"AFP members indicate that they have moderate expectations about business growth in the coming year, but they are tempering their optimism due to concerns about corporate taxes and, indeed, business sentiment in Washington."
Hudson wrote that the law’s central requirement that most Americans obtain health insurance exceeds the regulatory authority granted to Congress under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.
“I didn’t really expect her to touch my vagina through my pants” said Kaya McLaren, an elementary schoolteacher from Cle Elum, Wash.I understand that authorities must do their job but that doesn't give them the right to make people feel uncomfortable.
According to an article by BBC, there is proof that shows BP lied about test results that should have raised doubts about its strength before the tragedy occurred. This is really bad because it shows the company didn't really want to take the time to fix things, which led to this environmental disaster. Companies need to be aware of their actions because they never know when things can get out of control.
According to this article by the New York Times, Nissan is recalling 747 000 cars in the U.S and about a million in some other countries including Japan, Canada, etc.Apparently there is an ignition problem in several Nissan models built between 2004 and 2006.There had been no reports of accidents caused by the fault, but they have told owners to take their vehicle to a dealer for checks.
The relief effort was limited, said Hartje Robert Winerungan, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency, as helicopters and aid ships were taking hours to reach affected areas."Some villages in the remote island can't be reached so far," said Mr Winerungan. "We're working on it.'
"Today, Chile is a country much stronger and more united, and a country much more respected in the world"I believe this is a great example for many nations in a way because the Chilean authorities and people from many other countries that specialize in mining, helped to bring them back alive.
"I remember thinking how strange it was that after man had conquered the moon, we appeared to have given up afterwards," said King, who built and sold his Clockworks International software company during the booming 1990s. "I think a lot of people imagined there would have been more progress in terms of space flight."
This is a big wake up call, it shows that our society really needs to change to be able to stay ahead. Solar power is just one of the many areas where the U.S is loosing the battle against other nations such as China and India. We need a turning point.“The solar market has changed so much it’s almost enough to make you want to cry,” said Joseph Laia, chief executive of MiaSolé. “We have spent a lot more time and energy focusing on costs a year or two before we thought we had to.”
It is sad to see how nobody thought, or nobody cared about the consequences that the irresponsible way banks lent money. Now all we can do is hope that things won't get worse and learn from this mistakes to avoid this in the future“The market never likes uncertainty, and it seems like every day we’re adding to the list of things we need to worry about with the financials,” said Jason Goldberg, an analyst. “The industry needs to work quickly to put this issue behind them.”
According to the New York Times, the new healthcare law that was signed 6 months ago and that is now in use , is expected to bring hope to thousands of Americans who were excluded because of preexisting conditions. The White House said this will enable 72,000 uninsured to gain coverage and insurers also will be prohibited from imposing lifetime limits on benefits or drop customers it requires that they offer coverage to children under 26 on their parents’ policies.“The amount of vulnerability that was out there was horrendous,” Mr. Obama on Wednesday told a gathering of people chosen to illustrate the law’s new provisions. He said he concluded that “we’ve just got to give people some basic peace of mind.”I think this is really important because now people will not have to deal with that kind of
According to this New York Times article many coral reefs around the world are in danger because this year’s extreme heat is putting the world’s coral reefs under such severe stress that scientists fear widespread die-offs, endangering not only the richest ecosystems in the ocean but also fisheries that feed millions of people. Scientists are holding out hope that this year will not be as bad, over all, as 1998, the hottest year in the historical record, when an estimated 16 percent of the world’s shallow-water reefs died. But in some places, including Thailand, the situation is looking worse than in 1998.It is pretty clear that we need to decrease pollution to stop climate change because the destruction of coral reefs affects the whole ecosystem and our lives.
This shows that the increase discrimination has gotten worse not only because of the planned Islamic center in NYC but also because people feel hate towards this people after 9/11. I really think we need to think twice before discriminating innocent people because we would not like to be in that situation.Such complaints were increasing even before frictions erupted over the planned Islamic center in Lower Manhattan
Two-thirds of those polled object to the prospective Cordoba House complex near the site of the former twin towers, including a slim majority who express strongly negative views. Eighty-two percent of those who oppose the construction say it's because of the location, although 14 percent (9 percent of all Americans) say they would oppose such building anywhere in the country.I understand that 9/11 was a tragedy, but is it necessary to punish the Muslim world for something they did not have control of? We must understand that if one is a Muslim does not mean one is a terrorist. I believe it is unfair that people reject Muslims this way because it seems to me like we are forgetting they have the same rights as any other American citizen.
So if you think the world feels crowded now, just wait a few decades. In 1800, London was the largest city in the world with 1 million people. By 1960, there were 111 cities with more than 1 million people. By 1995 there were 280,and today there are over 300. The number of megacities in the world has climbed from 5 in 1975 to 14 in 1995 and is expected to reach 26 by 2015, according to the UN. Needless to say, these exploding populations are rapidly overwhelming infrastructure in this megacities, 19 million people in Mumbai alone, as well as driving loss of arable land, deforestation, overfishing, water shortages, and pollution.This is very alarming considering that the population increase is supposed to take place mostly in poor countries which means there will be more people starving, diseases and probably war/conflicts. Overpopulation is definitely not easy to deal with for any government, but at least we can try to keep the world in "good shape" so that when the future generations can have a decent life,etc.
"We decided we had to become less dependent on oil," Connie Hedegaard, Denmark's minister for climate and energy, explained to me. "We had a huge debate on nuclear, but in 1985 we decided against it. We decided to go instead for energy efficiency and renewable energy. We decided to use taxation, so energy was made relatively expensive and [therefore] people had an incentive to save and do things in their homes to make them more efficient... It was a result of political will."
Here we can see how some countries like Denmark have the initiative to at least try to become less dependent on oil by using other resources and taxing CO2 producers, leading to a decrease in CO2 emissions. I was also very surprised when I read about how Denmark handled to keep flat the energy consumption after 1981 and the economy has grown 70% since then. This shows that we don't really need the "fuels from hell" to be a succesful country. I think it is kind of ridiculous that with all the technology we have nowadays we haven't find a way to stop using fossil fuels for good. I just hope that day comes soon."In 1973 we got 99 percent of our energy from the Middle East," said Hedegaard. "Today it is zero." I know: Denmark's a small country and it is a lot easier to make change there than across a huge economy like ours. Nevertheless, it's hard to look at Denmark and not see the road not taken.
In the book "Hot,Flat and Crowded" by Thomas L. Friedman, he has some interesting insights about the housing crisis in the U.S :
"In some ways, the subprime mortgage mess and housing crisis are metaphors for what has come over America in recent years: A certain connection between hard work, achievement, and accountability has been broken. We've become a subprime nation that thinks it can borrow its way to prosperity; putting nothing down and making no payments for two years. Subprime lenders told us that we could have the American dream; a home of our own without the discipline or sacrifice that homeownership requires."
This really struck me because it made me realize that people really thought they could have whatever they wanted without thinking that something could actually go wrong. Some people with the intention of making a profit ended up losing everything, I think this was their fault for not being aware of what they were doing, and the banks should have known that it was just a matter of time before everything collapsed. This shows that the American dream is not a matter of having everything you want even if you cannot afford it, because you will have to pay off eventually. The American dream is about having what you want because you have worked to be able to attain it and therefore you deserve it.
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