US Falls Behind Canada, Finland And Hong Kong In Freedom Index

Stephan:  Land of the Free... Not anymore. When I was a boy by every measure the U.S. led the world. Not we lead the world in the size of our gulag, and the number of gun murders we have each year.
In this photo reviewed by US military officials, an American flag waves within the razor wire-lined compound of Camp Delta prison, at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba on Tuesday, June 27, 2006. The Supreme Court this week is expected to rule on the legality of President Bush's decision to create U.S. military tribunals for the detainees at Guantanamo, the first such tribunals since World War II.  Credit: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

In this photo reviewed by US military officials, an American flag waves within the razor wire-lined compound of Camp Delta prison, at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba on Tuesday, June 27, 2006. The Supreme Court this week is expected to rule on the legality of President Bush’s decision to create U.S. military tribunals for the detainees at Guantanamo, the first such tribunals since World War II.
Credit: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

WASHINGTON — The United States lags far behind other developed countries in terms of personal, civil and economic freedoms, according to a study released this month. Its neighbor […]

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It’s Official: Watching Fox Makes You Stupider

Stephan:  Fox News is a blatant disinformation operation. It subverts what little is left of our democracy, and knowingly lies. It is a better Soviet Union style propaganda operation than the Soviet Union was ever able to marshal.  It is also the most watched cable news network in the United States. The average age of its viewership is 68 years, almost entirely Theocratic Rightist Whites. They would be less ignorant if they didn't watch any television at all. Does someone in your family watch Fox News? Do you?

Fox & Friends Credit: Daily Kos

Fox & Friends
Credit: Daily Kos

People who work at Fox News might like to think that they are despised by real journalists only because they are conservative and most journalists are liberal. Anyone who read the admiring obituaries of William F. Buckley Jr. in mainstream and liberal outlets would know that is nonsense. Journalists, both liberals and ones with no ideology in particular, are quite capable of respecting conservative pundits and reporters who deserve their respect.

But Fox does not. The reason is not because it holds a set of values that others may not share. And that is only partially because it claims to be “Fair and Balanced” when it is neither.

Rather, it is because it fails the fundamental test of journalism: are you informing your audience? According to a new study by Farleigh Dickinson University, Fox viewers are the least knowledgeable audience of any outlet, and they know even less about politics and current events than people who watch no news at all. (emphasis added)

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Change Everything or Face a Global Katrina

Stephan:  Naomi Klein has made her reputation speaking truth to power. I don't think power listens though. They don't have to because they can rely on the failure of social progressive men and women to vote. If you don't vote who cares what you think. Are you planning to vote?
 Naomi Klein is the author of a new book on climate change called "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate." Credit: Anya Chibis

Naomi Klein is the author of a new book on climate change called “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate.”
Credit: Anya Chibis

For me, the road to This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate begins in a very specific time and place. The time was exactly ten years ago. The place was New Orleans, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The road in question was flooded and littered with bodies.

Today I am posting, for the first time, the entire section on Hurricane Katrina from my last book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Rereading the chapter 10 years after the events transpired, I am struck most by this fact: the same military equipment and contractors used against New Orleans’ Black residents have since been used to militarize police across the United States, contributing to the epidemic of murders of unarmed Black men and women. That […]

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A daily walk ‘can add seven years to your life’

Stephan:  25 minutes brisk walking a day can add seven years to your life. Does that work for you?
Credit: health.heraldtribune.com

Credit: health.heraldtribune.com

Just 25 minutes of brisk walking a day can add up to seven years to your life, according to health experts.

Researchers have found that moderate exercise could halve the risk of dying from a heart attack for someone in their fifties or sixties.

Coronary heart disease is the UK’s single biggest killer, causing one death every seven seconds, and exercise has long been seen as a way to reduce the risks by cutting obesity and diabetes.

A new study presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress suggested that regular exercise can increase life span.

A group of 69 healthy non-smokers, aged between  30 and 60, who did not take regular exercise were tested as part of the study at Saarland University in Germany.

Blood tests taken during six months of regular aerobic exercise, high-intensity interval training and strength training showed that an anti-ageing process had been triggered and helped repair old DNA.

“This suggests that when people exercise regularly, they may be able to retard the process […]

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Everything We Think We Know About Drug Violence Is Wrong

Stephan:  I think this essay on the violence surrounding drugs is right on the money. Almost everything I see, hear or read about "drug violence" in the corporate media is bloviating drivel, particularly what comes out of the mouths and pens of the Right. It's principal function is to stimulate fear, and assure the continued funding of the War on Drugs. It is contemptible nonsense.

bullets, cok & moneyRosalio Reta was at summer camp, like all the other American teenagers his age. He was a short Texan fifteen-year old with spiky hair, nicknamed “Bart” because he looks like a less yellow Bart Simpson, and loves to skateboard. He was also into the Power Rangers, alternative pop, and Nintendo 64, especially The Mask of Zelda and Donkey Kong.

At camp in this particular year, he was learning useful skills, ones he will remember for the rest of his life. Only at this camp, you don’t learn how to canoe, or sing in a chorus, or make a log fire. You learn how to kill.

When I met him, he was 23, but he could still describe the techniques he learned here and later. Take beheading, for example. “There’s times I’ve seen it they’ve done it with a saw,” he told me through the prison glass. “Blood everywhere. When they start going they hit the jugular and –” he clicks his fingers – “[it’s] everywhere… They put the head right there. The head still moves, makes faces and […]

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