Goa: 50 years of liberation

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/video/goa-liberation-culture/1/164736.html

liberdade para Francisco Almeida

É tempo de dizer basta. É tempo de acabar com a vergonhosa exploração da mão-de-obra que o PCP sistematicamente promove. É tempo de estarmos solidários com os funcionários do PCP que são vítimas inocentes desta política. É tempo de denunciar para proteger o proletariado do Partido.

http://31daarmada.blogs.sapo.pt/5395990.html

Impostos elevados afugentam investidores estrangeiros

No ano passado, o investimento directo estrangeiro em Portugal caiu para quase metade. Impostos elevados está entre as principais razões que explica uma tão forte fuga de capitais, revela um estudo da consultora Ernst & Young.

http://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/home.php?template=SHOWNEWS_V2&id=523795

U.S. to Aid Gay Rights Abroad, Obama and Clinton Say

The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that the United States would use all the tools of American diplomacy, including the potent enticement of foreign aid, to promote gay rights around the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/world/united-states-to-use-aid-to-promote-gay-rights-abroad.html?_r=2

Herr tovarishch

"'[T]here is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune... And, they argue, even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, well, that’s the price of liberty.

"And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked."

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-limited-govt-preserves-free-markets-doesnt-work-it-has-never-worked

Egypt’s ElBaradei says liberal youth behind uprising ‘decimated’ in election

Egypt’s top reformist leader said Sunday the liberal youth behind the country’s uprising have been “decimated” in parliamentary elections dominated by Islamists and expressed concern about the rise of hard-line religious elements advocating extremist ideas such as banning women from driving.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/ap-exclusive-egypts-elbaradei-says-liberal-youth-behind-uprising-decimated-in-election/2011/12/04/gIQACbhRTO_story.html

Jewsish anti-assimilation ad campaign

Video advertisements depicting assimilation process of Israelis living abroad stirs storm in American Jewish community. Jewish Federations: Insulting message could harm Israel-Diaspora relations

http://www.ynetnews.com/articlesnc/0,7340,L-4156173,00.html

Stand-Up Comedy

João Cravinho: Scut não foram resultado de política irresponsável

http://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/home.php?template=SHOWNEWS_V2&id=523049

The European project that reconciled battered France with prostrate Germany was its work. Of the four figures who spearheaded the project - Jean Monnet, Alcide de Gasperi, Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman - the last three were Christian Dem­ocrats. Their achievement was one dimension of something much greater: a historic reconciliation between the Roman Catholic Church and the ideals of the French Revolution that made possible the collaborative capitalism of postwar Germany and Italy. Even today, it is the ideological bedrock of the European Union.
http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2011/08/germany-europe-democracy-italy



Never again should a parliamentary assembly just cede power to a Hitler or a Pétain. Instead, the architects of post-war European democracy opted for as many checks and balances as possible – and, paradoxically, for empowering unelected institutions to strengthen liberal democracy as a whole.

Importantly, European institutions – especially the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights – also fit this understanding of democracy through prima facie undemocratic mechanisms.

Today, many Europeans are clearly dissatisfied with this conception of democracy. Many have the impression that the continent is entering what the political scientist Colin Crouch has called a “post-democratic” era. Citizens increasingly claim that political elites do not properly represent them, and that directly elected institutions – national parliaments in particular – are forced to bow to unelected bodies like central banks. Passionate grassroots protest and surging populist parties across the continent are the result.

Ordinary Europeans long trusted elites with the business of democracy – and often even seemed to prefer unelected elites. If they now want to modify the social contract (and assuming that direct democracy remains impossible), change ought to be based on a clear, historically grounded sense of which innovations European democracy might really need – and of whom Europeans really trust to hold power. That discussion has barely begun.
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/mueller5/English

Asian Wake-Up Call

This is Asia’s second wake-up call in three years, and this time the region needs to take the warning seriously. With the US, and now Europe, facing long roads to recovery, Asia’s emerging economies can no longer afford to count on solid growth in external demand from the advanced countries to sustain economic development.

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roach11/English

The Hour of the Technocrats

«Most economists understood the downside risks of European monetary union. It was the politicians who underestimated the technical difficulties when they opted for monetary integration.» Jeffrey Frankel.

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/frankel7/English

Europe’s Last Best Chance: Cut, Cut, Cut

In Europe’s highly taxed economies, better tax compliance or selective revenue measures can produce only a small amount of additional tax revenue without undermining growth. Spending cuts are the only way to improve the budget position significantly. But that course will be difficult. In many European countries, the government pays benefits to a majority of the population.

