EL PASO -- Two gay men kissed at a Chico's Tacos restaurant, prompting guards to eject them and a police officer to endorse their ouster.

Civil-rights lawyers say the security staff was out of line. Police, though, contend that a business such as a restaurant can refuse service to anybody, any time.

My last column on Shakespeare in the Park bemoaned the loss of the art of courtship by words. Then I learned in a unexpected but welcome counterpoint that Erin McKean's new website, Wordnik, had debuted.

I met Erin at a design conference some years back. She is a dynamo of both word and person, and this site sounds just like what the word doctor may have ordered. Why only a few days ago, someone was calling me "girlfriend" and I wondered what has happened to that word....so many different meanings now contained therein. So I asked Erin to reconnect with me to talk about words and love and friendship.

Erin McKean: One of the things we like best about Wordnik is that folks can add tags to any word -- here are all the ones that have been tagged "love."

There are some great words on this list:

Mulierose
Cicisbeo
Amatorio

But it's probably better to talk about words that are about nuances of feeling: crushes and passions are different, right?

Culture Zohn: Yes. One has always been told that a crush is more of a temporary, perhaps physical thing whereas a passion is somehow more all-consuming. The French have an even better way of putting it, coup de foudre, which to me has always combined the two: an instantaneous, but fiery capture of the heart.

But Erin, what struck me in Twelfth Night was that words, spoken words, as opposed to songs, are losing ground when it comes to the art of love. What has happened since Shakespeare's time to inhibit people from thinking that an artful phrase can move the heart? Has email helped or hurt the turn of a fiery phrase?

EM:I did a whole book of these love idioms a while back (That's Amore ). It was really fun -- my favorite was Bulgarian, I can't remember the actual Bulgarian, but it was "the blind Sunday hit me" (i.e., I fell in love at first sight). I have no idea what Sunday has to do with it!

I think its [email] hurt it, because what if you write something and god forbid it gets forwarded? I know I've written stuff in email I wouldn't like to see on somebody's blog, and it wasn't even mushy (I've been married since before email)! ... there's this electronic trail, now, that you just don't get with paper and ink. A love letter is to be savored, a love email ... is to be forwarded to all your friends, and probably laughed at.

I think we should start a Valentine's Tweet on Valentine's Day next year, though. Best sentiment in 140 characters, minus the hashtag.

CZ: Absent actual love letters which don't seem to be in the cards, and not being a Twitterer myself as it leaves even less time for reflection, for savoring, what are our choices? I remembered that last year somebody was doing six-word sentences which, like haikus, at least caused a momentary lull in the barrage of noise. Words can be tools for seduction but they can also be weapons. It seems to me the internet has brought reading back, albeit in a different format. How do we encourage vocabulary as a contemporary art form?

EM: Oh I think that the internet is definitely encouraging linguistic creativity! Especially with new formations (weaksauce, awesomepants) and new tropes. It's not elegant, but it is creative!

Check out Wordnik daily. It's not painful like studying those endless lists for the SATs. You'd be surprised how much your words can move hearts and minds.

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This is why I posed for the NOH8 Campaign, a silent photographic protest.

As a publicist, it is second nature to opt out of photos. I have a wonderful collection of pictures of famous clients or amazing events with only my black clad arm or leg in frame.

However, when I first saw the NOH8 Campaign photos, they really spoke to me. These two young men, Adam Bouska and Jeff Parshley had started something powerful following the passage and subsequent affirmation by the California Supreme Court. The gay political establishment had focus-grouped a campaign without a message, except, its OK to not like the gays.

Their efforts obviously fell far short, but then, so did the gay community who was apathetic at best. Prop 22 was a distant memory and perhaps the Hope of the Obama campaign had a blinding halo effect. There was no ground game. There was no outreach to constituent communities. There was, simply, no face to discriminate against.

The NOH8 Campaign puts faces to the discrimination. It puts stories behind the slogans. Gay, straight, bi, trans-gendered, black, white, brown (and every other shade) friends and families have joined celebrities like Ashlee Simpsons and Pete Wentz, Fran Drescher, Meghan McCain, director Bryan Singer, Steve-O and many others in this silent protest.

Every picture truly tells a story.

I posed for Dilson and Jason. Dilson, legally married in California to his amazing husband Walter, who among the 1100 + right and privileges denied to him by DOMA is not entitled to the same protections and privileges of any other immigrant. His 10-day old son, Jason, could lose his father any day, with no warning and no recourse.

