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If Supreme Court Has Jurisdiction, DOMA Likely Falls, With a Controlling Federalism Opinion from Kennedy Alone
Ilya Shapiro
The jurisdictional arguments were even more complicated today, but if the Supreme Court reaches the merits, there seem to be five votes to strike down DOMA’s Section 3: the four “liberal” justices on equal protection grounds and Justice Kennedy because the federal government is intruding on state authority to regulate marriage. Now, my prediction is worth what you paid for it – and one or more of the liberals (or even Chief Justice Roberts) could join Kennedy to make the resulting ruling less stark – but there are good reasons to believe that a 4-1-4 merits decision is possible even if Kennedy is ultimately persuaded by the equal protection claim. To the extent the swing justice is wary of the political implications of striking down all states’ marriage laws, then he might not want a ruling that would set the logical precedent for such a move. There was a definite sense at the Court that the provision of DOMA that limits marriage to opposite-sex couples for purposes of federal law isn’t long for the world, but a 4-1-4 decision would have no controlling theory.
More broadly, on a day when oral argument got surprisingly more lively than it did over California’s Prop 8 yesterday, all the justices took the opportunity to ask pointed questions of the various counsel arguing issues that ranged from the U.S. government’s awkward participation in the case, the standing of the House of Representatives to defend DOMA, the meaning of equal protection, and the role of federalism in all this. Justice Kagan focused on the “moral disapproval” that motivated Congress to pass DOMA in 1996, Chief Justice Roberts expressed growing frustration with Solicitor General Verrilli’s treatment of federal-state relations, and Justice Kennedy continued musing aloud about whether and how to decide the case. We’re in for a real cliffhanger of a ruling.
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Just leave him alone: Building inspectors try to take down survivalist “mountain man.”
I used to live at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains. Though where I lived was a little island of crunchy small town suburbia, when I looked out my bedroom window I saw the mountains stretching to the sky covered with forest.
Having grown up on suburban flat land, Virginia Beach, it wasn’t until I moved to Crozet that I learned to appreciate the country lifestyle.
When I was a kid it was exciting to see a cow when we took a road trip. It was a rare thing. In Crozet however one could hear cows off in the distance every day, and hawks, and the wind, and guys out in the woods shooting their rifles. I came to love it. It is a freer life than the traffic snarled expanse of Northern Virginia I know these days.
The fellow who is the subject of the attached article left for a much freer life. But the complicated life came to get him anyway. Why is it so wrong to want to just be left alone on one’s own property?
(From The Wall Street Journal)
Last fall, a team of health, construction and fire officials showed up for an unannounced inspection of the preserve, acting on an anonymous tip. Escorted by two sheriffs’ deputies, they executed what Mr. Conway describes as a “SWAT-team raid”—peering into outhouses, stomping around log cabins, and climbing hand-hewn ladders.
Their findings are compiled in a 78-page report with a bullet-point list of violations. Mr. Conway’s sawdust urinal and outhouses? Unpermitted, according to the officials. The wood he used to erect two dozen buildings? Built with lumber that isn’t “grade-marked,” meaning it doesn’t specify the mill where it was produced.
The post Just leave him alone: Building inspectors try to take down survivalist “mountain man.” appeared first on AgainstCronyCapitalism.org.
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War and Conflict • Arab paper: Leave Israel alone, deal with Syria
Arab paper: Leave Israel alone, deal with Syria
Asharq Alawsat editor claims Syria, Iran instigated escalation between Israel, Gaza to aid Assad regime
Roi Kais
Published: 11.19.12, 13:22 / Israel News
While the Arab world condemns Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and Operation Pillars of Defense steals the headlines on the Arab channels, a civil war continues to run wild in Syria between the rebels and Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime – a war that has been going on for a year and eight months.
In a report given by the opposition on Sunday night to the SkyNews channel in Arabic, the violence and warfare continue in a few of the country’s cities, killing 51 in the last 24 hours and almost 200 since the weekend.
Against this backdrop, editor-in-chief of the most-read newspaper in the Arab world, "al-Sharq al-Awsat", Tariq Alhomayed tried to turn his readers’ attention to another tragedy in the Arab world; revealing what he believes brought upon the escalation in southern Israel – the Iranians and Assad.
In an editorial entitled, "The solution to Gaza…return to Syria," Alhomayed wrote that, " Unfortunately, wars in our region have become like a race, so each war is to cover another one. In other words, these wars are nothing more than a move to escape forward.
Therefore what is happening in Gaza is escaping forward, particularly in the hope of saving al-Assad or at least ensuring that the cost of toppling him will be greater for everybody. The greatest architect of such wars is Iran".
According to Alhomayed, the Iranians tried heating up the fronts on the Israeli borders via their agents. When unsuccessful on the Syrian and Lebanese fronts, they chose the Gaza Strip. "When the Golan front did not move quickly enough for al-Assad and Iran, they resorted to the Gaza front, because this can be inflamed far quicker, whilst it is also easier for Israel in this regard. For Israel, Gaza is like a punching bag that can be used for training and muscle flexing, whilst success in Gaza would strike several “files” in one go ".
Regarding Syria he wrote: "Now, the best solution to get out of this war – or air strikes – in Gaza is to return to Syria, and strongly, for whoever is responsible for the launch of the home-made rockets in Gaza did this whilst being well aware that there is no equivalence. The whole purpose of this was to save al-Assad, whose days are numbered; indeed his ouster is just around the corner".
Syria condemns Israel’s barbarianism
The Syrian human rights watch center reported on Sunday that Assad’s forces attacked a few neighborhoods and areas in southern Damascus, including: al-Hajar, al-Aswad, al-Hajira and al-Baweda. Bloodshed occurred on Saturday, when the opposition reported on 140 dead, including three women and six children.
The reports said that 63 were killed in Damascus and its suburbs, 30 killed in Aleppo, 21 in the Dir al-Zur district, 11 in Idlib, seven in Harasta, four in Homs, two in Daraa and two in Hama. The Syrian human rights watch center reported that amongst those killed on Saturday were 56 civilians and 48 military and regime soldiers.
Last week, Syria managed to take advantage of the crisis in the Gaza Strip and to condemn what he called, "the crimes of the Israeli barbarians against the Palestinian nation and government in the Gaza Strip". Syria called upon the international community to put pressure on Israel in order to stop its attacks.
On Thursday, the Syrian, state-run newspaper, "Al-Tishreen" took advantage of the developments in the Gaza Strip in order to divert attention away from the Syrian civil war.
The caption read: "Gaza is under fire by the occupiers – nine Palestinians killed and tens are wounded during intensive attacks". The headline read: "Syria condemns the barbaric Israeli crimes: We will forever remain loyal to our national commitments".
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 … 20,00.html
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Mon Nov 19, 2012 8:00 am
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American • US paid $454 billion in interest payments alone in 2011
Quantitative addiction and the allure of low interest rates – US paid $454 billion in interest payments alone in 2011. Equity in real estate for households cut in half.
Posted by mybudget360
Today I was looking at the total public debt outstanding and the current figure seems surreal. The total public debt outstanding is now up to $16.27 trillion. We’ve been on this path for many decades of spending more than we earn but the problem is we are reaching a peak debt situation. It is hard to say how much debt is too much debt for a country but a generally agreed upon figure is when the debt goes above 100 percent of annual GDP then issues begin to arise. The US fortunately is able to get incredibly low interest rates on world markets by a variety of methods including having the Fed use quantitative easing techniques. Given the size of our debt, low interest rates are sold as an aid to US households but the reality is that a more important reason is to keep payments on interest lower. What are the consequences of too much debt?
Debt versus production
Too much debt is never a good solution to fixing an ailing economy. The allure is easy and it is understandable why countries would embark on this easy path. Yet reverting back to a more normal balance is rarely that easy. Recently our total public debt surpassed annual GDP:
Clearly this is the worst recession since the Great Depression. On the back-end, the bailout mechanisms are still fully in place. When you have solvency issues adding more debt simply pushes out the pain deeper into the future. The Federal Reserve with Quantitative Easing sold it as a way for US households to get easier access to cheap money. But if we look at interest payments we begin to realize what is going on:
Last year we paid out $454 billion in interest payments. If you run the numbers on this, assuming a similar amount paid out in 2012, we are only paying 2.7 percent on our total debt. This is an incredibly low blended rate. Keep in mind new issuances are at even lower levels thanks to the Federal Reserve. This is really the big addiction. Say rates went up to a modest 5.4 percent we would be paying out $908 billion a year in interest alone! And a large portion of this debt is now held outside of the country:
Over $5 trillion of our debt is held by foreign institutions and investors. Given that our entire global economy is interconnected, a surge in interest payments for us is going to sap out productivity from the world’s number one economy. What do you think this will do to interest rates? Our trading partners especially with China are more than willing to lend out money at lower rates since they need the US consumption machine to keep going so more Chinese can find work. Their concerns are very much the same as our own.
