http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=6407
Read that and tell me what you think. It is probable that they will become a super power but they are nowhere near it and probably not in your life time.

Good for you, Lindyy!

And I say that without any trace of sarcasm.


Lindyy says:

MNHiker - thank you. Gee, it is nice to be nice.

Now,I know the guys will go ugggghhh, but here are some of my items that I use daily that are made in the USA: Jergens hand lotion, "Freeze it" hair spray, No Nonsense panty hose (hush up you guys) and Bauch & Lomb Boston Conditioning Solution for contact lens.

You just have to read labels and make your best decision.

Lindyy


I am on a limited budget so I do shop at walmart. Fanta is right that we need to change our ways and stop being so greedy too. Maybe one ipod would be enough for most? just my thought.

Good for you, Lindyy!

And I say that without any trace of sarcasm.


Lindyy says:

MNHiker - thank you. Gee, it is nice to be nice.

Now,I know the guys will go ugggghhh, but here are some of my items that I use daily that are made in the USA: Jergens hand lotion, "Freeze it" hair spray, No Nonsense panty hose (hush up you guys) and Bauch & Lomb Boston Conditioning Solution for contact lens.

You just have to read labels and make your best decision.

Lindyy

God should never be spoken of as his name used as a weapon. Do you think it is God's will that anyone should not live a full life for him?

Iraqi Women Under Saddam's Regime: A Population Silenced

Situation for Women in Saddam's Iraq
In 1979, immediately upon coming to power, Saddam Hussein silenced all political opposition in Iraq and converted his one-party state into a cult of personality. Since then, his regime has systematically executed, tortured, imprisoned, raped, terrorized, and repressed the Iraqi people. Iraq is a nation rich in culture, with a long history of intellectual and scientific achievement, especially among its women. However, Saddam Hussein's brutal regime has silenced the voices of Iraq's women, along with its men, through violence and intimidation.

In Iraq under Saddam, if you are a woman, you could face:

Beheading. Under the pretext of fighting prostitution, units of "Fedayeen Saddam," the paramilitary organization led by Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son, have beheaded in public more than 200 women throughout the country, dumping their severed heads at their families' doorsteps. Many families have been required to display the victim's head on their outside fences for several days. These barbaric acts were carried out in the total absence of any proper judicial procedures and many of the victims were not engaged in prostitution, but were targeted for political reasons. For example, Najat Mohammad Haydar, an obstetrician in Baghdad, was beheaded after criticizing the corruption within health services. (Amnesty International Report, Iraq: Systematic Torture of Political Prisoners, August 2001; Iraqi Women's League in Damascus, Syria)

Rape. The Iraqi Government uses rape and sexual assault of women to achieve the following goals: to extract information and forced confessions from detained family members; to intimidate Iraqi oppositionists by sending videotapes showing the rape of female family members; and to blackmail Iraqi men into future cooperation with the regime. Some Iraqi authorities even carry personnel cards identifying their official "activity" as the "violation of women's honor." (U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices-2001, March 2002; Iraq Research and Documentation Project, Harvard University)

Torture. The Iraqi Government routinely tortures and kills female dissidents and the female relatives of Iraqi oppositionists and defectors. Victims include Safiyah Hassan, the mother of two Iraqi defectors, who was killed after publicly criticizing the Iraqi Government for killing her sons after their return to Iraq. Women in Saddam's jails are subjected to the following forms of torture: brutal beatings, systematic rape, electrical shocks, and branding. (U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices-2001, March 2002; U.S. Department of State, Iraq: A Population Silenced, December 2002)

Murder. In 1990, Saddam Hussein introduced Article 111 into the Iraqi Penal Code in a calculated effort to strengthen tribal support for his regime. This law exempts men who kill their female relatives in defense of their family's honor from prosecution and punishment. The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women reported that more than 4,000 women have been victims of so-called "honor killings" since Article 111 went into effect. (UN Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, January 2002)

U.S. Support for Iraqi Women
All people deserve to live in freedom, including the men and women of Iraq. On March 6, 2003, a group of free Iraqi women met with Vice President **** Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, and Ambassador at Large for a Free Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. The women shared their experiences under Saddam's reign of terror. As this group made clear, Iraqi women are eager to participate in the process of building a peaceful, democratic post-Saddam society. They want their society to once again be based on progressive Iraqi traditions and values. They believe in the universal principles of human rights.

As in Afghanistan, the United States Government is prepared to help Iraqis with the priorities and projects that they identify as the best way to achieve their goals. We will continue to meet with Iraqi women and exchange ideas about their path forward. As Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky stated after her recent meeting with a group of free Iraqi women: "It is clear that the women of Iraq have a critical role to play in the future revival of their society. They bring skills and knowledge that will be vital to restoring Iraq to its rightful place in the region and in the world."
We are all sisters and YES they were oppressed.
But the way they treated women is ok because I did not see anything about that horrible waterboarding which would have made rape and murder look like a day of shopping at the mall. j/k

God bless everyone and good night!

Chinese are allowed to make more money by working harder and buy cell phones and cars and increase their quality of life but Cubans cannot. Cubans are issued ration cards to help buy food but the government dictates their pay. Yes they have free education and free medical but it is not a model to copy. Cubans want less government control in their lives. There is no freedom of the press or freedom of speech. They have been communist for decades and are ignorant to any other way. The people are too used to being told what they need and having it given to them. They have been through a lot as a result of communism and it would be devastating for them to have an abrupt change to capitalism. It would destroy the economy which is in poverty at best.Cubans want to be free but for now they would be happy with less governmental control. I know little of how the Chinese feel about communism. Thank you for asking
Sorry I forgot about the embargo. It is silly in my opinion. I think if it was lifted it would eventually be the end of Castro's regime and would eventually lead to un golpe de Estado. Overthrowing the government.

