• Many Americans do not see the value in bailing out the banks or spending trillions on foreign wars while the middle class struggles to remain solvent.
• Most Arabs do not see the value any more in greedy autocrats.
• Many Chinese do not see the value in a centralized government that doesn’t support the lower class.
• Many Europeans do not see the necessity of austerity to stay in the eurozone.
• Many Iranian people are much less hostile than the Iranian government.
• Most Russians believe that their elections are rigged.

Gingrich: Fail

Media: Fail

The People: Nothing

Newt Gingrich slams John King for question on ex-wife (2:01)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/newt-gingrich-slams-john-king-for-question-on-ex-wife-201/2012/01/19/gIQA7fRKCQ_video.html

If an airplane were do this, the consequences would be immediate and dire.  In fact, I suspect the plane would have jet escorts by its side before it even landed.  Yet, we learn that the practice with cruise ships doing this is acceptable behavior?

We Deserve Better!  How can this not be better regulated.

Of course, this references the Costa Concordia disaster where the death count continues to rise.

There are numerous articles on this

http://gma.yahoo.com/cruise-ship-wreck-search-suspended-ship-moves-045931732–abc-news.html

The captain’s behavior is reprehensible.  He is reportedly to have left the ship before many passengers and refused to return when asked!?  Really?  This guy is licensed to captain a vessel with 4,200 people on it?  Nice.

What are you doing? Are you abandoning the rescue? Captain, this is an order, I am the one in charge now. You have declared abandoning ship. There are already bodies.

Coastguard official’s instructions to Francesco

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16150533

Time to wake up and think about how things are done.  With all the high tech available, this should never have happened.  The fact that it is a regular occurrence really exasperates the issue.  In every possible way, we deserve better!

Follow Up:

Just saw this:

“The shipping industry newspaper Lloyd’s List reported that Friday was not the first time the Costa Concordia steamed extremely close to shore near Giglio.

Satellite tracking data obtained by the paper show that the ship passed within 230 meters (755 feet) of the coast of the island at least once before — even closer than the location where the Costa Concordia hit the rocks this weekend.

The pass happened on August 14, 2011, Lloyd’s List reported. Costa Cruise lines said it would issue a statement about the report later on Wednesday.”

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/18/world/europe/italy-cruise-main/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

So, Lloyds knew this and still insured the ship and company!?  *sigh*

Outlook for House, Senate also shows scant accomplishment for ‘12 session

It’s official: Congress ended its least-productive year in modern history after passing 80 bills — fewer than during any other session since year-end records began being kept in 1947.

Furthermore, an analysis by The Washington Times of the scope of such activities as time spent in debate, number of conference reports produced and votes taken on the House and Senate floors found that Congress set a record for legislative futility by accomplishing less in 2011 than any other year in history.

The Senate’s record was weakest by a huge margin, according to the futility index, and the House had its 10th-worst session on record.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/15/congress-logs-most-futile-legislative-year-on-reco/?page=all#pagebreak

Feds dole out millions of dollars for questionable studies on treatments ranging from energy healing to acupuncture

Thanks to a $374,000 taxpayer-funded grant, we now know that inhaling lemon and lavender scents doesn’t do a lot for our ability to heal a wound. With $666,000 in federal research money, scientists examined whether distant prayer could heal AIDS. It could not.

A Tribune examination of hundreds of NCCAM grants, dozens of scientific papers, 12 years of NCCAM documents and advisory council meeting minutes found that the center has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on studies with questionable grounding in science. The cancer treatment involving coffee enemas was based on an idea from the early 1900s, and patients who chose to undergo the risky regimen lived an average of just four months.

“Lots of good science and good scientists are going unfunded,” said Dr. David Gorski, a breast cancer researcher at Wayne State University, who has been a vocal critic of NCCAM. “How can we justify wasting money on something like this when there are so many other things that are much more plausible and much more likely to result in real benefit?”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-nccam-overview-20111211,0,1371814,full.story

Editor’s Commentary:  Look people.  Either it is medicine, or it is not.  There is no “Eastern Medicine” or “Alternative Medicine” – just medicine.  If a pharmaceutical company released a chemical compound with the same complete lack of testing and trials that “herbal” medicines follow – the liabilities and uproar would be unprecedented.  BUT, you can sell any combination of chemicals herbal supplements that are not regulated or tested and make all sorts of outlandish claims and that is not a problem!?  I don’t care if you want to believe in energy healing.  I don’t care if you want to spend money and have people stick pins in your body to fix mystical energy flows (which have never been observed, have no rational basis to exist and have never been proven to do anything). As far as anyone should be concerned, if you want to observe non-scientific rituals which do not meet the standards of medicine (see above – there should only be ONE standard) – then as far as I am concerned, this is no more than a religious ritual.

However, I do take exception for paying for your magical thinking.  My health insurance costs are as high as everyone’s. My insurance costs should cover medicine, not religion. My tax dollars should support medical research, not religion or magical mystery tours!

Stop the nonsense.  If you want to practice ritualistic healing.  Go for it – just don’t ask me to pay.

Scientists on Tuesday pushed the hands of the infamous “Doomsday Clock” forward one minute from last year, signalling their increasing pessimism about the efforts of world leaders to handle global threats.

“It is now five minutes to midnight,” the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) said in a sober assessment of current trends. “Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed.”

In January 2010, the clock’s minute hand was pushed back one minute from five to six minutes before midnight. Midnight symbolizes humanity’s destruction.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57356249/doomsday-clock-moved-1-minute-closer-to-midnight/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cbsnews%2Ffeed+%28CBSNews.com%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

The FDA is advising patients who use certain prescription medications produced by Endo Pharmaceuticals to visually inspect their pills. And consumers who have select bottles of Excedrin, Bufferin, NoDoz and Gas-X, produced by Novartis, are being told to discard or return the products in a voluntary recall that started Sunday.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/09/health/drug-mix-up-fda/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

An ultra-violent movie that features children as young as 12 murdering their way through the streets of New York has been branded ‘disgusting’.

Anti-violence campaigners claim the film, Toddlers, glorifies guns and have called for it to be banned.

Set in Harlem, the movie – released on DVD last month – follows the exploits of a boy who has to fend for himself after his drug dealer father is murdered.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083134/Is-sickest-film-America-Calls-ban-ultra-violent-gang-movie-featuring-children-young-12.html#ixzz1ih9nV6zM

US government safety auditors say the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of airline pilot training and proficiency programmes “lacks the rigour needed to identify and track poor performing pilots and address programme risks”.

The finding, by the US Transportation Department’s office of inspector general (OIG) comes nearly three years after the February 2009 crash of a Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 near Buffalo, later attributed in part by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to the captain’s failure to follow procedures. The accident spawned a wide variety of pilot training studies and upgrades, including a “Call to Action” programme by the FAA in June 2009.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/watchdog-holes-in-faa-safety-net-for-poorly-performing-pilots-366576/

Send in your pennies to the treasury... maybe that will help?

The White House plans to ask Congress by the end of the week for an increase in the government’s debt ceiling to allow the United States to pay its bills on time, according to a senior Treasury Department official on Tuesday.

The approval is expected to go through without a challenge, given that Congress is in recess until later in January and the request is in line with an agreement to keep the U.S. government funded into 2013.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/27/us-usa-treasury-debt-idUST

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