Yet if you look at places like Spain you will find the issues of solving a solvency crisis with more debt. At the core of the problem was the real estate bubble bursting. Let us take a look at the number one asset for Americans, real estate:
At the peak of the mania, US households had nearly $14 trillion in equity in their properties. Today, that number is still cut in half hovering at roughly $7 trillion. All the bailouts and other measures still have real estate wealth near the trough. This is why for most working and middle class families the recession still feels very much in place. Also, you have a large portion of recent buyers entering with low down payment mortgages so not much equity has been built up. Those low interest rates do help but again the bigger help is largely directed to banks and the government that are now stuck with the low interest rate appetite.
We have a complicated interconnected system in place. There are now more and more hints that the Chinese real estate market is taking a leg down. This is another potential problem looming. Again, too much speculation and too much debt are at the core of these issues. The problems in Europe are not gone. In fact, Europe has now slipped into another recession and their unemployment rate is at the highest level on record. As a trading bloc, this is the biggest economy in the world. This will have larger ramifications on the global economy.
The US is now going to have Quantitative Easing into infinity similar to what Japan did. But this can only occur as long as the markets are willing to invest in such low rate levels. In Europe the market is already bailing out. If China’s economy slows a bit their appetite will pull back. Japan is dealing with their own internal issues. The core problem is still here. Too much debt and a crisis brought on by solvency.
http://www.mybudget360.com/quantitative … #more-4406
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Mon Nov 19, 2012 9:03 am
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International News • 350 Greek Tragedies in Athens in June Alone
350 Greek Tragedies in Athens in June Alone
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2012
You know, we can write and read and research all we want, and till we’re deep dark blue in the face, about Angela Merkel and Tim Geithner and Mario Draghi or Monti and Greek heroes Samaras and Venizelos, about what they say and do from day to day, driven by political pressure and mundane issues such as bond yields. And we will continue to write, read and research these things; that’s not going to stop.
But as soon as any of us take a step back and try to see things from another perspective than that of the proverbial and iconic child with her nose pressed against the display window of the candy store, there’s none of us with a grain of self-respect left who can maintain that what we see unfold is about Angela, Timothy and the Mario’s. And that is what we will increasingly, and I mean all of us, need to add to our writing and reading: We will have failed miserably if we haven’t paid attention to the people most affected by what rabbits the various leaderships decide to conjure up out of their high hats.
And not just because if misery in the streets reaches a critical mass, that will be where the direction of politics will be decided. It’s not a macro picture. We ourselves are not a macro picture; we all of us live human micro lives. We therefore need to pay attention to the plight of the victims of the crisis, because they are people like us, because they can function as a mirror to who we are, and strive to be, and as a mirror for our futures. It is no use to be well-off yourself if you don’t have a functioning society to be well-off in. And don’t worry, I don’t expect the majority of you to understand. I fully expect most people to hit the wall running.
Money has no value in and of itself; it derives that value from the world it rolls in. Take away that world, and you take away the value.
Yes, financial markets are doing relatively well, and if they don’t, central banks will throw more of your cash at the banks. The problem is that they don’t throw that cash at the people. Many of whom could really do with some. According to the present paradigm, banks are more important than people, and people, if I understand it well, can only be saved if banks are saved first (with the people’s money). This paradigm is the sort of insanity only economists and bankers can come up with. The life of a person, whether rich or poor, is infinitely more important than the life of a bank. No contest. You would think.
What got me started on all of this is a great – great in its sadness – little tale from today’s Spiegel, by Barbara Hardinghaus and Julia Amalia Heyer, on what happens with real people. Either we deal with issues such as this, or we don’t. And if we don’t, the issues will deal with us. Down the line, whatever happens to others happens to us too. We are after all social animals, that’s not something we can alter at will. But we still try hard, don’t we?
Wave of Suicides Shocks Greece
Greece has always had one of the lowest suicide rates in Europe, but its economic crisis has triggered a disturbing increase in the number of people killing themselves. Are the deaths the result of personal desperation or are people making a political statement with the only thing they have left to sacrifice?
On July 16, a businessman and father of three hanged himself in his shop on the island of Crete. A 49-year-old man from Patras was found by his son. He had also hanged himself. On July 25, a 79-year-old man on the southern Peloponnese peninsula hanged himself with a cable tied to an olive tree. On August 3, a 31-year-old man shot himself to death at his home near Olympia. On August 5, a 15-year-old boy hanged himself in Pieria. And, on August 6, a 60-year-old former footballer self-immolated in Chalcis.
These are also reports from Greece, reports that, at first glance, seem to have nothing to do with the economy. They come together to form a grim statistic, raising questions of what is triggering the suicides and whether the high incidence is merely a coincidence.
Or do people see suicide as a way out of the crisis that has taken hold of their country and their lives? Are they bowing out before things get even worse? Germany and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are opposed to a new bailout package for Athens. The country faces a shortfall of at least €40 billion ($49 billion). Greece could very well be officially bankrupt by the fall.
Greece, a country whose Orthodox Church does not condone suicide, has always had one of the lowest suicide rates in Europe. But now, there were 350 suicide attempts and 50 deaths in Athens in June alone. Most of the suicides were among members of the middle class and, in many cases, the act itself was carried out in public, almost as if it were a theatrical performance.
Desperate for Dignity
On April 4, shortly after 9 a.m., a 77-year-old pharmacist shot himself to death on Syntagma Square in downtown Athens. Dimitris Christoulas, a short man, stood against one of the large trees on the square, held a pistol to his temple and pulled the trigger.
"My father was a political person, a fighter," says his daughter, Emmy Christoulas. Weeks after her father’s death, she is sitting in her living room in Chalandri, a northern suburb of Athens. She is a slim 42-year-old wearing oversized jeans, her short black hair streaked with gray.
Her father was politically active, a member of the "We Won’t Pay" movement. He repeatedly called for an international review of Greece’s national debt because he was convinced that it wasn’t the fault of the people. He had come to beleaguered downtown Athens every day last summer to take part in rallies and to lend a hand, usually in the Red Cross tent.
When he went to Syntagma Square for the last time, on April 4, he sent his daughter a text message consisting of one short sentence: "This is the end." Then he switched off his cell phone. "It was at exactly 8:31 a.m.," says Emmy, pulling a cigarillo from a crumpled pack. When she was unable to reach her father by phone after receiving the text message, she and two friends drove to his apartment.
She heard a news report on the radio that someone had shot and killed himself under a tree on Syntagma Square. "First the text message, and then that report," she says. "I was sure it was him."
Since her father’s death, Emmy Christoulas has taken the subway to the square, nine stops from her apartment, many times. She visits the memorial to her father two or three times a week, usually in the evening. When she does, she stands a short distance away from the tree.
It’s become quiet in the square, where a band is playing and the sound of guitar music is wafting through the warm air. Christoulas crosses her arms over her chest and looks at the people who stop at the memorial. It consists of wreaths and a few stuffed animals leaning against the tree, as well as notes pinned to the trunk. "Don’t walk like a robot! Open your spirit!" one note written in red letters on a piece of cardboard reads. The lines that Dimitris Christoulas wrote in a suicide note are engraved into a marble plaque.
The government has annihilated all traces for my survival, which was based on a very dignified pension that I alone paid into for 35 years with no help from the state. I see no other solution than this dignified end to my life so that I don’t find myself fishing through garbage cans for my sustenance.
The words "Dimitris’ gesture cannot be repeated" are written on a piece of paper above the plaque. But his gesture is repeating itself on an almost daily basis. The newspaper Ta Nea describes the mood among Greeks as a "society on the verge of a nervous breakdown." [..]
