Have you ever felt like doing this? I have.

You know how irritating mobile phone users are when they fail to exercise discretion and think the world needs to know their business? When you have enjoyed as much as you can stand you can now get you own back!!!
Enjoy!!!

After a busy day he settled down in his train from Waterloo for a nap as far as his destination at Winchester when the chap sitting near him hauled out his mobile and started up:- “Hi darling it’s Peter, I’m on the train – yes, I know it’s the 6.30 not the 4.30 but I had a long meeting – no, not with that floozie from the typing pool, with the boss – no darling you’re the only one in my life – yes, I’m sure, cross my heart” etc., etc. This was still going on at Wimbledon, when the young woman opposite, driven beyond endurance, yelled at the top of her voice,
“Hey, Peter, turn that bloody phone off and come back to bed!!”

Rick Santorum is Pulling the GOP Too Far to the Right

He is a sincere man who is clearly outside the mainstream of American opinion on the place of religion in our society. He wants religion to participate in government and direct everyone’s behavior. He couldn’t be more wrong. The First Amendment to the Constitution specifically says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Those are the very first words of that amendment.

From The Week magazine

Rick Santorum may be leading Mitt Romney in the polls, said Jennifer Rubin in WashingtonPost.com, but the sweatervested Pennsylvanian reminded us this week of why the GOP would “get slaughtered with Santorum as the nominee.”

In a speech on President Obama’s energy policy, the devout Catholic veered off into an attack on Obama’s “phony theology” that, he later explained, “elevates the earth above man.” Then Santorum set off a fresh controversy by saying he opposes free prenatal testing for pregnant women because it can lead to abortions of fetuses with birth defects. With Santorum heading the Republican ticket this November, one GOP senator moaned this week, “we’d lose 35 states,” and the House of Representatives, too. Santorum’s social conservatism would be less problematic if he weren’t so abrasive, said David Kuhn in ReaIClearPolitics.com. But he has compared the battle to defeat President Obama to the struggle against Hitler in World War II, and this week, a tape surfaced of Santorum telling a crowd in 2008 that “Satan has his sights on the United States of America.” This fire-and-brimstone rhetoric is clearly helping Santorum with the social conservatives who vote in GOP primaries, but it’s a major turnoff to “the independent voters who elect American presidents.”

Santorum’s appeal to these voters is not hard to understand, said Harold Meyerson in The Washington Post. His worldview “summons the ghosts of religious and patriarchal orders that once regulated much of working-class life,” for which many conservatives are deeply nostalgic.

But Americans also value personal freedom, said Conor Friedersdorf in TheAtlantic.com. Are voters really going to hand the presidency to a man who wants to criminalize abortion even in the case of incest and rape, opposes contraception even for married couples, and famously equated homosexuality with “man-ondog” sex? Republican presidential candidates don’t have to be Ron Paul libertarians, said Philip Klein in WashingtonExaminer.com, but Santorum seems “actively hostile” to the idea that people have a right to make their own moral decisions. Nominating a smug scold who wants to “lecture Americans about their sex lives” would “ensure a Democratic rout in November.”

“Santorum’s style of social conservatism is deeply American,” said Rich Lowry in National Review, despite what “the media and political elite” would have you believe. He walks the walk, as the father of seven children, including one with a serious birth defect that often leads other couples to choose abortion. His “passionate intensity” plays very well with blue-collar voters, many of whom share Santorum’s belief that issues of family and culture are inextricably bound up with “the struggles of the working class.”

Santorum should probably avoid “the weeds of theological debate,” said William McGurn in The Wall Street Journal. He should also stop criticizing contraception. But the core of his appeal is that he’s a “conviction politician,” and even those who might not share all his views “are hungry for a nominee who does not bend with the wind.” Perhaps so, said David Weigel in Slate.com. But even Santorum now realizes that as a front-runner, he needs to tone down the harsh rhetoric. “Santorum 2.0” is saying that gays should be “treated with respect,” and noting that as a senator, he voted for two international aid programs that provided contraception. His problem is that, as the 2008 “Satan” speech illustrates, Santorum 1.0 has left a mother lode of extremist positions and off-the-wall statements for the media and his opponents to mine. And the digging “has only just begun.”

Rush Limbaugh Finally Gets His Comeuppance

It has taken too long but it finally happened. Rush Limbaugh has finally received what he has deserved for a long time. His comeuppance.

If you are a public figure in America you are subject to scrutiny. Whether it is your words or behavior, you have put yourself in the public eye. Obviously some of those pubic figures do not understand that reality. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is an excellent example of someone who committed acts that the general public considered inappropriate (an affair with a maid at his home).

Words spoken by Don Imus resulted in his dismissal. John and Ken in Los Angeles were suspended for about 10 days for their name calling. At long last talk show host Rush Limbaugh has managed to cross the line. I am not a fan of Limbaugh but have heard him occasionally because my car radio is tuned to the local station carrying his broadcast.

The consequence of his words is his loss of advertisers. It is the perfect payback. Limbaugh’s choice of name calling will cost him money and perhaps the loss of his program.

