Daily Topics - Thursday May 5th, 2011
By shawnt56
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Truthout proudly presents weekly installments of Thom's bestselling book "Unequal Protection"
Hour One: That's not who we are!
Hour Two: Tax breaks for billionaire yacht owners?! Jamie Weinstein, The Daily Caller / Plus, Geeky Science Rocks - Do girls like pink because of their berry-gathering female ancestors?
Hour Three: Why does the right believe in torture? Les Rayburn / Plus, latest on Fukushima...workers enter reactor - Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear
Comments
#2
Saddam Hussein was not decapitated in his hanging. That was a guy named al-Tikriti. (I happen to be reading The Way of the World, and that came up in what I was reading 2 days ago.)
#3
Thom, you should use your personal rule about not talking about Adolf Hitler in talking points. Today is at least the second time that I heard you state that FDR didn't dig up the bones of Adolf Hitler and display them. There are at least three reasons why this did not happen, 1 Hitlers body was burnt beyond all recognition after he killed himself, 2 the sector in which Hitlers remains were found were in the Russian held territory, so if anyone would have and could have strung up Hitlers remains as a trophy it would have be Stalin, and 3 (and most importantly) FDR died 2 weeks before Hitler.
As far as I know, FDR didn't do anything to prevent the photos of Mussolini from being released either.
The display of Mussolini's body was one of the speculated reasons on why Hitler had his body burned, he didn't want to be humiliated in death.
I don't really know if releasing Osama's death picture is worth anything, but bringing up Hitler and the end of WWII as reasons to not display the picture is rather moot.
N
#4
Based on 2007 data, America’s economy is number 96 outta 136. Thank you President Reagan for the warm and yellow trickle-down: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2172rank.html
Based upon 2010 data, America’s recovery is 138th of 216: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2003rank.html
#5
Uh generally yacht owners get around paying any sales tax by having the seller sail about 3 miles off shore, having the new owner sail out to meet them in a seperate vessel (generally a small tender) then signing the paperwork and turning the vessel over. At least that's how it worked 10 years ago when the company I worked for, that built a multimillon dollar yacht for an individual did it. Why 3 miles, because for some reason its considered international waters, at least when avoiding sales tax, don't ask me why.
That was in California BTW, but I believe it works that way federally. Also this 130' megayacht had Las Vegas listed as it's home port (wrap you're mind around that).
N
#6
Every woman I've known has chosen blue as her favorite color.
#7
The Great American Bubble Machine by Matt Taibbi:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405
#8
Godwin's Law: As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.
I was guilty of this earlier today, when I pointed out that nobody needed to see pictures of Hitler's body.
#9
@Mathboy, actually there are several pictures of dead Hitler look alikes from the end of the war. Presumably the look alikes were killed to throw off those hunting for Hitler. Obviously the existence of these photos are proof someone thought it necessary to photograph the dead body of Hitler, and you don't take pictures not to show them to someone who feels they need to see them... you just don't.
N
#10
Thank you, Senator Franken.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/al-franken-makes-senate-s_b_857978.html
Senator Franken talks Net Neutrality.
#11
OK so you torture a guy to save one American, because that's the only way to save just one American (that was this torture defender's argument). However, by saving this one American by having a policy that in certain cases torture is OK, you've made your enemy resolute to kill more Americans. So you saved one American and killed how many more saving him? I mean really if we torture one enemy and get one American killed because of it, but saved another American specifically, the net change is one enemy tortured... so we're still behind in the long run aren't we.
The problem with this man's argument is it stops at the result of saving one American, but doesn't bother with all those endangered from that point further because of it.
N
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
From Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition:
"Beneath the success and rise of American enterprise is an untold history that is antithetical to every value Americans hold dear. This is a seminal work, a godsend really, a clear message to every citizen about the need to reform our country, laws, and companies."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Thom Hartmann seeks out interesting subjects from such disparate outposts of curiosity that you have to wonder whether or not he uncovered them or they selected him."
From Screwed:
"If we are going to live in a Democracy, we need to have a healthy middle class. Thom Hartmann shows us how the ‘cons’ have wronged this country, and tells us what needs to be done to reclaim what it is to be American."
The Quitter Twit just wants herself some fresh Death Squad Porn as Dark Sith Lord CHEENEE soiled her copies of the Hussein sons . . .