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The more spacious and larger our fundamental nature,
the more bearable the pains in living.
– Wayne Muller
An aging Hindu master grew tired of his apprentice complaining, and so, one morning, sent him for some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water, and then to drink it.
“How does it taste?” the master asked.
“Bitter,” spit the apprentice.
The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake, and once the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man said, “Now drink from the lake.”
As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the master asked, “How does it taste?”
“Fresh,” remarked the apprentice.
“Do you taste the salt?” asked the master.
“No,” said the young man.
At this, the master sat beside this serious young man who so reminded him of himself and took his hands, offering, “The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the

Tension filled the cramped, block-wall room in the Guatemalan highlands as indigenous leaders sat across from negotiators for ENEL, an Italian-based energy company building a $228-million hydro-electric dam in the area. Local Mayan Ixhil leaders hoped the presence of a renowned Catholic archbishop, a prominent Presbyterian clergyman and a Mennonite development worker from the U.S. — me — would improve their chances in the high-stakes negotiations.
Community leaders in the heavily Catholic area first invited us to be part of the talks in May 2011, when ENEL agreed to sit down with indigenous peoples on whose ancestral lands the Palo Viejo Dam is being

In the past year I’ve been grappling with the dreams I’ve watch die out like an insignificant ember in a campfire of despair. I fantasized of being a worldly professor, but not before I made my debut as a feature filmmaker, which naturally I would achieve by my 30th birthday. My vision was directing a magnificent opus that would cause the world to strew gilded rose petals at my feet. By the age of 29, being a professor happened, but my opus didn’t.
When I was a few months away from 30 and nowhere near making a big budget film, I panicked, frantically IMDBing every filmmaker I ever loved, realizing that each and every one of them made their first feature by

The Millennium Village Project (MVP) was launched in 2005-6 in order to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals in the poorest regions of rural Africa. A dozen clusters of villages around Africa have adopted bold and novel strategies to overcome poverty, hunger, and disease. Halfway through the project, the results are very exciting: agriculture production is soaring, free basic health care is in place, malaria is coming under control, many more children are in school, and farmers are organizing cooperatives to diversify their crops and raise incomes.
The core idea of the project is that poor rural communities can take on several initiatives simultaneously in a strategy that is sometimes called “integrated development.” In the case of the Millennium Villages, five areas of community life are prioritized: agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, and business

Writer and thinker George Gilder has challenged Americans throughout his career. His book Wealth and Poverty ought to be required reading at the White House, but isn’t. There’s no indication from the disastrous policies pursued by this administration that anyone there has ever read this important work. (We might suggest it, though, for all those Occupiers of Wall

Bored, Drunk & Hiding In Mexico While The World Spins
Mid-afternoon in Salsita’s Caf, a garishly authentic dive near the historic town square of San Jose, Mexico. The glorious quiet is accented with an aroma of fresh salsa fresca and bean spices wafting from its kitchen, inspiring a wave to our friendly barkeep for a lunch menu. My wife sips Tequila staring at the tiny television flickering weirdly violent images across its screen.
“Black Friday is underway in the US,” a British voice intones with the kind of blissful sarcasm best presented from a BBC anchorman witnessing the stampede of consumer