I posed for Alfred, just out of college, who made me appreciate The Wizard of Oz, having found his strength, his heart and his voice in coming out in the last year. He not only did it himself, he is quick to speak up to anyone who would ever seek to treat him as anything less than a full citizen.

I posed for Rob, who came out in the past years, though later in his 30's, doesn't want anything to limit his options or potential. Rather than make up for lost time, Rob lives just as he always has, proving that being identified as gay does not change who he is.

I posed because Americans are the heirs to a philosophical fortune and I don't wish to squander it like the idiot off spring of the great robber barons. I posed because around the world people are dying just for the right to be in love.

I posed because my rights, our rights, are important. I never thought I would have the option of fighting for those rights. I Posed for Lt Dan Choi and the 13,000 members of the Armed Forces dismissed under the shameful Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. I posed for the hundreds of young people who call the Trevor Project each year when they have nowhere else to turn.

Mostly, I posed for David. I have to prove to him that when I get misty-eyed describing the founding principles of this nation, the truths that we hold self-evident; when I have faith in the rule of law, at the staggering progress made and inspired here and abroad by these imperfect men who knew the pyramid remained un-finished; when I see Plessy v Ferguson become Brown v Board of Education or see the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments become the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, I know that those principles are earned and remain my work long after Election Day.

What these young men have created is the kind of grassroots action that can change a mind, that can change a vote, that can change the world.

To view the campaign, celebrity photos and to find our how you can participate, log on to www.noh8campaign.com.

The 911 call from the night of the murder-suicide deaths of former NFL Titans player Steve McNair and his girlfriend, Sahel Kazemi has been released.

Listen to the call:

The sheer audacity of the criminals who ruined Iceland's economy is impressive, in a perverse manner. The nerve with which they methodically bankrupted their country, while enriching themselves à la Madoff, can only issue from hearts so devoid of morality as to sincerely believe their own lies.

However, the political, business, and banking executives could not have attained the scale of corruption they achieved without the assistance of their lawyers. As Mario Puzo once observed, "A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns."

The lawyers advising the powers-that-be in Iceland surrendered their professional roles and instead served as shameless enablers. They told the villains what they wanted to hear, grabbed their share of the profits, and are now aggressively attacking those seeking to set things aright.

One of the more blatant schemes to defraud the shareholders in Iceland's investment banks involved bank loans to bank officers to buy bank stock with the stock itself serving as collateral for the loan. This had the effect of improving the banks' balance sheets, thereby keeping the regulators at bay, while inducing innocent outsiders to shell out real money for stock.

According to recent news reports, the former (he resigned last week in the light of "the misleading debate about his part" in the bank's decision about the loans) chief counsel at Kaupthing Bank, Helgi Sigurðsson, provided the board of directors with a legal memorandum that concluded that the insiders' personal responsibility for the loans could be written off if things fell apart, though I assume they would reap any financial rewards occurring if the bank's stock continued to rise. I imagine that the memo was as thorough and convincing as John Yoo's torture memo.

Sigurðsson out-Yooed Yoo, however. He himself took out a loan of about ISK 450 million (around $7 million at the time). And guess what? The bank forgave the loan once it became evidence that the bank was about to become insolvent.

Brilliant cartoonist Halldór Baldursson's take on Iceland's situation. The crooks escape in front of the nation's bloated "guard dogs" (I added the English translation). www.mbl.is/halldor

Now, Iceland's rules of professional responsibility are not nearly as complete as America's, and don't have any provisions for a lot of the situations that lawyers encounter in today's complicated world. However, even our rules provide that "A lawyer shall not permit extraneous interests, irrespective of whether these be his own or those of others, to influence his advice" (Art. 3).

The obvious course of action would have been, at a minimum, for Sigurðsson to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest, and to insist that the bank's board of directors engage disinterested outside counsel. There would have been no guarantee as to outside counsel's opinion, however, so it was safer for Sigurðsson to have his staff prepare a justification for the board's action.

Iceland's rules also provide that "A lawyer shall perform his work independently and protect the autonomy of the legal profession" (Art. 3) and "shall always provide his Client with an impartial opinion of his affairs" (Art. 10). This obviously requires corporate counsel to make his decisions on the basis of his own legal research, and to resign if faced with the choice of doing as he's told and doing what's right (Art. 12).

