Southern Sudan voting for Independence

My family spent the weekend watching the History channel's series The Revolution about America's split from England. So, it is with no small interest that I read Southern Sudan is ready to vote for independence from the North. But, like our Declaration of Independence, this vote may not be the end of the matter. The South contains 80% of Sudan's oil wealth, and the North has shown plenty of willingness to shed blood in order to protect their interests. Here's hoping the will of people prevails, and that the international community stands behind the vote.

States try to tax the Internet, the Internet leaves

It is no secret that State tax collectors hate the internet. For years, they have been furious that they have been denied the sales taxes for internet sales that they collect from brick-and-mortar stores. And the Supreme Court has ruled that states can only tax internet businesses that had a "physical presence" in the state wishing to tax them.

But the States are not giving up, and now Illinois is ready to pass a law to tax Amazon.com and other companies that do business in the state. The only problem? Companies are ready to abandon Illinois entirely rather than pay taxes there!

After the Illinois law was passed yesterday, Amazon immediately fired off an e-mail to Illinois members of it “associates program” threatening to boot them from the program, which pays them marketing and referral fees on sales, should Quinn sign the bill.

Meanwhile, Scott Kluth, Founder and President of Chicago-based CouponCabin.com, told Forbes today that he would move his seven-year-old business and his 48 employees across state lines if Quinn signs the bill.

It should be noted that this would not only take sales from affiliates, but it would also take jobs out of Illinois. Not the best way to serve the people of your state in the middle of a Recession.

If you want to get hired, keep this in mind...

In this economy, odds are you are either (1) seeking a job or (2) clinging to the job you have with both hands. That means roughly half of our Mod-Blog readership may be in the job market at the moment. So, an article with tips on how not to sabotage yourself at an interiew seems timely!

If you're asked to offer up your personal weaknesses, answer the question: "Don't say things like 'I don't know when to leave to go home,' 'I'm too dedicated,' and 'I tend to accumulate too many accomplishments.' It makes me want to throw up when I hear that. I'm interested in your honest responses."

And if you really don't want the job:

"The most problematic job candidate I had was someone who knew the CEO of the company, and made sure to tell that to the interviewer at least three times during the interview."

Having been an interviewer more recently than an interviewee, one other tip I'd put out there is to be polite and considerate to everyone. I have had candidates seek out the "important person" in the room and speak only to him/her, ignoring and/or refusing to make eye contact with anyone else. Since "anyone else" probably includes your future peers, this was always an instant red flag for me.

39% of Pregnancies in NYC End in Abortion?!

I really, really, really hope this is a case of a statistic taken out of context and misunderstood. Because the idea that almost 40 out of every 100 fetuses in NYC are aborted is just monstrous. Whether you're Pro-Choice or Pro-Life, can we all agree that abortion should be a last resort and not commonplace?!

In 2009, there were 225,667 pregnancies in the City with 126,774 resulting in live births and 87,273 resulting in abortions. In addition to those abortion numbers, there were 11,620 spontaneous terminations.
Forty-six percent of all births in the Bronx result in abortions—the highest among the five boroughs, according to the report.
Blacks had the highest number of abortions with 40,798 with Hispanics having the second highest at 28,364, according to the report.

Will Tea Party Republicans keep their promises?

We've seen the pattern again and again. A movement arises with high ideals, gains power, gets elected, and quickly sells out its ideals in order to gain additional power. It's been seen on the Left and the Right and in the Middle. Now the question is will the Tea Party follow the same course or will they be able maintain some level of intellectual honestly? And perhaps more importantly, can they stay honest without sacrificing actual accomplishment?

Republicans campaigned coast to coast on, among other things, a promise to cut $100 billion out of the federal budget.

But now they are talking about cuts as slim as $30 billion, blaming the change on the fine print that no one read -- or if they read, did not understand.

It turns out the $100-billion figure meant $100 billion from a budget that President Barack Obama proposed, which was never passed. And now that the fiscal year is nearly half over, well, there's just no way ...

They say no War Plan survives contact with the Enemy. My guess is we should prepare for some disappointment.

Are your Facebook friends actually your friends?

It is comforting to be able to share your thoughts on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, but it can also be dangerous. Not only because people may use the information against you, but also because virtual friends may not be your friends at all. They may ignore your cry for help, or even make fun of you for it.

Simone Back, 42, posted a last message on the social networking site at 10.53pm on Christmas Day saying: "Took all my pills be dead soon bye bye everyone."
Some users of the site even taunted the 42-year-old over her final status update instead of trying to save her, calling her a “liar” and saying the fatal overdose was “her choice”...
While some Facebook friends from out of town begged online for her address and telephone number so they could get help, none of those who lived closer did anything to help.
Several friends taunted the charity shop worker as she lay dying on the floor of her flat. Just minutes after the post a “friend” replied “She ODs all the time and she lies.”

It is yet another reason to be cautious of virtual relationships. And another reason to get out of the house and into a church/synogogue/etc. to find people who really care about you.

Can you be angry at a hypothetical?

As a Christian, I have often been questioned by unbelievers who have one simple question, "How can you believe in a God who allowed _________?" You can fill in the blank with some wrenching personal experience, whether it be 9/11, a divorce, a death, a miscarriage, or something even worse. While many atheists claim their beliefs are purely logic-based (and perhaps some are), a new study shows that for many unbelief comes as much from anger as anything else.

People unaffiliated with organized religion, atheists and agnostics also report anger toward God either in the past, or anger focused on a hypothetical image - that is, what they imagined God might be like - said lead study author Julie Exline, Case Western Reserve University psychologist.

In studies on college students, atheists and agnostics reported more anger at God during their lifetimes than believers. A separate study also found this pattern among bereaved individuals...

And younger people tend to be angrier at God than older people, Exline said. She says some of the reasons she's seen people the angriest at God include rejection from preferred colleges and sports injuries preventing high schoolers from competing.

There is a very old saying among Christians, that people are born with a God-sized hole in their heart. Humans seem to have an instinctive intuition that there is a higher being, and even those who deny His existence still have strong feelings toward Him.