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Too much inequality and too few natural resources could leave the West vulnerable to a Roman Empire-style fall Navigate to the Previous Story in this Section TECHHere's How NASA Thinks Society Will CollapseToo much inequality and too few natural resources could leave the West vulnerable to a Roman Empire-style fall. Few think Western civilization is on the brink of collapse—but it's also doubtful the Romans and Mesopotamians saw their own demise coming either. If we're to avoid their fate, we'll need policies to reduce economic inequality and preserve natural resources, according to a NASA-funded study that looked at the collapses...

You have to hand it to the “blame America first” crowd. When the Borscht hits the fan, they’re shameless and fanatical enough to keep blaming America — and, of course, President Bush (in this case, George H. W. Bush). The latest hatred comes from crackpot director Oliver Stone, who has added his love for Russian President Vladimir V. Putin to his previous admiration for Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez:

(CNN) -- I can't help but feel humbled and grateful when I hear the stories of women who marched for women's rights in the 1970s and the suffragists who fought for the right to vote. What they accomplished deserves more than a nod and lip service. We must honor them by making our generation's mark on the concerns facing women today. Unfortunately, that still includes goals we've fought too long for, like reproductive rights. Today is International Women's Day and March is Women's History Month. As we celebrate all that women have accomplished in the struggle for gender equality, we...

Oliver Stone's recent visit to Venezuela to premiere his Castro/Chavez infomercial "My Friend Hugo" has brought him under fire in social media. Exasperated beyond endurance by the onslaught Stone recently lashed back with (apparently) the most hateful insult his inflamed mind could conjure. You people are: "Similar to the right-wing Florida Cuban exiles who’ve helped keep the US in a dungeon of ignorance!" he raved. For leftists its “right-wing lunatics spreading a dungeon if ignorance!” For normal folks it’s: “people who have actually experienced communism trying to circumvent communist propaganda as disseminated by a media-Hollywood axis—and one not always completely...

Is Yahoo celebrating lesbians today? The O's in Yahoo (top left of the page) morph into female symbols every so often.

Bad news for burrito lovers: Chipotle warned in its latest annual report that climate change might lead it to leave guacamole out of its burritos and bowls. The chain blames the possible change on higher prices. “In the event of cost increases with respect to one or more of our raw ingredients we may choose to temporarily suspend serving menu items, such as guacamole or one or more of our salsas, rather than paying the increased cost for the ingredients.” The company acknowledged such a move would be a massive disappointment to some of its customers. But, as ThinkProgress points...

Despite 100 years of historical evidence that communism leads to food shortages, genocide, and police states, the Oklahoma Communist Party, in a recently publicized ad, has promised the exact opposite... No where in the ad are mentions of the atrocities that took place in the Soviet Union or China in the 20th Century, nor the human rights violations that still take place in North Korea and Cuba to this day. Instead, all the readers see are smiling faces, just so happy that communism has finally taken over the US... And, for whatever reason, the picture saying that racism will end...

Sean Penn is an idiot. But you knew that. There are more idiots in Hollywood. But you knew that too. Here is a who's who of Hollywood idiots who were supporters of Hugo Chavez. Oliver Stone, Danny Glover, Kevin Spacey, Harry Belafonte and Don King. Belafonte has claimed that millions of Americans support Chavez. Of Chavez government King once said "To see what is happening here makes me feel good all over." If only someone would shove a microphone up his in his face and in the faces of all these idiots and see what they have to say about...

Is communism making a comeback? On its face, the question seems more than a little absurd. The Berlin Wall came down over 24 years ago. We are more than 22 years removed from the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. All that remains are the Stalinist museum pieces of North Korea and Cuba, the former an isolated country known mainly for its absurd dictator and starving population, the latter a beautiful island stuck in a 1950s time warp due to backwards economic and social policies. Even China, the one major power still ruled by...

Patients who have had a ‘fair innings’ could be denied life-saving drugs under proposed health reforms. The plans would mean experts taking into account whether there is a ‘wider societal benefit’ to giving a patient crucial medicines. The NHS rationing body, Nice, fears the Department of Health proposals could see younger people deemed a higher priority for drug treatments because they have more years ahead of them – potentially contributing more to the economy – than the elderly. Doctors, MPs and campaigners last night condemned the plans as ‘barking mad’. The move will also fuel fears that the elderly are...

Lately I see a lot of Marxist propaganda in our country, particularly in the MSM and in education. I know all the slogans because I lived the lies of the communist propaganda for 20 years. I will start with equal pay, social justice, and equality across the board by government fiat. The commie social justice was equality of misery, hunger, poor, cold, and cramped living conditions, scarcity of food, basic needs, electricity, water, and everything else spoiled brats in America take for granted that is produced by a free market model. The Sochi hotel accommodations are a case in point....

