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[...] [W]hy do academics spend time and money investigating what seems like blindingly obvious common sense? [...] This year’s classics — Students who watch hundreds of television adverts for junk food are more likely to eat snacks of unhealthy food and put on weight, according to the University of Alberta’s centre for health promotion studies — Call centre staff who try to be your friend by using your name – dubbed synthetic personalisation – are irritating, concluded Oxford University researchers — Parents whose children will not eat vegetables can succeed in disguising them in other dishes by mushing them up,...

BOSTON - Gay and bisexual men in Massachusetts continue to be the hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic with a significant percentage of new cases appearing among minority men. That’s according to a new report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health that found while the state has had success battling the disease among injection drug users and heterosexual men and women, it has had less success among gay and bisexual men. More than half of HIV infections between 2004 and 2006 were among gay and bisexual men even though they make up less than 10 percent of the population.

[Full Title: Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Will Increase Prevalence of Homosexuality: Research Provides Significant Evidence] An accumulation of research from around the world finds that societies which endorse homosexual behavior increase the prevalence of homosexuality in those societies. The legalization of same-sex marriage--which is being considered by voters in several U.S. states--is the ultimate in societal endorsement and will result in more individuals living a homosexual lifestyle. Extensive research from Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and the United States reveals that homosexuality is primarily environmentally induced. Specifically, social and/or family factors, as well as permissive environments which affirm homosexuality, play major environmental roles...

Remember during the campaign how this whole economic mess, according to the Obama camp, was the fault of the Bush administration and the past 8 years? They had all those excellent slogans… we can’t afford four more years of the same… remember? I don’t want to say that a lot of people bought that crap, but anytime you tried to talk about actual economic history and how this mess evolved, most people glazed over and muttered “past 8 years… more of same… must change.” Well, just this Sunday while enjoying a piping hot cup of joe and a danish, I...

Posted by Wayne Allyn Root at Root For America We’re handing our country over to a man with no experience. No experience as a businessman, or as a government official. All because we dislike George W. Bush. America wanted ABB (Anything But Bush). Well congratulations! We’ve now elected a man to govern America whose entire experience ‘governing’ is having served less than 4 years in the US Senate. During which time he never put his name on one bill of any significance. He never even held a meeting for the committee that he chaired! He arrived in Washington as a...

(excerpt) "At Khalidi's 2003 farewell party, for example, a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, "then you will never see a day of peace." One speaker likened "Zionist settlers on the West Bank" to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been "blinded by ideology." (excerpt) "Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian rights activist in Chicago who helps run Electronic Intifada, said that he met Obama several times at Palestinian and Arab American community events. At...

Rep. says 'Liberals hate real Americans' By: Ryan Grim October 21, 2008 02:26 PM EST Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.), has conceded that he did tell a North Carolina crowd that "liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God," even though he initially denied making such a statement. Now he says he didn’t mean it that way, and he was just trying to rev up a campaign rally. “I genuinely did not recall making the statement and, after reading it, there is no doubt that it came out completely the wrong way. I actually was...

Warming up a crowd in North Carolina Saturday, Republican Rep. Robin Hayes offered the diagnosis that “liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.” His remarks came shortly after he had said he would “make sure we don’t say something stupid, make sure we don’t say something we don’t mean.” Hayes had followed Rep. Patrick McHenry, also a North Carolina Republican, who laid out the choice between McCain and Obama. “It’s like black and white,” yelled someone from the crowd. HT: ThinkProgress Update: Hayes spokeswoman, Amanda Little, says that Hayes absolutely denies making the comments that...

Believing in God makes people nicer, a major study has concluded. After analysing three decades of research, scientists say religion encourages individuals to be more helpful, honest and generous. But believers acting for the greater good may be doing so to enhance their own reputation among friends and acquaintances, according to the review published today in the journal Science. Dr Ara Norenzayan, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia, Canada, said the debate over whether religion improves behaviour has too often been driven by opinion and anecdote. 'We wanted to look at the hard scientific evidence,' he said. Published...

The following are the reasons why tonight I fear for my country: Normally reliable GOP states like Virginia and North Carolina appear at risk in the polls Young voters are being strongly courted and are flocking to the Democratic candidate [...with the] presidential elections just weeks away, there are unprecedented efforts to turn out young voters and indications that they are paying closer attention to the campaigns than they have in years. ...at least 2.6 million new voters between the ages of 18 and 29 have been registered – the vast majority via the internet. The New Voters Project has...

