First Halloween in the new house. And children came, by the car loads it seemed. I was puzzled there were so many and candy grew short too quickly. Parents the wife explained bring them from neighborhoods where it’s not safe to walk door to door. More then a hundred by the time I put […]

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   Back in 1968 in one of his independent presidential candidacies, Alabama governor George Wallace famously said that there’s “not a dime’s worth of difference” between the Republican and Democrat Parties.  For the many who doubted him then, the past five years have proven him right. And that’s why I’m sitting out this election […]

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It’s Halloween again but this time with an edge as SAW III bags the premier spot among the box office grossers at 34.3$ million toppling off period drama The Prestige at 9.6$ million to no. three and Martin Scorcese’s The Departed at 9.8$ million to no.four. The film created such waves that one woman in Britain reportedly […]

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The New Zealand Medical Association has warned the public against taking party pills, even though they are legal in New Zealand. This warning comes because Benzylpiperazine, or BZP, can trigger hypothermia, seizures, paranoia, insomnia, anxiety, nausea, vomiting, palpitations and spasms of the muscle. Some of those side effects will occur if the person has taken […]

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 Hilary Swank, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts and now Reese Witherspoon - immediately after winning an oscar all of these leading ladies succumbed to a split from their partners after their big wins.That might be an unfortunate coincidence, but an interesting finding nevertheless.
To say that people were shocked by Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe’s sudden split […]

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What did democratic senator John Kerry exactly mean?That is the talking point in the country right now.
Senator Kerry has an unfortunate history of making rash comments which he is always unable to explain later simply because they are inexplicable.In the heat of campaign season he ends up telling college students that they should either study […]

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By Shaun Moore
The race in Washington’s 8th Congressional District is a microcosm of what Republicans are facing in races across the nation.
The 8th District seat was created in 1980 and has never been held by a Democrat. But socially liberal, fiscally conservative Republicans in Seattle’s eastside suburbs are fed up with the current atmosphere in […]

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These comments from former presidential candidate John Kerry have stirred up a lot of emotion. It’s a shame they haven’t stirred up more factual debate as well: Is it possible to get “stuck” in Iraq? And are soldiers really dumb?
On the first count, of course, we have an all-volunteer Army. People join the Army because […]

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Cindy Margolis has decided to show her buff in Playboy. For the record, until today, I didn’t know who Cindy was. Now I know she is the girl who pointed at refrigerators on the Price is Right. I’ve done my share of pointing at refrigerators and I’ve never considered honoring Playboy with my presence. And for the […]

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Anne and I made a very sad discovery last Friday morning. We drove out to Wynnum by the sea here in Brisbane with a 3-tier English morning tea from the very English Pommes teashop in mind and discovered that they will be closing down soon. What a loss! They make the best sausage rolls in […]

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Kerry Draws Fire Is it cruel to say “Again?”
The late Texas Governor Ann Richards once cracked that George Bush (senior) was born with a silver foot in his mouth, but one wonders today if it would be more appropriate to describe Senator John Kerry as so gifted. It used to be said, […]

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John Kerry is apparently in the news again.  I think he thought everybody might have forgotten about him, so he had to make a headline.  Speaking to students at Pasadena City College, Kerry first opened with a few good natured one-liners, then followed up with these words:  “You know, education, if you make the most of it, […]

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by Craig Dimitri
Arizona’s 8th CD is a microcosm of the nation’s political choices in 2006. It consists of the southeastern part of the state along the border with Mexico, it is held by a retiring, long-serving moderate Republican, and a young Democrat is poised to capture it.  Even the British have taken an interest in it, […]

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Sulphur Springs Valley was once beautiful. Now we are living in the wreckage, and most of us have forgotten how things got this bad.
Flowing and standing water was once common in the Valley. In 1872, a survey found water just ten feet down almost everywhere.
The Valley began to lose its water when the mining boom […]

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The controversy surrounding Michael J. Fox’s political ad supporting Claire McCaskill in the Missouri Senate race—and conservative commentary Rush Limbaugh’s comments regarding it—have sparked a whirlwind of media attention. You can hear about it, read about it and see stories about it on a variety of media outlets.
But what is the story, exactly? Is it […]

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This story about a study is interesting, contending that Internet access in an area is correlated with decreasing rape rates — and concluding that pornography reduces rape by venting sexuality. Steve Sailer has some credible criticisms of it here, and I come down somewhere between the two.
There are two topics here. One is whether rape […]

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… getting as upset as the right-wing hysteria machine thinks is appropriate over this now-famous clip of John Kerry’s recent remarks about the importance of an education.
John Kerry is guilty here of no more than Jerry Falwell is routinely guilty of: a clumsy locution. I don’t think he’s saying that people who volunteer to serve in […]

