If the talking heads on television don’t tell us about something that happens, does it make that event any less real?  Of course the answer to that question is quite obvious, but unfortunately way too many Americans allow their realities to be defined by what they hear from the mainstream media.  Way too many people use phrases such as “if that was true I would have heard about it on television” to deflect conversations that are starting to become uncomfortable.  Critical thinking is a skill that is in short supply in America today, and most Americans seem content to let their televisions do their thinking for them.  Sadly, the pretty people on television do not spend a lot of time talking about the things that are truly important.  Instead, they love to talk about the latest celebrity scandal and they love to divide people into groups and get them fighting with one another.  In this day and age, it is absolutely critical that we all learn to think for ourselves.  The talking heads on television are concerned with keeping their bosses happy and with keeping the ratings up.  Most of them are not really concerned about what happens to you.  They just want you to keep watching them so that they can continue to earn their inflated salaries.

Unfortunately, most Americans seem perfectly content with the “infotainment” that they are getting from the major news networks, so major changes to the mainstream media are not likely to happen any time soon.

For those wanting something different, you will have to seek out alternative sources of news (such as this website) that are willing to discuss the truly earth shattering events that are continually taking place all over the globe.

So what are some of the things that the mainstream media has been ignoring?

The following are 19 things that the talking heads on television have been strangely silent about….

List CONTINUED at the American Dream.

Money. You need it to live, but whether you’re a spendthrift or a miser, money can make you do foolish things. You’ll waste it trying too hard to save, spend it on things you don’t need, and simply overpay on regular expenses every month. Here’s how to avoid being stupid with your hard-earned cash.

Stupid Thing #1: You Spend More by Trying Too Hard to Save

Frugality has its downfalls. When you try too hard to save, sometimes you end up wasting your money in the process. This may seem almost impossible, but it happens when you try so hard to cut costs that you stop paying for things you actually need. Doing this leads to more problems down the road—problems that are far more costly.

For example, skipping regular checkups at the doctor and the dentist can save you a few hundred dollars each year, but there will come a day when your lack of preventative care—which is very important—will earn you a much higher bill.

Doing your own taxes with inexpensive software may also seem like a good idea, but if the software makes any mistakes you could end up paying for them later. If you’re going to do your own taxes, make sure you have the time and resources necessary or you could run into problems.

Buying cheaply made products is another way to throw away your money. It may save you cash in the short term, but you’re bound to find yourself replacing it far sooner than a well-made product. If you’ve ever purchased a cheap inkjet printer, you know this works. It’ll print well for about six months to a year before you start to run into clogged ink heads and other issues. While the printer may be under warranty, manufacturers will often just replace them because it’s less expensive than the cost of repair. This is not only bad for the environment, but it can be bad for your wallet if you end up paying any of the costs yourself. It’s always better to look for a good deal on a well-made product than sacrifice quality manufacturing for the sake of a discount that will possibly cost you more in the long run.

Buying in bulk can also cost you more in the long run if you don’t use everything you buy. Bulk food can be great for multi-person households—especially those with children—but buying in bulk isn’t necessarily ideal for just one or sometimes even two people. Before you make your way to CostCo or Sam’s Club, ensure that you’re going to actually use everything you buy and that you’re actually getting a good deal—because sometimes you’re not.

Overall, if you think your purchasing decisions through before you make them you shouldn’t have too hard of a time realizing when your efforts to cut costs will actually hurt you in the long run. A little thought is enough to solve the problem.

Do you think that you are free?  Most Americans would still probably answer “yes” to that question, but is that really the case?  In the film Edge of Darkness, Mel Gibson stated that “everything is illegal in Massachusetts”.  Well, the same could pretty much be said for the United States as a whole.  Our lives are governed by millions of laws, rules and regulations and more are being piled on all the time.  In fact, 40,000 new laws just went into effect in January.  Every single new law restricts your freedom just a little bit more.  The truth is that America has become a crazy control freak nation where virtually everything that we do is highly regulated.  You have probably broken multiple laws today that you don’t even know exist.  We have all become criminals and lawbreakers because almost everything is illegal at this point.  Our politicians are convinced that they are “making life better” by piling gigantic mountains of laws on to our backs, and law enforcement authorities are convinced that they are helping society by “cracking down on crime”, but the reality is that our liberties and our freedoms are being strangled by all of this government oppression.  This is not the way that America is supposed to work.

Yes, every society needs laws.  But the laws should be short enough and simple enough that everybody can read them and understand them.