Recently the Obama campaign and its surrogates have been putting forth the preposterous proposition that Jesus Christ was a "community organizer", and that Pontius Pilate was a "governor". The obvious connection they want us to make is that Barack Obama is like Jesus Christ, and Sarah Palin is like Pontius Pilate. I guess one could possibly draw those conclusions if they knew nothing about Jesus Christ or community organizing. However, when one examines the facts, one could very well come up with the exact opposite conclusion. First let us begin with a working definition of "community organizer" and see if...

Sorry sight last night, post-Palin speech, seeing the Fourth Estaters pooh-pooh Republican charges that the media are pro-Obama. But perception is reality in politics, and according to a new SurveyUSA poll, this limited to Washington State registered voters, folks believe the press is pressing for the Democrat candidate. When asked "Is the media rooting for Barack Obama? Rooting for John McCain? Or trying its best to be fair to both?" 52% said "for Obama," 8% said "for McCain," 35% said "being fair to both." Interesting: 28% of Democrats, 28% of liberals, and 42% of moderates chose "for Obama." It would...

Cannot post due to copyright issues: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/07/is-the-media-trying-to-elect-obama.html

The list of people Sen. Barack Obama probably wishes were passive, rather than active, supporters of his bid for the presidency is growing. Already on the list are the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the Rev. Michael Pfleger. Obama may be ready to add retired Gen. Wesley Clark. Clark, not a stranger to foot-in-mouth disease, on Sunday took a shot at Sen. John McCain's fitness to be president. Stressing that he views McCain as a hero, Clark said of the Republican candidate for president, "Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification for...

BUSH'S AMERICA: 100 PERCENT AL-QAIDA FREE SINCE 2001June 11, 2008 In a conversation recently, I mentioned as an aside what a great president George Bush has been and my friend was surprised. I was surprised that he was surprised. I generally don't write columns about the manifestly obvious, but, yes, the man responsible for keeping Americans safe from another terrorist attack on American soil for nearly seven years now will go down in history as one of America's greatest presidents. Produce one person who believed, on Sept. 12, 2001, that there would not be another attack for seven years, and...

Say it ain't so. Barack Obama has worked hard over the last 18 months to convince Americans that he is the untraditional politician – immune to special interests, loyal to his faith, close to the people, guided by principle. SNIP And now Obama goes and does something foolish that shows he is a traditional politician after all and may suggest that his religious convictions are not all that firm: He quits Trinity SNIP Not because he is uncomfortable sitting in the pews all those years but because other people were uncomfortable that he sat in the pews all those years....

Some things just don't need a lot of introductory material. This is the case with the VIDEO below. Andrew McCarthy is the author of "Willful Blindness: Memoir of the Jihad." He was the federal prosecutor responsible for leading the investigation of Blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and others involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Lou Dobbs had a talk with Mr. McCarthy about Bill Ayers and his relationship with Obama. McCarthy: "Yeah, well he's denying the relationship, but I think more importantly what he's trying to obfuscate is that there's a trajectory to all of this and there's...

From the Phillies 2008 campaign: Libertarian Presidential candidate George Phillies today condemned claims that the Libertarian Party is a right-wing conservative Party. "Libertarians are not conservatives," Phillies said. "It is an act of fraud, a violation of our party's statement of principles, to lure conservatives to join by lying to them. Claiming our party is 'true conservative' is dishonest, and will wreck our party. "Yes," Phillies continued, "there are issues where we agree with conservatives. There are also issues where we agree with progressive liberals. For voters: If you agree with us on issues you care about, please vote for...

A new study out of the University of Texas argues that beautiful women want it all when it comes to picking a mate. In fact, the more beautiful a woman is, the higher her standards. But, perhaps surprisingly, the study did not find that to be the case when it comes to men. It takes more than being a hunk for a man to want everything. He must also have status and the potential to be a good provider before he is likely to demand the best. On the surface it sounds like just another study showing that men are...