The bank's other officers may have gone ahead with their scheme with the lawyer's go-ahead, just as Dick Cheney may have gone ahead with his "enhanced interrogation techniques," but at least they would have been given fair warning and maybe, just maybe, would have proceeded with a little less arrogance.

The mind-set in Iceland's business community before the banks' collapse was, as Bob Dylan once put it, "anything's legal, as long as you don't get caught." It should have been the lawyers' role to "promote justice and prevent injustice," (Art. 1) but Sigurðsson failed miserably, though I daresay he received his 40 pieces of silver.

Since the collapse, the lawyers who greased the skids for the crooks have not adopted the stance that, as officers of the court, it is their duty, "in his professional as well as other activities, to protect the honour of the legal profession" (Art. 2). Instead, they've viciously attacked all who try to seek some kind of reckoning from them or their clients.

Attorney Sigurður G. Guðjónsson has taken it upon himself to publicly attack every move and statement made by Norwegian-French magistrate Eva Joly, who was appointed as advisor to Ólafur Þór Hauksson, the special prosecutor investing any financial crimes that may have taken place. Unsurprisingly, Guðjónsson's alleged client list includes Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson, one of the leading business leaders during the run-up to Iceland's collapse, and Sigurjón Þ. Árnason, the former CEO of Landsbanki, who oversaw the IceSave fiasco. Guðjónsson recently orchestrated a complicated loan scheme for Árnason, enabling the latter to take a low-interest "loan" from a private pension fund in order to avoid paying some ISK 14 million in income tax..

The lack of clear ethical rules and the frontier justice mentality in Iceland continues to cause confusion and raise questions about the legal profession's ability to regulate itself in Iceland. Iceland's largest law firm--LOGOS--was appointed official administrator for Jón Ásgeir's company, Baugur, despite having previously represented it. LOGOS was also raided by the police last month in connection with allegations of "share manipulation" linked to Kaupthing Bank. Its offices were also raided by police looking into possibly fraudulent sales and re-sales of the now-bankrupt Sterling Airlines by the Icelandic investment firm, FL Group.

What is especially worrisome is that attorney discipline in Iceland is handled in part by the Icelandic Bar Association. Since the lawyers who had the greatest financial success in Iceland in recent years were the ones most closely tied to the parties responsible for taking the country down, what are the chances that the IBA is going to show the independent judgment necessary to evaluate their compliance with the rules?

The collapse of Iceland's economy had many causes, not all of which were the result of actions taken by Iceland's elite. However, the fingerprints of Iceland's lawyers are all over the most blatant fraud. Their role in enabling the business and banking executives to carry out questionable deals, to obfuscate transactions, to conceal assets, and to attack anyone who questioned their decisions was essential to the formation of the mind-set that rules and regulations were merely obstacles to be overcome, not roadmaps to maintaining a sustainable society.

Just as the physicians of famous people from Elvis Presley to Michael Jackson poisoned their patients by providing an endless supply of illicit drugs, so the lawyers poisoned Iceland's business and regulatory atmosphere by justifying their clients' unjustifiable deeds. Just as some of the drugs may have been needed for the stars' genuine medical conditions, much of the advice may have been accurate. What was so destructive in both cases, though, was the failure of the responsible professionals to look at the overall situation with an impartial eye, to recognize the great harm being inflicted, and to rectify the ongoing evil before it led to disaster.

Restoring faith in the legal profession should be one of the top priorities of the government. As Former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King once observed, "Far more has been accomplished for the welfare and progress of mankind by preventing bad actions than by doing good ones."

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WASHINGTON -- Several Wall Street firms seeking to buy back warrants held by the government as part of the $700 billion financial bailout are complaining that the Treasury Department is demanding too high a price, according to people familiar with the matter.

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WASHINGTON -- Several years of progress in reducing the number of chronically homeless people ended last year, a study released Thursday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development shows.

DETROIT — After a night spent signing mounds of paperwork authorizing the transfer of cash, real estate, technology and other property, GM attorneys are expected to officially usher the new General Motors out of bankruptcy protection on Friday and onto a path toward a hopefully profitable future.

Once the world's largest and most powerful automaker, the troubled company is expected to emerge cleansed of massive debt and burdensome contracts that would have sunk it without federal loans. Spurred on by the Obama administration's support, the process took just 40 days, even slightly quicker than crosstown rival Chrysler Group LLC's 42-day timeframe.

On Thursday, a bankruptcy court order allowing GM to sell most of its assets to a new company went into effect. The new GM, 61 percent owned by the U.S. government, will face a brutally competitive global automotive market in the middle of the worst sales slump in a quarter-century.

