Imagine every politician would have such a way of putting things: respectful, data-driven, and passionate.

Very well made – and shocking.

A rhetoric and subversive masterpiece by V. Putin on the US and conflict in Syria was published yesterday in the NYT.

ACLU visualized information regarding Guantanamo:

Don’t click if you just ate, or intend to eat in the next hour or so.

“If we are to have another contest in our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixons, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, & superstition, ambition, & ignorance on the other [...] Resolve that either the state or Nation, or both combined, shall support institutions of learning [...] sufficient to afford to every child growing up in the land the opportunity of a good common school education.
[...] Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and private schools entirely supported by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate.”

– Ulysses S. Grant, 1822 – 1885, 18th president of the United States of America

(via spacegirl)

“Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his terror. There is evil prowling in the world — it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds. As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help.”
- Texas Governor Rick Perry

It is very hard for me grasp that a person who (1) has these beliefs and (2) has openly shared them for decades was actually somehow elected into one of the highest political offices in the US, and even ran for presidency.

(Source: nydailynews.com)

One of the most insightful 10 minute talks I have seen in the last years. Sir Ken Robinson about the education system and the way we think about learning, growth, and success.

The economist posted an overview about the rockets fired from Israel into Gaza and vice versa, both for the last years and the last days since the conflict broke out.

In case you don’t know, there are two great things about voting in the States.
(1) Americans vote on the first Tuesday in November.
(2) The lines can be long, waiting several hours is something that many people here have experienced.

This is amazing because conservatives like seniors have plenty of time to cast their vote, whereas people like single mothers, people with small businesses who have to work their 10 or 12 hours a day to keep it running, and other generally more liberally minded people do not get to vote at all.

Furthermore, the voting went very smoothly.

• New Jersey: “Voters were being asked for I.D. even though the state has no law requiring it, voting locations opened late and some locations didn’t have ballots [...] While the state is allowing voters to return their absentee ballots electronically, servers in at least three counties had shut down
• Florida: “Reports of malfunctioning machines and broken scanners were reported throughout South Florida on Tuesday [...] Voters at the location told NBC 6 South Florida the scene was chaotic and frustrating with poll workers unprepared to handle any issues properly. They said staff didn’t explain what the hold up was and many voters ended up leaving the line because they couldn’t wait any longer. Residents who had already voted left their filled out ballots with staffers who put them in a bag. They were told ‘just trust us, that will be done at the end of the night’”.
• Florida 2: Voting no actually means yes, and sample ballots run over 12 pages and even lawyers have problems figuring out what the text means. What happened? “Backed by Republican state lawmakers, the proposed amendments …” … no more questions.
• Conneticut: Republican candidate Linda McMahon with one of the ballsiest false-flag operations in voting history. She had minorities dressed up in TShirts stating that they would vote for “Obama & McMahon”, and had other voting PR materials prepared as well. Nowhere was stated that she was, in fact, Republican, and voting herself for Mitt Romney.
• Florida: robo-calls tell voters they can cast their vote on Wednesday – one day after the election.
• Mississippi: “An unknown number of voter registrations have gone missing”
• Ohio: “Last Minute Directive by Ohio’s Jon Husted Could See Legal Votes Discarded & Swing the Election”.
• Ohio 2: last minute, unauthorized changes to voting software (some people suspect that they need to make sure Romney wins, and not Bush)
• Ohio 3: “Thousands of absentee-ballot requests may have been erroneously rejected statewide”
• Thousands of employees of several large companies have received a letter or email from their director / chairman, urging them to vote for Romney. This is a legal procedure in the United States. E.g. Mike White, the chairman and owner of Rite-Hite, a major Milwaukee manufacturer of industrial equipment, wrote each employee “should understand the personal consequences to them of having our tax rates increase dramatically if President Obama is re-elected, forcing taxpayers to fund President Obama’s future deficits and social programs (including Obamacare), which require bigger government.” Some of the claims in the emails are mails are outright lies, e.g. that Obama is raising the tax-rates for companies to 65%.
• Obama saved Chrysler. Romney said originally that it should just go bankrupt. Later he lied about what he said. Then he ran an ad making up that Chrysler was going to move operations overseas. Chrysler had enough now and gives its workers a full day off to vote
• Special voting machine (video): You vote for Obama, the machine counts your Romney vote.