The Associated Press reports: “ProFlowers said Sunday on its Facebook page that it has suspended advertising on Limbaugh’s program because his comments about Georgetown University student Sandra Fluke “went beyond political discourse to a personal attack and do not reflect our values as a company.”

The six other advertisers that say they have pulled ads from his show are mortgage lender Quicken Loans, mattress retailers Sleep Train and Sleep Number, software maker Citrix Systems Inc., online data backup service provider Carbonite and online legal document services company LegalZoom.

We should listen on Monday morning to his program to decide who we should boycott.

A Society Run by the Rich!

The American system of opportunity is broken. There is nothing and no one on the horizon that will change our destructive trajectory.

The American model of capitalism and the opportunity to become very wealthy and has become the goal of almost every other nation in the world. Like so many other successes in this world our leaders attempted to fine tune our system. That led to our undoing and a focus on the inequities that unlimited capitalism creates.

The Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party groups have highlighted the problems that most of us have known about for decades. Most of us just chose to ignore the issues. We took a “don’t rock the boat” attitude. The obvious condition of our economy, and its bleak future, has forced us to re-examine this situation. More of us will now be forced to think harder about the choices we make at the ballot box.

The average American family has an income of less than $50,000 per year. At the same time there are millionaires whose income is so large that they earn an annual income that is 340 times as much and more. Yes, John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo Bank made $17.6 million in 2010. Mitt Romney’s income for the past two years has exceeded $20 million per year. At least Mr. Stumpf had to work for his money. Mr. Romney has not worked for at least six years and is living off of his investments.

Irking to most of us is that many millionaires have income based upon capital gains and qualified dividends. Their income tax rate is 15% or less while those drawing a salary are taxed at rates up to 35%.

These are not isolated individuals. One percent of all Americans equal 3 million people. They have no concept of living on $50,000 per year.

If you believe that either Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich (holder of a $500,000 revolving account at Tiffany’s) will be interested in improving the opportunities for the average American then you really are delusional. They will do everything in their power to sustain the system that has made them rich.

Meanwhile the rest of us are fed the line that all of us are owners of American businesses through our 401(k)s and IRAs. So we dutifully go to work hoping that someone will recognize our talents and give us the promotion we believe we deserve. For most of us those promotions never materialize and we end up retiring with a savings account of about $100,000 and a reliance on Social Security.

G. William Domhoff, a professor at the University of California Santa Cruz, has been conducting an ongoing review of wealth and income in America. He has posted his study on-line. Included is this summary of our condition.

“As of 2007, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.6% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers).”

If you think this is just an American problem take a good look at your own country. Canada has high rise condo projects in all of its major cities and lots of well to do people. That can be extended to the nations of Western Europe,Latin America, and Australia too.

The historic reality is that 20% of the population of any nation owns 80% of the wealth. It is the Pareto Principle or the 80-20 rule. This is the out come of a study done by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who in 1906 observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. He soon found that the 80-20 ratio applied to many other aspects of society and business.. So no matter how much we try to void this situation it continuously re-appears.

My complaint is that 1% if our population has grown so powerful that most of the rest of us cannot control our society. Look at the current Republican campaigning in Florida. Mitt Romney is leading in the polls but is spending money for negative advertising against Newt Gingrich at a rate of four times as many dollars. It’s a rich man losing to a very rich man. Our country is being bought by the rich.

There is little hope that this situation will change any time soon. Barack Obama chose not to accept federal funding for his campaign (in 2008) and instead raised millions more on his own. Thus both political parties are being run by the influence peddlers. A third political party would be faced with the same conditions.

Is there a solution? None that I know of!

Stop Censorship

Join Our Censorship Protest!

by Jane Wells

Have you been paying attention to all the hubbub online about the proposed U.S. legislation (SOPA/PIPA) that threatens internet freedom? I wrote about it last week over on WordPress.org, but the gist is this: there’s a bill in the U.S. Senate that if passed would put publishing freedom severely at risk, and could shut down entire sites at the whim of media companies. Fight for the Future created this nifty video to sum it up better than I can.

http://vimeo.com/31100268

On January 18, 2012, sites all over the internet will be blacking out to protest and try to mobilize more people to speak out against this bill coming up in the Senate next week — S. 968: the Protect IP Act (PIPA) — in an attempt to let U.S. lawmakers know how much opposition there is. WordPress.org, Wikipedia, and even WordPress.com VIP I Can Has Cheezburger? will be participating in the blackout to raise awareness and spur you to action.

Here on WordPress.com, we want to participate as well. Freshly Pressed will be blacked out during the strike. Sorry to take away your daily fix of yummy web content, but this bill threatens to do that on a much wider scale. You don’t want that, do you?

More importantly, we are making it possible for you to participate in the protest. There are two options: a “Stop Censorship” ribbon and a full blackout. The blackout portion will be in effect January 18 from 8am to 8pm EST, while the ribbon will be displayed until January 24. Here’s how to join in:

Go to Settings → Protest SOPA/PIPAin your dashboard.
Select if you want to join the blackout or show a ribbon.
If you choose to join the blackout, you can edit the message that will be shown on your site during the blackout.
Preview what your protest will look like.
Click “Save Changes” button to activate your protest.

