Amerika na ivici propasti?

[lilit]

daleko je propast...na zalost il na srecu, ko bi ga znao.

u to ime:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cR6LXjJ7k6o

[džin tonik]

daleko je propast...na zalost il na srecu, ko bi ga znao.

to ce se vidjeti sljedeci tjedan s obzirom da sam long a prekjuce objavljeni katastrofalni brojevi novonastalih radnih mjesta u usa. spasava me samo eventualni porast fantazije o qe3. neka idu k vragu ti ameri, bas su se ulijenili.

[Meho Krljic]

Study: Obama's health care law would raise deficit

WASHINGTON (AP) — Reigniting a debate about the bottom line for President Barack Obama's health care law, a leading conservative economist estimates in a study to be released Tuesday that the overhaul will add at least $340 billion to the deficit, not reduce it.
Charles Blahous, who serves as public trustee overseeing Medicare and Social Security finances, also suggested that federal accounting practices have obscured the true fiscal impact of the legislation, the fate of which is now in the hands of the Supreme Court.
Officially, the health care law is still projected to help reduce government red ink. The Congressional Budget Office, the government's nonpartisan fiscal umpire, said in an estimate last year that repealing the law actually would increase deficits by $210 billion from 2012 to 2021.
The CBO, however, has not updated that projection. If $210 billion sounds like a big cushion, it's not. The government has recently been running annual deficits in the $1 trillion range.
The White house dismissed the study in a statement late Monday. Presidential assistant Jeanne Lambrew called the study "new math (that) fits the old pattern of mischaracterizations" about the health care law.
Blahous, in his 52-page analysis released by George Mason University's Mercatus Center, said, "Taken as a whole, the enactment of the (health care law) has substantially worsened a dire federal fiscal outlook.
"The (law) both increases a federal commitment to health care spending that was already unsustainable under prior law and would exacerbate projected federal deficits relative to prior law," Blahous said.
The law expands health insurance coverage to more than 30 million people now uninsured, paying for it with a mix of Medicare cuts and new taxes and fees.
Blahous cited a number of factors for his conclusion:
— The health care's law deficit cushion has been reduced by more than $80 billion because of the administration's decision not to move forward with a new long-term care insurance program that was part of the legislation. The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program raised money in the short term, but would have turned into a fiscal drain over the years.
— The cost of health insurance subsidies for millions of low-income and middle-class uninsured people could turn out to be higher than forecast, particularly if employers scale back their own coverage.
— Various cost-control measures, including a tax on high-end insurance plans that doesn't kick in until 2018, could deliver less than expected.
The decision to use Medicare cuts to finance the expansion of coverage for the uninsured will only make matters worse, Blahous said. The money from the Medicare savings will have been spent, and lawmakers will have to find additional cuts or revenues to forestall that program's insolvency.
Under federal accounting rules, the Medicare cuts are also credited as savings to that program's trust fund. But the CBO and Medicare's own economic estimators already said the government can't spend the same money twice.
Blahous served in the George W. Bush White House from 2001-2009, rising to deputy director of the National Economic Council. He currently is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center.
His study was first reported late Monday by The Washington Post.

[Tex Murphy]

Мало америчке бламаже увијек добро дође:

http://news.yahoo.com/scandal-mars-obamas-wooing-latin-america-002040977.html

[Meho Krljic]

Bil Kozbi spiks da trut:

Bill Cosby on George Zimmerman: Guns, not race, real issue in Trayvon Martin case 

Bill Cosby, the latest in a string of celebrities asked to publicly weigh in on the Trayvon Martin case, said the biggest issue in the 17-year-old's killing at the hands of 28-year-old neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman is not race--it's guns.
"I believe that when you tell me that you're going to protect the neighborhood that I live in, I don't want you to have a gun," Cosby, 74, said in an interview with CNN's "State of the Union" broadcast on Sunday. "I want you to be able to see something, report it, and get out of the way, because you happen to be a part of the neighborhood. I don't want you to get hurt. And I don't want you to hurt anyone."
Via CNN's transcript:

Candy Crowley: So you saw more a gun issue than a race issue?
Cosby: How are you going to solve a race issue when it becomes he said, she said or he said, he said? And the other question is, what is solved by saying he's a racist that's why he shot the boy? What solves that? This. [Makes gun symbol with hand] And what is he doing with it? And who taught him and told him how to behave with this? It doesn't make any difference if he's a racist or not racist. If he's scared to death and not a racist, it's still a confrontational provoking of something.
I don't know what happened, but I know that this -- I used to have a gun. The policeman who okayed it said to me, "Mr. Cosby, when you pull this trigger, you can't call it back." And so I had the gun in my pocket. And the reason why I had it was to protect my family. But I also knew that anything that went on outside--and it appeared to be something that wasn't on the OK, I went out with my gun. And the thought was if this person is not right or if that doesn't move when I say move, I'm going to show that I have a gun.

