Why Are Young People Moving Back in With Their Parents?

Psychotherapy Networker / By Martha Straus

Individuation and financial autonomy have long been the ideals for successful maturity, but current times necessitate changing our ideas about what it means to "grow up."

In the spring of 1973, a couple of months before I left for college, my parents moved into a one-bedroom apartment. I have no traumatic memories of this event, and I don't recall worrying that anyone might have thought it odd at the time. Young people my age were expected to leave the parental nest, so downsizing made perfect sense. But now when I speak about it, people are astonished.

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COUNTDOWN TO COLLAPSE: The Recovery is Not Recovering

By Danny Schechter
Author of The Crime Of Our Time
Host of The News Dissector, Thursdays at 10 am EST

Financial journalist Charles Gasparino whose career trajectory took him from Newsweek to CNBC to Fox News was on with Bill O’ Reilly doing what the host of the factless Factor likes to do the most: promote Fox News.  In the course of their self-promotional banter, Gasparino let sip an unverifiable story about a meeting of top CEOs speculating about whether President Obama really is a secret Socialist.

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Elizabeth Warren Uncovered What the Govt. Did to 'Rescue' AIG, and It Ain't Pretty

The Nation / By William Greider

The government’s $182 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG should be seen as the Rosetta Stone for understanding the financial crisis and its costly aftermath.

The government’s $182 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG should be seen as the Rosetta Stone for understanding the financial crisis and its costly aftermath. The story of American International Group explains the larger catastrophe not because this was the biggest corporate bailout in history but because AIG’s collapse and subsequent rescue involved nearly all the critical elements, including delusion and deception. These financial dealings are monstrously complicated, but this account focuses on something mere mortals can understand—moral confusion in high places, and the failure of governing institutions to fulfill their obligations to the public.

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DC Politicians Beware: Voters Want the Employment Crisis Fixed -- If You Mess with Social Security or Deficits, You're Toast

AlterNet / By Joshua Holland

A new survey finds a huge majority of Americans are in agreement about our biggest problem. Obama and the Dems better listen up.

Even while the politicians and pundits keep telling us that the federal deficit is a huge and pressing problem, a new public opinion survey finds that a majority of American voters have their own view of what deficits mean to our economy, and how best to deal with our economic woes. They favor progressive strategies for bringing the deficit beast to heel, and a healthy majority rejects the Right’s preferred course of balancing the budget on the backs of the elderly and infirm.

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Antidepressants do nothing for children with autism

by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer

(NaturalNews) A new report published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews has once again found that the antidepressants commonly prescribed to children with autism are not effective at improving behavior. After evaluating seven different studies about selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and autism, the team says there is no evidence that they work any better than a placebo at helping autistic children.

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US food crops absorb toxic pharmaceuticals and personal care products from treated wastewater

Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

(NaturalNews) Several major reports have come out in recent years about the dangers of pharmaceutical drug residues being found in the nation's water supplies. But a new study has shown that major American food crops like soybeans are also absorbing these chemicals, and others, from the treated wastewater that farmers are applying to them.

It is common practice for large-scale farm operations to dump billions of gallons of treated sewage and other recycled water on crops to help fertilize them. But this semi-treated water still contains chemical components from drugs, creams, lotions, shampoos and other consumer products, all of which end up in the soil.

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Mushrooms made into green packing material

S. L. Baker, features writer

(NaturalNews) It sounds like a futuristic sci fi idea: a non-toxic, earth friendly packing material that grows itself and, after it's used, makes a great garden compost. But this isn't fiction -- it's mushrooms.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), two former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute undergraduates, Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer, came up with the idea to make a composite of mushroom roots that could be used as a packing foam substitute. Their product, which they dubbed Mycobond, is now hitting the market and, according to a NSF press statement, has several advantages for the environment.

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How To Let Go of Fear and Move Forward

Dr. Brenda Shoshanna

There are many ways that fear stops us from moving forward easily. We often  become unable to take action due to fear of making mistakes. However, there’s nothing wrong with mistakes. Mistakes are your friend. You cannot get up if you do not fall down. No child would ever walk if he feared falling down. It is natural to take action, learn from what happens, and move forward. In fact, it’s good to make a so-called mistake. It means you’ve taken a risk. You’ve stood up to fear and became stronger than it. A great teacher, Dogen, said,

                       “Life is one continuous mistake.”

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10Questions.com: Putting Voters in the Driver's Seat in 2010

techPresident / By Micah L. Sifry

Three years ago, we had a modest idea at Personal Democracy Forum: that the internet could be a vehicle for transforming the presidential debates then underway. Instead of relying solely on journalists to determine the questions being asked of candidates; why not involve the public? Instead of giving the candidates 60 seconds to recite a canned answer, why not offer them unlimited time to prepare a serious response? And instead of letting candidates dodge questions during live debates, why not create a real feedback loop and let the public vote on whether they were satisfied with candidates' answers? Instead of debates tailored for (and constrained by) the demands of broadcast television, why not use the interactive and abundant nature of the internet to try something new and make debates far more participatory, content-rich, and accountable?

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ACLU Report: Obama Continuing Bush-Era Torture Policies

TruthOut.org / By Deborah Weinstein

For disillusioned Obama supporters, the ACLU's July report "Establishing the New Normal" is not a heartening read.

After being voted into office on promises that included undoing abuses carried out under the Bush administration - promises to protect privacy, to end government-sanctioned torture and rendition programs and to end the use of military commissions for non-enemy combatants - President Obama's administration is proving it is far easier to toe the line than buck a trend.

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