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/boskin18/English

Como fazer um chicken mcnugget

Mechanically separated meat (MSM) and mechanically separated poultry (MSP)

http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/msm.asp

Poluição do ar pelas indústrias custou a Portugal dois mil milhões em 2009

Em Portugal, os danos que a poluição atmosférica das indústrias causou em 2009 na saúde e no ambiente estão estimados em quase dois mil milhões de euros. Na União Europeia esse valor situa-se entre os 102 e 169 mil milhões de euros, revela a Agência Europeia do Ambiente.

http://ecosfera.publico.pt/noticia.aspx?id=1522396

America's Pacific Century

The future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the center of the action.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/10/11/americas_pacific_century

401 (K)

Ted Benna, who three decades ago seized on an IRS loophole to transform American retirement savings, says he’s proud to be “father of the 401(k).” He also thinks he created a monster.
SmartMoney

http://blogs.smartmoney.com/encore/2011/11/22/father-of-the-401ks-tough-love/

Obama Heckled by OWS

Swiss cannabis smokers will be allowed to grow four marijuana plants each

Cannabis smokers in Switzerland will soon be allowed to grow up to four marijuana plants each at home to stop them buying drugs on the black market.
Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2062526/Swiss-cannabis-smokers-allowed-grow-marijuana-plants-stop-buying-drugs-illegally.html

Pat Buchanan on Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?

Democracy Versus Liberty

The word "democracy" appears nowhere in the two most fundamental documents of our nation -- the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Our Constitution's Article IV, Section 4, guarantees "to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government."

What's the difference between republican and democratic forms of government? John Adams captured the essence when he said, "You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe." That means Congress does not grant us rights; their job is to protect our natural or God-given rights.

http://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2011/02/23/democracy_versus_liberty/page/full/

PJB

the great American Melting Pot has been rejected by our elites as cultural genocide, in favor of a multiculturalism that is failing in Europe. Second, what we are attempting has no precedent in human history.

We are attempting to convert a republic, European and Christian in its origins and character, into an egalitarian democracy of all the races, religions, cultures and tribes of planet Earth.

In 1920, Western people were nearly one-third of mankind. Today, Western man is down to one-sixth of the world’s population, shrinking to one-eighth by 2050, and not a tenth by century’s end.

http://buchanan.org/blog/it-cant-happen-here-4942

Niall Ferguson Excelletn Interview

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of The World by Niall Ferguson Epsd. 1-5 (Full

Guantánamo Bay

Guantánamo Bay

The most expensive prison on earth - cost $800,000 per prisoner PER YEAR
Inmates' food rations $38.45 per day - more than five times the average American
Cost is more than 30 times that of keeping captives on U.S. soil

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2059686/Guant-namo-expensive-prison-earth--800-000-prisoner-year.html

China fund official slams 'indolence' in Europe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Kg1MOAITI9s

"Public Servants" or Parasites?

"The existence of a state leads to the development and promotion of parasitism. As tax-receivers, it is possible for the occupants of the state to live without working, i.e., without having to give the tax-payers something they consider worthwhile in return. Contrary to still wide-spread Marxist mythology, it is not the entrepreneurs who exploit their workers. Rather, it is the occupants of the state — the king and his court in the case of monarchy; the president, the parliament, and the so-called public service in the case of democracy, i.e., those who most vocally claim to work for the public good — who actually live exploitatively and parasitically at the expense of others. The higher the state revenue, the better off the parasites are and/or the more parasites there are.»

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=34445

Inviabilidade

Empresas de transportes já pagam mais de juros do que salários aos trabalhadores

http://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/home.php?template=SHOWNEWS_V2&id=517699

Leveraging hip hop in US foreign policy

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/10/2011103091018299924.html

Race Against the Machine

http://fora.tv/2011/10/24/Race_Against_the_Machine

Default: 3 formas (e de o evitar)

Icumprimento
Reestruturação
Reescalonamento

Mentiras

A mentira mais repetida na vida política portuguesa é a de que os portugueses vivem acima das suas possibilidades, trabalham pouco, ganham demasiado e deveriam poupar mais.

Muito pelo contrário, quem vive muito acima das suas possibilidades é o Estado, a classe política, os gestores públicos e todos os que comem da manjedoura que é o orçamento do estado.

http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/detalhe/noticias/opiniao/ditos-e-mitos

Where do the Greek people expect the government to get the money to pay for those free welfare benefits? They don’t care.