Cosby's comments about the case were just a bit more nuanced than those of fellow comedian Bill Maher, who used the shooting as fodder for his "Real Time" monologue on Friday.
"Can tell it's a crazy crowd tonight because it's raining out there and also it's Friday the 13th," Maher said. "Remember: If a black cat crosses your path, it is bad luck--except in Florida where you're allowed to shoot it."
Last week, Mike Tyson told Yahoo News that he would be in favor of vigilante justice against Zimmerman.
"That's the only kind of retribution that people like that understand," Tyson said. "Forget about him being arrested, the fact that he hasn't been shot yet is a disgrace."

[Meho Krljic]

Мало америчке бламаже увијек добро дође:

http://news.yahoo.com/scandal-mars-obamas-wooing-latin-america-002040977.html

Evo, tabloidi sad i prikazuju Hilari Klinton kako banči i pijanči u Kolumbiji, u povodu istog samita... Mislim, baš ne vidim šta je strašno ni u jednom ni u drugom ali eto...

Hillary Clinton parties in Colombia: Photos of dancing, beer-slugging secretary of state cause stir

[Meho Krljic]

A evo pokreta u kome bi Đorđe Vukadinović bio da je u Americi 

The end of the Minutemen: Tea party absorbs the border-watching movement 

                California Minutemen volunteers patrolling in 2005. (Sandy Huffaker/AP)
Back in 2004, Jim Gilchrist, a retired Marine and the founder of the California Minutemen Project, emailed a few dozen friends and family suggesting that concerned civilians personally combat illegal immigration by traveling to the Arizona border with him. Gilchrist lives in Orange County, Calif., but the Arizona border was the most heavily trafficked and sparsely patrolled. That email reached thousands of people and touched a nerve. Hundreds showed up in April 2005 to patrol the border. Some of them brought floppy hats, lawn chairs, binoculars and American flags. Others toted guns and protest signs. The group banned neo-Nazis from attending, though some came anyway. A movement was born.
Gilchrist estimates he did 4,000 radio and TV interviews over the next five years as his group's membership swelled and the media attention exploded. "It was just literally overwhelming," he said.
But today, the once-thriving Minutemen anti-illegal immigration fraternity has all but died out. No one knows exactly why the groups fizzled so quickly, but researchers and former border-watching leaders say infighting and bad press have taken a toll. At the same time, the tea party movement started to rise, which usurped members and stole the groups' thunder.
Still, the movement's message and popularity have left an indelible mark on the Republican Party, whose leaders underestimated the anger in their base over illegal immigration. The GOP, which at the time was considering legislation to legalize undocumented immigrants in a version of Ronald Reagan's 1986 immigration reform law, rejected the popular movement at first. President George W. Bush dismissed the Minutemen as "vigilantes," while Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner said he worried the volunteers would get hurt or hurt illegal immigrants.
Seven years later, Gilchrist tells Yahoo News that the Minutemen Project has petered out amid expensive legal battles over control of the group. Some of his former comrades attempted to fire him as president, alleging that he was using the group's funds inappropriately. He countersued for defamation and lost, but eventually won back control of the group in court. Outspoken activists mainly interested in money and fame infiltrated the ranks and tried to take over, says Gilchrist, distracting from the original goal of border watching. "There are bad apples," he said. "There are some in any group."
Meanwhile, the tea party emerged and absorbed the groups' concerns about illegal immigration and many of their leaders.
"You see an endless amount of splintered groups that range from a membership of one to a membership of 20," Gilchrist said. "No longer will you have a Minutemen organization going to the border with thousands of people." Last year, he began organizing a border rally planned for this May, but dropped the idea due to lack of interest and continued infighting. "I just decided it wasn't a good idea," he said. "There was just too many negative feelings." The last Minutemen Project outing to the border was in May 2011.
The downward trend is reflected in all the local Minutemen groups that sprouted up from 2005 to 2010 and then tapered off.
According to an analysis by Leonard Zeskind, who researches and advocates against what he calls far-right, racist or anti-Semitic groups, the number of Minutemen organizations dropped by more than half from 2010 to 2011. Only 53 Minutemen groups showed signs of activity last year—down from a high of 115 in 2010—and none of them are currently patrolling the border. Zeskind blames the tea party for absorbing a good chunk of the movement. The widely publicized murders perpetrated by a former Minutemen leader against a Hispanic child and her father also contributed to the groups' decline. Heidi Bierich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, says that the only organized volunteers patrolling the border right now are the ones originally not welcome: neo-Nazis.
But it's not all bad news for border activists that the tea party has effectively absorbed them and their mission. More than 100 leaders of local anti-illegal immigration groups have now joined tea party chapters, according to Zeskind, giving their message a bigger platform. And even as their movement dissipates, their message grows louder. "The Minutemen put immigration on the map big-time," Bierich says. One example of the tea party-Minutemen melding is the Rally for Arizona in Phoenix in 2010, which tea partyers organized and attended. Its mission: to support Gov. Jan Brewer's state-level crackdown on illegal immigrants. Then there was the Mississippi Tea Party's push for that state's anti-illegal immigration law, which is modeled after the laws in Alabama and Arizona.
Fittingly, Gilchrist is now an active tea partyer himself, feeling that he's "accomplished [his] mission," having forced local and national politicians to curb illegal immigration. "For the very first time the Republican candidates—all of them without exception—are including the out-of-control immigration issue as one of the top three things in their platform," Gilchrist said.
Mitt Romney says he wants to build a fence on the entire border and make E-Verify a national law. His adviser is none other than Kris Kobach, the man who wrote most of the state-level bills that crack down on illegal immigration. In fact, the issue has cropped up again and again in the Republican primary, even though border apprehensions are down to 1970s levels, as the number of Border Patrol agents on the ground has doubled since 2004. America's faltering economy is also credited with the drop in attempted illegal crossings.
Still, not everyone is happy with the tea party's takeover.
After Gilchrist's big 2005 Arizona border event, Rick Biesada promptly returned home to Chicago and started up his own Minutemen chapter. Biesada's group protested various immigration-related issues in the area, such as when the Rev. Walter "Slim" Coleman provided sanctuary to an illegal immigrant in his church in 2007, and frequently clashed with immigrants' rights groups. A couple hundred volunteers joined the movement, Biesada says, but the group's last event was months ago, and only 20 people showed up.
"It was a popular movement and then it more or less got co-opted by the politicians and it seemed to dissolve throughout the country," he told Yahoo News.
Biesada, who until recently hosted a local radio show called "The Angry White Male Hour," isn't happy with the tea party alternative. "A lot of the people in the tea party don't want to be involved with immigration because they're afraid to be called racists," he said. Initially, the tea party formed not to deal with border issues, but to pressure lawmakers into curbing federal spending.
But others have a more positive take on the change. "We've spread our wings," said Al Garza, a former leader of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps of 15,000 volunteers, an offshoot of Gilchrist's group.
Garza used to make the 50-mile drive from his home to the Arizona border as many as four times a day. There, he and other Minutemen volunteers, some of them armed, would scan the horizon for illegal immigrants with binoculars or night-vision goggles and then alert the Border Patrol if they spotted anyone or anything suspicious. They were often flanked by reporters and TV cameras, eager to capture the new, grass-roots movement of gun-toting anti-illegal immigration activists in action. Garza says he spent thousands of dollars of his own money on gas, water, binoculars, night-vision goggles, special clothing and other equipment.
Now, Garza can't remember the last time he went on patrol on the border. Instead, he spends his time advising several tea party groups. 

