Is Joe Biden Ready For Debate?
Unbelievable Similarities Between Lincoln And Kennedy
(Century Fox Post): Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.....READ MORE
The Truth Prevails after 65 Years Of Indian Independence (Video)
Fairness Will Win The Debate And Win The Election
The usual hype is that each presidential election presents us with the clearest and most important choice we will ever face. For this once, the hype just happens to be true. The candidates, Obama and Romney, offer sharply contrasting agendas on how much the goal of achieving fairness should inform our policy and tax decisions.....READ MORE
True Story: Wake Up, Its About Your Love
Is Joe Biden Ready For Debate?
Unbelievable Similarities Between Lincoln And Kennedy
(Century Fox Post): Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.....READ MORE
The Truth Prevails after 65 Years Of Indian Independence (Video)
Fairness Will Win The Debate And Win The Election
The usual hype is that each presidential election presents us with the clearest and most important choice we will ever face. For this once, the hype just happens to be true. The candidates, Obama and Romney, offer sharply contrasting agendas on how much the goal of achieving fairness should inform our policy and tax decisions.....READ MORE
True Story: Wake Up, Its About Your Love
American Issues At Stake In Elections
A selection of issues at stake in the presidential election and their impact on Americans, in brief.....Read More
True Story: Your Kids Need You
Father: Sure..
Son: how much do you make an hour?"
Greatly surprised, but giving his boy a glaring look, the father said: "Look, son, not even your mother knows that. Don't bother me now, I'm tired."
"But Daddy, just tell me please!? How much do you make an hour," the boy insisted.....READ MORE
Reasons Why Muslim Countries Hate U.S
In the aftermath of the tragic attack of the US Embassy in Libya that claimed several US diplomats' lives, American flags burn across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia, in over 12 countries. Many non-Muslim Americans are asking themselves: "why are they so enraged about an amateur film?; or, "why do they hate us?" The protests are no longer about the film. Increasingly, the public displays of anti-Americanism today reflect the state of affairs between the US and the 'Muslim world'.
Of the non-Muslims in the West, 58% consider Muslims fanatical and a median of 50% believe Muslims are violent. According to Pew Research surveys from 2011, median percentages of Muslims who identify the U.S. and Europe as violent, greedy, or immoral, is above 50%. On these facts, the ideological divide between the Muslim and Western world is a matter of concern to both U.S. public diplomacy and for the emerging democracies of the Middle East and North Africa.....READ MORE
Analysis: "Shocked And Confused Middle East"
SHOCKED AND CONFUSED are the two words that sum up the collective reaction of Mid East analysts to the nahkba (catastrophe) gripping the Middle East and broader Muslim world since news leaked out over the dastardly "Innocence of Muslims" video.
Century Fox News: U.S Missions Attacked in Cairo and Libya
Trying to sort through the rampant anti-Americanism that has been unleashed when news broke of the video's content has become a psycho-errant errand into the unknown for most of us...so perhaps it is best to go back to the drawing board and try to make some sense of these events...READ MORE
Analysis: President Obama Vs Mitt Romney
One of the most irrelevant and politically effective questions asked by challenging politicians is bandied about again this year: "Are you better off than four years ago?"
Ronald Reagan made hay with that query during his 1980 campaign against incumbent Jimmy Carter. Mitt Romney and his Republican colleagues are using the tactic again this year against a latter-day set of Democratic incumbents.
This ploy always works to a degree when the economy is struggling. Quite a few voters are bound to say "yes" without thinking whether their answer would be the same if the other side were in office....READ MORE
"Are We The First Martians"?
Now that the fear of imaginary invaders has been replaced by a frustrating search for chemicals, a more fundamental question is emerging.
Could humans walk the sands of Mars, and actually live and work there?
That's what NASA's $2.5 billion Mars' Curiosity rover is trying to determine as it rolls heroically across the rugged but achingly desolate Martian landscape......Read More
True Depth Of Coalgate Scam
Coalgate barely plumbs the depths of the coal problem. ET tells you how the current mess extends well beyond Coalgate and the vested interests involved.
