SAR #13353

"Economic growth is the biggest destroyer of the ecology... People who think you can have a growing economy and a healthy environment are wrong. If we do not reduce our numbers, nature will do it for us. " Biologist Neil Dawe.

Help Yourself: Upset by the “despicable and barbaric' treatment in NYC of their (female) ambassador to the United Nation , Indian authorities removed the concrete security barriers protecting the US embassy in New Delhi.

Schizoid: U.S. housing starts jumped to nearly a six-year high in November, up 22% m/m and the highest level since Feb 2008 - just before the you-know-what. But mortgage applications are falling, and a large number of 'starts' was for the multi-family rental market and in absolute (not seasonally adjusted) numbers starts had the largest m/m drop in 5 years.

Conditional Phrase: Turns out that the folks at Facebook can see what you type, even if you change your mind and don't post the comment. It'll turn out that they aren't the only ones...

Medical Expense: Research shows that travel decreases your risk of a heart attack and helps promote healthy brains. Ask your doctor for a script for that trip to Paris.

Potato, Patahto: The citizenry feel the PCE inflation rate that includes food and energy comes closer to their experience while the economists at the Fed prefer the 'core PCE' data which is a better predictor of what future inflation will be. One size does not fit all.

Where's Waldo? If Waldo carries a cell phone, the NSA knows where he is, 24/7. If Waldo signs on the web, NSA knows where he went and what he did. If Waldo calls home, the NSA knows where he called from and how long he talked. And, Waldo, you'd best not look at those sites any more...

Christmas Seasoning: Jack Kingston (Repulsive - GA) says that poor kids should have to "sweep the floors" to get free school lunches. In Mississippi an assistant school principal, backed by the principal and the school board, forced "a pathetic dyke" to use the boys' bathroom.

Join The Club: Demonstrating just how poor a research tool self-reporting is, a new study revealed that one in every 200 U.S. women experienced ‘virgin pregnancy’. Gabriel's been busy.

Comedian: Senator Mark Udall wants the CIA to release a previously unknown, highly classified report detailing the torture conducted by the CIA and identifying the subjects tortured, the nature of the torture, and the so-far secret 'undisclosed locations' where the torture was carried out. And a pony. He wants a pony for Christmas, too. 
 
Passive Voice, Misuse of: The lead sentence "Since a nuclear weapon went off over Hiroshima.." should be changed to: "Since the United States, the only nation ever to use a nuclear weapon outside a test site, killed 60 to 80,000 civilians at Hiroshima..." 
 
If, Then: A US district court has ruled that Catholic employers can deny birth control health insurance coverage for their employees. And if you work for a Christian Scientists you get no health insurance at all. 
 
The Easy Way Out: By and large the political and social discussions about climate change and the crushing debt loads on future generations and running out of petroleum and all that sort of thing are a waste of time - these are not problems we need concern ourselves with, because we will all be dead. And we won't have to have a nuclear war to get there, either.

Doomed: The nation's drug czar says that our kids are inclined to 'experiment' with marijuana nearly as much as their grandparents did. 
 
Subtle Differences: If you ram your car into a crowd and kill 15 people gathered outside a church for a wedding (assuming you are not a rich 16 year-old Texan), you will be charged with homicide. If you are an Obama and you kill 15 Yemeni on their way to a wedding....

Though Police: In Texas, an appellate court has rulled that the local sheriff can get a search warant based on his guess that you are 'fixing to' commit a crime. Sometime soon. Maybe.

The Goal: NSA's prime objective is "the elimination of privacy, world-wide."

Straightened Face: Wal-Mart is selling a poster celebrating the Occupy Wall Street camp at Xuccotti Park. All proceeds will go to overthrowing the 1%, not.

The Parting Shot: 

Convento de Cristo, Tomar, Portugal