[lilit]

ahahahahahah, ova hilari će mi još postati simpatična. a tekst je odličan, skoro pa dostiže slavne trenutke milijane baletić.

[pokojni Steva]

Minutemen, hi hi hi... Minutemen,  ... Minutemen, 

[mac]

Šta je smešno u vezi s minutmenima?

[pokojni Steva]

Pa, ništa. Skoro pa ništa 

[Meho Krljic]

Možda se setio one scene iz Watchmen gde se aludira na to da minutemen brzo svrše tokom seksa pa im otud nadimak?

[pokojni Steva]

Čuj, filmske scene, to je sad valjda jedna od rečničkih odrednica.


http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=minuteman

[Meho Krljic]

Mislio sam na scenu iz stripa, ni ne sećam se da li se to pominje u filmu, al lepo je videti da je to ušlo među omladinu. 

[pokojni Steva]

A šta znam ja seljak, nit sam gledao u strip ni u film. Negde mi se zakačila ta reč, valjda zbog (donekle voljenog) benda.

[Meho Krljic]

   Bizarno je što je meni koji nisam preveliki fan benda, ipak bend prva asocijacija kad čujem reč, umesto da mi to bude strip koga veoma volim. Očigledno da sam došao u kontakt sa bendom u nežnim godinama formiranja ličnosti.

[pokojni Steva]

Ma, dosadni su, to stoji.

[Father Jape]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/latest-male-grooming-craze-afghanistan-145210300.html

[pokojni Steva]

http://matrixworld-hr.com/2012/04/16/americka-agencija-za-zastitu-okolisa-odobrila-gmo-insekticid-odgovoran-za-pomor-pcela/

[Ghoul]

Мало америчке бламаже увијек добро дође:

http://news.yahoo.com/scandal-mars-obamas-wooing-latin-america-002040977.html

[varvarin]

http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2012&mm=04&dd=18&nav_category=78&nav_id=601554

Romni za čvršću politiku SAD

Vašington  "Verovatni kandidat republikanaca na predsedničkim izborima u SAD Mit Romni zalaže se za okončanje spoljne politike koja se zasniva na traženju konsenzusa. On se zalaže za zauzimanje čvršćeg stava prema Iranu.
"Svet je bolji kada SAD preuzmu vođstvo. Ne treba da se igramo 'Majko, smem li' kada su u pitanju uvođenje sankcija Iranu i odnosi s Kinom i Rusijom", izjavio je glavni Romnijev savetnik za spoljnu politiku Ričard Vilijamson.

...Nedavno je rekao da je Rusija američki "geopolitički neprijatelj broj jedan" i obećao da će se s Kinom, "manipulatorom valute", obračunati na osnovu pravila Svetske trgovinske organizacije. "
 

[scallop]

Nema tu dobrog izbora. Republikanci su za čvšći stav, a demokrate bombarduju. Oni nikada nisu napustili robovlasnički sistem, samo su nekada morali da ih hrane i odevaju.