Turnabout is fair play, as Barack Obama and his campaign found out today. Ten days after demanding the resignation of Geraldine Ferraro for her “divisive” comments on race, Ferraro launched another broadside at the Obama campaign. Calling Wright a “racist bigot,” she criticized Obama for his own failure to address divisiveness: Former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro said today that she objected to the comparison Sen. Barack Obama drew between her and his former pastor in his speech on race relations Tuesday.In the speech, Obama sought to place the inflammatory remarks of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a broader context,...

DENVER -- A Colorado Springs lawmaker referred Wednesday to unmarried, pregnant teenagers and the fathers as "sluts" who should be made to feel ashamed for their lack of morals. Rep. Larry Liston’s remarks were made during a discussion with health care professionals at a Republican legislative caucus lunch about Colorado’s high teen pregnancy rate. "In my parents' day and age, (unmarried teen parents) were sent away, they were shunned, they were called what they are," Colorado Springs Republican Rep. Larry Liston said during the meeting in Denver. "There was at least a sense of shame." "I think it’s wrong. They’re...

Shoes off at airport security checkpoints. Forms that are hard to understand. Complaints that go unheeded. Perhaps it's no surprise that a new survey shows Americans are less satisfied with government services than those provided by the private sector. The survey, scheduled for release today, measures an array of federal programs and services for the American Customer Satisfaction Index, produced by the University of Michigan and other groups. The government scored 67.8 on the index's 100-point scale. The score was lower than the overall score for all industries and economic sectors, by 7.4 points, and below the index's rating for...

The three main minorities in the United States -- blacks, Hispanics and Asians -- have little trust for each other and hold prejudiced views about Americans of different ethnic origins to their own, a poll showed Wednesday. "This extraordinary poll reveals some unflattering realities that exist in America today," said Sandy Close, head of new America Media (NAM) which sponsored the poll together with ethnic media groups. Forty-four percent of Hispanics and 47 percent of Asians are "afraid of African-Americans because they are responsible for most of the crime," the survey of 1,105 adults drawn from the three ethnic groups...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - People who experience the anxiety, racing heartbeat and rapid breathing of a panic attack have a higher risk of a heart attack or stroke, researchers said on Monday. "Our study adds panic attacks to the list of emotional states and psychiatric symptoms that have been linked to excess risk of cardiovascular disease and death," wrote study author Dr. Jordan Smoller of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Previous research found people with persistent feelings of depression, anger and hostility are at higher risk of heart attack, according to the study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The...

Rock stars -- notorious for their "crash and burn" lifestyles -- really are more likely than other people to die before reaching old age. A study of more than 1,000 mainly British and North American artists, spanning the era from Elvis Presley to rapper Eminem, found they were two to three times more likely to suffer a premature death than the general population. Between 1956 and 2005 there were 100 deaths among the 1,064 musicians examined by researchers at the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University. As well as Presley, the toll of those dying before their...

Science is confirming what most women know: When given the choice for a mate, men go for good looks. And guys won't be surprised to learn that women are much choosier about partners than they are. "Just because people say they're looking for a particular set of characteristics in a mate, someone like themselves, doesn't mean that is what they'll end up choosing," Peter M. Todd, of the cognitive science program at Indiana University, Bloomington, said in a telephone interview. Researchers led by Todd report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that their study found...

MONTHS ago, I observed on my blog that I think John Edwards is a phony — a make-believe Man of The People. It’s not so much that he’s lying when he says he wants to help One America — the Deserving Poor, whom he wants to vote for him — get what it has coming to it from the Other America (that of the Really Rich, to which he disarmingly admits he belongs). I think he believes it. But I don’t, and here’s why: Strike One: Sept. 16, 2003. The candidate was supposed to appear on a makeshift stage on...

Cannabis users are 40% more likely than non-users to suffer a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia, say UK experts. Writing in the Lancet, a team led by Dr Stanley Zammit from Bristol and Cardiff Universities said young people needed to be made aware of the dangers. In an additional article, experts said up to 800 schizophrenia cases a year in the UK could be linked to cannabis use.

A single joint of cannabis raises the risk of schizophrenia by more than 40 per cent, a disturbing study warns. The Government-commissioned report has also found that taking the drug regularly more than doubles the risk of serious mental illness. Overall, cannabis could be to blame for one in seven cases of schizophrenia and other life-shattering mental illness, the Lancet reports. The grim statistics - the latest to link teenage cannabis use with mental illness in later life - come only days after Gordon Brown ordered a review of the decision to downgrade cannabis to class C, the least serious...

