The Beatles in 1957. George Harrison is 14, John Lennon is 16, and Paul McCartney is 15.

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See Also: Health Care Spending 1965-2008, Economist Says Health Care Bill “Is Just Another Bailout Of The Financial System”, Healthcare Diversions Part 3: The Financialization of Health and Everything Else in the Universe, The Hidden History of the Health Care Bill, Small Steps and Health Care Costs, Pay or Play – Unequal Treatment, Infographic: what’s wrong with US health care, The real right to health care, Infographic of the Day: How Bad Is U.S. Health Care?, (Even more) things we need for real HCR, and Good and Evil in a Troubled World.

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Via Global Issues:

* World military expenditure in 2008 is estimated to have reached $1.464 trillion in current dollars

* This represents a 4 per cent increase in real terms since 2007 and a 45 per cent increase over the 10-year period since 1999;

* This corresponds to 2.4 per cent of world gross domestic product (GDP), or $217 for each person in the world;

* The USA with its massive spending budget, is the principal determinant of the current world trend, and its military expenditure now accounts for just under half of the world total

By the way, the United States defense spending is the equivalent of paying $2700 for every American citizen. No wonder we can’t afford universal health care.

“When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail”

See Also: Military Spending and Development Aid, Efficiencies of Death, Krugman on the Debt and Deficits, PAYGO and pretend fiscal responsibility, I have scene the future…, Pricing Out an Afghan Surge: $65 Bill Could Go to $105 Billion per Year, The Impending Obama Borrow and Spend Disaster, ‘Pay as you fight’ war surtax introduced, The Globe’s Policeman, How Glenn Beck Can Save the Right, The FY 2010 Defense Authorization, We can have guns or we can have butter… but we can’t have both, and Blaming Bush for the Budget Deficits.

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See Also: Is Marijuana Prohibition America’s ‘Berlin Wall’?, Colo. Commission Recommends Lowering Drug Penalties, Portland’s ‘Cannabis Café’ opens to cheers, controversy, Doctor’s re-assess marijuana, Can’t Wait For You Idiots to Screw it Up, Virtually legal, Winning The Drug War By Ending It, Dude, where’s my medical-marijuana ID?, and State Over-Reach: Stripmining the Citizenry for Fun and Profit.

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And it’s getting worse before it’s getting better (Foreclosures: ‘Worst three months of all time’):

Despite concerted government-led and lender-supported efforts to prevent foreclosures, the number of filings hit a record high in the third quarter, according to a report issued Thursday.

During that time, 937,840 homes received a foreclosure letter — whether a default notice, auction notice or bank repossession, the RealtyTrac report said. That means one in every 136 U.S. homes were in foreclosure, which is a 5% increase from the second quarter and a 23% jump over the third quarter of 2008.

Nevada continued to be the worst-hit state with one filing for every 23 households. But even tranquil Vermont, where the foreclosure crisis has barely brushed the housing market, saw foreclosure filings jump nearly 170% compared with the third quarter of 2008.

See Also: Existing Home Sales Soared In September, Treasury Department Announces New Foreclosure Program, Why Mortgage Servicers Foreclose when they Should Modify, Foreclosures: By the numbers, 7000 people a day – That’s a big number, Largest Transfer of Wealth to Financial/Political Elite in Global History, Home Loan Modification – Can President Obama Save Your Home?, and Commercial foreclosure crisis to swallow local economies.

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In the United States, an average person drinks 412 8-ounce drinks — or 3296 ounces — of Coke per year. This calculates to 39964 calories consumed per year by every American, or the equivalent of 20 days of recommended caloric intake in Coke alone. Coke soda represents 5% of recommended caloric intake for the average American.

In comparison, the average global citizens consumes 85 8-ounce Cokes a year, the equivalent of 680 ounces or 8245 calories consumed in Coke per year.

Below is a graph detailing the trends in beverage consumption in the United States:

For more data on the subject, check out Coca-Cola’s information on global per capita consumption of Coke.

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Reported by the Economist, Financial Crime and Fraud committed from 1997 to 2008 in the United States.

See Also: Bill Bonner: Goldman Sachs Behaves “Like a Welfare Queen in a Pink Cadillac”, Building Financial Regulatory Institutions on the Fly, Crony Capitalism, Is Goldman Screwing Taxpayers in TARP Negotiations?, TARP Watchdog Complains Treasury Doesn’t Cooperate, and Ex-Morgan Stanley veep pleads to stealing $2.5M.

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Anyway, I was trying to check out people’s feeds (mistake number two), and I came across Man Bear Pig aka Al Gore’s Twitter feed. Dear lord. Talk about narcissistic “Look I’m changing the world so pay attention to me” Bill Clinton wanna-be. His stream is bad enough (Al Gore is saving the world because climate change… the heat… you know… when I went up and down on that thing… in my movie… you know, with the polar bears!!!), but look at his god damn smug ass picture:

Look everybody! It’s Al Gore! Superman #2! Jesus #3! The Prophet Muhammad #4! Angelina Jolie #5! He’s busy dumping carbon emissions on poor people to save the world! I hate Twitter and I fucking hate Al Gore.

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Michael Jackson at age 12

Michael Jackson at age 13

Michael Jackson at age 21

Michael Jackson at age 23

Michael Jackson at age 29

Michael Jackson at age 38

Michael Jackson at age 42

Michael Jackson at age 43

Michael Jackson at age 46

Michael Jackson at age 48

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Originally on PBH2.

See Also: The Most Staggering Footage Yet, Acid From The Sky, Violence In the Streets, Iran, stagflation, unemployment, Iran: Saturday, Neda, Chaos in Iran, Iran escalation, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Is it over yet?, Is The Islamic Republic Over?, Note From Anonymous Blogger in Tehran, and is the Iranian military the best hope to stop the bloodshed?

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See Also: No Recognition Of Ahmadinejad, Live-Tweeting The Revolution: Day 5, Hacking The Power That Be, The Missing Iran Coverage, Dynamic timeline of Iran protests, Hundreds of thousands protest the Iranian election “results” in Tehran, Do You Use Twitter And Want To Help Iranian Bloggers?, Getting It, That’s No Way To Steal An Election, Iran limits foreign news coverage…, and Iran’s Elections Are Not About Us.

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See Also: Bill Moyers: The Rise of Private Armies — Mercenaries, Murder and Corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan, Governor Bush told Houston Journalist: If Elected. “I’m Going to Invade Iraq”, Two realities: War & Words about war, Iraq’s new death squad, and Mourning Joe: What’s Wrong With This Picture?

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