Friday, December 21st, 2012
AARON GLANTZ, - Center for Investigative Reporting
Stephan: I have always thought that one of the hallmarks of the neo-cons like Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Pipes, etc. is the avidness with which they engage in war, and their supreme indifference to the broken bodies of the men and women they commit to their follies. They themselves, of course, never, ever, are in a place or situation of personal physical risk.
This report is utterly shameful. Please write your Representative and Senators and tell them to give these people succor. Only focused and intense citizen pressure is going to change this dreadful situation.
After seven months of delay, the Department of Veterans Affairs finally approved World War II veteran James Alderson’s pension benefits last week.
The day after Veterans Day, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Luke Parrott walks through the rows of headstones in Section 60 where several of his friends and soldiers he served with are buried at Arlington National Cemetery Nov. 12 in Arlington, Virginia. A veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Parrott was injured in an IED blast in Baghdad in 2005. Parrott spent time sitting and talking to the graves of the soldiers he knew. ‘It’s as close as we can get to talking anymore,’ he said. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
But it was not a cause for celebration or relief for Alderson, whose life’s work was the farm-supply store he founded near Chico, Calif., after returning home from the Battle of the Bulge.
The 89-year-old veteran had died three months earlier in a Yuba City nursing home.
‘My father was a very proud person,
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Thursday, December 20th, 2012
Stephan: I found this heartening, and I don't think the GMO issue is settled yet.
Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Arran Stephens, CEO of Nature’s Path. For those who don’t know, Nature’s Path is the largest organic breakfast foods company in North America, and one of the biggest supporters of the initiative to have genetically modified foods labeled. (Nature’s Path donated $660,000 to Prop. 37.) Nature’s Path is an independent business, owned by Stephens and his family.
Stephens believes strongly that GMOs are harmful to the land and its people. He has witnessed, as the rest of us have, that some organic companies have sided with the opposition of the labeling initiative. He views that this was done because these companies were sold to junk food companies who made the decision to donate to the other side. Stephens vows not to follow in their footsteps. That’s why he’s keeping Nature’s Path in the family. ‘We’re not for sale,
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Thursday, December 20th, 2012
LOVEDAY MORRIS, - The Independent (UK)
Stephan: I often write about the uber rich that have emerged as the world's first truly global aristocracy. In the multipolar geopolitical environment that is creating them, one dominated by the rise of the Virtual Corporate states, national states are vassals. Under the direction of the uber rich, and the VCses they control, national legislatures pass laws that serve not the interests of the people, but the priorities of the VCSes. These individuals and families literally live in another world, while they control ours.
But its hard to conceptualize that. Even the visual media, in its most exaggerated excesses, doesn't really get to it, perhaps because it would be simply unbelievable. Here's what I mean. Click through to see the images.
Saudi investor’s £300m super-jumbo also has room for a concert hall, a garage for his Rolls and four luxury suites
He’s the billionaire who has everything – private jumbo jet, hundreds of cars, a yacht that featured in the Bond film Never Say Never Again and a sizeable stake in News Corporation. Now Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud is about to take delivery of his new toy: an Airbus A380.
The super-jumbos flown by Emirates airlines have room for more than 600 passengers. But the prince will clear out most of the seats and install a luxury Turkish spa, a concert hall and space to park his Rolls-Royce. Finishing touches in the hamam will include marble walls, while the prayer area will feature computer-generated mats which always point in the direction of Mecca. What will become the world’s largest private jet (dubbed the ‘flying palace
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Thursday, December 20th, 2012
Zack Beauchamp, - Think Progress - Justice
Stephan: Two readers sent me this, and I really didn't believe it at first and thought they had been duped by a satirical piece. Then I checked back to the primary sources. It's true. I almost ran the primary National Review piece, but this compendium actually contains more information, and cites the sources. Read it and draw your own conclusions.
If there were fewer women and more ‘male aggression
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Thursday, December 20th, 2012
AFUA HIRSCH, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: There are so many awful stories about the continent of Africa, and in so many places its prospects are so very grim that, when I read this, and realized it represented a positive trend, I knew I had to run it. Let's hold the intention that this trend stays on track. A healthy middle class is the only way Africa can be saved.
ACCRA, GHANA — At a 19-storey glass skyscraper in downtown Accra, Ghana, the daily exodus of office workers is beginning in earnest. Men and women in suits spill out into the equatorial sunset and congested city streets from the headquarters of Fidelity Bank – one of a couple of dozen banks profiting from the west African country’s economic boom.
In a modest, tidy corner office on the second floor, Julian Opuni, 40, is working late. Since returning to Ghana from the UK this year after almost 20 years working for Lloyds TSB, he has immersed himself in helping Fidelity to capitalise on the growth in small- and medium-sized businesses.
‘It is a good time for the banking sector in Ghana,’ said Opuni. ‘The banks have benefitted from what’s happening in the broader economy – the oil find, increased earnings and the high price of gold. Ghana has lots of opportunities, and there are so many markets that haven’t been tapped into yet. The banking sector in Ghana is very receptive at the moment to new ideas.’
Opuni is one of many Ghanaians attracted by Ghana’s steady economic growth – which reached 14.4% last year, driven primarily by the boom in oil, construction, technology […]
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