Source:Associated Press
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INDIANAPOLIS — This time, Wisconsin got the stop it needed against Michigan State — and a big break to wrap up its second straight Big Ten crown.Montee Ball scored four touchdowns, including a 7-yard score with 3:45 left in Saturday night’s first Big Ten championship game, giving the 15th-ranked Badgers a 42-39 come-from-behind victory over No. 11 Michigan State.Wisconsin (11-2) now heads to the Rose Bowl where it will face Pac-12 champion Oregon on Jan. 2.The Badgers turned the tables on Michigan State (10-3), which won the first meeting in October on a long, last-second deflected touchdown pass.On Saturday, it was the Badgers who scored late, forced a punt and managed to run out the clock when the Isaiah Lewis was called for running into the kicker, giving the Badgers a first down with 1:37 left in the game and Michigan State out of timeouts.Ball was spectacular early, topping 100 yards in the first quarter, and efficient late, scoring twice in the fourth quarter to rally the Badgers. His 38 TDs scored this season are one short of Barry Sanders’ FBS mark (39).But Russell Wilson was named the game’s MVP after going 17 of 24 for 187 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Wilson also broke an NCAA record by throwing a TD pass on the Badgers’ opening possession, giving Wilson 37 consecutive games with a TD pass, one more than Graham Harrell’s previous mark at Texas Tech.The loss ruined a pregame prediction by Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio that his team would win and earn the Rose Bowl bid.It wasn’t for lack of trying. Dantonio’s team ran a fourth-down pass play, called a fake extra point and even got an impromptu lateral for a score — just in the first half.Kirk Cousins made most of it work. Only one of his 17 first-half passes hit the ground in the first half, and he wound up 22 of 30 for 281 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.But it was his ability to fool the normally stout Badgers’ defense that nearly got the Spartans to Pasadena, Calif.On fourth-and-1 in the second quarter, he got Wisconsin to bite on a fake pitch and hooked up with a wide open B.J. Cunningham for a 30-yard TD pass to cut the deficit to 21-14.On its next possession, Michigan State receiver Keith Nichol, who wrestled the Hail Mary pass across the goal line to beat Wisconsin in October, beat the Badgers again. This time, he caught a short pass from Cousins and just before stepping out of bounds lateraled to Cunningham, who ran the final 4 yards for a TD. Michigan State then called for a fake extra point that Brad Sontag ran in to make it 22-21.Not enough?After playing conventional football for most of the next two quarters and still leading 36-34, the Spartans lined up two different players in the Wildcat formation, ran a reverse and drove for a 25-yard field goal to make it 39-34 with 8:31 left in the game.But just like the first meeting, the Badgers answered.Wilson led Wisconsin on an eight-play, 64-yard scoring march, converting a fourth-and-6 when Wilson scrambled, threw back across the field and Jeff Duckworth made a spectacular adjustment to haul in a 36-yard pass. On the next play, Ball burst up the middle for a 7-yard TD, his fourth score of the night Wilson scrambled again on the conversion, finding Jacob Pedersen to give Wisconsin a 42-39 lead.Keshawn Martin had a career high nine receptions for 115 yards, the second 100-yard game of his career.
Links:Full news story
Source:espn.go.com

A great journalist, and my longtime friend, Sean Holton lost his 28-month battle with brain cancer this week, but not without leaving behind a journal of his struggle that inspired family, friends, and colleagues — plus thousands who had never even met him, especially those who are dealing with cancer in their own lives. His blog says it all, beginning with the first diagnosis in August, 2009.
read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