[varvarin]

Republikanci su za čvšći stav, a demokrate bombarduju.

Odlično!!   

[Meho Krljic]

McDonald's Worker Spits in Tea: How Gross is Fast Food? 

Police in South Carolina say that a McDonald's worker spit in two customers' cups of iced tea after they returned them because they weren't sweet enough. A video shows the employee,19-year-old Marvin Washington Jr., leaning over the open cups before giving them back. The fast food chain patrons claim they discovered phlegm in the drinks when they removed their tops. He was arrested Wednesday and charged with malicious tampering with food.
Related: The 11 Worst Burgers in America
Eating out can be an exercise in suspended disbelief. Wide eyed, we assume the food is fresh and wholesome and that workers have followed the "employees must wash hands" decree posted in the bathroom. Nevertheless, the McDonald's incident is so sickening because it actually bears out the urban legend that a disdainful waiter can and will contaminate your food if you tick him off.
Kitchen Confidential
Chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain's bestseller, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, exposed the grungy side of the culinary world over a decade ago. Not only is the book a rollicking memoir about coming of age in the 1970s and 80s, it's a veritable primer for how not to get food poisoning on date night. Bourdain rudely threw open the kitchen doors and exposed restaurants' dirty little tricks such as filtering cigarette ash out of used butter to make a sauce and serving old beef to the customers who ordered it well done.
Chicken scandals
There are many more recent examples of restaurants serving contaminated food and having unsanitary kitchens, especially by fast food joints. Most recently, a lawsuit by the former manager of a Kentucky Friend Chicken franchise in Oregon alleges the owner fired other employees for refusing to serve chicken that had turned green and passed its expiration date. According to the lawsuit, he resigned because he "couldn't stand serving rotten chicken to families anymore."
Related: Fast Food Saltier in US than Overseas
The website kfcmademesick.com chronicles a not-so-finger-lickin'-good list of other health code violations associated with the fried chicken franchise. They include rodent infestations, salmonella contamination, and foreign objects such as bandages and cock roaches showing up in cooked food.
Fast food dangers
Not to single out one business, an undercover NBC Dateline investigation revealed that 60% of restaurants in the nation's top 10 chains had received critical health code violations in the year-and-a-half prior to the report. Caroline Smith-Dewaal who works for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food safety watchdog group, explained, "A critical violation is something that happens in a restaurant that may result in the food becoming contaminated."
Some of the recurring problems at franchises such as McDonalds, Taco Bell, Wendy's, and Burger King were rodent droppings, insects, food borne illnesses, debris and grime on counters and in prep areas, and poor employee sanitation. Given that about 25% of Americans eat fast food everyday, that's millions of opportunities to be exposed to something nasty, or worse, a pathogen that could make you sick.
The Huffington Post catalogs a revolting list of items reported to have been found in customers' fast food. Some of the gruesome highlights: maggots in Wendy's fries, saliva on a Whopper, a bloody band-aid in a Pizza Hut pizza crust, and a fried mouse in a basket of Popeye's chicken.
As for independent restaurants, Bourdain claims that kitchens are more sanitary than when he was working on the line. "Things are much better now—with fish markets, with the quality of food handling in general," he told WebMD. "There is a sense of pride and raised expectations in kitchens now that didn't exist when I started out." The availability of restaurant inspection reports online may also be pushing owners to clean up their acts.
Nevertheless, restaurant report cards have no control over the impulsive nature of human beings. Maybe it would be better just to sweeten that tea yourself.

[Meho Krljic]

Big manufacturers more likely to embrace "Made in USA": survey 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Large U.S. manufacturers are much more likely than their smaller peers to move production to the United States from China, according to a survey.
Labor costs and the quality of goods are the top reasons for companies to consider so-called "re-shoring," with some companies considering the United States a de facto low-cost country because of its high unemployment, according to the survey by the Boston Consulting Group.
It found that 37 percent of all U.S.-based manufacturing executives either plan to or are actively considering moving production from China. That rises to 48 percent among companies with more than $10 billion in revenues, the poll found.
Majorities of those polled said they expected wage costs in China to continue to rise, and said sourcing there is more costly than it appears on paper because of factors such as proximity to customers and the ease of doing business.
Makers of rubber and plastic products are especially likely to consider re-shoring. Companies that make computer equipment, metal products and transportation goods are less likely to do so.
"The economics of manufacturing are swinging in favor of the U.S.," said Harold Sirkin, a BCG senior partner and co-author of the study. BCG says a more competitive U.S. manufacturing base could create up to 3 million jobs by the end of the decade.
The poll of 106 U.S.-based manufacturers was conducted online in February.
REDEFINING LOW-COST
Large companies have more plants whose production can be moved and better access to financing, Sirkin said. Among recent examples of what he called an accelerating trend, Sirkin cited Ford Motor, NCR, MasterLock, SleekAudio, Chesapeake Bay Candle, and Farouk Systems.
The United States is becoming a low-cost developed-world country, according to BCG, with wages typically below those in Western Europe or Japan. More European and Japanese companies are likely to export from U.S. plants.
Some companies, including General Electric Co and Boeing Co, have said they went too far in moving operations out of the United States and that wage differences are narrowing. GE has moved much of its appliance manufacturing from Mexico and China to Kentucky.
Caterpillar Inc has shifted some production from Japan, picking a site in Georgia to build small tractors and excavators. The maker of heavy machinery is building or expanding 15 U.S. facilities, but it also expanding production in China.
The re-shoring trend could be slowed or reversed, BCG says, if, for example, the value of the U.S. dollar rises sharply. Others say rising investment in overseas plants suggests that re-shoring companies are exceptions.
U.S. manufacturing shed about 16 percent of its jobs, or 2 million, during the 2007-2009 recession, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, which has said a recent rebound in factory employment may not last.
Meanwhile, some 600,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs are going unfilled because of a dearth of skilled applicants, according to the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte. A renewed focus on educating students in science, technology, engineering and math could address the shortfall, manufacturing executives say.
(Reporting by Nick Zieminski in New York; Editing by Gary Hill)