First, the good news. Even as every morning brings with it fresh revelations on how India's coal reserves have been mismanaged by the Manmohan Singh government, India is also seeing a set of institutional responses towards addressing some of the ills that have been highlighted....READ MORE
Will President Obama Keep His Promises, This Time?
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| President Barack Obama addesses the DNC Thursday night in Charlotte, N.C. |
CHARLOTTE — President Obama appealed to the nation Thursday night for another four years in office, asserting that his policies are slowly returning the country to economic prosperity while arguing that his Republican opponents would pursue a course that would set the country back and harm the well-being of middle-class families.......Read More
Where Obama Went Wrong?
Barack Obama goes into this week’s Democratic National Convention neck and neck with Mitt Romney in the race for the U.S. presidency, a competition that appears likely to be settled based on which candidate voters decide is the least worst. The euphoria that developed around Obama in the 2008 election is long gone; it may be surprising that he’s even still in the race at all, albeit against a rival about whom Republicans are similarly unenthused.
Here’s an assessment of Obama’s position and what went wrong with his first four years:READ MORE
How She Forgives Her Man
He was dissatisfied with our sex life and my lack of respect for him. I was struggling with bipolar disorder, changing medications, going back to school, and trying to please a man who seemed to find fault with everything I did.
During that fight, he choked me twice to prevent me from screaming and running away. I learned quickly that if I didn’t want to die, I would have to go limp, submit to his power, and hope he would release me from my position, pinned face down in our bed.......Read More
Ajmal Kasab And Naroda Patiya: "A Tale Of Two Verdicts"
August 30th, 2012 was a historic day. India witnessed the almost simultaneous release of two verdicts. The Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence on Ajmal Kasab and the Gujarat High Court indicted 32 people in the Naroda Patiya case. Each judgement in itself offered high drama, but the juxtaposition of the two conveyed a wider sense of how justice is presented and consumed.
There was a dignity to the Kasab’s case, the closure offered by ritual, a sense that even if terror as a network was not destroyed, a terrorist was sentenced. It provides a symbolic closure to the city and its victims, allowing a return to normalcy.......Read More
Dialogue With A Paraplegic Hero
St. Denis, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, credits sports with improving his life after he suffered a spinal-cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He was once a world-ranked athlete in wheelchair skiing.
CNN's Ebonne Ruffins recently spoke with St. Denis about how he and his group are helping people with disabilities benefit from athletics......Read More
Obama, Romney Open Up About Their Faith In A Church Magazine
Washington (CNN) – President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have opened up about their religious faith to an unlikely source: Cathedral Age, the quarterly magazine of the Washington National Cathedral.....Read More
Pussy Riot And The Russian Militant
It sounds like a scriptwriter's dream.
Here we have Russia, a vastly powerful country with a floundering democracy, facing the imminent threat of tyranny. That danger is personified by Vladimir Putin, a former KGB man who looks like, well, a former KGB man, as imagined by John Le Carre. Standing in his way is a gallant resistance movement symbolized by an all-female rock band, a group of punky young performance artists called Pussy Riot..Read More
Good Obama, Bad Obama
It’s instructive to compare the two major ad campaigns targeting Barack Obama that were launched today. The first ad, from the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, features a range of Obama supporters explaining, more in sorrow than in anger, that they have reluctantly concluded Obama has failed....Read More
Is Facebook Responsible For Divorces?
Well Lets get the statistics on board.Social networking sites like Facebook is the reason couples are experiencing break ups and the percentage is not acute..Using data compiled by 'Peoples Social Survey' where more than 16000 divorce cases have been analysed from 2001 to 2011, More than 30% Divorces have occured due to Facebook and such sites..Read More
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| Janice Devena eventually got an exit visa |
She told her employers she did not want to die in Syria - she had her own family to think about back in the Philippines - and she eventually persuaded them to get her an exit visa....READ MORE
This Week In Civil War
This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, Aug. 12: Fighting in Missouri, arming the armies.
