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Friday, March 27, 2009
The N Word / News South Africa barred the Dalai Lama? WTF?
Posted By Nsenga Burton on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 8:54 AM
South Africa has barred the Dalai Lama from a peace conference in Johannesburg this week, hoping to keep good relations with trading partner China. Can we say absolutely crazy?
If you didn't know before, you should know by now that China owns a whole lot of Africa, including South Africa. What's crazy is that a man who is known for peace worldwide is being banned from a country whose system of Apartheid was upheld by trade practices with China. Further, South Africa just granted "minority" status to the Chinese so that they can benefit from empowerment programs. What does that mean? They are considered black and anyone that knows anything about South Africa knows that this is HIGHLY problematic.
Shame on South Africa for again upholding tyranny instead of using its cultural and economic capital to insist that democratic principles are upheld worldwide. Oh but that's right, South Africa is a socialist country masquerading as a Democracy which is why this makes perfect sense.
Arts / Today's Top Five / News Today's Top 5: Friday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 8:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, March 27, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• Comedians Mo Alexander and Johnny Beehner at Alive
• Abbey Road LIVE! at Visulite Theatre
• Hazmat at The Garden and Gun Club
• Christian Audigier Fashion Show at Kiss Lounge
• Keep America Working Tour at Ballantyne Resort
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Arts / See & Do: The Weekender / News Weekender
Posted By Anita Overcash on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 3:26 PM
Check out these events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area this weekend— as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
Fri., March 27
Music: Prepare for a blast from the past from Abbey Road LIVE! plays at Visulite Theatre. The group will play a wide range of Beatles material, including hits and rarely heard songs from all eras of the famous group’s lengthy catalog history.
Special Event: Melt down to the dance floor with industrial music, as Single Cell Productions presents Hazmat at The Garden & Gun Club.
Dance: No worries, the floor won't go ablaze, but you might be startled by sizzling dance moves during performances of Burn The Floor at Belk Theater.
Boomer with Attitude / News The GOP's hilarious new 'budget'
Posted By John Grooms on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 2:16 PM
Congressional Republicans, who have been busy responding to charges that they're little more these days than the "Party of No," held a press conference today in which they promised to release their alternative budget (alternative to Pres. Obama's). The press conference turned into an unintentional comedy act, with one reporter after another asking spokesman/House minority leader Rep. John Boehner for actual details.
You see, the GOP managed to show up at their big, previously hyped press conference without any real budget recommendations, just a list of budget "goals." OK, actually, there was one specific proposal, and you can probably guess what it was. Think: Republicans, budget proposal ... yes, you guessed it! A humongous tax cut for the wealthy! Also, some wording in the info-packet-that-was-supposed-to-be-a-budget reveals that the GOP has no plans whatever for dealing with global warming — although they are still in favor of drilling for oil in the Alaskan wilderness and the continental shelf.
At this point, Congressional Republicans seem like something out of a sci-fi show — maybe a tribe that got lost in the past, and now they're attempting in vain, but comically, to find their way back to the present.
Film / Film News / News Friday Film Openings
Posted By Matt Brunson on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 12:30 PM
The Haunting in Connecticut - Virginia Madsen, Martin Donovan
Monsters vs. Aliens - Animated; voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen
Sunshine Cleaning - Amy Adams, Emily Blunt
12 Rounds - Jon Cena, Ashley Scott
Two Lovers - Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow
Boomer with Attitude / News More sleazebag tactics from Big Pharma
Posted By John Grooms on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 11:11 AM
People are reacting with shock to reports by Stephanie Clifford in the New York Times that the popular RealAge Web site is, in effect, a front for pharmaceutical companies.
The drug companies, it turns out, use the information you provide the site to figure out which ailments you may have (before you've even talked to your doctor about them, no less) and then e-mail you to pitch the drugs they manufacture for those problems. What's truly incredible in this situation, though, is that anyone could be shocked by anything the drug industry does to jack up its profits.
As we report this week in a review of the book Our Daily Meds by Melody Petersen, in the past 25 or so years, "'Big Pharma' morphed from a research-oriented, largely public service industry into a marketing-driven money machine" that floods the airwaves with commercials, bribes medical practitioners, pays PR people to write articles in medical journals, and effectively turns cash-strapped college med schools into Big Pharma subsidiaries.
Worse yet, their overpriced drugs (Americans pay more for prescription drugs than anyone else) help drain the national treasury by artificially raising Medicaid and Medicare costs. The latest, RealAge-related revelation of exploitative tactics is, sad to say, pretty much par for Big Pharma's course.
News Got insurance?
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 10:38 AM
No insurance? There's a good chance your neighbor doesn't have any either.
The ranks of the uninsured have grown more in North Carolina than in any other state since the start of the economic downturn, according to a study by the N.C. Institute of Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.The study estimates that the number of uninsured in North Carolina has grown by 322,000 since 2007, bringing the bumber of uninsured in the state to about 1.8 million.
More than 20 percent of the non-elderly population in the state lacks insurance, according to the study.
Read the rest of this Charlotte Business Journal article here.
News Tar Heels Sweet 16 tickets on sale NOW
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 9:42 AM
Hurry.
More tickets will be made available Thursday morning for the NCAA Men's Basketball South Regional games in Memphis over the weekend.An undisclosed number of tickets will go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m. online and through the FedExForum box office for Friday's regional games and the region title game on Sunday.
Read the rest of this WSOC-TV article here.
News Ask the president anything
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 9:38 AM
In his ongoing effort to reach out to the American people and let them know he's concerned about their issues and paying attention, President Obama opened WhiteHouse.gov for questions. People could vote on the questions they want answered until 9:30 a.m. today. The online townhall meeting, where the president will answer the most popular questions, will begin at 11:30 a.m.
Tens of thousands of people have submitted questions they hope to ask President Obama today at his first online town hall meeting.Shortly after "Open for Questions," was announced early Tuesday evening -- hours after this column gave WhiteHouse.gov a C+ as its first monthly grade -- thousands headed to the site to post questions and vote the submitted questions up or down.
Some 41,300 users had submitted 42,000 questions and cast 1.5 million votes by around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Less than 12 hours later, the numbers nearly doubled, with almost 70,000 people submitting 71,000 questions and casting 2.7 million votes.
The online session will begin at 11:30 a.m. and last at least one hour.
Read the rest of this Washington Post blog post here.
News Car wash vacuum sex offender sentenced
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 9:37 AM
The 29-year-old Michigan man pleaded guilty last month. Though sentenced to 90 days, we're sure he will never outlive his notoriety.
A man police caught performing a sex act with a car wash vacuum has been sentenced to 90 days in the Saginaw County Jail.Jason Leroy Savage must also submit to drug testing.
Read the rest of this Charlotte Observer article here.
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Lunch Break (9/1/16): Organizers unveil "People, Not Polluters" platform in Charlotte as McCrory officials testify in Raleigh
The morning already passed us by. What the hell happened?
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Jigsaw, Dating App That Hides Users’ Faces, launches in Charlotte, NCTo Fight Superficial Dating App Culture 3
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Knight and Day: Plot eclipsed by stars 1
Cruise and Diaz are main reasons to consider seeing mindless action flick.