On the morning of April 4, Dimitris Christoulas put on his light-colored trench coat, stuck his pistol in one pocket and the farewell letter in the other, and set out for the square, as he had done so many times before, and wrote the last text message to his daughter.
On the day after the memorial service for her father, Emmy Christoulas drove her father’s body 13 hours to Bulgaria to have him cremated. The Greek Orthodox Church denies church burials to people who have committed suicide. Her father had left her the money for the trip. [..]
Nikiforos Angelopoulos, an Athens psychiatrist, has kept track of suicides and, with each new death, he has become more afraid. He tries to see each act as the failure of an individual, confused person. The 60-year-old did his doctoral dissertation on the subject of "hostility." Suicide is a disorder, he says, a form of hostility — a person’s hostility against him- or herself. [..]
The 90-year-old woman who fell to her death from a rooftop terrace on Vathi Square jumped together with her son. But the truth is that she didn’t jump at all. Her son pushed her. Then he waited three minutes and followed his mother. It was a 15-meter (49-foot) drop to the pavement below. His name was Anthony Perris, a musician and writer, a quiet, 60-year-old man.
The spot where he hit the ground is three kilometers from Syntagma Square, next to the building where he lived with his mother. Perris had cared for his mother, who had Alzheimer’s and cancer, for 20 years. He took her for a short walk in the small park outside every day. On the evening before the suicide, he closed the blinds in the apartment. The next morning, he took his mother into the elevator and up to the roof terrace above the sixth floor.
Perris also left a suicide note, placing it on the kitchen table. "My life has become a constant tragedy," he wrote. He tried to sell his house, but no one had the money to buy it. He owned a house, a boat and a moped.
"What’s the use of owning things when you don’t have any money to buy food?" Perris asked in his suicide note.
Everything that the papers are saying about the rash of suicides is "misleading and dangerous," says Angelopoulos, the psychiatrist. People who commit suicide, he notes, are not political fighters, even if the public turns them into heroes.
The pharmacist who shot himself to death on Syntagma Square was a desperate individual, just like all the others, says Angelopoulos, who sounds a little desperate himself. He is fighting a lonely battle. All the same, the Greek Ministry for Health set up a suicide hotline a few weeks ago. Despite all the budget cuts and austerity measures, it feels the expense is justified. [..]
On the morning after our visit with Christoulas, the Athens police received another emergency call. A 61-year-old man has hanged himself from a tree on a hill in Aghios Philippos Park, not far from his house. He was a sailor who had recently lost his job. He had a wife, a son, a daughter and a dog. His body was removed by the afternoon, a few hours after his death.
The red-and-white strip of crime scene tape is still hanging between two trees, fluttering in the wind above the big city.
http://theautomaticearth.com/Finance/35 … alone.html
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Thu Aug 16, 2012 8:00 am
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
American • James Holmes Is Not Alone …….
James Holmes Is Not Alone – 20 More Examples Of The Sickos That Are Overrunning America
There is much more to the collapse of America than just our economic problems. The truth is that the United States is like a beautiful house that may still look great on the outside but that has rotted and decayed very badly on the inside. In fact, the foundations of our country have rotted away so badly that our entire society is starting to collapse. Just look at James Holmes. It would be great if we could honestly say that James Holmes is an aberration, but we all know better than that. James Holmes is not alone. The cold, hard reality of the matter is that our degenerate society regularly produces sickos and monsters like James Holmes. As I wrote about the other day, we lead the world in a whole host of bad categories. We lead the world in child abuse, we lead the world in divorce, we lead the world in teen pregnancy and we lead the world in drug addiction. The basic building blocks of society that tie us together and help keep us grounded (such as the family) are breaking down, but we still seem surprised that we have hordes of "lone wolf individuals" running around doing crazy things. We are a sick, twisted society that is producing sick, twisted individuals. If we do not admit how deep our problems really are, then we are never going to find any real solutions and we are going to keep being shocked when another James Holmes pops on to the scene.
Why didn’t this type of thing happen back in the 1950s?
Why are our young people so violent and so mentally unstable?
What has changed?
Those are some very important questions. But most Americans will forget this incident very quickly and they will move on with their self-absorbed lives.
But there is so much about this shooting that calls for further examination.
What would make a highly educated 24 year old man do something so incredibly evil?
Why are so many young people suddenly "snapping" these days?
As our society continues to decay, how much worse are things going to get?
It is almost to the point where people are going to start becoming afraid of gathering in public places.
Most Americans never would have imagined that it would be dangerous to go to the movie theater.
But now people are going to look at going to the movies much differently.
And could it have been possible that James Holmes had some help?
There are some important questions that the media is not really focusing on in this case….
-How did an impoverished college student put together an arsenal of weapons, ammunition and body armor worth tens of thousands of dollars?
-Why do some eyewitnesses claim that he had at least one other person assisting him?
-Why did he surrender to police without offering any resistance whatsoever?
It would be great if we could get some answers to those questions.
In any event, this is yet another sign of how far our society has fallen. We are becoming more sick and more twisted with each passing day, and it is time to admit this fact.
The following are 20 more examples of the sickos that are overrunning America….
#1 A Sicko In Oregon That Breaks Into Homes In Order To Watch Computer Porn
According to CBS, one young man in Oregon has been breaking into homes with the intent of watching pornography on the Internet….
Police say a 21-year-old Oregon man broke into homes to look at pornography on the Internet, sometimes while the homeowners were inside.
Eugene police said Thursday they arrested Antone Forrest Deedward Owens on charges of burglary, menacing and coercion. Authorities say he broke into at least three homes since last September, sometimes entering the same home on multiple occasions.
#2 Delaware Pediatrician That Sexually Abused 103 Children
Who is the bigger monster – James Holmes or the Delaware doctor that sexually abused 103 children? The following is from a recent Natural News article….
According to reports in 2010, Dr. Earl Bradley, who has since been dubbed "America’s Worst Pedophile," stood accused of molesting 103 young patients in his office in the tiny town of Lewes, Del., since 1994.
Detailed in 160 pages of what ABC News described as "disturbing court documents," Bradley apparently videotaped his sex acts. The documents said Bradley repeatedly molested his child patients as their parents sat nearby and unsuspecting outside the waiting room of his BayBee’s Pediatrics clinic.#3 Jerry Sandusky
Jerry Sandusky was supposed to be a role model. He was an assistant football coach at Penn State and he was heavily involved in charity work.
But it turns out that it was all a lie. In fact, a whole bunch of people involved in the Penn State football program knew what was going on and did not report it.
In the end, Jerry Sandusky was found guilty of 45 counts of sexually abusing young boys. He has become a national symbol of the depravity which is rotting away the very heart of this nation.
#4 Man That Kept His Wife Chained Up For 10 Years
What would you do to a man that kept his wife chained up for ten years?
According to one West Virginia news source, that is exactly what one man down in West Virginia did….
Earlier this month, Lizon was arrested after police say he kept his wife, Stephanie, chained up for nearly a decade in their home along Miller Hollow Road in Leroy, W.Va.
Lizon is accused of smashing Stephanie’s feet with farm equipment and hitting her with a hot frying pan.
Police say she also had a miscarriage because of the abuse and was forced to have another baby while still chained.
#5 Serial Foot-Licker In New York
Did serial foot-lickers even exist back in the 1950s?
Why are there so many of them running around today?
The following is from the New York Daily News….
Police have a possible serial foot-licker in custody after a 49-year-old man was arrested for inappropriately touching two young girls at an upstate New York library.
Anthony Parri allegedly took off a child’s shoe and rubbed the girl’s foot against his nose and mouth in one of two incidents Tuesday at Penfield Library, according to reports.
One of the alleged attacks happened in an open area in the children’s section, library director Bernadette Brickman told WHAM, ABC’s affiliate in Rochester. The child’s mom and a library employee witnessed the abuse and called the cops, according to the station.
#6 Houston Police Officer Accused Of Raping A Woman While On Duty
Who is supposed to keep all of these sickos under control?
The police?
Sadly, the police often are the sickos.
The following is from the Houston Chronicle….
DNA evidence has linked a Houston police officer to a rape he allegedly committed while on duty last month, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
Officer Adan Jimenez Carranza, 32, was being held Friday at the Harris County Jail under a $30,000 bond, charged with aggravated sexual assault of a woman June 18 after a minor traffic accident, court records show.