Fighting in the wide-ranging Civil War erupted in the heartland on Aug. 11, 1862, when Confederate forces attacked Independence, Missouri. The Confederate fighters surprised and scattered a force of Union troops garrisoned at Independence. But ultimately, the Union forces that hadn't been killed or immediately captured were forced to surrender. It marked a morale-boosting victory for the secessionist government based in Richmond, Va..........READ MORE
Could India's Power Outage Have Been A Blessing In Disguise?
Last Tuesday’s massive electrical blackout was an ordeal and an embarrassment for India. It may also prove to have been a blessing in disguise, helping galvanize one of the world’s most high-potential economies to take action on a major barrier to its growth.
Although it remains to be seen what precisely caused hundreds of millions of people in the northern part of the country to be left in the dark, India’s second power failure in two days had a feeling of inevitablity about it. Tellingly, it has been reported that some Indians barely even noticed it, because more localized blackouts are so common that those with the means to afford them have backup generators; an estimated 300 million, meanwhile, don’t have power at the best of times. Such is the reality in a country where energy infrastructure has not kept pace with rising demand.
The shortcomings, which range from inadequate generation to excessive leakage from the transmission system, are not easy to fix. Squabbling between the federal government and the states makes planning and regulation difficult. Given the heavy reliance on coal, new power sources could have major environmental costs. Most of all, there is the matter of pricing. Partly because of India’s high level of poverty, partly because of political convenience, energy prices have been kept far too low to enable much-needed investment.
In the short term, cheap power may be a boon to some industries. In the long run, it is a recipe for disaster. When they are unable to count on reliable power supply, companies are reluctant to build or expand operations. And as some Canadian provinces have discovered, delaying necessary investment in the system means eventually making up for lost time with sudden and dramatic spikes in prices, rather than more gradual and predictable ones – another danger likely to give businesses pause.
This conundrum calls for political leadership – to collect more from those who can afford to pay it, to crack down on theft of power that reportedly consumes as much as 30 per cent of available supply, and to speed up projects that have a tendency to drag on endlessly – which by most accounts has been sorely lacking to date. Perhaps the combination of domestic pressure and international bad press, after last week’s events, will help spur it.
Should U.S Look To China For Economic Advice?
Warren (D): USA Needs to Spend Like China to Help Our Economy
STEVE FORBES: No. Thanks to Elizabeth Warren and her kind, we don't have the money that China has. Second, China is trying to catch up to us. Third, if we want to spend money on infrastructure, we should tap the private sector, which probably would not make her happy. Indiana has done that with the toll road and how about the highway trust fund?! Instead of wasting money on things like light rail, let it go to highway. So, if you want real reform remove the obstacles to building infrastructure and repairing it, which she and her environmental friends also put obstacles in the waY....READ MORE
My Husband Just Left Me And Vanished!
If my husband had been Pinocchio, his nose would have been a giant redwood. While we were married, I thought he was a real boy. Once he disappeared, I learned otherwise.
My husband and I used to watch "Lost" and shake our heads in disbelief at Sawyer's deceptions. We laughed at "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" when the con artists were conned themselves. We were shocked at the audacity of Leonardo DiCaprio's character in "Catch Me If You Can", and we were disturbed when we discovered the movie was based on a true story. While I thought he shared my disdain for the trickery and fraud in these tales, it seems as though he had been taking notes. Overnight, I went from an ordinary life to one that felt more like a movie....READ MORE
How To Be A Woman
There’s something about the British writer Caitlin Moran that makes you want tell her inappropriate things about yourself. Like how you spent your adolescence racked with anxiety over the fact that one boob was half a cup size bigger than the other, or that you’re confused – and possibly always have been – about the social implications of pubic grooming.
