Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• Lisbon Sets An Example For Other Cities To Promote And Preserve Street Art

  "Lisbon has one of the best street art collections in the world. But like most cities, its citizens don’t recognize street art as ‘real’ art. To change this mindset, Lisbon’s City Hall came up with several stunts and clever promotions to bring urban art closer to the people and inform them about the importance of graffiti in modern society."

  tags: lisboa streetart graffiti urbanism europe portugal lisbon

• Study: Abstaining from alcohol significantly shortens life | MNN - Mother Nature Network

  **Woooooooooo *** "A newly released study shows that regular drinkers are less likely to die prematurely than people who have never indulged in alcohol. You read that right: Time reports that abstaining from alcohol altogether can lead to a shorter life than consistent, moderate drinking. "

  tags: alcohol health science

• War on smoking is working: Fewer people smoking and those who do are smoking less than ever.

  ** Government intervention in health and healthcare DO work, just one more example ** "Response to New York City's partial ban on very large sodas has featured a lot of commentary drawing heavily on the "futility" leg of Albert Hirschmann's three-legged stool of the rhetoric of reaction. But if I think back to the evolution of cigarette smoking policy since the late-1980s that you can see the same thing. Relatively few of the measures enacted—a price hike here, a ban on cigarette machines there—seem like public health game-changers on their own terms. But not only is the overall smoking rate steadily falling, but Gallup is out with survey evidence showing that the number of cigarettes smoked by those who do smoke is falling. "

  tags: healthcare smoking unitedstates tobacco politics newyork

• Enter Bibi | Swampland | TIME.com

  "It may be, as Jeff Goldberg asserts, that Bibi Netanyahu is just frustrated over President Obama’s refusal to approve an Israeli attack on Iran. Or it may be something else: an unprecedented attempt by a putative American ally to influence a U.S. presidential campaign. Either way, Netanyahu’s recent behavior is outrageous. He is trying push us into a war that is not in our national interest, a war that would only further destabilize a region that is already teetering near chaos. He is trying to get us to damage our relations with the rest of the world–especially the Russians and Chinese, whom we spent great diplomatic effort luring into the Iranian economic sanctions–so that he can pursue a strategy that even the Israeli military and intelligence communities find questionable. President Obama will not yield to this pressure, nor should he–and every American should know the implications of what Netanyahu and his American neoconservative allies, including Mitt Romney, are proposing."

  tags: klein netanyahu obama time israel zionism Lobby

• Facing criticism, Netanyahu denies interfering in U.S. vote | Reuters

  "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday denied accusations he was interfering in U.S. politics after coming under fire for fiercely criticising Washington's handling of Iran. Relations between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama hit a new low this week after the Israeli leader said nations that failed to set red lines for Iran did not have the "moral right" to prevent Israel from launching a military strike."

  tags: israel zionism Lobby obama democracy netanyahu

• The Real Jerusalem Platform Fight - The Daily Beast

  "All this because Democrats had the audacity to write a platform that did not publicly reject the position on Jerusalem held by every American administration since the founding of the Jewish state. At the heart of this sordid tale lies an irony. More than any other single organization, AIPAC has helped create a climate in which being deemed insufficiently “pro-Israel” is almost as dangerous to a politicians’ career as being deemed insufficiently “anti-communist” was in the early 1950s. But this very climate gives politicians and activists an incentive to keep raising the “pro-Israel” bar higher and higher so as to gain an advantage over their political foes. As the definition of “pro-Israel” becomes more extreme, it becomes harder and harder to reconcile with a commitment to Palestinian statehood,"

  tags: israel unitedstates zionism hostage Lobby democrats

• Fossil Fuel Industry Opens Wallet to Defeat Obama - NYTimes.com

  "WASHINGTON — When Barack Obama first ran for president, being green was so popular that oil companies like Chevron were boasting about their commitment to renewable energy, and his Republican opponent, John McCain, supported action on global warming. "

  tags: energy obama energysector energysecurity shale oil gas

• ‘Our Condolences,’ the Muslim Brotherhood Says - NYTimes.com

  "Today’s world is a global village; nations are closer than ever before. In such a world, respect for values and figures — religious or otherwise — that nations hold dear is a necessary requirement to build sustainable, mutually beneficial relationships. Despite our resentment of the continued appearance of productions like the anti-Muslim film that led to the current violence, we do not hold the American government or its citizens responsible for acts of the few that abuse the laws protecting freedom of expression."

  tags: egypt muslimbrotherhood politics religion violence

• Eugene Robinson: Romney hits new low with Libya remarks - The Washington Post

  "I mean, Mitt Romney. Really. U.S. diplomatic posts are attacked abroad, and your first reaction is to issue a statement blasting the president? J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other officials are killed in a commando-style assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, and your instinct is to seek not safety for other Americans at risk, not justice for the cold-blooded killers, but political advantage for yourself?"

  tags: libya romney politics dumb republicans foreignpolicy

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