10 Aug 2013

Is China Doomed?

By Rajan Menon: Between 1978, the year Deng Xiaoping’s sweeping economic reforms were launched, and 2011, China’s GDP increased by an average of 10 percent annually, three times that of the global economy. Now the boom times may be over.
By mid-2013, economic growth had slowed to 7.7 percent. That’s still a roaring pace compared to the rest of the world. Europeans, Americans and even Japanese might say about China’s slippage, “We should all have such problems.” Still, in thirty-five years, the Chinese polity hasn’t had to handle a prolonged economic slowdown and one may be in the offing. Hence the debate on what the deceleration could portend should it get worse and linger.
Is China headed for upheaval? The argument that it is seems plausible. Eye-popping growth rates and the accompanying increase in living standards—and of course the state’s massive machinery of repression—have been critical to maintaining political stability and public support for the Communist Party. Or is Beijing so skillful, so flush with foreign-exchange reserves—and hence with the capital needed for priming the economy and managing financial crises—that slower economic growth is no big deal? Don’t look to the experts for enlightenment on which take is true: they see the same data but draw different conclusions.

Fuck Atheism Plus - This Time it's Personal

St37One: Atheism Plus is incompetent at block listing people. I do not appreciate being ostracized.

Tyranny Rules


constitutionobamaMonty Pelerin: Tyranny was a word that was used frequently during the founding period of this country. Its usage is rampant once again.
The word tyranny is thrown around rather carelessly, especially when politicians invoke it. When Bush was president, it was a popular Democrat word. With Obama in office, it is used as frequently, but now by Republicans and rarely by Democrats. Tyranny and accusations of it are serious. Sadly, politicians use it whenever they disagree with the policies of the opposing party.
True tyranny is serious and should not be used as a tool to smear political opponents. It is a specific condition, one which the Founders found serious enough to initiate a revolt against England.
Now it is used more as political invective than in its true meaning. Sadly, the politicians who bandy the word about for advantage are unaware of true tyranny or that they are guilty of committing it.
Distorting words or misunderstanding them, however, does not alter the consequences of the acts. It is important to understand the true meaning of the word itself.

Black Part Of Town Moves Across Town

The Onion: Pennington, IL's only African-American family moves to the other side of town, causing residents to reminisce about the "Black part of town."

Video of the Day: “Operation Everyone Talk Like a Terrorist”

By Michael Krieger: The folks at Funny or Die have come up with an ingenuous solution to render the NSA’s spy program useless. Operation: Everyone Talk Like a Terrorist All the Time. It makes a lot of sense, especially since the government already clearly considers everyone with the ability to think critically a potential “domestic terrorist.” Short video and really funny. Enjoy! Source

Legal loophole allows NSA to conduct warrantless searches for Americans’ emails and phone calls

By Madison Ruppert: Thanks to a legal loophole, the National Security Agency (NSA) has a secret backdoor allowing the agency to search their massive databases for American citizens’ emails and phone calls without a warrant, according to a secret document released today.
While some officials anonymously admitted that the NSA collects communications sent or related to overseas targets, the latest document leaked by Edward Snowden reveals that the surveillance of Americans goes far beyond what was previously thought, which is saying a lot at this point.
A rule which previously remained secret and was first reported on the Guardian on August 9 allows NSA operatives to directly search for the individual communications of Americans using their name or other identifying information.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a critic of the NSA, told the Guardian that the law indeed gives the NSA a loophole which enables “warrantless searches for the phone calls or emails of law-abiding Americans.”
The authority behind the loophole was reportedly approved in 2011 and as James Ball and Spencer Ackerman rightly note, it “appears to contrast with repeated assurances from Barack Obama and senior intelligence officials to both Congress and the American public that the privacy of US citizens is protected from the NSA’s dragnet surveillance programs.”

Top 5 US Youth Outreach Fails

Julie Borowski: #GOPFAIL - Since the election, lots of people have been talking about how the GOP can better "reach out to young people." I decided to weigh in.