#7 Philadelphia Police Officer Makes 14 Year Old Girl Watch Him Have Sex With A Prostitute After Sexually Assaulting Her
If we can’t trust the police, then who can we trust?
Recently there have been a bunch of reports of sexual misconduct by police in the national news.
The following is how Fox News described one particularly disturbing incident from the Philadelphia area….
A Philadelphia cop was arrested over allegations that he abducted a 14-year-old girl, sexually assaulted her and made her watch him have sex with a prostitute.
Police found Anthony Dattilo, 36, at a motel in the Bensalem area of the city Wednesday while responding to a possible abduction, according to the Bucks County Courier Times.
Dattilo, a 12-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, is reportedly in custody at the Bucks County prison on $500,000 bail.
#8 TSA Agent Spills Grandpa’s Ashes And Laughs About It
Almost every single day there is another TSA horror story in the news.
But what you are about to read is one of the worst of them all.
The following is from an ABC News article….
John Gross was leaving Florida with the remains of his grandfather in a tightly sealed jar marked “Human Remains, ” ABC Indianapolis affiliate RTV6 reported.
“They opened up my bag, and I told them, ‘Please, be careful. These are my grandpa’s ashes,’” Gross told the station. “She picked up the jar. She opened it up.”
Gross said the TSA agent used her finger to sift through the ashes and accidentally spilled it. He said one-third to one-half of the ashes spilled and that the agent laughed as he tried to gather what he could from the floor.
“She didn’t apologize. She started laughing. I was on my hands and knees picking up bone fragments. I couldn’t pick up all, everything that was lost. I mean, there was a long line behind me.”
#9 Connecticut Man Threatens To Cut The Tongue Out Of The Mouth Of A 3 Year Old Child
What kind of a man would hold up a knife and threaten to cut the tongue out of the mouth of a 3 year old kid?
Sadly, that is exactly what happened up in Connecticut recently.
The following is from a WFSB report about this incident….
Police in Vernon are investigating reports that a man held a knife to a child’s face and threatened to cut out his tongue.
On Friday, a woman named Heather Bonneville called police to inform them that a family acquaintance, who has been identified as Roman Fein, held the knife within inches of her 3-year-old son’s face before making the threat to cut his tongue out of his mouth.
#10 Naked "Cannibal" Threatens To Eat Police Officers Down In Georgia
Why are so many criminals getting naked lately?
Why are so many criminals trying to eat people?
The following is from a recent Daily Mail article….
Karl Laventure, 21, was believed to be high on bath salts when he tried to attack the officers in Lilburn, Georgia.
And after they had managed to subdue him he began threatening to eat them.
Laventure appeared out of some woods and was seen running naked around a golf range near Atlanta, swinging a club around his head and screaming.
Police said that it took several officers to subdue the man who had ‘super-human strength’.
#11 Public School Administrator In New York Fired For Not Participating In A Gay Orgy
Almost every day there is another story in the news about a new school sex scandal somewhere in America.
The following is from Courthouse News Service….
A public school administrator claims in court that his male boss sexually assaulted him in a hotel room after giving him pornography and trying to get him to join a foursome, then fired him for rebuffing the advances.
#12 Naked Florida Man Bites Chunk From Another Man’s Stomach
This year criminals in America seem to have become obsessed with chewing on human flesh.
The following example is from a recent Daily Mail article….
A naked man allegedly flew into a violent rampage, biting a chunk out of another man’s stomach after leaping from his roof onto a truck and urinating inside his home.
Officers responding to the scene needed backup to restrain Jeremiah Aaron Haughee with leg shackles, a spit hood and handcuffs after he continued fighting despite being Tasered five times.
Authorities did not carry out tests on Haughee to see if he was under the influence of any drugs.
Police first arrived at the home in Flagler Beach, Florida at 4.30 a.m. to find two men restraining the naked 22-year-old in a puddle of urine and glass.
#13 Father Who Killed His 3 Daughters Inside The Home Of His Ex-Wife
You know that society is really starting to break down when parents start killing their own children.
What one man up in Wisconsin is being charged with is absolutely horrific.
The following is from a recent CNN article….
A 34-year-old father was being held by authorities Wednesday in connection with the deaths of his three daughters, who were found inside his ex-wife’s Wisconsin home with the gas fireplace turned on, officials said.
#14 Pregnant Woman Set On Fire In Detroit
These days not even pregnant women are immune to violence.
What one pregnant woman up in Detroit went through recently is hard to stomach….
A 22-year-old pregnant woman survived after being bound, driven to Detroit, set on fire and shot early Saturday morning.
The woman, who was nine-months pregnant, had returned from a movie with her boyfriend and dropped him off at his house in Warren when she was approached from behind, Warren police Sgt. Dave Geffert said.
The woman’s hands, feet and eyes were bound with duct tape. She was then forced into her car and driven to an unknown place in Detroit where she was doused with lighter fluid, set on fire and shot once in the upper back, he said.
#15 New Jersey Man Throws His Own Intestines At Police
If the police were breaking into your home, would you cut out your own entrails and throw them at the police?
According to the Huffington Post, that is exactly what one man up in New Jersey did….
A New Jersey man allegedly cut out his entrails in front of police and then threw bits of his flesh and intestines at them.
The gruesome scene played out at a home in Hackensack, N.J., where 43-year-old Wayne Carter allegedly barricaded himself in on Sunday, NBC New York reported.
Officers got a call that morning when a witness said Carter was threatening to harm himself with a knife. Two cops responded, kicked in the door and found Carter in the corner, the station reported.
Carter allegedly ignored officers’ orders to put down the knife, and instead began stabbing himself in the abdomen, neck and legs.
#16 Naked Man Brutally Murders A Hotel Maid
Why would anyone want to kill a 62 year old cleaning woman?
Many of the crimes that are being committed today are absolutely senseless.
The following is how the CBS affiliate in Sacramento reported this story….
A naked man who may have been on drugs was arrested Saturday for killing a Tracy motel employee.
Andrew Carreiro, 25, is behind bars accused of killing the 62-year-old woman who cleans rooms at the Hacienda Inn on the 600 block of West 11th Street.
Witnesses say they found Carreiro covered in blood and standing near the partially naked body of the woman, say witnesses.
“[It’s] most definitely the craziest thing I’ve seen in my life, most definitely,” said Jermaine Haynes, a motel resident who made the gruesome discovery.
#17 Crack-Fueled Sickos Abduct A Female Jogger
These days you are not safe anywhere in the country.
Just check out what happened to one math teacher from Montana. The following is how a Daily Mail article described what two very sick drug addicts did to her….
After smoking crack cocaine over the entire trip, Waters allegedly told Spell the drug ‘brought the devil out in him’ and began talking about kidnapping and killing a female, AP reports.
After they spotted Arnold, Spell claims that Waters told him to ‘grab the lady’ and pull her into their Ford Explorer as she jogged by.
‘Spell said Waters got into the back seat with the female and "choked her out",’ the affidavit states.
After dropping Arnold’s body in a rural area of North Dakota later that night, Waters bought a shovel at a nearby Walmart. They buried the body in a two- to three-feet-deep hole on an old farmstead.
#18 Female Teacher Has Sex With Four Male Students
Why are so many public school teachers having sex with their students?
Don’t they realize that they will inevitably get caught?
Aren’t the dozens of other school sex scandals in the news sufficient warnings?
The following is from the NBC affiliate in Tucson, Arizona….
A new police report reveals racy, disturbing details of the alleged relationships between an Ironwood Ridge High School teacher and four of her students.
Oro Valley Police picked up Melissa Dalton April 30th booking her on four counts of sexual conduct with a minor.
She posted bail and got out the next day.
Subsequently more Ironwood Ridge students came forward with more allegations. That prompted the Oro Valley Police Department to add eight more counts including six of sex with a minor.
Melissa Dalton was in her first year teaching at Ironwood Ridge High School. The 33 year old is a wife and mother.
#19 Texas House Of Horrors
The nightmares that were happening in one quiet house in Texas are so horrifying that it is hard to find the words to describe them.
The following is from a New York Daily News article….
Texas authorities said Tuesday they removed 11 children from a crowded home where a registered sex offender lives after they found eight confined in a small, dark bedroom with restraints tying some to their beds.