Thank you

My parents were Cuban immigrants. I was born here. I am an American and yes I am of Cuban heritage.

Well at least your people had the ability to say no. I would love to see a few hundred thousand soldiers move out of Guantanamo and free my family.At least you can visit your family?

http://www.helium.com/items/258199-having-nukes-worrying-prospect
Several different views of how we and many other glorious countries as you call it don't want a rogue state that is fractional at best to have the power to incinerate more than a million people on a whim.

It was not my intention to offend! I found the photo funny and representative of my view of some of the union workers I have dealt with. It could have been anyone in the photo. Thank you for understanding.
It is Maria by the way.

My son is a hero in my eyes. Iraq was the last thing he saw and my hero is home now. I will always remember how proud he was to be helping them. Thank you for helping there and I hope and pray all of you come home safe when the job is done.

I am not anti union. I think they have their place of protecting workers and they were an important part of building our country. Things now are largely not what they were then. Some unions are now in it for the money more than representing their members. Unions are a business and a mob run business. Unions have played a large role in our standard of living but we Americans just keep wanting more and more and more. It is what we have become accustomed to getting and our greedy nature will not let us be competitive in the world because it means that we would have to change our ways and our attitude. We have to change as we can with the world market or we will be run over by it. Remember the 70's? Import tariffs on Japanese cars gave us the Aries and K cars. Quality suffers when there is no competition. Why do we import more than we export? Price and quality are apparently acceptable enough and trump what we manufacture here or we wouldn't have that problem. America can regain its place in the world market and we can maintain our quality of life by concentrating on manufacturing what the third world countries cannot because of the lack of technology. They can make the socks cheaper than we can but they cannot make the equipment to make the socks as an example.
Concerning "the groteque profits of large corporations and their greed": If you are still buying their products it must be ok with you or you would buy from someone else? You, me, and everyone else can cause change but are you willing? Can you honestly say you would say no, that is as much profit as I need because I don't want to be greedy? How would you explain that tactic to your shareholders while you are cleaning out your desk on your last day as CEO? Who are the shareholders? Got a 401k?

What good is productivity if the price is not marketable? Wheeee! We made a million more widgets but we cannot lower the price to compete? What sense does that make?
His question pertained to Germany. Yes they are less productive due to the excess paid sick time and paid vacation time which forces them to raise prices on products produced.

http://www.businessweek.com/1997/30/b353777.htm

Concerning American unions not all of them are bad but some of them are like a leach in the middle of your back that you cannot reach just sucking out your blood.
Trade tarrifs? Everytime that happens companies raise prices to increase profit because they can and it closes the gap again that was supposed to help trade and then the union goons push the coffee pot cleaner's wage from $25 to $30 per hour with time and a half over eight when they only clean the coffee pot twice a day. Madisonman's picture of leaning back in a chair should be a poster campaign for most American unions. People will need to make sacrifices to change the path we are on but nobody is willing. Like I said. Spoiled brats. Read the link. Europe is losing jobs to outsourcing just like we are.

Most all western style democracies are far more unionised than umerika. Germany for example is an exporting powerhouse and most germans enjoy a higher standerd of liveng than we americans more vacation time, universal healthcare etc etc. No its not the unions who have sunk america so low as it is the greedy corperate masters who take home obsecene paychecks and have so much money they do not know were to invest it, so they invest it in public relation firms to spew out 24/7 propaganda thats says unions are bad and thats the reasone why we have to offshore to countries that will work for nothing and under the worst conditions imaginable. If those stupid Nike shoes are made for nothing in China and then are sold for hundreds of dollars here in the states is it the fault of the Unions?
Edited by madisonman on Sun 03/23/08 10:53 AM

Have you checked the salaries of German executives? You throw out talking points just fine but you need to have the facts to support them or they are nothing more than misleading propaganda. Germany is having problems with unions and worl competitiveness but not as bad as the US because unions there are different from here. They are not as anti-business as American unions. You speak of crooks running American companies but your dues go to the mob each mont. Isn't that just a little hypocritical? German workers wages are more competitive than American wages. More vacation? Maybe if we were as productive as they are? You say "public relation firms to spew out 24/7 propaganda thats says unions are bad and thats the reasone why we have to offshore to countries that will work for nothing and under the worst conditions imaginable." Does ANYONE else know of this happening? Maybe in subliminal Coca Cola ads? It is not about Nike shoes. It is about a standard of living that people demand but cannot afford so they blame it on everyone they can instead of living within their means. We are a country of spoiled brats and we need a spanking. Yes it is true that some US CEO's are paid higher salaries with options but I would settle for $15,000,000.00 with options wouldn't you?
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4504

Drat! Late for church. Happy Easter everyone!

Companies use labor that is profitable in order to be profitable. Unions suck the profitability out of competing in world markets. It has nothing to do with slave labor it has to do with regional economics, cost of living, what the market will bear, etc. If labor, taxation, etc. cost too much to be able to market a product at a price comparable to your competition you either make changes or go out of business. Why do you suppose unions are being broken in businesses each year? Companies want to stay here and the smarter union members understand that they need to stop being part of the problem and be part of the solution. The dumber ones will b*tch their way to the poor house because they are bubba's that sit around under their hard hats with a stupid ass smirk on their face and just don't get it.

How much stuff have YOU bought in the last month that is made in China? If the government got involved in China's affairs there would be people b*tching about that. Just can't win. Stop buying Chinese made goods and put your money where your mouth is people! I know I know, blood sucking union's anti-business tactics have priced us out of competition but buy American anyway.

Stae your source of your facts NOT your opinions concerning state sponsored terrorism.