In America today, there is no possible way that any of us could ever read all of the laws that apply to us.  Most of us just live our daily lives and try to do the “right” thing.  But there is no guarantee that men with guns will not show up at your door one evening because of some obscure regulation that you have broken.

The following are 19 signs that America has become a crazy control freak nation where almost everything is illegal….

CONTINUED at the American Dream.

Next week, the Senate could be meeting to vote on the Protect IP Act (PIPA), the bill that many people are warning could damage the Internet. It’s a horrible prospect — but this isn’t the first time that Congress has tried to sacrifice a technology at the behest of corporate lobbyists.

Here are 10 other technologies that Congress tried, at one time or another, to legislate out of existence.

Top image: Neal Sanche/Flickr.

1. Video Cassette Recorders (VCRs)

Who Wanted it Killed: The movie studios, mainly. The MPAA’s Jack Valenti famouslytestified before Congress that “the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.”
How it Worked Out: No fewer than six bills were introduced in Congress to control the VCR. The MPAA finally dropped its demands that VCRs be outlawed, but instead supported bills that would require licensing of VCRs, royalties on the sale of blank videocassettes, and a copyright owner’s permission before renting out video tapes. In the end, Congress decided to wait and see what the Supreme Court decided in the famous Sony Vs. Universal case. And then, in 2002, the Digital Millennium Copyright Actrequired all VCRs to include “automatic gain control,” thus making Macrovision copy protection an integral part of all VCRs.

2. The Phonograph

Who Wanted it Killed: John Philip Sousa, the guy who wrote “Stars and Stripes Forever.” He testified before Congress that both the gramophone and the player piano would put musicians out of business. And that they would stifle composers from writing new music by removing “all incentive to further creative work.” In marathon hearings, Sousa and the American Copyright League argued in favor of a bill which would have given copyright owners control over all sales (including resale) of their work.
How it Worked Out: In the end, Congress passed a milder bill, which simply assured musicicans and composers royalties from recordings. Sousa was satisfied, and in 1923, he told Thomas Edison, “You have made the art of the musician immortal, Mr. Edison.”

3. Genetically modified food

Who Wanted it Killed: Environmentalists and food safety advocates. Congress has tried many times over the years to regulate or ban certain types of genetically modified foods, and manybills have been introduced over the years. Most recently, as the Food and Drug Administration has been deciding whether to allow the sale of AquaBounty Technologies’ genetically modified salmon in the U.S., the House of Representativesvoted to block FDA approval of the “AquAdvantage” salmon.
How it Worked Out: In general, U.S. laws remain laxer than those in most other countries. Regarding the salmon issue, it doesn’t look as though the House provision has passed the Senate, or gotten President Obama’s signature. Meanwhile, the FDA still hasn’t made a decision about the “franken-salmon.”

4. Internet gambling

Who Wanted it Killed: The Feds themselves. The Justice Department was very alarmed by the rise of online gambling, especially as run by offshore operators, and concerned that this gambling could serve as a cover for money-laundering.
How it Worked Out: Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which didn’t outlaw online gambling, but did bar U.S. banks and credit card companies from processing payments to gambling sites. Since then, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has been trying to restore the legality of online gambling, arguing that we could tax it and generate a lot of revenue, at a time when budgets are under strain.

5. The Whizzinator

Who Wanted it Killed: Pretty much everybody. After Minnesota Vikings running back Onterrio Smith was caught at an airport with one of these devices, which is basically a fake penis that allows you to fool drug urine tests, Congressheld hearings on May 17, 2005. Rep. Bart Stupakheld up Whizzinator advertising and spoke against the national scandal of simulated urination. “How will we stop the flow?” demanded Stupak, as the room exploded in unintended giggles.
How it Worked Out: There was no Federal law against manufacturing such devices, so states were powerless to go after the makers. In the end, the feds never managed to pass an anti-Whizzinator law, but federal prosecutors were able to go after the manufacturers for selling drug paraphernalia.

6. Mp3 players

Who Wanted it Killed: Actually, this is more like a random casualty of a reckless shooter. Congress has tried to pass a few laws to protect copyright owners in the past, which were so broadly written that they would have banned a wide range of technologies, including mp3 players. There was the Induce Act, which would have banned any technology that induces people to violate copyright. Earlier, there was the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, which banned any devices that could be used to read digital content that didn’t have Digital Rights Management (DRM) built in.
How it Worked Out: So far, none of these bills has passed, so your iPod is safe.