[Meho Krljic]

Kako su se dva Britanca lukavo dosetila da prevare venčr kapitaliste PLUS uzmu neki dinar i od firmi:

British twins face US fraud case 

   A pair of British brothers are facing charges in the United States for allegedly defrauding investors out of more than 1.2m US dollars (£745,000) through a bogus stock scheme.
Twins Alexander and Thomas Hunter were just 16 years old when they devised the "elaborate" online scam which fooled around 75,000 people, according to US officials.
In 2007 the brothers, reportedly from Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, are alleged to have invented a fictitious "stock picking robot" and claimed on a series of websites that the highly sophisticated computer trading programme could identify stocks that were poised to rocket in value.
They then targeted thousands of unsuspecting investors, mainly in the US, selling them "home versions" of the bogus software - named Marl - and annual subscription to a newsletter that listed the programme's stock recommendations, it is said.
However, the stocks were not generated by any technical analysis and were in fact those companies were paying the brothers to promote, according to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who has brought the civil action.
Legal papers filed in a New York federal court claimed investors paid 47 US dollars for newsletters listing Marl's stock picks and 97 US dollars for the home software. The twins promoted the scam on websites doublingstocks.com, which claimed the robot's stock analysis earned returns of 34% per week, and daytradingrobot.com, it is said.
Meanwhile, the Hunters, now 20, received at least an additional 1.86m US dollars (£1.15m) in fees from stock promoters for their stock touting services, which was advertised on website equitypromoter.com. The site boasted of the brother's ability to "rocket" the price and volume of thinly traded penny stock issuers.
Once a stock promoter was reeled in by the scam, it is alleged the twins would send an email to the thousands of investors subscribed to their newsletter, recommending they buy the touted asset. And once investors followed the bogus advise the shares value and volume would instantly increase.
US officials claim the brothers breached both the Securities Act and Securities Exchange Act. The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions against the pair to prevent them from continuing to engage in securities fraud and an order requiring them to hand over their ill-gotten gains, which were allegedly collected in UK and offshore bank accounts.
In November, Newcastle Crown Court ordered Alexander Hunter to pay back nearly 1m US dollars after he admitted providing unregulated financial advice, according to the BBC. He was given a suspended 12-month prison sentence. 

[scallop]

Šta će klinci, vidli kako se u Volstritu konji potkivaju, pa i oni potražili magarce. Svetska privreda radi po tom principu, a njih uvatili. Tako je i u izdavaštvu; ko čita blurbove kupuje fejk knjige.

[Mme Chauchat]

Juče u Njujorku. Nije neka vest, ali odlična fotografija Meri Altafer:

[Father Jape]

http://www.mondo.rs/s243071/Zabava/Zabava/Ludi_svet/Zelim_da_ubijem_Dzastina_Bibera.html

[Father Jape]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/tanning-booth-mom-says-arrest-taking-daughter-5-153138630.html

[Meho Krljic]