Source:Associated Press
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ATLANTA — LSU slogged its way through a brutal first half. The nation’s top-ranked team had only 12 yards and not even a single first down.The “Honey Badger” didn’t care.He just took what he wanted — a trip to the national championship game.Tyrann Mathieu turned in an MVP performance when the Tigers needed him most, running back a punt 62 yards for a touchdown, setting up another score with a fumble recovery and finally finishing off Georgia (No. 14 BCS, No. 12 AP) with his best play yet, a whirling dervish of a return that led to the decisive TD of a 42-10 victory in the Southeastern Conference championship game Saturday.LSU (13-0) advanced to a spot in the BCS title game in New Orleans, just 75 miles from its Baton Rouge campus. The Tigers opponent will be announced Sunday night, but SEC West rival and No. 2 Alabama — already beaten by the Tigers 9-6 in overtime a month ago — had the inside track even though it didn’t win its division.
SEC blog
ESPN.com’s Chris Low and Edward Aschoff write about all things SEC football in the conference blog.
More:
• ESPN.com’s DawgNation
• Blog network: College Football Nation
The Bulldogs tried to really shake things up, racing to a 10-0 lead that could’ve been even bigger if they hadn’t dropped a pair of potential touchdown passes in the first quarter. LSU looked downright awful on offense, going three-and-out on all seven of its possessions before halftime.But, thanks to Mathieu, the deficit was only 10-7 when the teams went to the locker room. He took a punt at his own 38, found an opening and was gone — all the way to the end zone for his second punt return for a touchdown in as many weeks. Well, almost to the end zone. A replay showed Mathieu flipped the ball to an official just before he crossed the goal line, but no one on the field caught the blunder.That was long forgotten by the time the fearless sophomore was done.On Georgia’s first possession of the second half, quarterback Aaron Murray tried to scramble for a first down but had the ball knocked loose just before he hit the turf. Who was there to fall on it at the Bulldogs 26?Mathieu, of course, his fifth fumble recovery of the season.LSU quickly seized its first lead. The Tigers finally picked up a first down, then freshman Kenny Hilliard broke off a 15-yard run for the first of his three touchdowns. Normally, that would’ve been more than enough to win the game’s MVP award. Not even close on this day.Mathieu, whose nickname comes from a humorous YouTube video about supposedly the world’s more fearless animal (“Honey Badger don’t care, he just takes what he wants,” the narrator says), dropped back to receive another punt. About the only thing the Bulldogs managed to do was keep him out of the end zone.The 5-foot-9, 175-pounder cradled the ball, took off down the center of the field, cut back to his left, stutter-stepped and turned on a burst of speed, basically came to a stop around the Georgia 30, then took off again and was finally dragged down at the 17.He avoided or broke away from at least eight of the 11 red-clad guys trying to bring him down, a Heisman-worthy play that should be enough to at least get him to New York for the banquet — if not earn him serious consideration for the award as the nation’s top player. Certainly, no defensive player has come up with more big plays.Mathieu has scored four touchdowns this season: Two on returns, two more from his cornerback spot. He’s forced six fumbles. He’s picked off two passes. He one of the top tacklers on one of the nation’s top defenses.LSU took control with a 21-point third quarter, coming back from a double-digit deficit for the second week in a row and leaving little doubt that it’s the best team in country heading into bowl season. The only other unbeaten team, Houston, was blown out in the Conference USA championship game Saturday. All the other top teams have at least one loss.If there was ever a year when no playoff was needed, it’s this one. The Tigers have knocked off five teams in The ‘ current Top 25 — including three of the top eight. They’ll still have to win one more game to claim the BCS title, but a case can be made that they deserve to be voted No. 1 in the AP poll, no matter what happens Jan. 9 in the Big Easy.SEC East champion Georgia came into the game on a 10-game winning streak, and the Bulldogs showed no fear of LSU in the early going. Murray connected with Tavarres King on a 44-yard pass and could’ve had a TD when a pass across the middle went through King’s hands. They settled for Blair Walsh’s 40-yard field goal.Knowing he would have to throw caution to the wind to pull off the upset against a 13 1/2-point favorite, Georgia coach Mark Richt called an onside kick. It worked the perfection, Walsh bouncing the ball off the turf and high into the air. Alec Ogletree soared in to grab the ball beyond the necessary 10 yards, giving the Bulldogs another possession.They should’ve scored a touchdown. Instead, they wound up with nothing. Freshman Malcolm Mitchell dropped a pass right in his hands at the LSU 5 with no one around, and Walsh missed a 45-yard try.But LSU couldn’t do anything with the ball. The Tigers’ longest play in the first half was 9 yards. Eleven of their 21 plays went for zero or negative yards. Outside of Mathieu, punter Brad Wing was LSU’s best field-turning weapon, averaging 54.1 yards on his first seven punts.Both offenses stalled in the second quarter, managing a grand total of 2 yards — 1 for each team. Georgia went to the locker room with a commanding 135-12 lead in total yards, but certainly a sense it had missed its chance to put away an LSU team that had outscored No. 6 Arkansas 41-3 after falling into an early 14-0 hole the previous week.Hilliard scored on a 4-yard run after Mathieu’s second big return to make it 21-10, essentially enough to finish off the Bulldogs, but he then hauled in a 8-yard touchdown pass.The Tigers romped in the final period. Alfred Blue broke off a 48-yard touchdown run and Morris Claiborne returned an interception 45 yards for the final score. LSU won even though Jordan Jefferson completed only five passes and the offense totaled a mere 237 yards.Murray had a miserable day, completing just 16 of 40 for 163 yards with two interceptions. Georgia’s running game was non-existent with Isaiah Crowell hobbling on a sore ankle. The freshman had only 15 yards on 10 carries.
Links:Full news story
Source:espn.go.com

