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FOR STARTERS, WITH THE LIKELIHOOD OF SIGNIFICANT AND MEASURABLE JOB LOSSES AND UNEMPLOYMENT OCCURING in certain areas of the country too dependent upon old-school socioeconomic models and paradigms, you will no doubt want to watch out for "work from home/home business" offers as are short on specifics, yet long on glowing generalities (especially when it comes to potential earnings for only doing a nominal amount of work every day while "spending more time with your family").

History hath us taught that such schemes tend to proliferate during periods of real or imminent mass unemployment and socioeconomic uncertainty, what with their creating an aura of "real" employment being available in otherwise difficult socioeconomic conditions when it's really "make-work/fake-work" such as "home mailing," "envelope stuffing," "mystery shopper" and "product assembly."

And in any event, your local Better Business Bureau should always be contacted in case you run across any such--preferably before you consider responding and wind up sucker. (Initially, I would recommend that an Advertising Review be requested of any such you receive.)

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FOLKS, DON'T WORRY IF YOUR STORE RUNS OUT OF SPAM: With socioeconomic uncertainty bringing about reduced consumer purchasing power, Your Correspondent understands where supermarkets can't quite keep Spam (the luncheon meat) on the shelves for long as of late.

Which seems to be all the more an emerging trend, along with sales of simple foodstuffs like rice, beans, pasta and nonfat dry milk.

But then again, there's also the likelihood for panic buying thereof by Freeper types fearing serious disruption of food supplies thanks to Obama Administration policies tending heavily to Executive Orders rather than Congressional action ... much of which, methinks, is probably based on paranoia and fear.

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WITH REPRESENTATIVE MICHELLE BACHMAN (GOP/MN) HAVING NARROWLY WON REELECTION, I cannot stress all the more the importance of maintaining que vive on that which comes from her lips in the 111th Congress forthcoming. Especially so the sort as may risk posing clear and present danger to Our Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity as a Pecuilar Among the Nations by mere suggestion and tone.

Especially so in her riding: They will want to be all the more vigilant and consider the likelihood of a Recall Election in case her remarks become all the more embarrasing to Our National Honour and Identity in much the same vein as Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist excesses in the early 1950's (as in ruining innocent lives and careers to the point of some winding up taking The Other Way Out or having psychoemotional breakdowns stopping short of outright insanity).

A Preemptive Recall Election, as it were--especially before the House of Representatives is forced into debating a Censure or Condemnation Resolution against Representative Bachmann for "conduct bringing or tending to bring the House of Representatives into dishonour or disrepute" by virtue of her acts, deeds and exploits. Even if it risks driving her into insanity.

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NOTWITHSTANDING THE CAMPAIGN PROPAGANDA OF SOME WEIRD AND UNWHOLESOME TYPES SUGGESTING THAT PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA was associating too closely to Notorious Terrorist Elements, Iraqi Sunni cleric Muqtada al-Sadr used a march on Beautiful Downtown Baghdad earlier today to call for the immediate withdrawal of American troops.

Which, in effect, accelerates that agreed upon in the just-concluded US-Iraqi Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) as calls for removal of American troops from major Iraqi centres by this time next year and the "complete and final" withdrawal by 2011.

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AND SPEAKING OF BEAUTIFUL DOWNTOWN BAGHDAD, city leaders in the Iraqi capital are dusting off plans first formulated under the Ba'athist regime's salad days before the Iranian-Iraqi War for construction and development of a full-on Metro (subway) network, and repeatedly shelved time and again because of "more pressing priorities" in the Ba'athist order of things such as violating human rights, illegally goose-stepping it into Kuwait and otherwise driving the Iraqi nation into enforced impoverishment.

And Baghdad's civic leaders are blaming the increased traffic brought about by--you guessed it--the American Colonial Occupation (and all their checkpoints) as necessitating the Metro network's development and construction all the sooner.

Even if there winds up being disruptions of construction because of archaeological discoveries as have delayed the construction and opening of Metro networks in Rome and Athens.

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MEMO TO SUCH SPECIMENS OF ZEALOTRY AND TRUE BELIEF CLAIMING THAT BARACK OBAMA'S ELECTION IS ONLY LEADING AMERICA DEEPER INTO THIRD-WORLD STATUS, or so their paranoia suggests:

• Thanks to President Robert Mugabe's excesses of depravity, mismanagement and arrogance all the more of late, United Nations officials are reporting where the whole of Zimbabwe is now facing an out-and-out cholera epidemic--and not even the Zimbabwean capital of Harare is immune from its devastation; this on top of hyperflation and food shortages translating into near-famine.
• Perhaps it was time to stop thinking about America being Lord and Master of the World for once: The National Intelligence Council's just-released report, Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, suggests that America is more likely to become "first among equals" as China, India, Brazil and Russia all seek to compete with the United States for world dominance, thereby worsening the risk of political, military and socioeconomic instability ... the European Union becomes all the more a "hobbled giant" unable to compete on a collective footing socioeconomically ... the dollar is less likely to become the dominant global currency ... and conflicts could arise over control of food, water and natural resources made all the worse by global warming and climate change, among other serious issues facing the 21st-century world.

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THE LEAST LIKELY SORT OF PLACE WHERE YOU CAN EXPECT CHILD SEX TOURISM TO FLOURISH, according to BBC News:

Sexual exploitation of boys as young as six is on the rise in India, researchers say.

Abuse is becoming particularly more common in places of religious tourism, according to the study by non-governmental organisation Equations.

Children interviewed said the abusers were foreign and domestic tourists, as well as local residents.

Civil rights groups say there is an urgent need for the government to address the issue.

The study was carried out in the temple towns of Puri in Orissa, Thirupathi in Andhra Pradesh and Guruvayoor in Kerala.

The report says the abuse starts at about age six and by the time the boys turn nine they get drawn into full time prostitution.

The new findings come nearly a week after an Australian national was arrested on charges of paedophilia in Puri.

Boys unprotected

S Vidya, who compiled the report and is the programme co-ordinator for a Bangalore-based NGO, Equations, told BBC News that the incident was not an isolated case.

"The children interviewed mentioned that the foreign tourists relationships with them was very easy and the abusers were foreign tourists, domestic tourists and the locals also," Ms Vidya said.

"The foreign tourists stay in a particular place for very long and then they get used to the child and the child's family and they stay with the children and they try to abuse the children. With domestic tourists they go to brothels or middle men to abuse the child. Sometimes they are already abused by family members and later they are forced into it."

Ms Vidya says the current government policies are only geared towards addressing the abuse of girls. She says boys are equally vulnerable but they are being left out of their ambit.

Ms Vidya's organisation says the government must come up with what it calls zero tolerance towards any form of child abuse.