I thought this Postsecret was very interesting.  I wonder how many people actually like their commutes.  I wonder how improved some lives could be without the commute.  What if you could stop commuting but it meant a couple thousand less per year?  I wonder what trade-offs people would make to be able to quit commuting.

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News Alert
8:15 a.m. ET Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Acting CFO of Freddie Mac Found Dead in Apparent Suicide
The acting chief financial officer of troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac committed suicide overnight in his Vienna home, Fairfax police said this morning. David Kellermann, 41, has been Freddie Mac’s chief financial officer since September. [...]

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By Annys Shin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 3, 2009; 10:00 AM
The nation’s unemployment rate shot up from 8.1 to 8.5 percent last month, new figures out today show, as employers continued to slash jobs in the face of slumping demand.
The economy shed 663,000 jobs in March, the fourth straight month in which job losses [...]

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Iowa Court Rules Against Same-Sex Marriage Ban
By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 3, 2009; 1:16 PM
The Iowa Supreme Court today declared unconstitutional a state ban on same-sex marriage, clearing the way for Iowa to join two other states in allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.
In a unanimous decision, the seven-member court upheld a [...]

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I signed an online petition today directed at the AIG bonuses.  I don’t know if it will help, but it made me feel a little better.
AIG Executives: Your Bonuses or Your Jobs!
The U.S. unemployment rate has risen to 8.1% – yet taxpayers are providing more than $170 billion in bailout assistance to help keep American [...]

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By HELENE COOPER
Published: March 16, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Obama vowed to try to stop the faltering insurance giant American International Group from paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to executives, as the administration scrambled to avert a populist backlash against banks and Wall Street that could complicate Mr. Obama’s economic recovery agenda.
Read [...]

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Twelve Thousand U.S. Troops To Leave Iraq
Posted By: Raul Rivero 13 hrs ago
BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. military has announced that 12,000 American and 4,000 British troops will leave Iraq by September.
Maj. Gen. David Perkins says that will reduce U.S. combat power from 14 brigades to 12 brigades. He also said [...]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – African Americans criticized a New York Post cartoon as racist Wednesday, saying it likened President Barack Obama to an ape — a potent image in the history of racism toward blacks.
The cartoon, which the newspaper defended as a parody of Washington politics, depicts a police shooting of an ape, playing off [...]

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I saw a report about this new website today.  Really, my first thought was “It’s about time!”  It’s incredible how many people just seemingly vanish off of the face of the earth.
This website is a new light of hope for families searching for missing loved ones and also for the remains of missing and deceased [...]

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Well…it’s through the Senate.

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Barack Obama throws Joe Biden under the bus
Telegraph
Pity poor Joe Biden. His “there’s still a 30 percent chance we’re going to get it wrong” quote is put straight to President Barack Obama during the White House press conference just now and his boss seemed to want to say: “Vice-President Who?”
As reporters started giggling, Obama came [...]

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Watching the video this morning that TSA posted (that is her comment I copied from an open thread below) really choked me up. It made me cry. It made me think.I know what she means about how we hear so much of the negative. I used to watch Phil Donohue and shows [...]

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INCREDIBLE – it’s like one hand has no idea what the other one is doing.
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FEMA food kits may contain tainted peanut butter
(CNN) — Food kits recently distributed as part of a disaster relief effort in Kentucky and Arkansas may contain peanut butter contaminated with salmonella linked to a nationwide outbreak, the Federal Emergency Management Agency [...]

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I think this is saying a lot about what people have to do in combat and what sort of mental health support they have when they get back.
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Army official: Suicides in January ‘terrifying’
From Barbara Starr and Mike Mount
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) — One week after the U.S. Army announced record suicide rates among its soldiers last [...]

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I watched Dateline a couple of nights ago.  The story is about a loving and doting father whose very young son was taken to Brazil and not returned, despite court rulings that he was to be returned.  It’s heart-wrenching and infuriating at the same time.  It got me to thinking about how no matter what, [...]

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