NORTH COUNTY -- A new study shows that day laborers on street corners and in hiring halls make up less than 1 percent of the work force, and that most are in the country illegally. As local anti-illegal immigration activists intensify their protests over day labor sites, a new statewide study suggests that public attention on this matter is out of proportion to the number of day laborers in California. The number of people who stand on street corners looking for work make up 0.02 percent of the state's total work force, according to the study by the Public Policy...

HOUSTON – Thousands of Mexican children are flocking across the U.S. border to attend school, sparking a debate in towns along the border over whether U.S. taxpayers should have to bear the costs of educating them. The border crossing is so common in El Paso that officials opened a special lane just for students this month. Continued at source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/042907dntswmexischools.1778bde.html

Eight Democratic presidential hopefuls slammed President George W. Bush's policy in Iraq during a debate Thursday, and jockeyed for position on who can best end the unpopular war. In their first televised debate more than 18 months before the November 4, 2008 election, the Democrats were strongly critical of Bush's handling of the war, including the administration's decision to continue funneling thousands of US troops and billions of dollars into the effort. Democrats, who were unanimous in condemning the White House approach, said at a university here it was time to begin to shift the burden of ending the war...

Link Only. Read only if you have to.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani's support for abortion will hamper his chances to win the GOP nomination in this early voting state, conservatives and political experts said as the White House hopeful prepared to spend Thursday in South Carolina. The former New York mayor this week reaffirmed his personal opposition to abortion but said he supported public funding for some of the procedures. His comments to CNN on Wednesday came as South Carolina lawmakers continued debating whether to require women seeking abortions first view ultrasound images of their fetus. "He's toast," said Clemson University political scientist Dave...

Cheney says House doesn't support troops By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer 35 minutes ago Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday accused the Democrat-led House of not supporting troops in Iraq and of sending a message to terrorists that America will retreat in the face danger. "They're not supporting the troops. They're undermining them," Cheney told a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition at the oceanside Ritz-Carlton hotel in Manalapan, Fla., about 60 miles north of Miami. On Friday, the House voted to clamp a cutoff deadline on the Iraq war, agreeing by a thin margin to pull combat troops...

More Swedish News (short translated article) The same gene that in certain circumstances increases the risk of alcoholism and anti-social behavior in boys protects girls from the same dangers and vice versa. This surprising discovery has been reported by a group of Swedish researchers. Their study of a population of 16-19 year olds, gives new hope for treatment of depression and alcoholism. Lars Oreland, a member of the discovery team told a Swedish newspaper; “I dare say that we are on the verge of a revolution.”

Top gay-friendly city: San Francisco Mon Dec 11, 1:50 PM ET WASHINGTON - San Francisco was named the top "gay-friendly" destination in a new survey of gay travelers conducted by the Travel Industry Association. Following San Francisco on the list's top 10 were Key West, Fla.; New York City; Fire Island, which is part of Long Island in New York; Provincetown, Mass.; Los Angeles; Miami-South Beach, Fla.; Las Vegas; New Orleans, and Palm Springs-Palm Desert, Calif. The national survey was conducted by the Travel Industry Association in partnership with Harris Interactive and Witeck-Combs Communications. Nearly half of gay and lesbian...

No opinion pieces having particularly incited my ire at my normal haunts of the NY Times, LA Times or Boston Globe this morning, I ventured over to the Huffington Post, and found this beauty by Cliff Schecter, "Are You Psychotic? Because Empirically That Makes You Susceptible To Being A Republican."It in turn touted a study by a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University purporting to find that there exists "a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush."And how does the study's author explain the results? “If your world is very mixed up, there’s something...

Sen. Joe Lieberman, who won re-election as an independent, has a message for his Senate colleagues in the next Congress: Call me a Democrat. The three-term Connecticut lawmaker defied party leaders when he launched his independent bid after losing to Democrat Ned Lamont in the August primary. During the campaign, he vowed to be an "independent-minded Democrat" if he were re-elected. In Tuesday's election, Lieberman won strong GOP support and given the closely divided Senate, Republicans are expected to court him. So will he count as a Democrat or an independent who caucuses with the majority Democrats? In an e-mail...

