(V): Is Wikipedia Reliable?
By Dan Woods and Peter Thoeny

The creators of Wikipedia are the first to admit that not every entry is accurate and that it might not be the best source of material for research papers. Here are some points to consider:

Look for a slant. Some articles are fair and balanced, but others look more like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. If an article has only one source, beware.

Consider the source. Even if an article cites external sources, check out those sources to see whether they are being cited fairly and accurately — and do, in fact, reinforce the article's points.

Look who's talking. If you research the contributors themselves and find that they are experts in their fields, you can be more confident in the entry.

Start here, but keep going. Wikipedia should be a starting point for research but not your primary source for research material.

The Col: .... Aye. I'm surprised it didn't 'disappear' one night, or get donated to someone with MS.. for them it's not criminal.

(V):

An elderly couple have unwittingly grown the "biggest cannabis plant" police officers had seen after buying what they thought was a shrub from a car boot sale.

The couple, who live in Bedford, had planted the drug in their garden.

Police officers were astounded when they spotted the plant. They have collected it and a spokesperson said it would be disposed of.

The couple will face no action from the police.

The officers took to their @bedfordlpt Twitter account to express their surprise at the find, saying: "Seized today. Elderly couple bought shrub at car boot sale, tended carefully - biggest cannabis plant we had seen!!"



Poetic to the fact that it is perfectly legal to buy cannabis seeds in the UK.... just not to grow them.

... Taxable revenue must be down. VAT is VAT!!

In American politics, the Southern strategy refers to the Republican Party strategy of gaining political support or winning elections in the Southern section of the country by implicitly appealing to racism against African Americans.

Though the "Solid South" had been a longtime Democratic Party stronghold due to the Democratic Party's defense of slavery prior to the American Civil War and segregation for a century thereafter, many white Southern Democrats stopped supporting the party following the civil rights plank of the Democratic campaign in 1948 (triggering the Dixiecrats), the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, and desegregation.

The strategy was first adopted under future Republican President Richard Nixon and Republican Senator Barry Goldwater[6] in the late 1960s. The strategy was successful in some regards. It contributed to the electoral realignment of Southern states to the Republican Party, but at the expense of losing more than 90 percent of black voters to the Democratic Party. As the twentieth century came to a close, the Republican Party began trying to appeal again to black voters, though with little success.....

.....Following Bush's re-election, Ken Mehlman, Bush's campaign manager and Chairman of the RNC, held several large meetings with African-American business, community, and religious leaders. In his speeches, he apologized for his party's use of the Southern Strategy in the past. When asked about the strategy of using race as an issue to build GOP dominance in the once-Democratic South, Mehlman replied, "Republican candidates often have prospered by ignoring black voters and even by exploiting racial tensions," and, "by the '70s and into the '80s and '90s, the Democratic Party solidified its gains in the African-American community, and we Republicans did not effectively reach out. Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."


>>>>>> We have Republican leaders here stating you are wrong. You gonna call them liars as well?

Lest someone try to rewrite history, the Democratic party of today is the same as the Democratic party of yesterday. The party of racism.

Wow... just seen Indian boffins (that's India Indians) making a battery out of cow dung... They were using old drained batteries as the terminals, just stuck in the dung and connected to make a large cell.

... It lasts a month before refreshing is needed.

And yes.. it can be used to charge ya laptop!

The gaming hobby of a political candidate has become an issue in a state senate race in New England, US. Maine Republicans have created a webpage revealing that Democrat candidate Colleen Lachowicz plays an orc rogue in World of Warcraft (WoW). Ms Lachowicz's liking for back-stabbing and poison in WoW raise questions about her "fitness for office", they claim.

Ms Lachowicz has hit back saying the attack showed the Republicans were "out of touch".

The state senate seat known as District 25 in Maine, is currently being contested by Ms Lachowicz and incumbent Republican Tom Martin. Voting takes place on 6 November. As part of its campaign efforts, the Republican party in the state created "Colleen's World" - a website that compiles information about Ms Lachowicz's orc rogue Santiaga. An orc is a mythical human-like creature, generally described as fierce and combative.

In a statement that accompanies the webpage, Maine Republicans said playing the game led Ms Lachowicz to live a "bizarre double life" that raised questions about her ability to represent the state. The page also detailed some of the comments Ms Lachowicz has made while talking about her orc rogue, in particular it highlights her affection for Santiaga's ability to stab things and kill people without suffering a jail sentence.

"These are some very bizarre and offensive comments," said Maine Republican Party spokesman David Sorensen in a statement. "They certainly raise questions about Lachowicz's maturity and her ability to make serious decisions for the people of Senate District 25."

The site also lists many of the 400 comments she has posted to left wing political news and discussion site Daily Kos. Maine Republicans have also posted leaflets that reproduce the information on the website.