Along with the children, 10 adults were living in the one-story, 1,700-square-foot home in Dayton, about 30 miles northeast of Houston, Child Protective Services spokeswoman Gwen Carter said. One month after a raid on the house, authorities are still trying to determine how the children are related and why they were there, she said.
#20 Florida Man Bites The Lips Off Of A Kitten
What kind of a monster would bite the lips off of a kitten?
It is hard to imagine anyone actually doing such a thing, but according to WKMG this apparently happened….
A Palm Coast man was arrested on suspicion of biting the lips off a kitten and strangling another cat.
Angel Vega Roman, 28, was arrested Saturday and charged with cruelty to animals.
According to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, Roman told an acquaintance that he accidentally choked his roommates’ kitten a couple of weeks ago and bit the lips off another black and white kitten named Oreo. Roman also tortured Oreo by burning its ear and whiskers with a lighter, a sheriff’s report stated.
I know that I used a lot of disturbing examples in this article, but I wanted to make my point very strongly.
James Holmes is not an isolated case. America is literally being overrun by sickos and monsters.
In the old days, our societal institutions were strong and they helped to tie us together.
But today there is very, very little that ties us together and keeps us grounded. Faith in almost every major institution in society is very low and our families are falling apart.
The percentage of adult Americans that are married right now is at an all-time low. The percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation at all is at an all-time high.
Our society is rotting from the inside out and many of our formerly great cities are degenerating into absolute hellholes.
Fixing America is not just a matter of fixing our economic system or our political system.
Fixing America is going to take a whole lot more than that.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch … ng-america
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Mon Jul 23, 2012 1:02 pm
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
James Holmes Is Not Alone – 20 More Examples Of The Sickos That Are Overrunning America
There is much more to the collapse of America than just our economic problems. The truth is that the United States is like a beautiful house that may still look great on the outside but that has rotted and decayed very badly on the inside. In fact, the foundations of our country have rotted away so badly that our entire society is starting to collapse. Just look at James Holmes. It would be great if we could honestly say that James Holmes is an aberration, but we all know better than that. James Holmes is not alone. The cold, hard reality of the matter is that our degenerate society regularly produces sickos and monsters like James Holmes. As I wrote about the other day, we lead the world in a whole host of bad categories. We lead the world in child abuse, we lead the world in divorce, we lead the world in teen pregnancy and we lead the world in drug addiction. The basic building blocks of society that tie us together and help keep us grounded (such as the family) are breaking down, but we still seem surprised that we have hordes of “lone wolf individuals” running around doing crazy things. We are a sick, twisted society that is producing sick, twisted individuals. If we do not admit how deep our problems really are, then we are never going to find any real solutions and we are going to keep being shocked when another James Holmes pops on to the scene.
Why didn’t this type of thing happen back in the 1950s?
Why are our young people so violent and so mentally unstable?
What has changed?
Those are some very important questions. But most Americans will forget this incident very quickly and they will move on with their self-absorbed lives.
But there is so much about this shooting that calls for further examination.
What would make a highly educated 24 year old man do something so incredibly evil?
Why are so many young people suddenly “snapping” these days?
As our society continues to decay, how much worse are things going to get?
It is almost to the point where people are going to start becoming afraid of gathering in public places.
Most Americans never would have imagined that it would be dangerous to go to the movie theater.
But now people are going to look at going to the movies much differently.
And could it have been possible that James Holmes had some help?
There are some important questions that the media is not really focusing on in this case….
-How did an impoverished college student put together an arsenal of weapons, ammunition and body armor worth tens of thousands of dollars?
-Why do some eyewitnesses claim that he had at least one other person assisting him?
-Why did he surrender to police without offering any resistance whatsoever?
It would be great if we could get some answers to those questions.
In any event, this is yet another sign of how far our society has fallen. We are becoming more sick and more twisted with each passing day, and it is time to admit this fact.
The following are 20 more examples of the sickos that are overrunning America….
#1 A Sicko In Oregon That Breaks Into Homes In Order To Watch Computer Porn
According to CBS, one young man in Oregon has been breaking into homes with the intent of watching pornography on the Internet….
Police say a 21-year-old Oregon man broke into homes to look at pornography on the Internet, sometimes while the homeowners were inside.
Eugene police said Thursday they arrested Antone Forrest Deedward Owens on charges of burglary, menacing and coercion. Authorities say he broke into at least three homes since last September, sometimes entering the same home on multiple occasions.
#2 Delaware Pediatrician That Sexually Abused 103 Children
Who is the bigger monster – James Holmes or the Delaware doctor that sexually abused 103 children? The following is from a recent Natural News article….
According to reports in 2010, Dr. Earl Bradley, who has since been dubbed “America’s Worst Pedophile,” stood accused of molesting 103 young patients in his office in the tiny town of Lewes, Del., since 1994.
Detailed in 160 pages of what ABC News described as “disturbing court documents,” Bradley apparently videotaped his sex acts. The documents said Bradley repeatedly molested his child patients as their parents sat nearby and unsuspecting outside the waiting room of his BayBee’s Pediatrics clinic.
#3 Jerry Sandusky
Jerry Sandusky was supposed to be a role model. He was an assistant football coach at Penn State and he was heavily involved in charity work.
But it turns out that it was all a lie. In fact, a whole bunch of people involved in the Penn State football program knew what was going on and did not report it.
In the end, Jerry Sandusky was found guilty of 45 counts of sexually abusing young boys. He has become a national symbol of the depravity which is rotting away the very heart of this nation.
#4 Man That Kept His Wife Chained Up For 10 Years
What would you do to a man that kept his wife chained up for ten years?
According to one West Virginia news source, that is exactly what one man down in West Virginia did….
Earlier this month, Lizon was arrested after police say he kept his wife, Stephanie, chained up for nearly a decade in their home along Miller Hollow Road in Leroy, W.Va.
Lizon is accused of smashing Stephanie’s feet with farm equipment and hitting her with a hot frying pan.
Police say she also had a miscarriage because of the abuse and was forced to have another baby while still chained.
#5 Serial Foot-Licker In New York
Did serial foot-lickers even exist back in the 1950s?
Why are there so many of them running around today?
The following is from the New York Daily News….
Police have a possible serial foot-licker in custody after a 49-year-old man was arrested for inappropriately touching two young girls at an upstate New York library.
Anthony Parri allegedly took off a child’s shoe and rubbed the girl’s foot against his nose and mouth in one of two incidents Tuesday at Penfield Library, according to reports.
One of the alleged attacks happened in an open area in the children’s section, library director Bernadette Brickman told WHAM, ABC’s affiliate in Rochester. The child’s mom and a library employee witnessed the abuse and called the cops, according to the station.
#6 Houston Police Officer Accused Of Raping A Woman While On Duty
Who is supposed to keep all of these sickos under control?
The police?
Sadly, the police often are the sickos.
The following is from the Houston Chronicle….
DNA evidence has linked a Houston police officer to a rape he allegedly committed while on duty last month, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
Officer Adan Jimenez Carranza, 32, was being held Friday at the Harris County Jail under a $30,000 bond, charged with aggravated sexual assault of a woman June 18 after a minor traffic accident, court records show.
#7 Philadelphia Police Officer Makes 14 Year Old Girl Watch Him Have Sex With A Prostitute After Sexually Assaulting Her
If we can’t trust the police, then who can we trust?
Recently there have been a bunch of reports of sexual misconduct by police in the national news.
The following is how Fox News described one particularly disturbing incident from the Philadelphia area….
A Philadelphia cop was arrested over allegations that he abducted a 14-year-old girl, sexually assaulted her and made her watch him have sex with a prostitute.
Police found Anthony Dattilo, 36, at a motel in the Bensalem area of the city Wednesday while responding to a possible abduction, according to the Bucks County Courier Times.
Dattilo, a 12-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, is reportedly in custody at the Bucks County prison on $500,000 bail.
#8 TSA Agent Spills Grandpa’s Ashes And Laughs About It
Almost every single day there is another TSA horror story in the news.
But what you are about to read is one of the worst of them all.
The following is from an ABC News article….
John Gross was leaving Florida with the remains of his grandfather in a tightly sealed jar marked “Human Remains, ” ABC Indianapolis affiliate RTV6 reported.