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I’m a strong proponent of the idea (even fact) that the media tilts left on a number of issues. But I’m still skeptical of this study that found (or at least is interpreted as having found) that the 2006 election has been covered in a biased manner.
The evidence collected:
“The study found that three out of […]

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The government’s abstinence only campaign is expanding its target audience to any unmarried persons, aged 29-years and under.  Abstinence education programs previously concentrated on preteens and teens, teaching them that abstaining from sex is the only acceptable method of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases and giving them no instructions on safer-sex methods, such as […]

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by Craig Dimitri
With national Republicans struggling to maintain their power on Capitol Hill and throughout America, an ironic discovery has been made: elephants can recognize themselves in mirrors.  This is in marked contrast to Republicans, who would be profoundly pessimistic, if they looked in the GOP’s collective mirror, with just a week till Election Day…
Elephants have […]

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In the wake of John Kerry’s slam against our men and women in uniform, a timely study from the Heritage Foundation disproves some conventional tropes of critics of the American military:
* the military draws mostly or disproportionately from the poorest Americans
* the military draws disproportionately from minority populations
* the military draws disproportionately from the poorly […]

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Conservatives, Liberals, You Must Read This!
By David Schussler
Go Ahead, It’s not very long!
The nebulous “conservative” and “liberal” labels are not one size fits all although I’m sure congress would debate that.  The issues that confront us today seem complicated, but, when broken down to their core, they are always simple. Let’s take today’s major political issues […]

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Fresh perspectives on today’s news by: Whymrhymer
Many Virginia citizens are dreading the day, just a week from now, when they have to choose a Senator to represent them for the next six years. According to the news media they really only have two choices: George Allen, the Republican and former Virginia Governor who has too […]

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By Pa Nderry M’Bai

Breaking News:Protocol Officer Puye Jobarteh Arrested-His House Computer Also seized!
Breaking News:Protocol Officer Puye Jobarteh Arrested-His House Computer Also seized!Worry and anxiety continues to grip the state house protocol office team, as the state is reported to have been trying to establish the people talking to the Freedom Newspaper. Few days ago our […]

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As we all now know, Halloween is actually called Rübengeisterschnitzen (gourd ghost carving) and was invited by witches in the small Black Forest towns of Hausach and Gutach near Freiburg many centuries ago.

Long before Americans came along with their globalized plastic Jack-o’-Lanterns and commercialized everything and ruined all the fun for everyone all over the […]

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By Theonest Asiimwe
East Africa Researcher GLCSS
Discussion started this week to merge the three East African bourses to form a single stock exchange market called the East Africa Stock Exchange. Once this is achieved, three East African bourses, the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE), Dar es Salaam stock Exchange (DSE) and Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) will set […]

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By Staff
GLCSS
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is in the last stage of its transition and will hold its determinant poll on 29 October. However, there have been clashes between President Kabila’s Alliance for the Presidential Majority (AMP) and Bemba’s Union for the Nation (UN) and violence was reported in some provinces. 
 
Kabila’s AMP showed […]

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By Fidel Munyeshyaka
Researcher Rwanda GLCSS
Political parties and human rights organizations in the country have supported and called for the removal of the death penalty from Rwanda’s penal code. Genocide survivors on the other hand have protested the move saying the punishment was an effective tool for deterring similar crimes in the future.
 
Discussions on the removal […]

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By Fidel Munyeshyaka
Research Burundi GLCSS
This week the Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report denouncing human rights abuses committed by the security services against the National Liberation Front (FNL) collaborators. The report comes at a time when the FNL rebels have refused to take part in the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism (JVMM) charged with […]

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The advance fee artists on the Internet are always looking for a way to make a quick buck.
When they targeted B&B owners, they might have bitten off more than they can chew on.
Here is a warning from “Pillows and Pancakes” - a magazine covering the B&B industry:
The end goal is to get the B&B owner […]

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By James Karuhanga
Senior Research Uganda GLCSS
 
The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development’s (MFPED) September 2006 Performance of the Economy report reveals an under performance in domestic tax revenue collection. This is largely attributed to the on-going energy crisis.
 
The report shows that although September’s Shs.196 billion tax revenue collection represented a five percent growth as […]

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An international women’s right and economic organization has reported that the life of average Afghan women has not changed after the fall of Taliban, with many women and girls continuing to face systematic discrimination and violence in their household and communities. The report by Womankind Worldwide, which works with partner organizations around the world, to […]

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[While Bush has been in office the U.S. deficit has jumped from $20 trillion to $43 trillion.  Needless to say this is a far walk out on very thin ice.  As a knowledgeable Canadian friend points out, it is just a matter of time before the Japanese, Chinese, and others who own us cash in […]

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It is a question that has been asked ever since jihadi terrorists set off bombs at the tourist resort town of Bali in Indonesia four years ago. As television images of hundreds of European and American tourists left dead and injured in the terror bombings streamed in, fears of Goa coming under the terrorists scanner […]

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