Can Going Without Money Hurt the Economy? One Man's Quest to Be Penniless 

Daniel Suelo is 51 years old and broke. Happily broke. Consciously, deliberately, blessedly broke.
Not only does he not have debt, a mortgage or rent, he does not earn a salary. Nor does he buy food or clothes, or own any product with a lower case "i" before it. Home is a cave on public land outside Moab, Utah. He scavenges for food from the garbage or off the land (fried grasshoppers, anyone?). He has been known to carve up and boil fresh road kill. He bathes, without soap, in the creek.
In the fall of 2000, Suelo (who changed his name from Shellabarger), decided to stop using money altogether. That meant no "conscious barter," food stamps or other government handouts. His mission was to "use only what is freely given or discarded and what is already present and already running," he wrote on his web site, Zero Currency.
The question many people wonder: Is he insane, or a mooch, or simply dedicated to leading a simple, honest, dare we say, Christ-like existence?
They're good questions. And depending whom you ask, the answers vary.
Suelo wasn't always a modern-day caveman. He went to the University of Colorado and studied anthropology, at one point considering medical school. He lived in a real house, with four walls, a window and a door, and shopped in stores, not their dumpsters.
But over time he says he grew depressed, clinically depressed, mainly with the focus on acquisition. "Every time I made a resume for a job, signed my name to a document, opened a bank account, or even bought a banana at the supermarket, I felt a tinge of dishonesty," he said.
He was born into an Evangelical Christian home in Grand Junction, Colo., and took his religion seriously. Eventually, he started wondering why "professed Christians rarely followed the teachings of Jesus--namely the Sermon on the Mount, namely giving up possessions, living beyond credit and debt--freely giving and freely taking--giving, expecting nothing in return, forgiving all debts, owing nobody a thing, living beyond payback of either evil-for-evil or good-for-good, living and walking without guilt (debt), without grudge (debt), without judgment (credit & debt), living by Grace, by Gratis, not by our own works but by the works of the true Nature flowing through," he said.
Although he considered himself a Christian, he discovered that the same principles applied to Taoism, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam, Mormonism, Shamanism, and Paganism.
One year he went to Alaska and worked on the docks. But that, too, he says, felt dishonest. Instead, he and a buddy decided to live off the land—spearing fish, foraging for mushrooms and berries. (Think Castaway, but with snow). Suelo (which means soil in Spanish) eventually hitch-hiked back to Moab with $50 in his pocket. By the time he arrived, his stash had dwindled to $25. He realized that he only needed money for things he really didn't need, like snacks and booze.
He began toying with the idea of living full-time without money. He traveled to India, and became fascinated by Hindu Sadhus, who wandered without lucre and possessions. He considered joining them, but then he realized that "A true test of faith would be to return to one of the most materialistic, money-worshipping nations on earth, to return to the authenticity profound principles of spirituality hidden beneath our own religion of hypocrisy, and be a Sadhu there," he said. "To be a vagabond, a bum, and make an art of it - this idea enchanted me."
And soon, that's exactly what he did. He says he left his life savings—a whopping $30—in a phone booth, and walked away.
But he didn't do it in a vacuum; he maintained his blog for free from the Moab public library. Rather than just sitting on a mountain and gazing at his navel, he wanted to have an impact on others, to spread his gospel.
In 2009, Mark Sundeen, an old acquaintance he'd worked with at a Moab restaurant, heard about Suelo through mutual friends. At first, "I thought he must have lost his mind," Sundeen, 42, said in a telephone conversation. But then he began reading his blog, and grew intrigued. Sundeen divides his time between Missoula, Mont., and Moab, where he was once a river guide, and he paid a visit to Suelo's cave.
Gradually, he said he realized that much of what Suelo was saying made a whole lot of sense. This was right around the time the economy crashed, and "It felt like a lot of what he was saying was prophetic," said Sundeen. "That money is an illusion, an addiction. That resonated with me after the collapse for the economy."
Sundeen was so intrigued that he decided to write a book about Suelo, The Man Who Quit Money, which was published in March.
While the book reviews have been generally positive, Suelo has come under fire by some who say he's a derelict, sponging off society without contributing. They are valid criticisms: This is a guy, after all, who has gotten a citation for train hopping (what would Jesus say about that?). And he's not opposed to house sitting in winter--not exactly living off the land. 

And besides: How is he actually helping others by going without? It's not like he's solving world hunger, or curing cancer.
Sundeen disputes these arguments. "He doesn't accept any government programs—welfare, food stamps, Medicare," he said. "The only ways in which he actually uses taxpayer funded derivatives is walking on roads and using the public library. So in that regard he's a mooch--he's using the roads and not paying taxes. But if you try to quantify the amount of money he's taking from the system—it's a couple of dollars a year, less than anyone's ever used."
Instead, he is actively promoting "his idea that money is an illusion," Sundeen said. "The Fed just prints it up, it doesn't mean anything and it's going to lead us down the road to serfdom." Suelo simply doesn't want to contribute to that, and so he lives life on his own terms.
That said, Sundeen wouldn't live the way Suelo does. "The appeal to me is the living outdoors part, but I feel like I got my feel of that working as an Outward Bound guide," he said. "At this point I have other priorities."
Suelo, for his part, has no plans to bring money back into his life. "I know it's possible to live without money," he said. "Abundantly."

[angel011]

Tu je uvek ono pitanje: kad bi se svi ponašali kao on, odakle bi stizala ta bačena hrana koju on jede, bačena odeća koju nosi (odeća se ne pominje, ali pretpostavljam da ne ide go unaokolo?), struja i kompjuteri i sve ostalo neophodno za internet?


Gomila ljudi mora da radi da bi on živeo tako kako živi.

[scallop]

Ma, zlotvor. Treba od njega napraviti sapun i donirati u Wall Street da operu ruke.

[Meho Krljic]

Jebote, šta ovaj Kurir objavljuje:

Srbin skinuo ribu Obami!

Prva velika ljubav američkog predsednika Aleks Meknir pre 30 godina zaljubila se u Branka Boba Božića, nekadašnjeg boksera i lošeg momka
Branko Bob Božić  NJUJORK - Zaljubila se.
Srbin Branko Bob Božić (61) preoteo je prvu veliku ljubav američkog predsednika Baraka Obame. Reč je o Aleks Meknir (51), sa kojom je Obama bio u ljubavnoj vezi na koledžu, kada su imali 20 godina. Iako je predsednik SAD već tada bio perspektivan mladić, Aleks se ipak zaljubila u Srbina, koji se bavio boksom i bio problematičan momak.

