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This is what excessive wealth buys

Sheldon Adelson is working on a deal to develop a Las Vegas style gambling center in Spain (called Euro Vegas) where gambling has been banned for moral reasons.  He has already built an similar gambling center in Macau (People's Republic of China),  which helped Adelson build his wealth of approximately $25 billion dollars.  In Macau, his attempts to manipulate the government have drawn scrutiny from federal and Nevada investigators, but this has not deterred him from moving on with his plans for Spain.  Besides being an apparent manipulation of desperate people and countries, doesn't this all seem apocalyptic?  A man with more money than he, his family or generations of his family could ever spend seeks to accumulate even more wealth.  What is the point of his greed?  If Adelson showed an inordinate amount of philanthropy like Charles F. Feeney or even a more modest amount of philanthropy like Bill and Melinda Gates (which is still extraordinary), it would make sense, but t

Just an update to my Romney Ryan campaign poster

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So the republicans don't seem to mind Todd Akin's offensive remarks about what he calls "Legitimate Rape".  If they were truly opposed to what he said, why would they now be getting behind his campaign.  The GOP is corrupt and they aren't even good at hiding this fact. While the say their new voter ID laws are to prevent voter fraud, the only cases of fraud being investigated are those created by consulting agencies employed by the RNC.  They continue to promote the idea of Trickle down, while this practice has only led to more inequality and wealth redistribution, which, by the way, they say they are opposed to so adamantly.  The idea of withholding emergency funds after a disaster comes from one of the leaders (Eric Cantor) of the republican party.  Their candidate for president is for lower taxes on the wealthy and higher taxes for the middle class down.  The list goes on and on and on and the republican tactic is to push a bunch of bills that the public o

Stand Up or Stand By

    If our leaders refuse to take action, we must.  America is falling behind the rest of the world in so many ways it's difficult to name them all, but here are a few:  Our roads and bridges are catastrophes in waiting; poverty is on the rise after decades of supply side or trickle down economics; the banks have taken millions of homes away from families who now live in cars, motels or on the street; we incarcerate non-violent offenders and illegal immigrants at alarming rates that serve only to disenfranchise far too many of our fellow citizens; our laws seem to protect and represent only the most affluent in society more than not and seem immoral upon close scrutiny.  And, all the while, we're all forced to live by the actions of fewer than 600 people, who oftentimes have agendas which are not conducive to a cohesive, fair and compassionate leadership.     We can sit, watch and wait as things continue to get worse for the majority or the people of the United States or we c

Changing Meaning But Not Topics

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It is common wisdom that politicians say one thing while meaning another or, as us laypeople call this practice, lie, but there are degrees of not telling the truth. At the, we'll call it, honest end of the dishonesty spectrum, a candidate might leave out a few details or fail to offer information that isn't asked for.  Though this may be kind of like dealing with the Devil, it isn't an outright lie.  Immoral yes, but not a lie.  After exclusion, there is exaggeration, which most people do when relaying an anecdotal story about some adventure or trip they might have taken in the past.  This form of dishonesty comes in useful for tales where the story has ended with "You had to be there".  In these instances a lion, tiger or bear makes a great substitute for the rabbit that chased you after you wounded instead of killing it.  The basic story is real.  It's simply some of the details that are fuzzy . . . like the rabbit. And then there are your whoppers

No matter what they say

It seems to me that far too many people can't think for themselves or discern when a leader is saying something that would prove detrimental to them.  Whether financially, as in giving tax breaks to the rich and raising the tax burden of everyone else or physical, when saying we need to go to war with more countries, it is quite difficult to understand what it will take for certain voters to understand that the GOP is not their friend, let alone a good source for leaders.  Just look who they have put up as the the leader of the party.  Mitt Romney is running on his management skills, but he can't seem to manage his own campaign.  He can't even seem to "Do no harm.", which is all he should have to do given the state of our economy.  As for his supposed management skills, what has he actually managed?  At Bain, he basically bought companies that other people managed and ran up the debt of those companies that were not managed properly and provided support to those t

Identifying Mitt Romney

Here is the latest addition to the R.A.D. Dictionary.  To see other half-serious definitions about politics click on the RAD Dictionary page. Mitt Romney's ID adj People wonder who Mitt Romney really is: Is he a conservative or is he a liberal? He's identified himself as both at one time or another, so here are some of Mitt's IDs: 1. IDK - I Don't Know 2. IDC - I Don't Care 3. IDL - I D Laws or I Don't Lie * - One is an attempt to help him win illegitimately, the other will help him lose legitimately 4. IDM - It Doesn't Matter 5. IDA - I Don't Apologize 6. IDP - I Don't Plan or I Don't Provide * - Depending on whether he's talking about the nation or his taxe Donate on the right or click on an ad to keep this blog going

Is Nature Making a Comeback?

Is it just me or are there more ants this year than last year? It seems to me that one of nature's tiniest workers is taking back the planet. For years now, maybe even a decade, ants were "Off the Grid". Like the Honey Bee, all ants species seemed to have packed it in and taken an hiatus from Earth or at least those places on Earth normally inhabited by mankind. Now, you could go in search of ants and find them, but if you went throughout your day without thinking about them, ants didn't seem to think about you. This year however, they all might ants (of various types) seem to have come home, both figuratively and literally. We can't seem to clean the house well enough these or lay out enough poison to keep the little buggers from the kitchen, the bathroom and the bedrooms. I think they're here to stay and I'm not the only one who feels this way. Our neighbors have the same issue, which in and of itself does not indicate that we are facing an inva