This, as Moran will tell you, is only natural. If you’ve read her new book,How To Be A Woman (a massive bestseller in the U.K. that is currently taking North America by storm), you will know that subjects inappropriate for polite conversation are her literary oeuvre of choice...READ MORE
The Collapse Of Liberal Church
Two weeks from now, the United Church of Canada will assemble in Ottawa for its 41st General Council, where it will debate church policy and elect a new moderator. The top item on its agenda is a resolution calling for a boycott of products from Israeli settlements. Fortunately, nobody cares what the United Church thinks about Israeli settlements, or anything else for that matter, because the United Church doesn’t matter any more...READ MORE
Putin Is Only Showing His Weakness
An all-girl punk band called Pussy Riot performed a “punk prayer” for 30 seconds in front of the altar of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the seat of the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, and began chanting, “Our Lady, chase Putin out.” They intended to make a provocative political statement aimed at Russia’s authoritarian President. It’s the sort of manifestation that artists and provocateurs in the West do all the time and would have gone unnoticed here.
But in President Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the prank has been treated as if it were an insurrection that threatened to topple the regime. Three members of Pussy Riot were arrested and jailed in March, pending trial. The young women remain behind bars and, if convicted, face possible seven-year sentences for “hooliganism” motivated by religious hatred. Amnesty International has declared the women prisoners of conscience.
Which begs the question: What is it about these artists, all women in their 20s, two of whom are also the mothers of young children, that so frightens Russia’s leadership?
Mr. Putin appears to have no sense of proportionality. The same hammer that was used ruthlessly, but effectively, against Chechen rebels in the past is now being applied to artists who dared to make a non-violent statement about authoritarianism that, judging by the response of Russia’s court system, itself a relic of Stalinism, is entirely accurate. That same court system is also busying itself with the persecution of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
On the first day of their trial Monday, Pussy Riot apologized to Russian Orthodox believers for making an “ethical mistake” and made clear they were making a political, not a religious, statement. But the Russian Orthodox Church has failed to demonstrate any Christian charity, or forgiveness, in turn.
Mr. Putin is a special case. He’s used rock music when it has suited his purpose, famously turning up in 2004 at a landmark concert by Paul McCartney in Red Square. This was meant to signal that the country that once banned The Beatles music for fear of debauched influence had changed. It has clearly not changed enough.
Rock and punk-influenced musicians, given all their anti-establishment posturing, have been remarkably slow to rally to the cause of Pussy Riot. Sting, however, did issue a statement, aptly targeted at the tough-guy image Mr. Putin likes to cultivate: “A sense of proportion – and a sense of humour – is a sign of strength, not a sign of weakness.
How My Husband's Mistress Took Over My Life
The first ultrasound came back inconclusive. I knew something wasn't right when the technician quickly left the room and came back with the doctor.
"We can't hear a heartbeat," he said matter-of-factly. "It's either too early or you have miscarried. We'll do another test in 10 days."
He said it exactly like that, with apparent disregard for how tortuous the next 10 days would be...READ MORE
There Is No One Answer To Gun Violence
It would require mental gymnastics to find anything in common between the tragic mass shootings in Toronto and the United States this week beyond the obvious: that innocent people died and guns were involved. The shootings do, however, reveal a shared simple truth: that as much as we might wish otherwise, there is no magic formula to end gun violence.
In the Denver, Colo., suburb of Aurora, a heavily armed man walked into a movie theatre early Friday morning and opened fire with multiple weapons, killing 12 and wounding 59 more, some of whom may not survive. It’s impossible to overlook that the killer chose an opening-night screening of The Dark Knight Rises, the heavily hyped new Batman movie. Whether his deranged motive was linked to the alluring symbolism of lone vigilantism in the Batman series, or he just wanted to be sure the theatre would be packed, the film does not seem to have been chosen randomly.
Toronto’s mass shooting took place on Monday night at a large block party on an otherwise quiet suburban side street – a setting that may also have been deliberately targeted. The killing of two young people and the injuring of more than 20 has been linked by police to gang violence – and to a growing trend in gang rivalries to settle scores in public places filled with innocent bystanders. The echo of a shooting at the crowded Eaton Centre in early June that killed two and wounded five bystanders is impossible to ignore.