<p>Muslims not trying to fit with society, says Amis MUSLIMS are not doing enough to engage with Britain’s otherwise thriving multicultural society, Martin Amis has said... . “It looks like a multicultural society that’s working apart from a few miserable bastards.”</p> <p>Amis condemns Muslim extremists as 'miserable bastards'</p>

State Sen. Tom McClintock wants to win an office that he once proposed eliminating. McClintock, a Thousand Oaks Republican who has long been a stalwart of fiscal conservatism, told the Bee Capitol Bureau Friday morning that he is running for lieutenant governor as a platform to drive public policy. It would also be a platform, McClintock conceded, for running for governor in 2010. "No one has any business running for lieutenant governor without the intention of becoming governor...," he said. "It's disingenuous for anyone running for this office to say, 'Well, I don't intend to be governor. I just want...

Womenn: Money more important than looks in a man By Jennifer Hill Thu Aug 31, 9:44 PM ET LONDON (Reuters) - Women regard healthy finances as more important than good looks in a man, according to a survey on Friday. Almost half (45 percent) said a healthy bank balance is more significant than physical attractiveness in a potential partner, according to National Savings & Investments' (NS&I) latest quarterly savings survey. Just 22 percent of men, however, rate finances above looks in women. A salary of almost 50,000 pounds a year is demonstrative of male financial success, according to women. Men...

Just heard about this case on FOX... Very interesting case to discuss. In essence Mohawk Industries, a carpet manufacturer is being sued under RICO as a result of thier efforts to hire illegals. for more background visit http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/2006/04/todays_argument_9.html

CHICAGO, Aug 23 (Reuters) - The automotive sector in Michigan needs to stabilize before the state can shake off the economic doldrums that have dogged it in recent years, an economist said on Wednesday. Dana Johnson, chief economist at Comerica Bank, said buyouts and layoffs that are part of major restructurings at big automotive companies such as General Motors (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Ford Motor Co. (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Delphi Corp. DPHIQ.PK> have created a sense of gloom in the state.

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union embarked on the most massive military buildups in history. Part of President Reagan's strategy for winning was to entice the Soviets into a competition it could never even hope to win. A communist economy by its very nature is ill-equipped to compete with a free-market, capitalist system whether it's foreign trade or weapons technology. And so, slowly the Soviet economy became a basket case due to the communists desire to exceed America in an enormously expensive arms race. After the Cold War, with the Soviet threat gone and with...

http://www.google.com 1- Go to www.Google.com 2- Type in the word Failure 3- Look at it the first listing 4- Tell other people before the people at Google Fix it

“As Rome passed away, so, the West is passing away, from the same causes and in much the same way. What the Danube and Rhine were to Rome, the Rio Grande and Mediterranean are to America and Europe, the frontiers of a civilization no longer defended.” So begins a new work of warning from Pat Buchanan. And this time Buchanan goes all the way. STATE OF EMERGENCY: THIRD WORLD INVASION AND CONQUEST OF AMERICA hit the streets this week and it's designed to jolt readers with stats and analysis of illegal immigration gone dangerously wild. Buchanan warns: “The children born...

*** And you thought you just weren't doing it right *** A swift one off the wrist - easy, convenient, refreshing - but just not the same as the real thing, perhaps. Reporting in the journal Biological Psychology, researchers have now found a basis in physiology for the niggling dissatisfaction. Levels of the hormone prolactin are lower after masturbation than intercourse. Prolactin makes us feel satisfied by counteracting the arousal messenger dopamine. The levels of prolactin in the blood of subjects who committed an act of self-pollution after watching grumble flicks were just one fifth of those who had had...

For once, "Wonkette" backs into the truth... I'm so proud of the professional journalism at TIME. Can't wait for Larry Flynt to become Style Guide Editor. "Ana Marie Cox, the Washington editor of Time.com, said Americans have come to distrust the mainstream media. "They're more likely to believe something that comes straight from the horse's mouth," Cox said."

President Bush ran for office as a "compassionate conservative." And he continues to nurture his conservative base — even issuing his first veto this week against embryonic stem cell research. But lately his foreign policy has come under fire from some conservatives — including the father of modern conservatism. CBS Evening News Saturday anchor Thalia Assuras sat down for an exclusive interview with William F. Buckley about his disagreements with President Bush. William F. Buckley's Stamford, Conn., home is a tranquil place that allows Buckley to think and write, and spend time with his canine companion, Sebastian. "He's practically always...