Suicide rate among the middle-aged rises sharply in U.S.

“Suicide rates among US adults aged 35-64 are on the rise — with more Americans now taking their lives than dying in car accidents, according to official statistics released Thursday. Motor vehicle accidents killed 33,687 people in 2010 — well below the 38,364 who died from suicide in the same year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The spike in suicides was seen exclusively among US adults aged 35-64, who saw a 28 percent rise over the last decade, the CDC added. And the numbers were even more stark for those in their 50s, who saw a nearly 50 percent jump in suicide rates.” Continue reading

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IRS Takes A Bite Out Of Bitcoin

“Bitcoin is virtual currency much in the news these days. It’s peer-to-peer so there’s no central bank or government. But if you think that means the IRS won’t get a piece, think again. The IRS already gets a piece where you swap one product or service for another, as the IRS explains at its Bartering Tax Center. Soon the IRS may have a Bitcoin Center too. The Treasury unit called FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, already has rules about Bitcoin and the IRS is likely to follow. In the meantime, the tax rules seem pretty clear. If you provide services or sell goods for Bitcoin, you have income.” Continue reading

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U.S. officials arrest Swiss banker on vacation

“U.S. officials have arrested a former UBS (UBSN.VX) banker working for the Swiss operations of Coutts, the private banking division of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS.L), sources told Reuters. The arrest comes as U.S. authorities crack down on tax evasion and has revived Swiss bankers’ fears that they could face detention if they travel to the United States and are suspected of helping people hide money in offshore accounts. Coutts notified staff in Geneva on Friday that one of its private bankers had been arrested last week when he entered the U.S. for a vacation, a source familiar with the situation said.” Continue reading

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Dronebusters: Turning Spy Drones into Barney Fife

“An Oregon company says that it has developed a new technology which will prevent drones from ‘completing their mission.’ It will not say how this technology does this. It does not say what it will cost. But it claims that commercial units will be affordable for private homes. Whether local governments will place restrictions on its use, the way some states have made using car-based radar speed trap detectors illegal, also is yet to be seen. The important thing is that the company says the technology exists. There will probably be cheap Chinese knock-offs. The creativity of the free market works against the government. So does the basic incompetence of the government.” Continue reading

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Man angry over Boston bombings breaks jaw of ‘f*cking Muslim’ Iraq war veteran

“A 39-year-old Muslim cab driver who served in the Iraq war says that an executive from an aviation company accused him of being a jihadist and broke his jaw in what activists are calling a hate crime. Salim recorded audio of the encounter on his cell phone. Dahlberg can be heard asking Salim, who emigrated from Somalia, to define ‘jihad’ and then lumping him in with ‘radical fucking Muslims blowing people up all over the world.’ ‘Denounce those motherfuckers now!’ Dahlberg demands. ‘If you’re a fucking Muslim flying jets into the fucking World Trade Center then fuck you. I will slice your fucking throat right now.'” Continue reading

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Do You Suffer from Philosophical Intoxication?

“That’s the term used by the Soviet government against critics of that government as a rationale for imprisoning political dissenters in mental hospitals. It is also apparently the plan by the current sheriff of Palm Beach County, Florida, Rick Bradshaw. Bradshaw recently was awarded a $1 million grant from the Florida state legislature for a new ‘violence prevention unit.’ ‘We want people to call us if the guy down the street says he hates the government,’ Sheriff Bradshaw told the Palm Beach Post. He is planning a telephone ‘hotline and is planning public service announcements to encourage residents to report their neighbors, friends, or family members’.” Continue reading

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Eagle Scout Facing Expulsion over Gun Charge

“Eagle Scout Cole Withrow was just a few weeks from graduating with honors from his North Carolina high school, but now the active church member is facing a felony weapons charge and a precarious future after accidentally leaving a shotgun in his pickup truck in the school parking lot. Most members of the Johnston County community, just southeast of Raleigh believe the 18-year-old is paying far too big a price for an honest mistake. Withrow, who did his senior class project on gun safety, locked the gun in his truck before going to call his mother. But when he asked her to come and take the gun, the trouble started.” Continue reading

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Michael Scheuer: Limbaugh, Levin, and Hannity eager to see more dead Americans

“You will never hear directly from the mouths of Rush, Mark, and Sean what they are implicitly telling Americans; that is, that they hate virtually everything the Founding Fathers thought and prescribed for U.S. foreign policy — in short hand, do not stick your nose in other peoples’ affairs in which you have no interest — and that they do not mind how many Americans get killed as long as Washington keeps pursuing the interventionist foreign policy they believe benefits their friends overseas and their benefactors at home.” Continue reading

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