At a 9 a.m. press conference Friday, CEO Fritz Henderson will announce that GM will cut another 4,000 white-collar jobs, including 450 top executives. The company still employs 88,000 people in the U.S. and 235,000 worldwide.

Henderson also is expected to describe how GM will streamline its bureaucratic management structure to become profitable again. GM has said it will be able to make money even if the U.S. auto market stays at a depressed level of 10 million to 10.5 million vehicles sold.

Yet despite massive cost reductions, experts say GM must produce vehicles that people want to buy, and change its image to one on the cutting edge of efficiency and quality.

"It is the smaller, leaner, tougher, better cost-focused GM," said George Magliano, an automotive analyst with the consulting firm IHS Global Insight. "But they still have to deal with the problems that they faced longer-term."

Rep. Gary Peters, whose Michigan district is home to three GM factories, said the company's emergence signals a new era for the domestic auto industry and the thousands of people it employs.

"With bankruptcy in the rearview mirror, U.S. auto companies will even more aggressively pursue new technologies, become more globally competitive," he said. "Decades from now, our nation will be glad we did not let a global credit crisis put an end to the American automobile."

"I'm very much looking forward to a point where we're operating in clear air, and the name of the company not being associated with bankruptcy and loans and these things," said Mark LaNeve, GM's North American marketing chief.

GM ranked as the top global automaker in terms of sales for 77 years before Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. snatched its crown in 2008. The company sold nearly 8.4 million cars and trucks around the world in 2008, falling short of Toyota's nearly 9 million.

Once the largest corporation in America, GM held the top spot in the Fortune 500 ranking for 20 years before being pushed out of the top spot in 1973 by Exxon Mobil Corp. It reclaimed No. 1 status in 1985 and held it for another 15 years.

Experts say GM's future success will depend largely on its ability to persuade consumers that it's a different company, one that builds cars that will equal or outlast Japanese models. To illustrate the change, GM is considering a new name.

Turning a profit will not be easy. GM lost more than $80 billion in the last four years and survives only because it expects to receive $50 billion in U.S. government loans. Without the loans, its executives have said the company would have been sold off in pieces.

The Obama administration has said it does not plan to interfere with day-to-day operations, though it ousted ex-CEO Rick Wagoner and has been involved in picking the new company's board.

Most of GM's model lineup is expected to stay unchanged for now. But the company on Friday will probably show off its newer, more efficient models, as well as plans for a U.S.-made subcompact and rechargeable electric vehicles.

Also on Friday, Henderson is expected to announce that Bob Lutz, GM's product guru, will remain as a special adviser. Lutz, 77, announced in February that he would retire at year's end.

In addition to the U.S. government's controlling interest, the United Auto Workers union gets a 17.5 percent stake of the company through its retiree health care trust, and the Canadian government will control 11.7 percent. The remaining shares went to bondholders of the old company.

The parts of GM not moving to the new company will become part of "old GM," a collection of assets and liabilities that will be sold to pay creditors.

Almost immediately, GM will try to show how it's a different company, perhaps by changing its familiar square logo from blue to green, to reflect its environmental focus.

"I think that as a corporate identity the color change could well be a smart move," said Tony Spaeth, president of Tony Spaeth/Identity, a Rye, N.Y., firm that helps companies craft identities. "It lends a little bit more reality and sincerity of intention to 'We want to change the way we do things.'"

Today's consumers are sophisticated and will seek out environmental information to help make shopping choices, said Allen Adamson, managing director at branding firm Landor Associates.

"They have to do this just to stay in the game and to win on that dimension. To win on green, this is a very big challenge," he said.

Toyota, for instance, is known for its breakthrough hybrid gas-electric technology, and GM could accomplish the same thing with its Chevrolet Volt rechargeable electric car due in showrooms by late 2010.

___

Fredrix reported from Milwaukee. Associated Press writers Bree Fowler in New York and Stephen Manning and Ken Thomas in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- The New York Philharmonic has been invited to perform in Havana, Cuba, according to a document obtained by CNN.

The second time I met Claudia Cadelo we were holding up--each of us by one corner--a piece of sheet with the name "Gorki". It was at the concert at the Anti-Imperialist Bandstand, where we chanted for the liberation of the singer from the band Porno Para Ricardo. Our shouts were heard briefly and then cut short thanks to the beatings they gave us and the enormous loudspeakers broadcasting the imperturbable voice of Pablo Milanes. A short time later, that girl by my side would open an honest and uninhibited blog, Octavo Cerco-The Eighth Circle-that now has many followers inside and outside of Cuba.