The European Union’s bailout of Greece will only delay the inevitable because it doesn’t get to the root of the problem — Greece’s welfare state, along with the fierce refusal of the Greek citizenry to abandon the welfare-state way of life.

http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2011-10-31.asp

Organização Não-Governamental Governamental: a ONGG.

Quero apenas que eles atuem no Brasil como seus congêneres no resto do mundo: com dinheiro que conseguem arrecadar na sociedade, doado por aqueles que acreditam em seu trabalho e concordam com suas iniciativas. É por isso que uma “ONG” é “não-governamental”.

http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/reinaldo/geral/a-unica-coisa-decente-a-fazer-e-proibir-repasse-de-dinheiro-publico-para-as-ongs/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ReinaldoAzevedo+%28Reinaldo+Azevedo%29&utm_content=FaceBook

Derrapagem de 115 milhões dava para comprar mais 5 aviões

Os 12 aviões comprados pelo anterior executivo socialista, que se destinavam ao transporte militar e vigilância marítima, custaram mais 115 milhões de euros que o previsto, indica uma auditoria do Tribunal de Contas à Locação de Aeronaves Militares, uma empresa do grupo Empordef - Empresa Portuguesa de Defesa.
RR


http://rr.sapo.pt/informacao_detalhe.aspx?fid=25&did=36207

The 147 Companies That Control

global corporate control has a distinct bow-tie shape, with a dominant core of 147 firms radiating out from the middle. Each of these 147 own interlocking stakes of one another and together they control 40% of the wealth in the network. A total of 737 control 80% of it all. The top 20 are at the bottom of the post. This is, say the paper’s authors, the first map of the structure of global corporate control.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2011/10/22/the-147-companies-that-control-everything/

Estado Social

Nos anos 80, a dívida e os défices públicos revelaram-se insustentáveis, dando azo a crises graves e posterior reforma da Segurança Social. Impuseram-se significativos cortes dos benefícios, evoluiu-se no sentido de esquemas de capitalização de contributo definido, e repensaram-se os incentivos à natalidade. Em paralelo, no mercado de trabalho, a legislação foi alterada com vista à obtenção de maior flexibilidade nos despedimentos e formação dos desempregados (nascimento da flexigurança).

Na Alemanha, as reformas foram mais tardias, mas consubstanciaram-se em medidas semelhantes (excepto natalidade). Antecipando a concorrência asiática e contrariando previsões de futuro recessivo, nos anos 90 e 2000, reformulam-se os mecanismos de protecção social e a força de trabalho suportou perdas de rendimento nominal.

Entre 2000 e 2008, os custos unitários do trabalho na Alemanha caíram (5%). No mesmo período (cumulativamente), subiram 20% em Portugal, 25% em Itália, 30% em Espanha e Grécia, e 35% na Irlanda. Contudo, nos sectores manufactureiros, a realidade foi muito diversa. Na Alemanha e Irlanda, desceram 10%; enquanto em Portugal aumentaram 10%; em Espanha e Itália subiram 30% e 55% na Grécia. Desta forma, não será surpreendente o comportamento das exportações portuguesas nos últimos anos e o facto da Grécia ser o país com menor contributo das exportações para o PIB e o maior desequilíbrio externo na área do euro.

Recorde-se que, em 1982, existiam cerca de sete contribuintes para um beneficiário; hoje existem pouco mais de três por cada pensionista e, segundo a proposta de Orçamento do Estado para 2012, serão menos de dois por cada beneficiário em 2050. A pressão manifesta-se no acréscimo do peso das prestações sociais: desde 1977, subiram de 8% do PIB para 21% em 2010. A despesa pública corresponde a cerca de 50% do PIB, dos quais 42% são prestações sociais e 23% são remunerações de empregados.

Cristina Casalinho
http://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/home.php?template=SHOWNEWS_V2&id=515663

Air pollution tied to lung cancer in non-smokers

People who have never smoked, but who live in areas with higher air pollution levels, are roughly 20 percent more likely to die from lung cancer than people who live with cleaner air, researchers conclude in a new study.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/28/us-air-pollution-idUSTRE79R5NM20111028

Tribunal Marcial por Bulingue

Three Marines court-martialed for hazing Santa Clara native who killed himself
MercueyNews

Portugal sem Futuro

Portugal tem a segunda taxa de fecundidade mais baixa do mundo
TSF

Polícias a Mais

O inspector-chefe da PJ Manuel Rodrigues identificou hoje em tribunal Fernando Martins (Beckham) como uma «fonte anónima» que lhe permitiu elaborar um relatório, constante do processo, com os detalhes sobre o homicídio do empresário Aurélio Palha.
Sol