December’s days are to dwindle down to year’s-end, and I’m already into holiday time’s mental excursions. They’re taking me off-road a bit, into the byways of no-longer-mainstream media.
Staffers at the University of California Press have claimed over the past year or so some surprise at the success enjoyed by their publication (finally allowed by the author’s own jokey edict suppressing it for 100 years) of Mark Twain’s Autobiography. And the three-volume tome — unexpurgated, but written cagily, and yet still self-revealingly at times — has prompted me to pursue one of the great humorist’s own personal delights.
Twain in fact delighted in another humorist, one definitely worthy of his admiration, and a man who shared with him membership of the mordantly named “Damned Human Race Luncheon Club” — a gathering noted as much for cigars and wise-cracking cynicism as it was for any eating of lunch.
I speak of the virtually forgotten columnist, Finley Peter Dunne, who wrote in a range of Chicago newspapers – notably the now-dead Post and the now severely injured Tribune. Much of the time he spoke through the invented personage of “Martin

It was difficult to explain to my 5-year-old nephew how Santa Claus accessed our house when we had a roaring fire burning in the fireplace on Christmas Eve. It was a legitimate question, and one we as adults had not considered. Then it hit us. We had a second fireplace that was seldom used, and so we decided to tell him that this was Santa’s very own special

El Salvador is a country in transition working to consolidate its 19-year-old democracy. As the first opposition president to win office since the end of El Salvador’s civil war, President Mauricio Funes faces significant hurdles related to national unity, investor confidence, and social inclusion.
In addressing these challenges, he and other politicians look to the U.S. Ambassador to help create a neutral space in which to

Booking talent is probably the most entertaining aspect of my job.
It wasn’t always easy. Prior to 2006, when I called upon the big guns, CAA, WME, ICM, Paradigm, my calls were rarely, if ever, returned. I was representing a lesbian festival, by God, and with a small budget. Who could be bothered? Not the agencies.
In 2006, my event’s mission statement

While sitting in a Cairo caf just a couple blocks from Tahrir Square a couple months ago, I couldn’t help but notice the television in the corner broadcasting the evening news. Traditionally, TV news in Egypt and other Arab countries has consisted of the president (or king) giving a speech, greeting a foreign visitor, visiting a factory, or engaging in some other official function. This evening, however, the news was about a labor strike in Alexandria, relatives of those killed during the February revolution protesting outside the Interior Ministry, and ongoing developments in the pro-democracy struggles in Yemen and Syria.
Nothing could better illustrate the profound change in the Arab world over the past year: It is no longer simply the leaders who were the newsmakers. It is Arab peoples themselves.
The initial optimism that unarmed civil insurrections, like those that ousted the Tunisian and Egyptian dictators earlier this year, would soon sweep the Arab world in a manner that brought down Eastern Europe’s communist regimes in 1989 has

Maybe Blackbook365 just appeals to me because I’m as single as the shot of espresso in my soy latte, but I think this startup may be the most exciting new company I’ve seen in a long time.
Blackbook365 might be best described as Match.com meets The Sartorialist meets Gilt Groupe meets a group of Yentas. It’s bespoke online dating with a side of highbrow editorial. Simple, innovative and filling a need in society.
The company has been in development since the summer and launched about two weeks ago, on

I’m a big believer in the old adage, “Everything that needs to be done to improve government is being done somewhere, just not everywhere.” The key, of course, is sharing those lessons across agencies to improve performance government-wide.
Here’s a case in point. A few agencies have seen considerable improvements in the just released 2011 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings by directly addressing employee satisfaction, commitment and performance issues. The rankings, produced by my organization, the Partnership for Public Service, are the most comprehensive assessment of federal employee perceptions of their jobs and agencies, and are based on a government-wide survey conducted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Organizations struggling to improve their rankings would be wise to understand what successful agencies have done, and then adopt those strategies to build a more engaged and, ultimately, a more effective workforce.
I consulted with my colleague Erika Kaneko, our Best Places to Work agency services manager, on how agencies can make progress in improving their employee satisfaction and commitment. She noted that many of the biggest movers have followed some basic

In cruising the internet over the Thanksgiving holiday, one of the many things that caught my eye was an article by Zoe Williams in the Guardian suggesting that we should all ditch novels in favor of non-fiction.
Her argument basically boiled down to the claim that in dire, apocalyptic times like these, where we face the threat of global warming, financial crisis and political turmoil on a daily basis, we can’t afford to bury our heads in the airy-fairy world of fiction. Rather, we need to don our serious hats and seek to better understand the origin of earthquakes and trade deficits and the like.
I’m not sure I see that there’s necessarily a trade-off between the two. More to the point, however, I completely reject her premise that fiction is so obviously apolitical.
I don’t know what sort of fiction Ms. Williams is reading — and I hope, and rather suspect — that she wrote the article as a form of link-bait more than anything