What I like most about Claudia is that she admits to being afraid, confesses that she jumps when she hears noises and that she fears the long arm of State Security. Who doesn't? In a country where so many have called themselves heroes, to declare in advance that you are frightened is something too sincere to be accepted. There is a mistaken idea that courage takes epaulets, years of incarceration, or scars; not the languid face of a calm woman who displays not rancor but questions. This fragile blogger, from her fear, disproves these stereotypes every day.

July 8th we celebrated Claudia's 26th birthday at our home. With the Blogger Journey, discussions, a documentary and even a little rum. I drank to this girl who writes her opinions, these truths that many mature and stout males only dare to whisper into the ears of their wives.

Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.

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The House rebuked President Obama for trying to ignore restrictions to international aid payments, voting overwhelmingly for an amendment forcing the administration to abide by its constraints.

House members approved an amendment by a 429-2 vote to have the Obama administration pressure the World Bank to strengthen labor and environmental standards and require a Treasury Department report on World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) activities. The amendment to a 2010 funding bill for the State Department and foreign operations was proposed by Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), but it received broad bipartisan support.

The government could lose out on more than $2 billion if federal officials continue to undervalue part of the financial bailout package, a government watchdog panel will say on Friday.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, working with a team of Harvard Business School professors, estimated that taxpayers had lost one-third of the value of the very small number of warrants that had already been sold by the Treasury Department.

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The prophetic reputation of Pastor TB Joshua attained new heights with the recent revelation that he foretold the sudden death of the iconic pop legend, Michael Jackson…

Shock and sympathy are still reverberating around the world since the news broke on Thursday 25th June that Michael Jackson, the undisputed 'King Of Pop' had died suddenly after collapsing in his L.A apartment. However, his death had been foretold months earlier by a popular Nigerian Prophet, TB Joshua.

In January this year, Joshua prophesied during one of his famous Sunday services, broadcast live on Emmanuel TV: “I'm seeing a great star whom the world is shouting, “Hey, hey, hey!” In his own area, he's famous – he's known everywhere. He is great – too great… I see something will begin to happen to that star and that may likely end in him packing his load and going on the journey of no return…”

A month later, he clarified that the person concerned was not from his local environ and was 'too young to leave your midst' – enjoining the congregants and viewers worldwide to pray earnestly for this 'great star'.

Although some may view his words as too generic to be accredited to the legendary entertainer, the revelation of Tee Mac Omatshola Iseli on Sunday 28th June 2009, the famous flautist, business associate of Marlon Jackson and close friend of the Jackson family, put asunder such doubts. Joshua knew clearly who he was referring to.

In a sober atmosphere, Tee Mac spoke in front of a live television audience on Emmanuel TV, testifying that Prophet TB Joshua had told him to warn Michael Jackson of an impending health disaster, and invite him to visit Nigeria for healing.

“The man of God (TB Joshua) called me to his office and said to me, 'Please, tell your friend Marlon to bring Michael here to Nigeria. Michael needs healing; he needs deliverance.' I told the man of God that Michael Jackson just went for a medical check up because he is going to have about 50 concerts soon. But the man of God said to me, 'Send Michael here – he needs healing.' ”

When the tragic news broke, “what immediately came to my mind was that the man of God told me something's going to happen,” Tee Mac reminisced. Clearly remorseful, he lamented that if he had taken the message more seriously and acted with more insistence, “maybe Michael Jackson would still be alive today…”

Utilising the occasion to reflect on life, TB Joshua asked the audience in a heartfelt message: “If today were your last day on earth, what would people remember you for? What would generations yet unborn read about you?' He encouraged the people to live each day as if it were their least, and avoid the burden of unnecessary worry and anxiety. “Let us leave tomorrow's trouble for the One who bore our troubles on the cross,” he remarked.

As well as speaking on major world events, Joshua regularly prophesies to individuals that throng his flourishing church in Lagos, with uncanny accuracy. His recent prophecies include the death of the former South Korean president, the Feb 13 plane crash in New York and the release of Ingrid Betancourt from the Colombian jungle last year.

His ministry is attracting a growing fanatical following, particularly across Africa, and many African leaders such as John Evans Atta Mills of Ghana regularly frequent his church for spiritual support and guidance.