“They opened up my bag, and I told them, ‘Please, be careful. These are my grandpa’s ashes,’” Gross told the station. “She picked up the jar. She opened it up.”
Gross said the TSA agent used her finger to sift through the ashes and accidentally spilled it. He said one-third to one-half of the ashes spilled and that the agent laughed as he tried to gather what he could from the floor.
“She didn’t apologize. She started laughing. I was on my hands and knees picking up bone fragments. I couldn’t pick up all, everything that was lost. I mean, there was a long line behind me.”
#9 Connecticut Man Threatens To Cut The Tongue Out Of The Mouth Of A 3 Year Old Child
What kind of a man would hold up a knife and threaten to cut the tongue out of the mouth of a 3 year old kid?
Sadly, that is exactly what happened up in Connecticut recently.
The following is from a WFSB report about this incident….
Police in Vernon are investigating reports that a man held a knife to a child’s face and threatened to cut out his tongue.
On Friday, a woman named Heather Bonneville called police to inform them that a family acquaintance, who has been identified as Roman Fein, held the knife within inches of her 3-year-old son’s face before making the threat to cut his tongue out of his mouth.
#10 Naked “Cannibal” Threatens To Eat Police Officers Down In Georgia
Why are so many criminals getting naked lately?
Why are so many criminals trying to eat people?
The following is from a recent Daily Mail article….
Karl Laventure, 21, was believed to be high on bath salts when he tried to attack the officers in Lilburn, Georgia.
And after they had managed to subdue him he began threatening to eat them.
Laventure appeared out of some woods and was seen running naked around a golf range near Atlanta, swinging a club around his head and screaming.
Police said that it took several officers to subdue the man who had ‘super-human strength’.
#11 Public School Administrator In New York Fired For Not Participating In A Gay Orgy
Almost every day there is another story in the news about a new school sex scandal somewhere in America.
The following is from Courthouse News Service….
A public school administrator claims in court that his male boss sexually assaulted him in a hotel room after giving him pornography and trying to get him to join a foursome, then fired him for rebuffing the advances.
#12 Naked Florida Man Bites Chunk From Another Man’s Stomach
This year criminals in America seem to have become obsessed with chewing on human flesh.
The following example is from a recent Daily Mail article….
A naked man allegedly flew into a violent rampage, biting a chunk out of another man’s stomach after leaping from his roof onto a truck and urinating inside his home.
Officers responding to the scene needed backup to restrain Jeremiah Aaron Haughee with leg shackles, a spit hood and handcuffs after he continued fighting despite being Tasered five times.
Authorities did not carry out tests on Haughee to see if he was under the influence of any drugs.
Police first arrived at the home in Flagler Beach, Florida at 4.30 a.m. to find two men restraining the naked 22-year-old in a puddle of urine and glass.
#13 Father Who Killed His 3 Daughters Inside The Home Of His Ex-Wife
You know that society is really starting to break down when parents start killing their own children.
What one man up in Wisconsin is being charged with is absolutely horrific.
The following is from a recent CNN article….
A 34-year-old father was being held by authorities Wednesday in connection with the deaths of his three daughters, who were found inside his ex-wife’s Wisconsin home with the gas fireplace turned on, officials said.
#14 Pregnant Woman Set On Fire In Detroit
These days not even pregnant women are immune to violence.
What one pregnant woman up in Detroit went through recently is hard to stomach….
A 22-year-old pregnant woman survived after being bound, driven to Detroit, set on fire and shot early Saturday morning.
The woman, who was nine-months pregnant, had returned from a movie with her boyfriend and dropped him off at his house in Warren when she was approached from behind, Warren police Sgt. Dave Geffert said.
The woman’s hands, feet and eyes were bound with duct tape. She was then forced into her car and driven to an unknown place in Detroit where she was doused with lighter fluid, set on fire and shot once in the upper back, he said.
#15 New Jersey Man Throws His Own Intestines At Police
If the police were breaking into your home, would you cut out your own entrails and throw them at the police?
According to the Huffington Post, that is exactly what one man up in New Jersey did….
A New Jersey man allegedly cut out his entrails in front of police and then threw bits of his flesh and intestines at them.
The gruesome scene played out at a home in Hackensack, N.J., where 43-year-old Wayne Carter allegedly barricaded himself in on Sunday, NBC New York reported.
Officers got a call that morning when a witness said Carter was threatening to harm himself with a knife. Two cops responded, kicked in the door and found Carter in the corner, the station reported.
Carter allegedly ignored officers’ orders to put down the knife, and instead began stabbing himself in the abdomen, neck and legs.
#16 Naked Man Brutally Murders A Hotel Maid
Why would anyone want to kill a 62 year old cleaning woman?
Many of the crimes that are being committed today are absolutely senseless.
The following is how the CBS affiliate in Sacramento reported this story….
A naked man who may have been on drugs was arrested Saturday for killing a Tracy motel employee.
Andrew Carreiro, 25, is behind bars accused of killing the 62-year-old woman who cleans rooms at the Hacienda Inn on the 600 block of West 11th Street.
Witnesses say they found Carreiro covered in blood and standing near the partially naked body of the woman, say witnesses.
“[It’s] most definitely the craziest thing I’ve seen in my life, most definitely,” said Jermaine Haynes, a motel resident who made the gruesome discovery.
#17 Crack-Fueled Sickos Abduct A Female Jogger
These days you are not safe anywhere in the country.
Just check out what happened to one math teacher from Montana. The following is how a Daily Mail article described what two very sick drug addicts did to her….
After smoking crack cocaine over the entire trip, Waters allegedly told Spell the drug ‘brought the devil out in him’ and began talking about kidnapping and killing a female, AP reports.
After they spotted Arnold, Spell claims that Waters told him to ‘grab the lady’ and pull her into their Ford Explorer as she jogged by.
‘Spell said Waters got into the back seat with the female and “choked her out”,’ the affidavit states.
After dropping Arnold’s body in a rural area of North Dakota later that night, Waters bought a shovel at a nearby Walmart. They buried the body in a two- to three-feet-deep hole on an old farmstead.
#18 Female Teacher Has Sex With Four Male Students
Why are so many public school teachers having sex with their students?
Don’t they realize that they will inevitably get caught?
Aren’t the dozens of other school sex scandals in the news sufficient warnings?
The following is from the NBC affiliate in Tucson, Arizona….
A new police report reveals racy, disturbing details of the alleged relationships between an Ironwood Ridge High School teacher and four of her students.
Oro Valley Police picked up Melissa Dalton April 30th booking her on four counts of sexual conduct with a minor.
She posted bail and got out the next day.
Subsequently more Ironwood Ridge students came forward with more allegations. That prompted the Oro Valley Police Department to add eight more counts including six of sex with a minor.
Melissa Dalton was in her first year teaching at Ironwood Ridge High School. The 33 year old is a wife and mother.
#19 Texas House Of Horrors
The nightmares that were happening in one quiet house in Texas are so horrifying that it is hard to find the words to describe them.
The following is from a New York Daily News article….
Texas authorities said Tuesday they removed 11 children from a crowded home where a registered sex offender lives after they found eight confined in a small, dark bedroom with restraints tying some to their beds.
Along with the children, 10 adults were living in the one-story, 1,700-square-foot home in Dayton, about 30 miles northeast of Houston, Child Protective Services spokeswoman Gwen Carter said. One month after a raid on the house, authorities are still trying to determine how the children are related and why they were there, she said.
#20 Florida Man Bites The Lips Off Of A Kitten
What kind of a monster would bite the lips off of a kitten?
It is hard to imagine anyone actually doing such a thing, but according to WKMG this apparently happened….
A Palm Coast man was arrested on suspicion of biting the lips off a kitten and strangling another cat.
Angel Vega Roman, 28, was arrested Saturday and charged with cruelty to animals.
According to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, Roman told an acquaintance that he accidentally choked his roommates’ kitten a couple of weeks ago and bit the lips off another black and white kitten named Oreo. Roman also tortured Oreo by burning its ear and whiskers with a lighter, a sheriff’s report stated.
I know that I used a lot of disturbing examples in this article, but I wanted to make my point very strongly.
James Holmes is not an isolated case. America is literally being overrun by sickos and monsters.
In the old days, our societal institutions were strong and they helped to tie us together.