The public on both sides of the border is left with feelings of outrage, sadness and helplessness; they sense there will be much talk about the causes and what must be done, and then little will change, thanks to competing agendas, and another tragedy will occur. Politicians do their best to respond to this despair. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been particularly vocal, suggesting that people convicted of gun crimes be deported or, if they happen to be Canadian, exiled from his city. If only it were that simple.
In the search for answers, perhaps the place to start is to round up what we know. We know that the U.S. has a politicized gun culture that allows people to own high-calibre, rapid-firing automatic weapons, to bring holstered weapons to political rallies and, in many states, to shoot first and ask questions later. We know there is no political will in the U.S. to scale back its gun madness. We know this plays into the hands of disaffected, angry people who see carnage as a means of vengeance or self-expression. We know that most are not postal workers.
We know that American guns routinely find their way into Canada and that the flow is increasing. We know it is almost always men who use them illegally and that their use is often related to the illicit drug trade. We know that there are inequities in our society that marginalize young men in black and immigrant communities and that carrying and using a pistol are connected to their sense of masculinity and give them status among their peers.
Ergo, we know we it would be easier to stem handgun violence if there were fewer handguns being manufactured and sold in the U.S., but we know that’s not going to happen. We know that we could try to stanch the flow of illegal guns at the border, but that wouldn’t stop gang members from wanting them. We know we could use repressive measures to curtail gang activity, but that wouldn’t address the reasons young men join gangs in the first place. We know we could build new recreation centres and give target neighbourhoods better resources, but that wouldn’t stop the drug trade, and illegal guns would still be cascading across the border. We know we could toughen immigration rules and deport immigrants convicted of gun-related crimes, but that wouldn’t prevent the crimes from happening in the first place. And so on.
In short, any serious response to the issue of gun violence must avoid focusing on single issues aimed at a political or ideological base. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty was right when he said this week that now is not the time to divide ourselves into polarized camps, one calling for tougher laws and more policemen to enforce them, and the other insisting the answer lies in better social services in at-risk communities.
Neither one alone will solve the problem, and together they may not be enough either, if handguns are readily available and the culture that produces gun-toting gangs and mass killers is unchanged. Still, that does not mean we must throw up our hands. Politicians should meet, experts should be consulted, and communities – and indeed individual families – need to reflect. All have a role. We do not want to live in a world where block parties and movie theatres become shooting galleries.
We Need Tailor Made Solutions To Crime
There is an apparent disconnect between concern over gang violence in Toronto and a new Statistics Canada study showing that Canada’s largest city is also one of the country’s safest.
The report should put to rest the notion that Canada has a serious crime problem. In fact, the police-reported crime rate decreased 6 per cent in 2011 from the previous year, the lowest figure since 1972. The severity of crime index, which tracks the extent of serious crime, is also down, continuing a decade-long trend.
This doesn’t mean there aren’t areas of concern, notably in western cities such as Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg, and in certain neighbourhoods in Toronto. Governments at all levels should focus their efforts on devising tailor-made programs for communities at risk, instead of investing in one-size-fits-all solutions such as tougher laws, more police to enforce them and stiffer prison sentences.
Initiatives that target crime, such as the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy unit, deserve support, and the Ontario government wisely increased funding for the unit following Premier Dalton McGuinty’s meeting this week with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Mr. Ford also met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss the issue – though neither released details of their conversation.
It is not only policing that requires additional support. Programs directed at unemployment and addiction issues should not be dismissed as “hug-a-thug” programs, as Mr. Ford has called them. (He even voted against accepting $350,000 in federal funding for a gang intervention project.)
Dale McFee, president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, has long been an advocate of this balanced approach, arguing that better co-ordination of all social services and early intervention with at-risk youth can make a significant difference.
Mr. McGuinty has also promised $7.5-million for an anti-violence intervention strategy. This measure is welcome, but the Premier should also consider extending the Youth Challenge Fund, which targets 13 priority neighbourhoods in Toronto.