That’s it! Easy-peasy activism right at your fingertips.

The “Stop Censorship” ribbon will display in the upper corner of your site and links to americancensorship.org. It will display until January 24, 2012 (the Senate vote date).

If you choose to do the blackout in addition to the ribbon, then we will black out your site from 8am to 8pm EST along with the official strike. You can customize the message that will appear on your blacked-out site to tell people why this issue is important to you. Your site will return to just displaying the ribbon after the strike is over.

I hope that a significant number of you on WordPress.com will join in this protest. Publishing freedom is a right we must protect.

And one last pitch: whatever you decide to do about your site, please take a few minutes to head over to americancensorship.org and take action. It only takes a few moments of your time to be an agent of change!

Fear of Retribution Results in Bigotry

I admit to being somewhat frightened by the growing number of Muslims in the United States. Their desire to enforce Sharia law could become a serious problem. At the same time I want to support our desire to recognize everyone’s right to practice their religion no matter what that religion may be.

Lowe’s, the nationwide big-box home improvement chain, is facing criticism for its decision to withdraw advertising from a reality cable show about American Muslims. Their decision was based upon pressure from the Florida Family Association. That group described the television program as “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values.”

“I’m saddened that any place of business would succumb to bigots and people trying to perpetuate their negative views on an entire community,” said Suehaila Amen, one of the cast members of the show, in an interview with the Detroit News.

Thus I am faced with a dilemma. It happened that the program appeared on my television on the TLC channel just minutes before I saw the news item about Lowe’s pulling their advertising support. The program really is a harmless and somewhat silly show focused on five Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan. Honestly the program was not very engaging. The program definitely did not promote Islam to the rest of American society.

The same channel could provide programming focusing on Hassidic Jews or the Amish. Perhaps they could offer a program about Sikh’s in America. Here, where I live, there seems to be a large Indian and Sikh population.

Lowe’s is just a half mile from my home and Home Depot is 1¼ mile from my home. Lowe’s has the right to do as they wish. The Los Angeles Times editorial in their December 14 edition points out that Lowe’s has the right to cancel their advertising. The Times is correct. I just cannot stand for bigotry!

Pakistani model Veena Malik’s nude photo causes fury

This article appeared in the Toronto Canada newspaper, Toronto Star.

ASIF SHAHZAD, Associated Press

ISLAMABAD — A Pakistani actress who posed in the nude for an Indian magazine with the initials of Pakistan’s feared and powerful intelligence agency on her arm has triggered fury across this conservative nation.

Veena Malik’s photo on the website of FHM India, in advance of its publication in the magazine’s December issue, has been lighting up social network websites since earlier this week.

Many here anticipate a backlash, as nationalists and Islamists regularly stage rallies against anything they deem an insult to Islam or to the national honor. India and Pakistan have fought three wars, and the Inter-Services Intelligence agency or ISI has been accused of sponsoring terrorist attacks inside India.

Malik has broken Pakistani religious and national taboos in the past. She is a target for conservative ire and a heroine to some Pakistani liberals.

Conservative cleric Maulana Abdul Qawi declared on Aaj TV on Saturday that her latest venture into controversy was a “shame for all Muslims.”

In an interview with Pakistani Geo television broadcast Saturday, however, Malik said the nude photo was published in violation of her agreement with FHM India and she was considering legal action against the magazine.

Malik acknowledged having been photographed for a “bold but not nude shot.” She said the editor of the magazine had promised that he would cover most of the photo with the ISI initials.

The photo was intended to poke fun at the Indian fear of Pakistani spies, she said, adding “whatever happens (in India), people say ISI is behind that.”

Magazine editor Kabeer Sharma said Malik had given full consent for the shoot and the picture.

“We have all the record(s),” he told the Pakistani television station. “Veena was very excited about that ISI idea.”

Zubair Khan, a 40-year-old shopkeeper in the northwestern city of Peshawar, agreed, saying the photo had given rival India another opportunity to insult Pakistan.

“She has earned a bad name for the entire Pakistan nation,” he said.

Others questioned the authenticity of the photo.

“It seems to be an Indian attempt to malign Pakistan by faking her nude pics, or she might have done it to get a cheap publicity,” said Lubna Khalid, 38, a housewife in the southern port city of Karachi.

Twitter commentator Umair Javed however called on Pakistanis to “make copies of the picture and bury it in your backyard. This way, our grandkids will know there were some amongst us who lived free!”

Asked by reporters whether Pakistan would “pursue the matter” legally, the country’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Saturday, “First, let us see whether it is real or fake.”

Malik does most of her work in India. The entertainment sector there is booming, while Pakistan’s is moribund. Her ties to Pakistan’s archrival have landed her in controversy in the past.

During a much-publicized talk show appearance early this year, she lashed out her nemesis Abdul Qawi, who criticized her for having a scripted love affair with an Indian actor on an Indian reality show.

“What is your problem with me?” an angry Malik demanded of the scholar, who had accused her of insulting Islam.