When choosing between frugality and security, history shows that America almost always selects the latter. To paraphrase President Kennedy, we’ll pay any price and bear any burden to protect ourselves. No doubt this was why the economic case against the Iraq invasion failed. To many, the war debate seemed to pose a binary question: debt or mushroom clouds? And when it’s a scuffle between money arguments and security arguments (even dishonest security arguments), security wins every time. Call this the Pay-Any-Price Principle — an axiom that has impacted all of America’s wars, and now, most poignantly, its War on Drugs. When faced with criticism of budget-busting prosecution and incarceration costs, law enforcement agencies and private prison interests have successfully depicted their cause as a willingness to pay any price to jail dealers of hard narcotics. Of course, data undermine that storyline. In 2008, the FBI reported that 82 percent of drug arrests were for possession — not sales or manufacturing — and almost half of those arrests were for marijuana, not hard drugs. Fortunately, these numbers are seeping into the public consciousness. Gallup’s latest survey shows record support for marijuana legalization, as more Americans see the […]
Three species of creature, which are only a millimetre long and resemble jellyfish encased in shells, were found 2.2 miles (3.5km) underwater on the ocean floor, 124 miles (200km) off the coast of Crete, in an area with almost no oxygen. The animals, named Loriciferans due to their protective layer, or lorica, were discovered by a team led by Roberto Danovaro from Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona, Italy. One of the species has been named Spinoloricus Cinzia, after Dr Danovaro’s wife, while the other two, known as Rugiloricus and Pliciloricus, have yet to be formally named. They were found during three expeditions to find life in the sediment of L’Atlante basin in the Mediterranean, which took place over the course of a decade. Professor Danovaro told BBC News bodies of multicellular animals had been found in sediment from a similarly oxygen-starved area of the Black Sea, but they were thought to have been carried there from adjacent oxygenated water. The species found in the latest expedition were alive, two of them containing eggs, and though they died on extraction the eggs were successfully incubated on the ship, and hatched in […]
WASHINGTON - Two weeks after President Barack Obama signed the big health care overhaul into law, Americans are struggling to understand how - and when - the sweeping measure will affect them. Questions reflecting confusion have flooded insurance companies, doctors’ offices, human resources departments and business groups. ‘They’re saying, ‘Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?’ ‘ said Carrie McLean, a licensed agent for eHealthInsurance.com. The California-based company sells coverage from 185 health insurance carriers in 50 states. McLean said the call center had been inundated by uninsured consumers who were hoping that the overhaul would translate into instant, affordable coverage. That widespread misconception may have originated in part from distorted rhetoric about the legislation bubbling up from the hyper-partisan debate about it in Washington and some media outlets, such as when opponents denounced it as socialism. ‘We tell them it’s not free, that there are going to be things in place that help people who are low-income, but that ultimately most of that is not going to be taking place until 2014,’ McLean said. Adults with pre-existing conditions are frustrated to learn that insurers won’t […]
CHICAGO — The growing pain at the pump kind of snuck up on many Chicago drivers, but now they’re really feeling the bite. ‘I just paid $3.54 for gas,’ said Michelle as she filled up at a Chicago gas station. ‘It’s just outrageous.’ Just a month ago, according to AAA Chicago, unleaded regular averaged $2.86 a gallon in the Chicago area. Last week, it was $3.02. Now, it’s $3.08 and many predict it’s heading higher; much higher. Daniel Flynn, energy trader at PFG Best Research, was asked just how high the gas prices might go. ‘That’s the good question,’ said Flynn. ‘I’ve heard as high as $4 a gallon. Some analysts are saying $4.’ What’s going on? Reports that the economy is heating up – with growing consumer spending, higher retail sales and higher auto sales – has speculators betting on higher energy prices, too. When the economy grows, so does demand for oil. But pushing energy prices too high could backfire. ‘The last thing we want to see is higher energy prices at this time,’ said Flynn, because it can impact the rest of the economy negatively. […]
The rich and famous now have something in common with hundreds of thousands of middle and lower-class Americans: The bank is about to take their homes. Houses with loans of $5 million or more will likely see a sharp rise in foreclosures this year, according to a RealtyTrac study for The Wall Street Journal. Gabe Palacio for The Wall Street Journal Banks had scheduled a foreclosure auction of Richard Fuscone’s Westchester County, N.Y., mansion this week. But the former top Wall Street executive declared personal bankruptcy, delaying the auction. . Just this week, a Tudor mansion in Bel-Air belonging to film star Nicolas Cage was in foreclosure auction and reverted to the lender. On Wednesday, Richard Fuscone, a former top Wall Street executive, declared personal bankruptcy, forestalling a foreclosure auction that had been scheduled this week on his 14-acre Westchester mansion. Last month a Manhattan condominium owned by Italian film producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori was sold in a foreclosure auction for $33.2 million. In February alone, 352 homes nationwide in this category were scheduled for foreclosure auction, the final step before a bank acquisition. That is the largest monthly number of these so-called notices of […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