"I think it's weird that I'm being targeted for playing online games," said Ms Lachowicz in a statement. "Apparently I'm in good company since there are 183 million other Americans who also enjoy online games.

Iamon lyme:

Artful Dodger: Looking at the New Yorker cover page, 53% of the voters see Romney talking to an empty chair...

The other 47% see Obama sitting in that chair.



This is your brain... this is your brain on liberalism.
Any questions?

I edited the post.
I want the attack to stop

The Col: just like the "poll taxes".. .. .. ..

(V): The ole "do as I say, not as I do"

So what you are saying Art is that a chair has a very good chance of beating Mitt.

I can believe that!!

Übergeek 바둑이: [ Watching the debate two days ago, I was struck by some things. First, Americans have turned the entire electoral process into a reality TV show... ]

Seriously, you are just now understanding this? This realisation didn't strike you when seeing phony debates on news programs where only one side was represented, or in campaign adds tailored to fit only one narrative? The debate between Romney and Obama was the first time we Americans have been treated to something that didn't look like a phony reality show, but now you recognise how the media has been mostly just putting on a show?

I'm not surprised by this new found "revelation" of yours, I'm just surprised at how easy you make it for booger eating gubbers like me to see through such a thin veil of deception.

mckinley Nowhere do you say why the South wanted to secede from the Union, which is all I wanted to know from the get go.

You started off with me by making fun of my belief in God, then wanted information from me but not willing to give any, and now her feelings are hurt because someone isn't being nice to her. And your first post to me was a suggested Bible reading that didn't really help when I was making a point about vacuous scientific theories. Then I learn how little you actually know or even care about Bible teaching.

I don't know how you can take anything Jesus said seriously and still think abortion is no worse than soldiers fighting in a war. Jesus told Roman soldiers to not complain about their wages, and his highest praise was to a Roman centurion commander, saying he had not seen such faith in all of Israel. In regard to children he said it was better to do yourself in than to offend (harm) one of these little ones. Where do you see him condemning soldiers or being indifferent towards children, or lumping the two together as though one is no worse than the other?

You do not need to feel scared or flattered. I have no interest in flattering an elitist snob, and the only reason you have for feeling "scared" is if someone sees through your so called candy coated exterior.

When the demonstrators reached Dallas City Hall, Johnson poured kerosene on the flag and set it on fire. During the burning of the flag, demonstrators shouted such phrases as, "America, the red, white, and blue, we spit on you, you stand for plunder, you will go under," and, "Reagan, Mondale, which will it be? Either one means World War III." No one was hurt, but some witnesses to the flag burning said they were extremely offended. One witness, Daniel E. Walker, received international attention when he collected the burned remains of the flag and buried them according to military protocol in his backyard.[1]

Johnson was charged with violating the Texas law that prohibits vandalizing respected objects (desecration of a venerated object). He was convicted, sentenced to one year in prison, and fined $2,000. He appealed his conviction to the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas, but he lost this appeal. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals would then see his case. This was the highest court in Texas that would see Criminal Appeals. That court overturned his conviction, saying that the State could not punish Johnson for burning the flag because the First Amendment protects such activity as symbolic speech.

The State had said that its interests were more important than Johnson's symbolic speech rights because it wanted to preserve the flag as a symbol of national unity, and because it wanted to maintain order. The court said neither of these state interests could be used to justify Johnson's conviction.

The court said, "Recognizing that the right to differ is the centerpiece of our First Amendment freedoms, a government cannot mandate by fiat a feeling of unity in its citizens. Therefore that very same government cannot carve out a symbol of unity and prescribe a set of approved messages to be associated with that symbol . . ." The court also concluded that the flag burning in this case did not cause or threaten to cause a breach of the peace......


....The Court's decision invalidated laws in force in 48 of the 50 states. More than two decades later, the issue remains controversial; recent polls suggest that a majority of Americans still support a ban on flag-burning.[6] Congress did, however, pass a statute, the 1989 Flag Protection Act, making it a federal crime to desecrate the flag. In the case of United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990),[7] that law was struck down by the same five person majority of justices as in Johnson (in an opinion also written by Justice Brennan). Since then, Congress has considered the Flag Desecration Amendment several times. The amendment usually passes the House of Representatives, but has always been defeated in the Senate. The most recent attempt occurred when S.J.Res.12[8] failed by one vote on June 27, 2006.

Übergeek 바둑이: I think it's more a case of the 1% rely on an "us and them" system.. divide and conquer. For if the stupid "us and them" died and it became "us" then the US would change.

"Romney the hypocrite fear-mongers about China and makes a killing producing cheap over there."

