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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: State-Controlled Media can only talk about how great is the unemployment rate. "Lower than expected." Let's go to the audiotape. VARNEY: The unemployment rate falling to 9.7%. That is an improvement from the previous month. It's better than expected. TODD: The unemployment rate surprisingly dropped below 10% to 9.7%. That's the good news. LEE: ...falling to 9.7%, and that's an improvement from last month and better than expected. JOHNSON: That headline number is absolutely huge. You can't underestimate that. ELAM: We haven't seen unemployment that low since last summer. RUSH: Yeah, except the problem is it's not...

IN "The Audacity of Hope," Barack Obama described himself as "a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views." This is a powerful tool in elections and explains why liberals, moderates, Democrats, Independents and Republicans joined together to give him 53 percent of the vote last November. Since his election, this "blank screen" has been an asset, allowing the new president to maintain an illusion of progress, even as he has avoided the hard choices necessary for progress. But, as Americans ponder the unavoidable consequences of the president's policies -- particularly health-care reform --...

Placebo Effects: Part 1 By: Satyajit Das Mixed Metaphors… Botanical commentators are finding ‘green shoots’. The astronomically minded have seen ‘glimmers’. The meteorologically minded have spoken about the storms ‘abating’. Strong rallies in equity and debt markets have confirmed the recovery for the ‘true believers’. The Global Financial Crisis ("GFC") crisis is over! It is useful to remember Winston Churchill’s observation after the British expeditionary force’s escape from Dunkirk: "[Britain] must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory". There may be confusion between ‘stabilisation’ and ‘recovery’. The ‘green shoots’ theory is based on...

A visual illusion has provided clues about how monkeys recognise faces. In a study, rhesus monkeys responded to the "Thatcher effect", a strange phenomenon that makes it difficult to detect changes in an upside down face. The study, in the journal Current Biology, is the first to show this effect in non-human animals. The authors say this suggests that the ability to identify a familiar face may have evolved in an ancestor common to humans and rhesus monkeys. The Thatcher effect is named after Margaret Thatcher, because images of the former UK prime minister's face were used its first demonstration,...

The influence of culture and environment can have an effect on our visual perception. This theory was first explored by Robert Laws, a Scottish missionary working in Malawi, Africa, during the late 1800's. Take a look at the picture below. What you see will largely depend on where you live in the world. After you have examined the picture, scroll down for a more detailed explanation. So What Did You See? What is above the woman's head? When scientists showed a similar sketch to people from East Africa, nearly all the participants in the experiment said she was balancing a...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers using closed-circuit televisions to create an illusion have made volunteers virtually swap bodies, even making women believe they were in a man's body and vice-versa. [Snip] The illusion only goes so far. The researchers said they could not fool their volunteers into thinking they were a box, for example.

RUSH: My gut is starting to talk to me, ladies and gentlemen. As you know and as I discussed over the course of the previous week, my gut was not giving me any indication whatsoever, and my gut started talking to me last night. Barack is headed back to Iowa. That should be a lock. It's a dead heat. Sarah Palin headed there on Monday, to Dubuque. Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Nevada -- well throw Pennsylvania out of there -- Florida, Ohio, Nevada, look like pretty good McCain certainties here, pretty good, depending on who you listen to. It's Friday, and...

You know something is afoot whenever you hear any tax-and-spend liberal talking about tax cuts. While Obama has proposed a tax cut for 95% of Americans, the Republicans have not him at all for the obvious. It's an illusion. You cannot raise spending by $1 trillion over 4 years and not raise taxes. He's proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the 5% of Americans, but demagoguery seems to always go unanswered in politics. The other catch is that 40% of Americans do not pay taxes. That means they will be getting government handouts, which cannot be coined...

POLITICAL ILLUSION: When the supportive architecture of a democratic society is misinterpreted and subsequently portrayed to be tyrannically suppressive. POLITICAL VISION: The empowerment of officers in society to protect and serve all citizens’ liberties without infringing on existing democratic architecture. ESSAY: Optical illusions are visually perceived Images that trick our senses into seeing what may or may not exist. For example, Rubin’s Vase is a popular, two dimensional illusion. Indeed, it’s a perfect specimen to illustrate the major premise of this essay. For the uninitiated, the curves of Rubin’s Vase double as a silhouette of two opposing human faces. If...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has plunged into the debate over the nation's future with his call for a new, "post-partisan" governing style aimed at ending political gridlock. But the Republican governor, who intends to take his message to Iowa, New Hampshire and other critical states as the presidential campaign proceeds, is selling something that may be illusory. Schwarzenegger used raw political muscle to forge the big legislative victories of his first term, allying with the Democrats, who dominate California's Capitol. Along the way, Republicans felt quashed. Post-partisanship, said a rueful state Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) "is the process...

