The Dominant Culture of The United States, and most of the countries on this Earth, is Capitalism. We were taught it in school, we were told it was Gawd’s Will in church, we work within it during the day, it pours out of our televisions when we come home, and the only time we can escape from it is when we are asleep. Maybe.
Corporate Capitalism dominates our planet. We can describe it as an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism or … we can describe it as A Self-Devouring Beast. Your choice. I don’t care. Either description is accurate. All I know is it’s a Capitalist world … we just live in it.
I Wish We’d Stop Doing This
At least 436 dead after storm pummels Philippines
The vast majority of the bodies were found in the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro, according to military officials and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. Five people were killed in a landslide, but all others died in flash flooding.
Flash flooding overnight -- following 10 hours of rain -- fueled the devastation, compounded by overflowing rivers and tributaries. As much as 20 centimeters (8 inches) of rain fell within 24 hours in some areas.
Jewish attacks prompt Israeli debate: 'Who's a terrorist?'
A young man calling himself Yehudi Tzadik — "righteous Jew" — picked up a rock and rolled it around in his hand, as if considering pitching it at a police car parked nearby.
Within sight was a mosque in Jerusalem that was torched and defamed Wednesday with graffiti that included, "Death to Arabs." Tzadik claimed he knew some of the group that was responsible for the attack, though he added that he wasn't there when it happened.
All the World's a Grave
Here’s what’s going to happen if we all keep putting one foot in front of the other courtesy of Jeremy Leggett, geologist turned environmentalist writing about the near-future in 2006, "The price of houses will collapse. Stock markets will crash. Within a short period, human wealth -- little more than a pile of paper at the best of times, even with the confidence about the future high among traders -- will shrivel.
There will be emergency summits, diplomatic initiatives, urgent exploration efforts, but the turmoil will not subside. Thousands of companies will go bankrupt, and millions will be unemployed. Once affluent cities with street cafés will have queues at soup kitchens and armies of beggars. The crime rate will soar. The earth has always been a dangerous place, but now it will become a tinderbox.
Israel weighs bill to legalize West Bank outposts built on private Palestinian land
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation is due to discuss Sunday a bill that would legalize construction on private Palestinian land, Haaretz learned on Thursday.
According to the bill, initiated by Habayit Hayehudi MK Zevulun Orlev, Palestinian owners could not demand the clearing of residential construction on their land if they failed to claim it for 4 years since the construction's conclusion.
U.S. plans to adopt strict limits on using chimpanzees in medical research
The government on Thursday said it would adopt strict new limits on using chimpanzees in medical research, after a prestigious scientific group recommended that experiments with humans' closest relative be done only as a last resort.
The National Institutes of Health agreed that science has advanced enough that chimps seldom would be needed to help develop new medicines.
There's No Hiding from Tar Sands Oil
Recent debate over the Keystone XL oil pipeline has turned a spotlight on Canada's controversial and oil-rich tar sands, which would be the source of crude oil flowing through the pipe to the Gulf of Mexico.
Tar sands oil has faced stiff criticism from environmental groups, which say that it's far dirtier than its Middle Eastern counterpart despite claims from the Canadian government and industry groups that they keep a close eye on environmental impact.
Americans face Guantánamo detention after Obama climbdown
Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay.
Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles and disregarding the long-established principle that the military is not used in domestic policing. The legislation has also been strongly criticised by libertarians on the right angered at the stripping of individual rights for the duration of "a war that appears to have no end".
Vandals torch second Palestinian mosque
Vandals set fire to a mosque in the West Bank on Thursday and defaced it with Hebrew graffiti a day after a similar arson attack on a Jerusalem mosque. Suspicion fell on Jewish extremists widely assumed to be behind stepped-up violence against Palestinians and the Israeli military.
The governor of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, Laila Ghanam, said arsonists doused the mosque in the village of Burqa with gasoline, then set it on fire.
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