The concept of karoshi, a Japanese word that translates to “death from overwork” has gained notoriety throughout both hemispheres during the economic powerhouse decades of the eighties in Japan and the nineties in America. The first case reported came in 1969 from the shipping department of Japan’s largest national newspaper, where a 29 year old worker died suddenly of stroke during an extended shift. Three ...

It appears that "going rogue" is all the rage these days, and the police officers of Portland, Oregon, seem determined to get in on the fad. A burgeoning public relations fiasco in the City of Roses revolves around one particular officer. Earlier this month, Portland Police Officer Chris Humphreys was caught on video surveillance shooting a beanbag gun at a twelve-year-old girl at close range. Portland Poli ...

[caption id="attachment_10647" align="aligncenter" width="253" caption="Gerardo Hernandez—Cuban Five "][/caption] We are posting this human interest story to alert readers about the continuing plight of the Cuban Five freedom fighters locked away in US Federal Prisons for conducting anti-terrorism actions to protect their homeland. On December 8, two of the Cuban five will be resentened in Miami Federal Cou ...

By Guest Blogger George Thompson It seems absurdly naïve to think that what is happening everywhere else in the world and especially in America is not going to affect the Canadian education system. For example Canadian provincial governments have imported high stakes testing, test-score and demographics websites (“data dashboards”) for parents to shop schools, “magnet” schools, adequate yearly improvement p ...

November 29, 2009 - 10:00 AM The following story provides more evidence of the economic and fraudulent wake that is enveloping public schools throughout the nation through the Trojan horse for privatization called ‘charter schools’.  Do not be fooled, for all over the US the havoc wrought from a decaying social fabric is being exposed for what it really is! Star Tribune, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnesota Sta ...

Despite what one thinks, there is a vast difference in the mindset of the left and the right in the United States, yet they somehow always seem to be angry at any sitting president who thinks differently than them.  The left was angry for the last eight years and often despised former President Bush.  The right is also often angry and despises President Obama.  Both sides have spoken of impeachment and sugg ...

I give up.  There is no common ground.  I just tried to reason, in my head, with a close friend who exists on the other side of the great partisan divide that has arisen in this country.  It doesn’t work.  I doubt if he has ever even seen a food stamp or collected unemployment.  I think his first car was a new Austin Healey 3000. On health care, he has the best policy anyone can get.   He has Medicare with ...

I met a young lad at a Thanksgiving dinner party.  He is a newly graduated, unemployed architect.  He is living in an as yet unfinished attic of an artist’s studio.  In exchange for finishing it, he gets to live there for $75/month.  Access is by a ladder.  That doesn’t sound too bad.  The only problem with it is that he suffered a “bucket handle tear” of his right medial meniscus.  In other words, he tore ...

It's Thanksgiving already. The day that many of us stay in bed late and are beckoned from sleep by an array of smells: turkey roasting in the oven, yams stewing in their own sweet juices, and pies filled with vanilla and spices. We gather in groups of friends and family, as many people as we can seat and feed, eat as much as we possibly can, turn on an obligatory American football game and doze off some tim ...

Michael Collins Dubai was to be the next Switzerland, an enclave for anonymous banking, a play ground for the super rich, and the ultimate gated community for those with so much wealth, they felt an overriding need for protection. Well, that's all over now.  Dubai declared a debt moratorium until May 10, 2010.  While this isn't a sovereign default (national), it might as well be. Numerian, a stellar poster ...