And the Chinese are dying and fighting over the hours they are having to work. Have prices really dropped though? Or is the middle men getting a greater wad, going by Apples profits.. I'd say they are getting fat on sweat shop factories.

Texas law...

In Article 1, Section 4, the Texas Constitution states: "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, in this State; nor shall any one be excluded from holding office on account of his religious sentiments, provided he acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being."

Übergeek 바둑이: are you saying the US government purchases all the oil and commodities..then resells it to suppliers who in turn sell to the public?

Watching the debate two days ago, I was struck by some things. First, Americans have turned the entire electoral process into a reality TV show like American idol. All that is missing is a panel of judges to give criticism and pointers to the contestants. Well, media spinners fill that role.

Second thing I noticed, both candidates are incapable of offering anything new. They keep flogging the same dead horses. Tax breaks for the rich, Obamacare, a burgeoning deficit (for which they blame each other when in reality decades of rule by both political parties are to blame for it), etc.

However, the third thing, and most alarming thing, is how economically inept the candidates are. Both are incapable of addressing the real root causes of the economic problems affecting the United States. The candidates were incapable of mentioning the simple fact that the American economy is in trouble because the United States consumes a lot more than it produces and satisfying that hunger for consumption means that the USA must manufacture products and produce commodities overseas.

Among the more stupid comments I heard was this Romney quote:

"But I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for."

This kind of quote is a reflection of the economic ineptitude of Romney and those who advise him on econmic matters. To say that the USA "borrows" from China to pay for the deficit is ludicrous. The real reason why the USA owes money to China is because American consumers buy 50 billion dollars of Chinese-made goods per month, while China barely buys any American-made goods. In order to balance the trade accounts, the American government is forced to issue billions of dollars in treasury bills to China. It is either that or hard currency (such as gold). Consequently, why would China buy American-made goods when they manufucture cheaply everything themselves? This is not about market protectionism, but about a simple economic reality that the manufacturer of goods has the economic power in his hands as opposed to the consumer of goods.

Mitt Romney is disingenous in playing the fear-mongering game. He never told the public that what they should really do is to stop buying Chinese-made goods. He also never told the public that the real problem is that American manufacturers continue to manufacture in cheap labour markets with lax legislation.

By Romney's logic, the USA is also borrowing money from Canada and Saudi Arabia to pay for the deficit. After all, those two are America's largest suppliers of oil and natural gas and every American is consuming those commodities. Should Romney tell people that the USA should stop borrowing from Saudi Arabia or Canada? There are other countries that sell commodities to the USA too.

Obama's ineptitude is evident in the fact that he was incapable of rebutting to Romney's comment. The closes Obama came to that was saying that tax breaks should go to companies that create jobs in America and not overseas, and this comment was largely ignored by the Media and dismissed by Romney as something that would hurt businesses.

This is not surprising since Romney himself "outsourced" production from his companies to overseas in the past and at least part of his multimillion dollar fortune came from profits derived by dismissing American workers and producing in cheap labour markets. Romney the hypocrite fear-mongers about China and makes a killing producing cheap over there. Why is it that Democrats say little about it? Because they are just as guilty of the same and nobody wants to kill the hen that laid the golden egg of maximum profits though cheap labour, and subsequent American unemployment.

Like I said before, this election (like most elections after Kennedy's death) is a choice between bad and worse, and politicians count on an apathetic and uninformed public to make the worst possible choice.

Would liberals support censorship in response to wife-beaters, skinheads, abortion-clinic bombers, gay-bashers, or any other violent group? Then why do they support censorship in response to terrorists?

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/shut_up_or_die_the_muslim_protesters_explained.html#ixzz28R3qo3aE

Ninety-one people have been arrested in seven US cities for their alleged roles in a $430m (£265m) Medicare fraud scheme, the justice department says.

A hospital president, doctors and nurses are all accused of submitting claims for treatment that was medically unnecessary or never provided. Charges against them include healthcare fraud, breaking anti-kickback statutes and money laundering, the agency said. Medicare is a popular government health programme for the over-65s.

"Today's arrests put criminals on notice that we are cracking down hard on people who want to steal from Medicare," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

She added that 30 other healthcare providers had been suspended or had administrative action taken against them based on credible allegations of fraud.

Dozens of people either surrendered or were arrested over the last 24 hours in a case led by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, officials said. The team uses analysis of Medicare data to fight fraud.

The arrests were made in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Brooklyn, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas and Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California; and Miami, Florida. Altogether the charges cover more than $230m in home healthcare fraud, more than $100m in mental healthcare fraud and more than $49m in ambulance transport fraud.

Court documents claim that patient recruiters, Medicare patients and other participants in the scheme were given cash kickbacks in exchange for providing information about healthcare beneficiaries. Their information was used to submit bills for treatment that never took place or was not needed.