But today there is very, very little that ties us together and keeps us grounded. Faith in almost every major institution in society is very low and our families are falling apart.
The percentage of adult Americans that are married right now is at an all-time low. The percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation at all is at an all-time high.
Our society is rotting from the inside out and many of our formerly great cities are degenerating into absolute hellholes.
Fixing America is not just a matter of fixing our economic system or our political system.
Fixing America is going to take a whole lot more than that.
So what do all of you think about this?
Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below….
View full post on The Economic Collapse
Other • I want to be alone: the rise and rise of solo living
The number of people living alone has skyrocketed. What is driving the phenomenon? And solo dwellers Colm Tóibín, Alex Zane, Carmen Calli and others reflect on life as a singleton
Eric Klinenberg
guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 March 2012 23.00 BST
Article history
The one and only: Why do more and more of us now live alone? Photograph: detail from image in the forthcoming book Out My Window, by Gail Albert Halaban
Human societies, at all times and places, have organised themselves around the will to live with others, not alone. But not any more. During the past half-century, our species has embarked on a remarkable social experiment. For the first time in human history, great numbers of people – at all ages, in all places, of every political persuasion – have begun settling down as singletons. Until the second half of the last century, most of us married young and parted only at death. If death came early, we remarried quickly; if late, we moved in with family, or they with us. Now we marry later. We divorce, and stay single for years or decades. We survive our spouses, and do everything we can to avoid moving in with others – including our children. We cycle in and out of different living arrangements: alone, together, together, alone.
Numbers never tell the whole story, but in this case the statistics are startling. According to the market research firm Euromonitor International, the number of people living alone globally is skyrocketing, rising from about 153 million in 1996 to 277 million in 2011 – a 55% increase in 15 years. In the UK, 34% of households have one person living in them and in the US it’s 27% – roughly one in every seven adults.
Contemporary solo dwellers in the US are primarily women: about 18 million, compared with 14 million men. The majority, more than 16 million, are middle-aged adults between the ages of 35 and 64. The elderly account for about 11 million of the total. Young adults between 18 and 34 number more than 5 million, compared with 500,000 in 1950, making them the fastest-growing segment of the solo-dwelling population. Unlike their predecessors, people who live alone today cluster together in metropolitan areas.
Sweden has more solo dwellers than anywhere else in the world, with 47% of households having one resident; followed by Norway at 40%. In Scandinavian countries their welfare states protect most citizens from the more difficult aspects of living alone. In Japan, where social life has historically been organised around the family, about 30% of all households have a single dweller, and the rate is far higher in urban areas. The Netherlands and Germany share a greater proportion of one-person households than the UK. And the nations with the fastest growth in one-person households? China, India and Brazil.
But despite the worldwide prevalence, living alone isn’t really discussed, or understood. We aspire to get our own places as young adults, but fret about whether it’s all right to stay that way, even if we enjoy it. We worry about friends and family members who haven’t found the right match, even if they insist that they’re OK on their own. We struggle to support elderly parents and grandparents who find themselves living alone after losing a spouse, but we are puzzled if they tell us they prefer to remain alone.
In all of these situations, living alone is something that each person, or family, experiences as the most private of matters, when in fact it is an increasingly common condition.
When there is a public debate about the rise of living alone, commentators present it as a sign of fragmentation. In fact, the reality of this great social experiment is far more interesting – and far less isolating – than these conversations would have us believe. The rise of living alone has been a transformative social experience. It changes the way we understand ourselves and our most intimate relationships. It shapes the way we build our cities and develop our economies.
So what is driving it? The wealth generated by economic development and the social security provided by modern welfare states have enabled the spike. One reason that more people live alone than ever before is that they can afford to. Yet there are a great many things that we can afford to do but choose not to, which means the economic explanation is just one piece of the puzzle.
In addition to economic prosperity, the rise stems from the cultural change that Émile Durkheim, a founding figure in sociology in the late 19th century, called the cult of the individual. According to Durkheim, this cult grew out of the transition from traditional rural communities to modern industrial cities. Now the cult of the individual has intensified far beyond what Durkheim envisioned. Not long ago, someone who was dissatisfied with their spouse and wanted a divorce had to justify that decision. Today if someone is not fulfilled by their marriage, they have to justify staying in it, because there is cultural pressure to be good to one’s self.
Another driving force is the communications revolution, which has allowed people to experience the pleasures of social life even when they’re living alone. And people are living longer than ever before – or, more specifically, because women often outlive their spouses by decades, rather than years – and so ageing alone has become an increasingly common experience.
Although each person who develops the capacity to live alone finds it an intensely personal experience, my research suggests that some elements are widely shared. Today, young solitaires actively reframe living alone as a mark of distinction and success. They use it as a way to invest time in their personal and professional growth. Such investments in the self are necessary, they say, because contemporary families are fragile, as are most jobs, and in the end each of us must be able to depend on ourselves. On the one hand, strengthening the self means undertaking solitary projects and learning to enjoy one’s own company. But on the other it means making great efforts to be social: building up a strong network of friends and work contacts.
Living alone and being alone are hardly the same, yet the two are routinely conflated. In fact, there’s little evidence that the rise of living alone is responsible for making us lonely. Research shows that it’s the quality, not the quantity of social interactions that best predicts loneliness. What matters is not whether we live alone, but whether we feel alone. There’s ample support for this conclusion outside the laboratory. As divorced or separated people often say, there’s nothing lonelier than living with the wrong person.
There is also good evidence that people who never marry are no less content than those who do. According to research, they are significantly happier and less lonely than people who are widowed or divorced.
In theory, the rise of living alone could lead to any number of outcomes, from the decline of community to a more socially active citizenry, from rampant isolation to a more robust public life. I began my exploration of singleton societies with an eye for their most dangerous and disturbing features, including selfishness, loneliness and the horrors of getting sick or dying alone. I found some measure of all of these things. On balance, however, I came away convinced that the problems related to living alone should not define the condition, because the great majority of those who go solo have a more rich and varied experience.
Sometimes they feel lonely, anxious and uncertain about whether they would be happier in another arrangement. But so do those who are married or live with others. The rise of living alone has produced significant social benefits, too. Young and middle-aged solos have helped to revitalise cities, because they are more likely to spend money, socialise and participate in public life.
Despite fears that living alone may be environmentally unsustainable, solos tend to live in apartments rather than in big houses, and in relatively green cities rather than in car-dependent suburbs. There’s good reason to believe that people who live alone in cities consume less energy than if they coupled up and decamped to pursue a single-family home.
Ultimately, it’s too early to say how any particular society will respond to either the problems or the opportunities generated by this extraordinary social transformation. After all, our experiment with living alone is still in its earliest stages, and we are just beginning to understand how it affects our own lives, as well as those of our families, communities and cities.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ … olo-living
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Sat Mar 31, 2012 2:15 am
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
American • Re: In case you thought we were alone …
March 04, 2012
‘When the Real Margin Call Arrives, the Carnage Will Be Unimaginable’
http://www.financialarmageddon.com/
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:08 am
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
American • In case you thought we were alone …
In case you thought we were alone …
SATURDAY, MARCH 03, 2012
In case you were still thinking that we at TAE are alone in our view of the financial and economic system, how about Ronald Reagan’s Budget Director from ’81-’85, and the man behind the biggest tax cut in US history, agreeing point for point with TAE on where we stand – on the edge of an abyss far worse than Lehman’s – and where you should hold your money – cash if you have little to spare, plus short term bonds if you have some more, and gold if you’re so loaded (like Stockman is) that you can hang on to it long enough -.
He was an architect of one of the biggest tax cuts in U.S. history. He spent much of his career after politics using borrowed money to take over companies. He targeted the riskiest ones that most investors shunned — car-parts makers, textile mills.
That is one image of David Stockman, the former White House budget director who, after resigning in protest over deficit spending, made a fortune in corporate buyouts.
But spend time with him and you discover this former wunderkind of the Reagan revolution is many other things now — an advocate for higher taxes, a critic of the work that made him rich and a scared investor who doesn’t own a single stock for fear of another financial crisis.
Stockman suggests you’d be a fool to hold anything but cash now, and maybe a few bars of gold. He thinks the Federal Reserve’s efforts to ease the pain from the collapse of our “national leveraged buyout” — his term for decades of reckless, debt-fueled spending by government, families and companies — is pumping stock and bond markets to dangerous heights.
