imports lately?

    First it was pet food, then toothpaste and now fish. I guess this is what happens when capitalism meets unregulated industrialism. If they keep this up the trade imbalance should swing more toward our favor, I wonder how long our government will let this go on until they impose more stringent import laws on consumable goods?
  2. #2

    Default America's Honor: The Stories Behind Memorial Day

    America's Honor
    The stories behind Memorial Day.

    BY PETER COLLIER
    Monday, May 28, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

    Once we knew who and what to honor on Memorial Day: those who had given all their tomorrows, as was said of the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy, for our todays. But in a world saturated with selfhood, where every death is by definition a death in vain, the notion of sacrifice today provokes puzzlement more often than admiration. We support the troops, of course, but we also believe that war, being hell, can easily touch them with an evil no cause for engagement can wash away. And in any case we are more comfortable supporting them as victims than as warriors.

    Former football star Pat Tillman and Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham were killed on the same day: April 22, 2004. But as details of his death fitfully emerged from Afghanistan, Tillman has become a metaphor for the current conflict--a victim of fratricide, disillusionment, coverup and possibly conspiracy. By comparison, Dunham, who saved several of his comrades in Iraq by falling on an insurgent's grenade, is the unknown soldier. The New York Times, which featured Abu Ghraib on its front page for 32 consecutive days, put the story of Dunham's Medal of Honor on the third page of section B.

    Not long ago I was asked to write the biographical sketches for a book featuring formal photographs of all our living Medal of Honor recipients. As I talked with them, I was, of course, chilled by the primal power of their stories. But I also felt pathos: They had become strangers--honored strangers, but strangers nonetheless--in our midst.

    In my own boyhood, figures such as Jimmy Doolittle, Audie Murphy and John Basilone were household names. And it was assumed that what they had done defined us as well as them, telling us what kind of nation we were. But the 110 Medal recipients alive today are virtually unknown except for a niche audience of warfare buffs. Their heroism has become the military equivalent of genre painting. There's something wrong with that.
  3. #3

    Default Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

    From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all

    Last autumn, there was a military coup in Thailand. The leaders of the coup took a number of steps, rather systematically, as if they had a shopping list. In a sense, they did. Within a matter of days, democracy had been closed down: the coup leaders declared martial law, sent armed soldiers into residential areas, took over radio and TV stations, issued restrictions on the press, tightened some limits on travel, and took certain activists into custody.

    They were not figuring these things out as they went along. If you look at history, you can see that there is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship. That blueprint has been used again and again in more and less bloody, more and less terrifying ways. But it is always effective. It is very difficult and arduous to create and sustain a democracy - but history shows that closing one down is much simpler. You simply have to be willing to take the 10 steps.

    As difficult as this is to contemplate, it is clear, if you are willing to look, that each of these 10 steps has already been initiated today in the United States by the Bush administration.

    Because Americans like me were born in freedom, we have a hard time even considering that it is possible for us to become as unfree - domestically - as many other nations. Because we no longer learn much about our rights or our system of government - the task of being aware of the constitution has been outsourced from citizens' ownership to being the domain of professionals such as lawyers and professors - we scarcely recognise the checks and balances that the founders put in place, even as they are being systematically dismantled. Because we don't learn much about European history, the setting up of a department of "homeland" security - remember who else was keen on the word "homeland" - didn't raise the alarm bells it might have.
  4. #4

    Default Gas station can't afford gas...

    Prices Force Station Owners To Stop Selling Gas
    Prices Too High, They Say

    POSTED: 9:04 am EDT May 24, 2007
    Sky-high gas prices have prompted some Wisconsin service stations to stop selling fuel.

    Jeff Curro has sold gas at his Brookfield Shell station for 20 years. But, he's turned off his pumps because the price he's paying to supply the gas to drivers is just too high.

    Curro said his 3-cent-a-gallon profit margin is eaten up by the credit card companies that get an average 3 percent on every gallon sold. Credit card processing fees rank as the second-biggest expense for gas station owners.

    Casey O'Gorman has also stopped selling gas at his West Allis Shell station. He's now doing business only as Auto Analyzers.

    A Mobil station in Mequon temporarily shut off its pumps to protest the high gas prices. Yellow tape surrounds the pumps at Towne Market Mobil.

    http://www.wftv.com/automotive/13381...405242007&ts=H
  5. #5

    Default LOST...Huge SPOILER!!!!

    Here it is. What you've been waiting for. The mother of all Lost scoops. The "game-changer" The "rattlesnake in the mailbox."

    Let's start with this week's episode.

    Beware, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! AND I MEAN IT. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN THE NEXT EPISODE AND THE FINALE DON'T READ ANYMORE.

    EP 321 CHARLIE'S FLASHBACKS
    Basically, this is another show where they make you think that Charlie's going to die, but then it doesn't happen. Desmond tells Charlie that he's seen a vision of Charlie's death and that this time it HAS to happen because it's going to cause another of his visions to come true -- one of Claire and her baby being rescued from the island by a helicopter. He tells Charlie that he's going to drown after turning a switch next to a yellow light in a new underwater hatch. At the same time, Sayid tells Jack that he can't get a rescue signal out on Naomi's phone because Rousseau's old distress call is blocking the signal. He tells Jack that they need to go to a radio tower to turn it off.

    Juliet, though, tells them that still won't get the signal out because Ben has been blocking all transmissions from the island by a jamming device on an underwater hatch called THE LOOKING GLASS. They know from Sayid's maps that the hatch is flooded. Charlie volunteers for the suicide missions to swim down there and turn off the signal. After what Desmond's told him, he now knows that this is his destiny. He swims down to the underwater hatch -- but it isn't flooded! He comes up in a pressurized chamber. He's overjoyed that he doesn't have to die.... but discovers that there's TWO CHICKS down there pointing guns at him.

    The FLASHBACKS are the five greatest moments in Charlie's life. He saves a stranger being beaten on the street (the stranger is Nadia, Sayid's long-lost love), he shows his Dad he can swim when he's a young kid, he hears YOU ALL EVERYBODY on the radio for the first time, and his brother Liam gives him the DS ring. But his greatest moment is when he met Claire on the beach the first night after the plane crashed on the island. (He writes down these five memories and asks Desmond to give them to Claire after he's gone). The episode is just okay. Not as good as the last two, it's basically setting things up for the finale. It would?ve been better if they had killed Charlie in it. Now onto the finale...

    episode 322 FINALE "THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS"
    The finale is full of action, a few deaths -- and that huge twist I mentioned earlier.
  6. #6

    Default The Kudzu Imperative

    What an elegant solution from the WSJ (22 May 07)

    ...Why not harvest kudzu for biofuel? Kudzu grows everywhere, is a nuisance, but can spread and grow several feet a day. What an elegant solution to two problems. Some scientist should give this a shot.

    Vicky Kaseorg

    Charlotte, N.C.

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