A similar operation was launched in September 2011, with another 91 people arrested and charged over a suspected $295m Medicare fraud.

Iamon lyme: wow.. you sure are complaining.

"You have the right to not say anything sensible when you have nothing sensible to say, so why would anyone complain about that?"

So apparently do you. As well as Art in his Big Brother style version of history.

I need to take a time out while my town is on fire! Seriously. 30 acres now and spreading.

Artful Dodger: lol not "curtis lowe"??

I need to go play my dobro.

now this is what I like to see.A Man that speak his mind and also tells the truth.

Artful Dodger: lol

Bwild: I was surprised at how repetitive Obama was. Like he had no new ideas! Next time will be different so Mitt better be on his toes. Obama may employ a mini tele-prompter.

Artful Dodger: yomama tried and tried to make romney believe he was going to raise the deficit by 7 trillion with his tax cuts and the removal of certain deductions and tax loopholes. kinda funny really.

Iamon lyme: I'll bet Romney was fully ready for that question. Good thing obama didn't use it. I'll bet Mitt would have crushed him with it.

Artful Dodger: I didn't watch the debate last night, and it was for the same reason I didn't watch either of the conventions. I already know which one wants to win a contest and which one wants to do the job.

The media was upset that Obama didn't bring up the 47% comment by Romney... well duh, of course he didn't bring that up, because it's a phony argument that can only work in campaign adds and among their own people. It wouldn't work in a face to face debate with no teleprompter, and the opposing candidate standing right there ready to answer the phony charge.

What did the media expect? Romney would have nailed Obama over that, and Obama knows it. But the media now thinks Obama is not following through on the work they did to prop him up and keep him in a favorable light. Again, another "Well duh" to the media genius king makers and another "Well what did you geniuses expect?" It was a face to face debate, and Obama was left dangling because you weren't there to cover and lie for him, and to prop him up... because that is not the purpose of a debate.

Now some are saying, Well, the debate is no big deal, because most people have already made up their minds... LoL I can't argue with that!

BTW, the man who wrote, "DEMOCRATIC N word!" is a black man - a friend on Facebook. If quoting that title as HE WROTE IT is racist, take it up with him. And if you have a problem with the LBJ quote (and you should) good for you! That is if you are offended that HE, the PRESIDENT of the US said it. It should tell you something of the Democratic part at that time in our history. It should tell you that the Democratic party sought the black vote even while they thought of blacks as Negros and (that other word!). The Democratic party has NOT helped blacks. They have a different purpose. Keep blacks dependent on them so that they, the blacks, will keep the liberals in power. Then every once in a while, throw them a bone to keep them happy. If you can't see that maybe it's because you are the one that is racist. Or you're just plain stupid.

OTOH, if you just want to have a problem with ME because I quoted someone else verbatim, bite me. If that's your issue, I couldn't care less what you think.

Where do these intellectual midgets come from?

Silvery Moon: Take a chill pill Sliver. There is no racist posts here by me. So that must make you one of those intellectually deficient liberals. Well that explains it.

I've explained my position on the matter. If you want to lie about what's said, that's on you. But don't expect me to give a rip. I don't.

Artful Dodger: This is such a shame I was starting to like this game site until I saw the recent racist posts you posted to upset people :(

Why? Do you have a problem with black people? :|
I'm 79 years of age I've lived a long hard great life sonny boy and it would be nice to return to brainking and not see such garbage.
I am, I was (I'm not sure, still thinking about it) going to purchase a black rook it would be perfect for me lol

I can't post on these boards noone here goes by the rules.

Iamon lyme: intellectual dishonesty runs rampant with the liberals on here. Case in point is the obvious willingness to exploit racism demonstrated in their feigned disgust of my use of the N word. They don't really find disgust in the use of that word. They simply want to use the use of that word as a hammer - but only for political reasons. If the use of the word really mattered, they'd focus on the source. I've quoted LBJ before (un edited) and I always get the same phony response. Such is the racism on the left. They are willing to exploit race to gain politically.

Not ONE of these idiots have ever responded to those that authored the words. That it's the democratic party that originated the word, oppressed blacks, lynched them, segregated them, and when it was politically expedient, fooled them into voting for their party (through pandering and promises of "Hey, let us white guys take care of you! Vote for us and we'll give you money.") That's the democratic party. Blacks have voted democratic for years and what have they to show for it? Not much.

(V): I really don't care what you do or don't do, so your complaint has no merit. You can continue tossing out fake bombs and straw man dolls as your answers, and at the same time demand reasonable responses to anything conservatives say. Does that make you a hypocrite? Of course not! You have the right to not say anything sensible when you have nothing sensible to say, so why would anyone complain about that?