Roditelji bili protiv

Romansa između Aleks i Boba počela je sredinom osamdesetih godina, kada je on već bio poznat po tome što je izgubio krajnje neizvestan boks-meč od šampiona Lerija Holmsa.

Njeni roditelji, koji su pripadali višoj srednjoj klasi, protivili su se toj vezi jer je on je poticao iz siromašne radničke porodice i imao kriminalnu prošlost.

Naime, Bob je rođen u Torontu, u Kanadi, gde se njegova porodica nastanila posle Drugog svetskog rata, jer je morala da izbegne iz Jugoslavije. Zbog siromaštva odrastao je u hraniteljskoj porodici. Kad je imao 15 godina, pobegao je od kuće i noći provodio u perionicama veša, a preko dana je morao da krade hranu.

Vlasnik jedne teretane sažalio se na dečaka i počeo da ga hrani. Tako se Bob susreo s boksom, a već sa 18 godina postao je amaterski prvak Kanade u teškoj kategoriji. Ubrzo je postao i profesionalac. Svi su mu predviđali sjajnu karijeru, ali on se povukao jer je počeo da gubi mečeve i putuje po svetu. U to vreme nekoliko puta je došao u sukob sa zakonom, čak je pokušao i da opljačka banku i uzme 60.000 dolara. Nakon toga zaposlio se kao izbacivač u klubu.

Jednog dana pozvala ga je Aleks, koja je tada radila kao advokat u Čikagu. Ona je htela da iznajmi klub za dobrotvornu aukciju. Tako su se upoznali i ona se zaljubila.

Odvojeni životi

Venčali su se 1987, a brak im je trajao sedam godina. Imaju ćerku Vesnu, koja ima 20 godina. Aleks je sada šef u energetskoj kompaniji ,,Grin lodžik" u Sautemptonu i udata je za dečjeg psihologa Roberta Stejna, a Bob je barmen u popularnom kafiću ,,Faneli" u Sohou, u Njujorku.
 

[Meho Krljic]

Ako Amerikancima išta dođe glave, to će biti sise:

Time Magazine's Breastfeeding Cover: Moms React 

Does this cover go too far? (Photo: Time.com)The headline reads, "Are You Mom enough?" But if that wasn't enough to fan the flames of the Mommy Wars, there's the photo that goes with it: A pretty young woman wearing skinny jeans and a tank top, nursing her nearly 4-year-old son. It's meant to illustrate a story about Dr. William Sears and attachment parenting but, given that there's more to that movement than extended breastfeeding, it seems as if Time magazine was going for sensationalism and shock value.

It's working.

Related: Child Star Mayim Bialik still nurses her 3-year-old son. Here's why...

"Breast feeding is a natural thing to do, but standing on a chair and having mom stand there like she is a water fountain isn't the way to portray this," Yahoo! reader, San2, wrote.

"As a pediatrician, I believe that every mother should breastfeed her child for at least six months, preferably a year (even longer if they like)," KP.MD commented. "This, however, is extreme. And the photograph -- everything about its composition - sends a message that I find tasteless and more than a little disturbing."

"That is not the look of a loving and caring Mother, but the look of a defiant woman, daring you to tell her to cover up and/or wean her child," Yahoo! reader Can't Deny Truth added.

"We used an image that represents the attachment of a mother and child," Time's managing editor Rick Stengel told MSNBC. "The cover is meant to get your attention. It gets your attention. I think this is a legitimate debate. It's a debate lots and lots of women are having." (On "Morning Joe," MSNBC showed the cover but blurred the breast; ABC's "The View" covered it -- and part of the child's mouth -- with a large black dot.)

The mom on the provocative May 21st cover is 26-year-old Jamie Lynne Grumet of Los Angeles, a lactation consultant, breastfeeding advocate, and mother of two who blogs at I Am Not the Babysitter. The child at her breast is her son, Aram, who turns 4 in June. "I don't consider breast feeding immodest at all," she told Time magazine. "I'm not shy about doing it in public."

"There are people who tell me there's going to call social services on me or that it's child molestation," Grumet tells Time, adding that her mother breast-fed her until she was 6. "But people have to realize this is biologically normal. It's not socially normal. The more people see it, the more it'll become normal in our culture. That's what I'm hoping. I want people to see it."

"There seems to be a war going on between conventional parenting and attachment parenting, and that's what I want to avoid," she added. "I want everyone to be encouraging. We're not on opposing teams. We all need to be encouraging to each other, and I don't think we're doing a very good job at that."

Photographer Martin Schoeller says that the photo, as well as the portraits he shot of other attachment parenting moms nursing their kids, was inspired by the iconic religious image of the Madonna and Child. The boy on the cover is standing on a chair, which makes him look both taller and older -- a technique that Schoeller says he used to underscore how unusual extended breastfeeding can seem.

