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Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.

 

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

 

“We either live together, or we die together,” was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the “human shield” idea.

 

Among those shields were movie stars Adel Imam and Yousra, popular preacher Amr Khaled, the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak, and thousands of citizens who have said they consider the attack one on Egypt as a whole.

I blame this on overpaid public employee unions.

For a decade or two now, the financial sector has been doing something similar to the rest of the economy, especially but not exclusively, in the U.S. and UK. The increasing rewards to work in finance were for a long time defended as evidence that the financial sector was creating more value than the rest of the economy. After the crisis of 2007 and 2008, though, that became a pretty tough argument to make. It seems more likely that the combination of massive risk-taking in the financial sector and government backstops and bailouts when those bets go bad has created a situation where financial sector pay is kept artificially high.

 

How artificially high? Finance scholars Thomas Philippon and Ariel Resheff have actually tried to calculate how much financial-sector workers are overpaid relative to those with similar skills in other professions. About 40%, they say. That's for the financial sector as a whole, not the fancier precincts of Wall Street. There the percentage would seem to be more along the lines of, say, 2,919% (the gap between Summers' pay at D.E. Shaw and what he made at the White House).

 

With that kind of pay differential, Wall Street inevitably begins to emit a giant sucking sound as it hoovers up smart, self-interested people. This is apparent at top business schools, in physics Ph.D programs — and in Washington, where smart out-of-office (or just burned-out) government officials who want to secure their family's financial future before either retiring or heading back into public service now flock to Wall Street jobs. Larry Summers did. Rahm Emanuel did too. John Snow did. Bill Daley did. Phil Gramm did. Harold Ford Jr. did. Peter Orszag is doing it. Heck, I'd probably do it if I were in their shoes

Tom Delay has been sentenced to 3 years in prison.

http://washingtonindependent.com/104866/io...012-gop-hopeful

 

Fred Karger, an openly gay Republican who has formed an exploratory committee in hopes of seeking his party’s nomination for president in 2012, has already had “conversations” with the Hawkeye State’s more socially conservative party members, but the discourse is heating up again as state activists aim to exclude Karger from upcoming debates.

 

Karger informed reporter Sean J. Miller of The Hill this weekend that he was excluded from a list of 2012 hopefuls invited to a March event hosted by the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition (formerly Iowa Christian Alliance). Karger believes his exclusion is a direct result of homophobia.

 

… Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa group, said Karger wasn’t among the 15 potential candidates invited to attend because he only talks about one issue — gay rights. “We’re inviting all potential candidates who are legitimate candidates,” Scheffler told The Ballot Box. Karger “is not a legitimate candidate.”

 

“That’s code for homophobia,” said Karger, who worked as a consultant on the late Ronald Reagan’s campaigns for governor and president. “I’m going to send him a letter and ask that I be included, and I’m going to look to the [Federal Election Commission] to see what the rules are.” …

 

Also invited to this forum? The former Republican governor of New Mexico, whose primary issue has been the legalization of marijuana.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/10/g...l_n_807011.html

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/10/g...l_n_807011.html

 

Reaching.

 

It seriously isn't hard to poke fun at Beck, but knowing how to fire a gun and being trained on weapon safety and contributing to violence via guns are two WAY different things. I've fired guns for years. I was even trained to pass the Chicago police firing exam. Yet, I've never killed anything with a gun, ever, and I don't condone violence, either.

 

Roll of the eyes on this one.

Edited January 11, 201115 yr by Y2HH

What is Beck doing in that photo? Is he trying to be Jack Ryan.

Birds Dying Because of DADT Repeal

 

 

Edited January 11, 201115 yr by BigSqwert

Tea Party Express fundraising off the Arizona shooting.

 

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01...be-silenced.php

 

We have nothing to do with this awful, tragic event in Arizona. Our prayers are with Congresswoman Giffords and the victims and families of this massacre.

 

But we will still fight just as passionately for this country we love, and the vision of our Founding Fathers as outlined by the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

 

We're taking our country back through the ballot box and in the public square - through peaceful means. And we will prevail, because our ideas and ideals are stronger than the scare/smear/defame tactics of the leftists we face.

 

We ask you to please stand with the Tea Party Express and show your support for our efforts.

 

You can make a contribution online right now to the Tea Party Express - CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE.

I think this might explain a little about Rush Limbaugh....

 

No love for outsiders – oxytocin boosts favouritism towards our own ethnic or cultural group

Link

Rep. Joe Wilson's (R-S.C.) health care-era "you lie" interruption of President Obama is now reportedly being commemorated with a place on a new, limited edition line of assault rifle components.

 

The Columbia Free Times reports that the words are being engraved on a series of lower receivers manufactured for popular AR-15 assault rifles. Lower receivers are one of the primary pieces of the firearms.

 

"Palmetto State Armory would like to honor our esteemed congressman Joe Wilson with the release of our new 'You Lie' AR-15 lower receiver," the weapon manufacturer's site writes in the product description. "Only 999 of these will be produced, get yours before they are gone!"

Brilliant timing.

Brilliant timing.

Apparently after the SC paper announced the thing publicly yesterday, the company marketing them pulled down the website after the press surge.

 

Wikileaks has probably set back openness and democracy in Zimbabwe.

 

Wikileaks probably hasn't done that.

Tea Party Express fundraising off the Arizona shooting.

 

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01...be-silenced.php

 

 

Funny how this was missed:

 

http://www.weeklystandard.com/sites/all/fi...docs/Bernie.pdf

Funny how this was missed:

 

http://www.weeklystandard.com/sites/all/fi...docs/Bernie.pdf

 

And the posts about the Dem Rep who called for shooting the governor of FL...

Funny how this was missed:

 

http://www.weeklystandard.com/sites/all/fi...docs/Bernie.pdf

 

I get this and he puts that at the begining of every letter.

And the posts about the Dem Rep who called for shooting the governor of FL...

He's a douche for saying that and should apologize.

And the posts about the Dem Rep who called for shooting the governor of FL...

 

talkingpointsmemo actually covered that.

Funny how this was missed:

 

http://www.weeklystandard.com/sites/all/fi...docs/Bernie.pdf

Hm. Usually I like me some Bernie, but this was a stupid set of things to put in the same letter.

 

Hm. Usually I like me some Bernie, but this was a stupid set of things to put in the same letter.

Agreed.

And the posts about the Dem Rep who called for shooting the governor of FL...

 

It wasn't missed. Someone else posted it actually in another thread.

Wikileaks probably hasn't done that.

 

Thanks for sharing that, that was a really interesting read.

"Clear Channel Outdoor management in Tucson quickly elected to take down this ad - believing that discussion of its interpretation would not contribute to the desire for healing in the Tucson community."

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Fascinating read by Robert F Kennedy.