Brooklyn sidewalk caves in, swallows woman Tue Dec 5, 3:57 AM ET NEW YORK - A woman out walking Monday was swallowed by the sidewalk when it caved in under her. The woman, 64, fell into a sinkhole about 5 feet by 2 feet wide and about 5 feet deep in front of a house in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn. Firefighters rushed to the woman's aid, using metal hooks to pull concrete chunks off her before strapping her to a stretcher and removing her from the hole. The woman, who had just picked up her two grandchildren from a...

A really cool illusion. Married Magic act called David and Dania performing their quick change act. Absolutly Amazing! .SWF version - much better than standard .SVG versionhttp://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=RB-wUgnyGv0&eurl=&iurl=http%3A//sjl-static12.sjl.youtube.com/vi/RB-wUgnyGv0/2.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskKW22q2NNAgx9wM_7jTJvG9Standard .SVG versionhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB-wUgnyGv0 

We must ask already now: What happened to us? What the hell happened to us? A simple thing happened: We were drugged by political correctness. The political correctness that has come to dominate Israeli discourse and Israeli awareness in the past generation was totally divorced from the Israeli situation. It did not have the tools to deal with the reality of an existential conflict. It did not have the tools to deal with a reality of an inter-religious and inter-cultural conflict. That is why it focused entirely on the Palestinian issue. It made the baseless assumption that the occupation is...

RATIONALE FOR REVIEW: On 17 July 2006 I opened the Star Tribune Newspaper. On the front page was a bold headline saying, “WIDE GAP A SURPRISE IN RACE FOR SENATE.” The Star Tribune sponsored Minnesota Poll claimed that Democrat Amy Klobuchar held a strong, 19 point, lead over Republican Mark Kennedy. While the local Democrat Party poll also had her ahead by 15-16 percent, others found only a seven point difference (Zogby and Rasmussen). While the poll did relate Democrat and Republican voting preference it did not give the proportion of Democrats and Republicans. This was surprising since in May...

To hear some critics of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's recent report and proposals on illegal immigration, you'd think that he'd suggested mass deportations and a fence around the state. The governor's opponents have thrown ugly words his way, among them "race-baiting,"xenophobic" and "fear-mongering." To hear some critics of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's recent report and proposals on illegal immigration, you'd think that he'd suggested mass deportations and a fence around the state. The governor's opponents have thrown ugly words his way, among them "race-baiting,"xenophobic" and "fear-mongering." We've come to expect overheated rhetoric on highly charged issues such as illegal immigration. But one...

Does anyone still have the picture (jpg) or the thread that was on here a couple days ago - an optical illusion. Um, it was a picture of a woman on a boat, with another boat in the background.... I've lost it, an wanted to share it with my coworkers. Thanks.

Claim: Photograph shows a bathroom with an unusually painted floor. Caption on photo making rounds on internet states: This is a painted floor!!!! I don't think I could even step into the room Status:False "IMAGINE . . . you are at a party. You have to go to the bathroom. There's only one at the house you're in. This is the bathroom you enter." Origins: The image shown above may qualify as a genuine artwork, but not of the type claimed (i.e., a bathroom with its floor painted to make it appear open to the sky from thousands of feet...

As Americans pick a president, one key criterion is how the war on terror is going. Is President Bush correct in his positive view or Senator Kerry in his negative one?This same debate, interestingly, is also taking place within conservative circles, where analysts sharing the same basic outlook - that Americans are fighting for their very existence - come to dramatically different conclusions. Consider the contrasting views of two important voices on the right, Mark Helprin and Tod Lindberg.Mr. Helprin, author of such powerful novels as A Soldier of the Great War and Winter's Tale, writes a despairing analysis in...

Maria Cooper poses in the doorway of the House of Mystery at the Oregon Vortex outside Gold Hill, Ore. The Oregon Vortex has been astonishing tourists since 1930 with a presentation of mysterious forces. (Jeff Barnard/The Associated Press) GOLD HILL, Ore. -- Looking for a career change? Interested in the paranormal? Always admired P.T. Barnum? Step right up, because Maria Cooper has a deal for you. For just $2 million, she will sell you the Oregon Vortex, a venerable roadside attraction off the beaten track where . . . Brooms stand on end! Balls roll uphill! And walking from one...

www.frontpagemag.com       Return to normal view The Sick Mind of Noam Chomsky FrontPageMagazine.com | September 26, 2001URL: http://www.frontpagemag.com/columnists/horowitz/2001/dh09-26-01p.htm WITHOUT QUESTION, the most devious, the most dishonest and -- in this hour of his nation’s grave crisis – the most treacherous intellect in America belongs to MIT professor Noam Chomsky. On the 150 campuses that have mounted "teach-ins" and rallies against America’s right to defend herself; on the streets of Genoa and Seattle where "anti-globalist" anarchists have attacked the symbols of markets and world trade; among the demonstrators at Vieques who wish to deny our military its training grounds; and wherever...