WASHINGTON — Twitter photos and videos appear to be blocked in Venezuela as the government there attempts to reassert control amid widespread public protests. Three people were reportedly killed this week in massive student demonstrations in the capital Caracas, as protesters react to falling living standards. President Nicolas Maduro has called the protests a “neo-fascist” coup attempt, and sought the arrest of an opposition leader. The Venezuelan government has not commented on, or claimed credit for, the apparent Twitter block.

I first heard Pete Seeger perform when I was five or six, when I was a red-diaper baby and he was blacklisted and drunk. What I recall most about the encounter was that the tip of his needle-nose glowed bright red. He was performing for a children’s group of some sort at a time when his Communist background kept him out of public venues. His records — not just the Weavers albums, but the early Asch 78′s of the Almanac Singers — were daily fare in my home, along with Woody Guthrie’s children’s songs. My parents knew Guthrie casually; my...

January 24, 2014 Obama Spending $2.7 Mil to Broadcast Communist Propaganda to Vietnam Daniel Greenfield You would think that once we were out of Vietnam, we could stop spending money on Vietnam. You would also think that the Department of Health and Human Services would have better places to spend millions of dollars especially considering the shape Medicare is in. The Department of Health and Human Services is spending $2,797,979 on a study that brings television to more than a dozen remote villages in Vietnam to study its impact on their culture and reproductive behavior.“In cooperation with the Vietnam government,...

Marxist leftists have prepared a nightmarish blueprint for American socialism in a new revolutionary "book of imagination." The new book, "Imagine Living in a Socialist USA," was edited by Frances Goldin who praises "life-enhancing socialism" in the preface. The 281 page manifesto showcasea 31 utopian essays written by dangerous criminals, prominent liberals, and self-described communists - all for just $10.11.

Twenty one days into his administration New York City Mayor, Bill De Blasio, is already making Mike Bloomberg look good. And, let’s face it, when someone makes Bloomy look like a model of fairness and honesty, things are clearly pretty bad. In fact, this occurred so quickly after De Blasio’s inauguration, I’m beginning to think Bloomberg might have mastered a win for De Blasio in a last-ditch effort to procure a positive legacy for himself after he left office. While Chris Christie faces criticism for his office closing a few lanes on the George Washington Bridge, the New York City...

First Lady Michelle Obama says Jane Fonda is one of her role models, and that she admires her political savviness. During an interview with People Magazine, Obama listed "Hanoi Jane," as one of the people she would like to look and live like when she's 70 or 80 years old. "There’s Jane Fonda, a beautiful, engaged, politically savvy, sharp woman," Obama said. The comment is likely to enrage Vietnam War veterans who still remember how Fonda, now 76, went to North Vietnam in 1972 and was photographed sitting on an anti-aircraft battery. Fonda denounced U.S. military leaders as "war criminals"...

National Review published a rather overheated piece the other day that contained an entertaining line: “Russia has become the Soviet Union with a better suit”. The idea that Russia is fundamentally the same as the Soviet Union is a popular one, particularly on the political right where “Soviet” has for decades served as a synonym for “bad.” Barely a day goes by without someone bemoaning Putin’s “Soviet” character or the “neo-Soviet” policies that Russia pursues in its part of the world. However this idea is deeply mistaken and extremely misleading, and can only be held by deliberately ignoring a huge...

Kerry: 'Root Cause of Terrorism' Is Poverty 'In many cases...' Jeryl Bier January 15, 2014 7:12 AM Secretary of State John Kerry covered a broad range of topics with his counterpart Pietro Parolin at the Vatican in Rome on Monday. Besides Syria, the Middle East peace process, Sudan, and Cuba, the subject of poverty came up during their discussions. In remarks following the meeting, Kerry linked poverty not only to terrorism, but to the "disenfranchisement of millions" [emphasis added]: We talked about the common interest of Pope Francis and President Obama in addressing poverty and extreme poverty on a global...

For a long time, the communist left has used the word "progressive" to cloak its agenda. This phenomenon is hardly new. It has gone on since at least the 1930s, not long after the American Communist Party was founded in Chicago.I know this well, having written at length on the subject. You might have thought this strategy died with the USSR, when we won the Cold War and once >defeated communism. Unfortunately, thanks to the left's takeover of education and media, it continues unabated, and is moving full steam ahead in Barack Obama's fundamentally transformed America, where the far left...