Known for his grasp of budgetary minutiae, first as a Michigan congressman and then as Reagan’s budget director, Stockman still dazzles with his command of numbers. Ask him about jobs, and he’ll spit out government estimates for non-farm payrolls down to the tenth of a decimal point. Prod him again and, as from a grim pinata, more figures spill out: personal consumption expenditures, credit market debt and the clunky sounding but all-important non-residential fixed investment.
Stockman may seem as exciting as an insurance actuary, but he knows how to tell a good story. And the punch line to this one is gripping. He says the numbers for the U.S. don’t add up to anything but a painful, slow-growing future.
Now 65 and gray, but still wearing his trademark owlish glasses, Stockman took time from writing his book about the financial collapse, “The Triumph of Crony Capitalism,” to talk to The Associated Press at his book-lined home in Greenwich, Conn.
Within reach was Dickens’ “Hard Times” — two copies.
Below are excerpts, edited for clarity.
Q: Why are you so down on the U.S. economy?
A: It’s become super-saturated with debt.
Typically the private and public sectors would borrow $1.50 or $1.60 each year for every $1 of GDP growth. That was the golden constant. It had been at that ratio for 100 years save for some minor squiggles during the bottom of the Depression. By the time we got to the mid-’90s, we were borrowing $3 for every $1 of GDP growth. And by the time we got to the peak in 2006 or 2007, we were actually taking on $6 of new debt to grind out $1 of new GDP.
People were taking $25,000, $50,000 out of their home for the fourth refinancing. That’s what was keeping the economy going, creating jobs in restaurants, creating jobs in retail, creating jobs as gardeners, creating jobs as Pilates instructors that were not supportable with organic earnings and income.
It wasn’t sustainable. It wasn’t real consumption or real income. It was bubble economics.
So even the 1.6 percent (annual GDP growth in the past decade) is overstating what’s really going on in our economy.
Q: How fast can the U.S. economy grow?
A: People would say the standard is 3, 3.5 percent. I don’t even know if we could grow at 1 or 2 percent. When you have to stop borrowing at these tremendous rates, the rate of GDP expansion stops as well.
Q: But the unemployment rate is falling and companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 are making more money than ever.
A: That’s very short-term. Look at the data that really counts. The 131.7 million (jobs in November) was first achieved in February 2000. That number has gone nowhere for 12 years.
Another measure is the rate of investment in new plant and equipment. There is no sustained net investment in our economy. The rate of growth since 2000 (in what the Commerce Department calls non-residential fixed investment) has been 0.8 percent — hardly measurable.
(Non-residential fixed investment is the money put into office buildings, factories, software and other equipment.)
We’re stalled, stuck.
Q: What will 10-year Treasurys yield in a year or five years?
A: I have no guess, but I do know where it is now (a yield of about 2 percent) is totally artificial. It’s the result of massive purchases by not only the Fed but all of the other central banks of the world.
Q: What’s wrong with that?
A: It doesn’t come out of savings. It’s made up money. It’s printing press money. When the Fed buys $5 billion worth of bonds this morning, which it’s doing periodically, it simply deposits $5 billion in the bank accounts of the eight dealers they buy the bonds from.
Q: And what are the consequences of that?
A: The consequences are horrendous. If you could make the world rich by having all the central banks print unlimited money, then we have been making a mistake for the last several thousand years of human history.
Q: How does it end?
A: At some point confidence is lost, and people don’t want to own the (Treasury) paper. I mean why in the world, when the inflation rate has been 2.5 percent for the last 15 years, would you want to own a five-year note today at 80 basis points (0.8 percent)?
If the central banks ever stop buying, or actually begin to reduce their totally bloated, abnormal, freakishly large balance sheets, all of these speculators are going to sell their bonds in a heartbeat.
That’s what happened in Greece.
Here’s the heart of the matter. The Fed is a patsy. It is a pathetic dependent of the big Wall Street banks, traders and hedge funds. Everything (it does) is designed to keep this rickety structure from unwinding. If you had a (former Fed Chairman) Paul Volcker running the Fed today 7/8— utterly fearless and independent and willing to scare the hell out of the market any day of the week — you wouldn’t have half, you wouldn’t have 95 percent, of the speculative positions today.
Q: You sound as if we’re facing a financial crisis like the one that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
A: Oh, far worse than Lehman. When the real margin call in the great beyond arrives, the carnage will be unimaginable.
Q: How do investors protect themselves? What about the stock market?
A: I wouldn’t touch the stock market with a 100-foot pole. It’s a dangerous place. It’s not safe for men, women or children.
Q: Do you own any shares?
A: No.
Q: But the stock market is trading cheap by some measures. It’s valued at 12.5 times expected earnings this year. The typical multiple is 15 times.
A: The typical multiple is based on a historic period when the economy could grow at a standard rate. The idea that you can capitalize this market at a rate that was safe to capitalize it in 1990 or 1970 or 1955 is a large mistake. It’s a Wall Street sales pitch.
Q: Are you in short-term Treasurys?
A: I’m just in short-term, yeah. Call it cash. I have some gold. I’m not going to take any risk.
Q: Municipal bonds?
A: No.
Q: No munis, no stocks. Wow. You’re not making any money.
A: Capital preservation is what your first, second and third priority ought to be in a system that is so jerry-built, so fragile, so exposed to major breakdown that it’s not worth what you think you might be able to earn over six months or two years or three years if they can keep the bailing wire and bubble gum holding the system together, OK? It’s not worth it.
Q: Give me your prescription to fix the economy.
A: We have to eat our broccoli for a good period of time. And that means our taxes are going to go up on everybody, not just the rich. It means that we have to stop subsidizing debt by getting a sane set of people back in charge of the Fed, getting interest rates back to some kind of level that reflects the risk of holding debt over time. I think the federal funds rate ought to be 3 percent or 4 percent. (It is zero to 0.25 percent.) I mean, that’s normal in an economy with inflation at 2 percent or 3 percent.
Q: Social Security?
A: It has to be means-tested. And Medicare needs to be means-tested. If you’re a more affluent retiree, you should have your benefits cut back, pay a higher premium for Medicare.
Q: Taxes?
A: Let the Bush tax cuts expire. Let the capital gains go back to the same rate as ordinary income. (Capital gains are taxed at 15 percent, while ordinary income is taxed at marginal rates up to 35 percent.)
Q: Why?
A: Why not? I mean, is return on capital any more virtuous than some guy who’s driving a bus all day and working hard and trying to support his family? You know, with capital gains, they give you this mythology. You’re going to encourage a bunch of more jobs to appear. No, most of capital gains goes to speculators in real estate and other assets who basically lever up companies, lever up buildings, use the current income to pay the interest and after a holding period then sell the residual, the equity, and get it taxed at 15 percent. What’s so brilliant about that?
Q: You worked for Blackstone, a financial services firm that focuses on leveraged buyouts and whose gains are taxed at 15 percent, then started your own buyout fund. Now you’re saying there’s too much debt. You were part of that debt explosion, weren’t you?
A: Well, yeah, and maybe you can learn something from what happens over time. I was against the debt explosion in the Reagan era. I tried to fight the deficit, but I couldn’t. When I was in the private sector, I was in the leveraged buyout business. I finally learned a heck of a lot about the dangers of debt.
I’m a libertarian. If someone wants to do leveraged buyouts, more power to them. If they want to have a brothel, let them run a brothel. But it doesn’t mean that public policy ought to be biased dramatically to encourage one kind of business arrangement over another. And right now public policy and taxes and free money from the Fed are encouraging way too much debt, way too much speculation and not enough productive real investment and growth.
Q: Why are you writing a book?
A: I got so outraged by the bailouts of Wall Street in September 2008. I believed that Bush and (former Treasury Secretary Hank) Paulson were totally trashing the Reagan legacy, whatever was left, which did at least begin to resuscitate the idea of free markets and a free economy. And these characters came in and panicked and basically gave capitalism a smelly name and they made it impossible to have fiscal discipline going forward. If you’re going to bail out Wall Street, what aren’t you going to bail out? So that started my re-engagement, let’s say, in the policy debate.
Q: Are you hopeful?
A: No.
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Statistics: Posted by yoda — Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:39 pm
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