7. Margarine

Who Wanted it Killed: The dairy farmers. Margarine was introduced in 1874, after a French chemist named Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès figured out a way to make a cheap butter substitute from beef fat. The dairy industry freaked out, because the much cheaper margarine threatened to drive smaller dairies out of business. They tried passing various state laws, but some of those were shot down in court.
How it Worked Out: The dairy farmers went to Congress, and there were hearings that culminated in the Margarine Act of 1886, which imposed a tax of two cents per pound on margarine — although the original bill called for a ten cent tax instead. This was followed by the Margarine Act of 1906, in which the federal government raised that tax for margarine that was dyed yellow to look like real butter. (Some state laws required margarine to be dyed weird colors, like pink or black.) The state and federal anti-margarine laws were on the books for decades. (For more about the margarine saga, clickhere or here.)

8. Embryonic stem cells

Who Wanted it Killed: Pro-life advocates, mainly. In 1996, Congress passed the Dickey-Wicker amendment, which bans any federal research in which human embryos are created, destroyed or put at risk of harm. This law, which remains on the books, essentially prevented most embryonic stem cell research.
How it Worked Out: In 2001, then-President George W. Bush announced a new policy in which 61 cell lines of existing embryonic stem cells would be allowed for federally-funded research. Congress tried to pass a bill expanding this policy, but Bush vetoed it. Since then, President Obama has tried to abolish the Bush policy, but Obama’s executive order has been tied up in federal courts. (In a related issue, Congress has repeatedly voted to ban human cloning.)

9. DAT (Digital Audio Tape) recorders

Who Wanted it Killed: The music industry, yet again. Congress held hearings throughout the late 1980s over whether to stop this digital technology from coming to consumers. Music industry lobbyists demanded that DAT players be fitted with technology that would degrade the sound quality of any music copied on them, or that sales of DAT tapes include a royalty payment to the music industry.
How it Worked Out: As Stanford’s Mark Lemley puts it, “Digital audio tapes were then subject to a compulsory licensing scheme and were never heard from again by mass-market consumers. The technology flopped once it was put under the control of the content industry.”

10. Assault weapons

Who Wanted it Killed: Gun control advocates. The ban on semi-automatic weapons in 1994 was a major achievement of the Clinton Administration’s first two years — and probably a huge reason why the Democrats lost control over both houses of Congress that year.
How it Worked Out: The federal assault weapons ban was scheduled to sunset after ten years, and it did. The ban expired in 2004, and attempts to renew it were unsuccessful. Image via 2DayBlog.

Additional reporting by Gordon Jackson and Marykate Jasper. Thanks also to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Wendy Seltzer for the suggestions.

*Taken from Topless Robot.

Steve Jobs is gone. Without a doubt, he will be remembered as a genius and a visionary. He changed the world in more ways than one, and his legacy is obvious in every iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac computer sold. He will be missed.

However, it’s also worth remembering that Steve Jobs was also human, and not some incredibly gifted alien shot into space from his dying planet by his father. While Steve Jobs helped pioneer many gadgets, technologies and even helped create certain markets that didn’t exist before, not every thing Apple made under Jobs was insanely awesome. Actually, some Apple products weren’t even that good. In fact, some of these things were very, very flawed. So, in the interest of full reflection here are ten things that were created by Apple while Steve Jobs was in charge that were… not so great.

CONTINUED..

*Taken from the American Dream.

All over America today, desperate people are doing desperate things.  As the economy continues to crumble, the American people are starting to become very frustrated.  Millions have lost their homes and millions have lost their jobs.  As hopelessness and despair rise, an increasing number of Americans are turning to crime or are lashing out in unpredictable ways.  Many parts of America are rapidly turning into lawless hellholes.  In some of the areas that have been the hardest hit by the declining economy, police forces are being severely cut back and desperate criminals are being given a lot of freedom to roam.  In fact, in some major cities (such as Oakland, California), the police have announced that there are certain types of crime that they will not even respond to any more.  For a couple of decades, crime had been steadily declining in the United States, but now we are seeing very disturbing reports from all over the nation of desperate people doing desperate things as they scramble to survive or as they vent their frustrations.  If the examples that you are about to read are any indication, then America is headed down a very dark path.

Today, there are a whole lot of young people that feel as though all hope is gone.  Less than 30 percent of all teens had a job this summer.  Only 14 percent of Americans that are 28 or 29 years old are optimistic about their financial futures.

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