The Poverty of Nations

There is plenty of wealth to go around in the world, but it’s tied up in too few hands for democratic capitalism to operate efficiently for society at large. Thus, in order to maintain civil order, totalitarianism increasingly becomes a byproduct of this conundrum.

According to Forbes 2011 survey of billionaires, they hit all-time new records for total wealth and numbers (the total count of billionaires is 1,210), thanks to reverse Robin Hood taxation policies that impoverish government coffers, i.e., Federal Tax Receipts, whilst transferring those dollars, via a doctored tax code, into the pockets of tens of thousands of millionaires and billionaires. The total count of what Forbes refers to as High Net Worth Individuals is 871,000 people worldwide worth over $30 million each, implying total wealth of $26-to>$50 trillion; $26 trillion is nearly twice the size of the U.S. economy.

Wealth creation has increasingly become the key measurement of capitalism’s efficacy ever since Adam Smith’s magnum opus An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) aka: The Wealth of Nations, wherein he expounds upon how rational self-interest and competition lead to economic prosperity for society at large, American industry and government have been guided by these free-market principles. For over 200 years, with bumps & lumps along the way, prosperity reigned, and Adam Smith would be smiling. But, for reasons he describes within his own treatise, Adam Smith would be frowning today because of the sorry state of capitalistic nation-states.

Again and again, Smith warned the general public that a true laissez-faire economy could become a conspiracy of business and industry scheming to influence politics and legislation against the best interests of the consuming public.
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Mississippi Agrees to Stop Handcuffing Students to Poles

(JACKSON, Miss.) — Students will no longer be handcuffed to poles in a Jackson, Mississippi public school.

The Capital City Alternative School, Mississippi’s second largest school district, reached the agreement with the Southern Poverty Law Center in U-S District Court on Friday. They agreed to immediately stop the practice of handcuffing their students to poles and other objects, and must immediately place new methods of discipline in dealing with non-criminal behaviors.

According to the settlement, no student under the age of 13 can be handcuffed. Students over the age of 13 may be handcuffed only for crimes, but must not be handcuffed to stationary objects.

Jody Owens, director of the Mississippi office of the Southern Poverty Law Center, says the way the school dealt with discipline in the school was tantamount to child abuse, “We have some students who have gone on record to say it’s happened to them three or four days in a row. We know there are some students who actually had to eat their lunch with one hand handcuffed to a railing.”
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Gotta love Tyra Banks

TYT: Racist Tweets From New Orleans School Psychologist

Afghan women leave the country in fear of Taliban return

According to Selay Ghaffar, right, director of NGO Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan, young females see no future for themselves in their own country. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

A brain drain of bright young women is already taking place in Afghanistan before the 2014 handover that many fear will mean a reversal of advances in women's rights.

The lack of commitment by the Afghan government to equality and to tackling the high rates of ill-treatment of women in the home and in the workplace is raising real fears they will be at the bottom of the political agenda in the push for power after Nato forces leave the country.

Worsening security for civilians – casualties among ordinary Afghans have risen year on year for the last five years with 3,021 killed in 2011, and women are thought to be suffering disproportionately – has led to rising numbers of women and girls leaving education and the workforce and staying indoors, according to Guhramaana Kakar, a gender adviser to President Hamid Karzai.

Speaking to the Observer, Kakar said negotiations between the government and the Taliban and other insurgent groups were ignoring women's rights. A recent survey by charity ActionAid suggested 86% of Afghan women were fearful of a return to Taliban-style rule. One in five worried about the education of their daughters but 72% said their lives were better now than a decade ago.
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Sam Seder wrecks Fox re: Food Stamps

Fox & Friends: The Poor Don't Want to Work 'Cause They Think Food Stamps are Cool!

"Who's Killing Philly Public Schools?": Daniel Denvir on 60+ School Closings, Privatization

I hate banks

How long will Herman Cain talk at the RNC convention?

a) 10 minutes
b) 20 minutes
c) 30 minutes
d) 1 hours
e) who is herman cain?
f) 9 - 9 - 9


Couldn't do a real poll but don't have a star yet.

I think he'll talk at least 45 minutes.

He's about 20 years behind the times.

It's no longer enough to pretend to like blacks.

If Romney wants to woo white women he'll have to pretend to like gays.

Time to shake up the etch-a-sketch.