Source: Africa News

I really don't know what to say. When I read about Victoria Jackson's incoherent rant this afternoon, I just shook my head. I have heard this self-proclaimed conservative spew her hate and rhetoric towards Obama and his administration before. What bothers me most is that she actually makes people like Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly, and Palin look tame and intelligent.

I would like to address several of the key points in her rant:

Abortion -- It is quite obvious that Miss Jackson is Pro-Life. She comments that Obama is killing babies. It does not matter your stance on abortion. Obama does not kill babies, and the issue of abortion is not even within his purview. The issue was decided by the Supreme Court in 1973. Regardless of the merits of the arguments, Roe v. Wade set the law of the land, and unless the ruling is challenged, accepted and overturned, the President has absolutely no standing to contest or oppose established case law like this. People on both sides of the issue have worked strenuously since 1973 to fight this ruling, Pro-life advocates to overturn it, and Pro-Choice advocates to uphold it. That the issue has not been overturned in this time is telling.

Health Care -- This is obviously the current hot-button issue for much of America. There are a great number of things being tossed back and forth in this debate, several are good, many more are bad - from both sides. There is an agreement that something needs to be done with our health care system. From there, the sides diverge greatly. While I agree with her contention that customer service, especially among government employees, is lacking in our society, I do not see how this applies to the argument. The state of governmental customer service (or lack thereof) has been as such for many, many years, and cannot be attributed to the Obama administration in any way.

On the actual issue, nobody (of consequence) is suggesting socialized medicine. To remake our current system into a fully public system is likely impossible. Currently, millions are without insurance, the industry has not held up their responsibility of quality patient care, and control of the system is relegated to a few powerful organizations. We need a change, and since the industry has proven throughout history to be incapable of bringing the kind of change needed, and with the interests of the patient in mind, it falls to the government. Unfortunately, nobody has provided a viable alternative to this. The Obama administration has put forth a plan to make a public option available for people, like me, who cannot obtain private coverage nor have an employer-sponsored plan. How is this socialized medicine?

I completely lose her when she combines these two points to assert that Obama would be killing senior citizens. First, it is only Congress that has the authority to pass legislation, which would be necessary to affect the change necessary to overhaul our health care system. Sure, Obama has to sign it, and he can play cheerleader, but it is ultimately up to Congress. Even without this fact, her point falls down easily. With it, it is completely blown out of the water.

By the way, she hints that she may be asking for Social Security and/or Medicare as she ages. If she is so set in her conservative ways, how can she fathom taking advantage of the very social programs she despises?

Obama v. Hitler -- This is where she starts orbiting Pluto. Even if you believe the argument that Obama is a socialist (which he is not), this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. How can any intelligent person make a connection between Barack Obama, a moderate, liberal President of a capitalist, representative democracy, and Adolph Hitler, with his vision of a totalitarian, autocratic, single party, national socialist dictatorship realized in Nazi Germany? I really don't know what else to say. Hitler was ultra-conservative, and dedicated his life to the "purification" of the human race, while Obama just wants people to be able to make a decent living, have access to education and healthcare, and to generally just get along. Where is the connection?

Evil Governments -- I had to laugh at this one for a few reasons. First, a system with a King is called a Monarchy, and is not inherently evil. As with any authoritarian form of government, it is prone to corruption by power-hungry individuals, but is not itself evil. The same thing applies to Oligarchies.

Secondly, fascism is not a form of government, but a political ideology frequently found in authoritarian governments.

Finally, Socialism and Communism are socioeconomic structures and can be found in conjunction with any of a number of governmental models. If we take this argument and restructure it to fit the assumed meaning, authoritarian governments are evil, as are the socialist and communist models of economic theory. Without debating the merits of these, I think we can agree that America is not an authoritarian form of government, nor is it a socialist or communist state. For all its warts, our system is undeniably a representative democracy and adheres to capitalistic economic philosophy.

Note: Wikipedia, while not always perfect, can be a wonderful tool for helping to understand concepts like forms of government, socioeconomic schools of thought, and political ideologies.

She then rambles on about an encounter she had with a small business owner. She asserts that the "facts" she was informing the shop staff about caused them to glaze over, apparently from the realization of just how screwed we all are under Obama. I suggest that the real reason for the glazed look was their polite way of dealing with a crazed person in their store.

With her rant, Miss Jackson reminds me of a quote, attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." Please, somebody on the conservative side, educate this woman or prevent her from speaking out. She is not helping your cause.