Eagles at Seahawks, Thursday, December 1, 2011
I hate to say “I told you so,” particularly on this one, but I told you so.
Prediction: debacle
Reality: debacle
Stud of the Week: Continuing as the only bright spot in the whole damn season, LeSean McCoy. Dear Santa: could I please have a #25 ladies jersey in black this year?
Much like the 42-0 MNF mess in 2005, I confess that I didn’t watch to the end. After Vince Young threw his FOURTH pick with about four minutes left in the game, I turned to Chef Spouse and said, “That’s it. I’m out.”
Where do I even start in recapping the game?
DeSean

Discovering the Truth in Lying With a Rare Folk Trio
I am riding shotgun in a rented van crawling up Fourth Avenue with Common Rotation, a road weary L.A. folk trio who has taken a one-day respite from supporting the Indigo Girls’ American tour to back their favorite songwriter on a stopover in New York. The songwriter, Dan Bern, is not only one of the genre’s most prolific composers and thus the band’s hero and mentor, but also its neighbor — along with Bern’s fellow movie soundtrack songster, Mike Viola (Walk Hard and Get Him To The Greek), who lives a few doors down. For the moment, Bern is sprawled in the back amongst the instruments and duffel bags playing scrabble on his smart phone; a touring ritual that I discover later over Indian food has been going on for months between himself and members of CR no matter where they are or the hour of the day or night.
A mere five minutes have passed since our hurried salutations in front of Joe’s Pub near Astor Place, where the band would be playing a set before joining Bern on stage later in the

Good news for Hawaii, Newt Gingrich says that people receiving food stamps — or as they say in the government that Newt so desperately hopes to lead, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — are using their electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards to visit our nation’s archipelago paradise.
Just for fun let’s look at the impact the more than forty million SNAP recipients will have on Hawaii’s tourism statistics. According to Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism only about 350,000 to 500,000 tourists from the rest of the United States vacation there each month. More than forty million Americans get food stamps in the same time

Source:Associated Press
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CINCINNATI — Munchie Legaux threw a career-high three touchdown passes on Saturday, and Cincinnati’s defense got two scores of its own, setting up a 35-27 victory over Connecticut that left the Bearcats one of three teams sharing the Big East title.
Big East blog
ESPN.com’s Andrea Adelson writes about all things Big East in the conference blog.
• Blog network: College Football Nation
Although the Bearcats (9-3, 5-2) got their third title in four years, they likely will miss out on the league’s BCS bid. West Virginia (9-3, 5-2) will get it if, as expected, the Mountaineers (No. 23 BCS, No. 22 AP) are the highest-ranked Big East team in the final BCS standings.Louisville (7-5, 5-2) also shared the title and would have gotten the bid if the Bearcats had lost on Saturday. The Huskies (5-7, 3-4) didn’t have another upset in them.Lineman Walter Stewart plucked the ball from UConn quarterback Johnny McEntee’s passing hand in the end zone for Cincinnati’s first touchdown, and Drew Frey returned an interception 15 yards for a 14-0 lead.
Links:Full news story
Source:espn.go.com