Curbing gun violence won’t be accomplished simply by putting more boots on the street or by punitive crime legislation such as the Harper government’s omnibus crime bill. Even U.S. conservatives are moving away from this tough-on-crime approach.
Since Canada is not facing a crime epidemic, the government’s money, energy and political capital would be better spent on targeted police efforts and on programs that address the specific causes of high crime in certain communities, whether in Scarborough, Regina or Iqaluit.
What India Can Teach Us
Shashi Tharoor makes several critical points about the nature and practice of innovation in the culture and economy of India – the most important being the grassroots nature of Indian ingenuity (India’s Frugal Revolution – July 16).
A profound lesson exists in this for Canadians. We’ve left the role of innovation to the status quo of increasingly expensive research “experts” and their large institutionalized apparatus – all supported by heavy bureaucratic infrastructures that can’t get out of their own way, except when it’s time to ask taxpayers for more money.
On many fronts, Canada has grown too comfortable and set in its ways to innovate. It will take frugal innovations like those happening in India to show the way.
Leo J. Deveau, Regina
Urban Shootings
Following the shootings, everyone’s a critic – the entire spectrum has been covered, from the issue of absentee fathers in the African-Canadian community to tougher sentences for young offenders.
Comments that restrict violence to one race or assume it will only occur in one area are grossly misinformed. Violence can happen anywhere; the “tragedy of the bystander” is becoming a common thread. So how do we address the issue without being divisive or racist?
Following the 2005 “Summer of the Gun,” a co-ordinated effort by communities, police, all three levels of government and NGOs led to a systematic decrease in gun-related violence. Since then, as attention faded, priorities shifted and communities that truly needed assistance were once again ignored. The cycle of violence continued.
We must think and act like a city united if we truly want things to get better. Residents of Toronto’s 13 priority neighbourhoods who are affected by violence must challenge the realities of their circumstances as best they can: If this means an introspective look at families, it must be done. Torontonians who are not well-informed about the issues these communities face should get a sense of their reality before making quantum leaps of judgment. Government must not only highlight the plight of neighbourhoods when high-profile shootings occur, it’s in governments’ best interest to prevent them in the first place.
Let’s once again collaboratively develop sensible solutions. From investing in communities to better policing, to simply listening to those who have something informed to say, we must unite and step out of our comfort zones. The safety of our city depends on it.
Saeed Selvam, former director, Youth Police Relations; served on the Chief’s Advisory Council, following the Jane Creba shooting; executive director, Change12 Inc., Toronto
A Wounded Syrian Regime Is Even More Dangerous
The assassination of Syria’s Defence Minister and several other high-level government officials on Wednesday is a shocking illustration of just how close the country is to becoming a sectarian wasteland. The question is whether the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, faced with an otherwise inevitable bloody end, may yet be induced to negotiate some sort of transition for itself and the country.
The immediate response to the assassinations, which occurred at a high-security facility, strongly suggesting it was an inside job, will be some form of retrenchment. Despite clear signs of crumbling power, the regime still has loyal troops and outguns its opposition. There is no easy escape for regime members; it is late in the game even for defections. The best solution would be a negotiated settlement, and Russia would be seen as the most sympathetic facilitator.
Still, it is a rare dictatorship that is able to see when the jig is up and consent to negotiations to end its rule, even gradually. Little more than a year ago, President al-Assad had that opportunity. Syria’s opposition was by and large peaceful, and its efforts were directed at a loosening of regime rule and gradual economic and democratic reform. On the basis of very little evidence, the President was still seen by many Syrians as being possibly sympathetic to such reforms. Minorities, especially Mr. al-Assad’s own Alawi sect, but also Christians, Druze and Yazidis, all had good reasons to fear what a post-Assad Syria might look like, and many remained loyal.
The regime, however, did then what authoritarian regimes almost always do: It responded to the demands with violence. Now – with signs that the resistance has spread to those on the inside, and evidence that increasingly unsavoury players are involved – comes the regime’s last chance. The end of the Assad regime, welcome as it may be, will be messy, and the dangers for the world real.
Edited By Cen Fox Post Team
