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Millionaire Mitt Romney wants to bring the fiscal house of the U.S. in order. At the same time the likely Republican presidential nominee wants to increase military spending in the next ten years with 2.100 billion dollars, according to CNNMoney. Apparently there's still a lot of killing to do worldwide.

Americans don't agree. In fact two-thirds of Republicans and nine in ten Democrats support making immediate substantial cuts to the military budget:

“When Americans look at the amount of defense spending compared to spending on other programs, they see defense as the one that should take a substantial hit to reduce the deficit,” said Steven Kull, director of the Program for Public Consultation.

This is a billboard you can see on the Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago. This one is with Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. There are more with Charles Manson, Fidel Castro and Osama bin Laden.

The billboards are the product of the conservative Heartland Institute, an anti-science thinktank heavily sponsored by the oill and coal industry. This is what the Heartland thinks of 99 percent of the climate scientist and of journalist who report accurately on it.

The argument is probably that people who believe in global warming are more out of touch with reality than Charles Manson and the Unabomber.
Amazingly, ten years ago more than sixty percent of Americans believed that manmade global warming is real, now it's less than 50 percent. Thanks to well funded institutes like Heartland.

By the way, these are the same people who are gonna spent lots of money to stop the reelection of President Obama.

This is what British lawmakers concluded in a report on Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch yesterday. The report was published yesterday and reveals what sane people all over the world have been saying for years now:

Rupert Murdoch is “not a fit person” to run News Corp. or any other major international company.

Americans are raised with the view that violence is the answer to most problems. That's probably why a majority of Americans think that bombing is the best answer to prevent other people getting bombs.
In the last Reuters/Ipsos poll 56 percent of Americans support an attack on Iran if that country is trying to get an atom bomb. If an attack would lead to higher oil prices, still 53 percent of Americans favor a military attack on Iran. Only 39 percent oppose a military strike on Iran in whatever circumstances.

Most military experts think that Israeli premier Netanyahu would like to bomb Iran and President Obama doesn't want to.
In the view of James Risen, expert on the Middle East, Obama is winning for the moment. An attack on Iran has become less likely in the last months.
Iran has tempered it's most inflammatory talk  with the threat of even more strict economic sanctions. And they are more flexible in their dealings with the US and Israel, accepting direct negotiations.

Also in Israel a growing divide between political leaders and military and intelligence officials over the wisdom of attacking Iran has begun to...

This is a graph with shows how many low paid workers there are in the developed countries. Not unexpected the U.S. has the highest share of low paid workers of the developed world.
The Netherlands is quite high on the list too.
Income inequality is directly correlated with less economic growth, more crime and less stability in a country.

Azealia Banks is gekozen tot de coolste persoon op aarde door het Britse muziekblad NME. Terecht?

Werner Wejp-Olsen, Denmark, Politicalcartoons.com

Best tweets of the day:

Voor het eerst in drie jaar is er afgelopen zondag niemand vermoord in El Salvador en dat is nieuws, aldus president Mauricio Funes. (HumbertoTan)

Boek uw vakantietrip naar El Salvador vandaag nog, er zijn nog enkele plaatsen vrij. (ThomasKoek)

Breaking: Het nieuwe thuistenue van het Nederlands elftal is onthuld. (VI)

Gorilla

Foto: Nationaal Archief

The list of America at war starting in 1775 is based on data from the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Technically the U.S. is still at war with North Korea because that war officially has never ended. But that is not included in this chart.

Jianping Fan, Guangzhou, China

JdeW heeft een touw om de aarde gespannen. Vervolgens maakt hij het touw één (schrijve 1) meter langer. Als hij het touw op één (schrijve 1) punt omhoog trekt. Hoe ver kan JdeW het touw dan van de aarde aftrekken?

a)  Circa 12 mm.
b)  Circa 12 cm.
c)  Circa 120 meter.

Kap, Spain

Emad Hajjaj, Jordan

Yaakov Kirschen, Jerusalem Post   

De slechtste toeristen ter wereld zijn de Amerikanen... volgens Amerikanen. Nederlanders staan slechts dertiende, aldus een peiling van Living Social.

Daar klopt natuurlijk niets van, allemaal vooroordelen. Engelsen zijn veel erger want vaak heel erg dronken, Duitsers zeuren meer, Nederlanders zijn onbeschofter.
En waarom staan Japanners, ongeveer de beleefdste mensen ter wereld, zo hoog op de lijst? Hoger dan die schreeuwerige Koreanen zelfs. En waar zijn de Russen?
De lijst is samengesteld uit de reacties van 5.600 mensen waarvan 4.000 uit de VS kwamen.

United States 20%
China 15%
France 14%
Japan 12%
Russia 11%
Korea 9%
India 9%
Germany 8%
Spain 7%
Britain 5%
Canada 5%
Italy 4%
The Netherlands 3%
Ireland 2%
Switzerland 2%
Australia 2%

There's a big asteroid on it's way to the earth and it will reach us in 2040. So, were the Maya's off by 28 years? Sadly to say: no they were not! 

This asteroid is not a dino killer. It's size is to small and it's unlikely to hit the earth. But if it does, depending on closing velocity, strike angle, and the composition of impactor and target, simulations predict that the hit would look like the explosion of a hydrogen bomb. Without the deadly gamma rays and radioactive fallout. It could destroy a small town and no more.

But then, it could be your town.

Grillig als zovele vrouwen
is het weer in Nederland.
De verschuiving der seizoenen
loopt gigantisch uit de hand.
‘s Zomers storm en regenbuien,
in ‘t voorjaar komt het ijs aankruien.
Gelukkig maar dat Jan z’n kaart
de stabiliteit bewaart. 

Great timing. After Bush/Cheney bullied North Korea into producing an atombomb, finally U.S. policy is back on the Clinton track. Or would Republicans consider this another Obama foreign policy failure just like killing Bin Laden and leaving Iraq? May we have some hope about the new leadership of North Korea?

North Korea has agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests. It will allow International Atomic Energy inspectors to verify and monitor it, and to confirm disablement of its nuclear reactor and associate facilities.

Tom Janssen, The Netherlands