Source:Associated Press
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HOUSTON — Austin Davis threw four touchdown passes and No. 24 Southern Mississippi ruined Houston’s perfect season and Bowl Championship Series hopes with a 49-28 victory over the Cougars (No. 6 BCS, No. 7 AP) on Saturday.It was star quarterback Case Keenum’s last home game for Houston for sure, and could’ve also been the finale for coach Kevin Sumlin, who has been mentioned as a top candidate for virtually every higher-profile job opening.Houston (12-1) was poised to impress a national-television audience and representatives from the Orange and Sugar Bowl, who attended Saturday’s game. Keenum could’ve also made one last case for an invitation to next week’s Heisman Trophy ceremony.
Dreams Crushed
Southern Mississippi held Houston to season lows in points, total offense and plays of 20 or more yards in the Conference USA championship game Saturday.
1st 12 games*
Saturday
PPG
52.7
28
Pass yds PG
449.7
373
Total off PG
613.3
428
Plays of 20+ yds
100
2
*Led FBS in all 4 categories
— ESPN Stats & Information
Instead, the Golden Eagles (11-2) turned it into their big day, shackling Houston’s high-powered offense and striking with several big plays of their own to win their first league title.Tracey Lampley caught two touchdown passes and the Golden Eagles became the first team to hold Houston, averaging more than 50 per game, below 35 points this season.Keenum completed 41 of 67 passes for 373 yards and two touchdowns. He became the first quarterback to reach 5,000 yards passing in three seasons, one more record to tack onto his magnificent career.The sixth-year senior bounced back from a torn knee ligament last season to become the Football Bowl Subdivision career records for total offense, yards passing and touchdown passes this year.The only goal left to reach was to carry the program to its first undefeated season and first BCS berth. Now, all the Cougars have to look forward to is a disappointing, lower-tier bowl and an uncertain future without Keenum and, maybe, without Sumlin.Speculation intensified this week when Mike Sherman was fired at nearby Texas A&M, where Sumlin worked as an offensive assistant for R.C. Slocum in 2001-02.The Cougars nimbly played through the groundswell of rumors in recent weeks, and vowed that they wouldn’t lose their focus leading up to the biggest game in program history.But it was obvious from the start on Saturday that the Cougars were off-kilter.Southern Miss jumped to a 14-0 lead before Keenum finally started clicking midway through the second quarter.Charles Sims gained 31 yards on a screen pass, and Keenum found Justin Johnson for a 9-yard touchdown pass with 7:48 left in the half.Keenum went 3 for 3 on the next series, hitting Johnson in stride down the middle for a tying 50-yard touchdown.Houston’s defense is vastly improved from last season, but it never got a handle on Davis, who also rushed for 47 yards.Davis found Dominique Sullivan for a 69-yard touchdown to put Southern Miss up 21-14 at the break.The Cougars looked just as shaky after halftime.Southern Miss’ Furious Bradley blocked Richie Leone’s punt, scooped up the loose ball and took it 11 yards for a score to make it 28-14.Deron Wilson intercepted a Keenum pass in the end zone, but the Cougars got it right back, when Houston’s Philip Steward picked off a deflected pass and returned it to the Southern Miss 5.Michael Hayes scored on the next play to cut the deficit to 28-21, and a Houston rally seemed to be coming.Instead, Lampley started the Golden Eagles’ next series with a 28-yard run and Southern Miss took more than four minutes off the clock before Desmond Johnson scored on a 17-yard scamper.The Cougars’ secondary broke down again in the final minute of the third quarter, when Davis found Lampley open down the sideline for a 61-yard touchdown and a 42-21 Southern Miss lead.Sumlin called his players together and gave them a fiery pep talk between the third and fourth quarters, but that changed nothing.Southern Miss linebacker Ronnie Thornton intercepted a Keenum pass and returned it 26 yards for a score with 2:41 left. As the Golden Eagles celebrated, Keenum unstrapped his helmet and slowly trudged off the field.The victory should fuel more rumors about Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora who, like Sumlin, is another hot name linked to various jobs. Fedora, completing his fourth season with the Golden Eagles, is a former offensive coordinator at Florida (2002-04) and Oklahoma State (2005-07).
Links:Full news story
Source:espn.go.com

American citizens are celebrating in the streets as their government snatched final victory in the War on Terror on 1 Dec. 2011 — through a maneuver that used legislative brilliance rather than bullets.
The moment of victory came when 61 senators passed a version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal year 2012 that allows the indefinite military detention on American soil of American citizens who are merely suspected of having connections to terrorism.
To understand the genius of this legislation, some background is necessary. The Patriot Act, passed before the dust of the collapsed World Trade Center had settled, had already removed the fourth amendment rights of Americans to privacy, allowing federal authorities access to the private affairs of individuals without any court

Do these sound like any political parties you know?
Onepercentocracy (one-per-cent-oc’-ra-cy) — a system of government where the most greedy and entitled are elected by the wealthiest and most powerful greedy and entitled, and where the 1% of members of society least likely to care about the remaining 99%, are continuing to be disproportionately and excessively rewarded with goods and services provided off the backs of people anywhere in the world that can provide them for the cheapest price (a.k.a. the “Yellers”).
Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc’-ra-cy) — a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of achieving, and where the members of society least likely to succeed or even to sustain themselves, are abundantly rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers (a.k.a. the “Whiners”).
read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com