"When you think of breast-feeding, you think of mothers holding their children, which was impossible with some of these older kids," he told Time. "I liked the idea of having the kids standing up to underline the point that this was an uncommon situation."

But as Shawna Cohen points out at Mommyish, attachment parenting isn't all that uncommon. "It certainly got my attention, but it also angers me because it portrays AP moms as being totally extreme," she wrote. "And in most cases, that couldn't be further from the truth."

"I practiced a lot of what Dr. Sears recommended and will never regret it," a Yahoo! reader confided. "My pediatrician is very traditional and I just didn't discuss it with him. Unfortunately, this picture has done a great disservice for those of us who believe in attachment parenting and 'extended' breastfeeding."

Though plenty of people seem to think that Time has gone to far -- The Atlantic Wire called the cover "PG-13" and The Right Scoop describes it as "seriously NSFW" and "soft porn" -- to others, the photo wasn't the most offensive part.

"While this picture is gawk-tastic, I'm more disturbed by the title of the article. 'Are You Mom Enough?'" Yahoo! reader Chrissy from Conroe, Texas, commented. "I'm sorry...'Mom Enough?' So this woman is deemed more of a 'mom' simply because she chose to breastfeed her child until he was damn near as tall as she is?"

What do you think? Did Time go too far?

 

[Father Jape]

Sad to dođoh da okačim. Ic Lajsa Erin ol over agen.

[scallop]

Dok uživate u životu i mrko gledate na svoje okruženje, pročitajte i kako u SAD doživljavaju "zemlju mogućnosti". Klinci u ovom trenutku duguju za školovanje preko trilion dolara, a pre nego što se zaposle dužni su 900$ mesečno za otplate kredita. Nazdravlje.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/student-loans-weighing-down-a-generation-with-heavy-debt.html?_r=1&hp

[Father Jape]

Igrajući đavolovog advokata, rekao bih kamo sreće da je tako kod nas: da studenti zadužuju sebe mesto što im roditelji plaćaju ne bi se toliko razvlačili, nego bi pozavršavali sve u roku. A članak veli da je prosečan studentski dug $23 000. Pa to je pola prosečne godišnje plate. Mačji kašalj.

[scallop]

Proći će mnogo vode Dunavom dok ti naučiš da razumeš ono što pročitaš. Moji unuci u SAD neće niti dužni ni cvonjka jer njihovi roditelji imaju pare da plate, a i oni će u onaj prosek duga koji se tebi čini malim. Znači, roditelji plaćaju onima koji obaraju prosek. Dalje, kad bi ti znao kako tamo izgleda raspodela primanja video bi da je ogroman procenat porodica po primanjima na nivou minimalne satnice od 9,15$ (i ispod jer poslodavci to slabo poštuju) i nekim čudom te porodice ne mogu da namire 180 radnih sati mesečno, te su osuđene na dva radna mesta, a deca na ulicu. SAD su dobra zemlja za bogate, a siromašni mogu u dugove za studiranje, lične pa i porodične, jer šta će roditelji nego da pokušaju da izvuku decu, kad se već oni nisu izvukli.

[lilit]

bojim se da ni u srbiji nije mnogo drugačije a vezano za siromašne porodice. mali broj ljudi iz vranja ili pirota može da pošalje decu u beograd, a ako ih i pošalju negde, to je obično neki vid "komjuniti koledža u prokuplju" koji i u usa i ovde ne vredi pišljiva boba.
volela ih da mi kažeš da nisam u pravu, btw.

[Father Jape]

Pa za početak, skalop će ti s pravom istaći da kod nas dobar deo studenata još uvek može da studira za džaba i na najboljim našim univerzitetima. Dakle za razliku od siromašnijih porodica u USA, naši su, ako im se deca potrude da upadnu na budžet, lišeni bar tog dela troškova (naravno, ostaju udžbenici, život u skupom gradu itd.)

[scallop]

Štos je u tome što svi imate stav, a skoro niko izvorne informacije. I, bre, nećete da pitate! Ni iz filmova koje gledate ništa ne naučite. Moji u SAD spadaju u onaj 1,5% gore na listi i troje dece u 1, 4 i 7 razredu osnovnog školovanja u "dobroj školi" ih koštaju skoro 50.000$ godišnje. Svako od njih će do fakulteta koštati 200.000$. Pa vi vidite.

[džin tonik]

tja. sta se daju pljackati umjesto da se vrate u srbiju.

[scallop]

U Srbiji bi ih savetovali magarci kao ti.

[džin tonik]

da. naravno da bi se prvo obratili rodbini. sto je greska. sa rodbinom samo jesti i piti. nikakve poslove.
u konkretnom slucaju samo jesti, ne i piti. sve u mjeri.

[scallop]

A da odskačeš onako kako te savetuju?

[džin tonik]

a sta ako iscasim zglob pri skakutanju? mislis da bih dobio neku mirovinu i ovako trijezan? je li to savjet?

[scallop]

To reši sa Merkelovom. Eno, stoji sve bolje, a ne skakuće.

[džin tonik]

ali skalope, ja nemam stav kao ni izvorne informacije, pa pitam. zasto se ljutis.

[scallop]

Ne pravi se blesav i ne diraj u porodicu.