today’s news and information gleanings from here and there!

Quote for today … “The Columbia Lions Club and Sunsnappers invite members of the community to get involved in the Columbia Christmas Food Box Delivery by packing and delivering boxes on Sunday, Dec. 20, beginning at 9 a.m. The process will take place at the Columbia Borough Fire Department, 714 Manor St., Columbia.” – The Merchandiser

• Middle class loses ground: “Here’s How Much the U.S. Middle Class Has Changed in 45 Years.” – Bloomberg Business
  

• What’s the story on credit card debt? ” … more people have been more heavily indebted.” – ValuePenguin.com

• but consumers are “more optimistic.” – CNBC

• Springettsbury sanity – The York Daily Record

• Tide schedule boys basketball – girls basketball –  MaxPreps

• How much better can it get? How will the recent mega-merger news mean “More Better Things for Better Living … Through Chemistry?” – The Wall Street Journal

• Whoever is writing his columns (today there’s one about the dysfunctional US House of Representatives tackling terrorism) appears in today’s LNP – Always Lancaster) continues the dogmatic crap-ola. To define terrorists as cowards is “olympic and egregious” simplification. This article, “Defining Terrorism – Is One Man’s Terrorist Another Man’s Freedom Fighter?” is far more in depth. One author says, “The application of the term ‘Terrorist’ by the U.S. Government has nothing to do with how that term is commonly understood, but is instead exploited solely as a means to punish those who defy U.S. dictates and reward those who advance American interests … .”

• Terrorism, in fact, is so difficult to grasp; there’s no singular definition of the word – Arizona Department of Emergency Management

• The National Institute of Justice Programs says this: “Different definitions exist across the federal, international and research communities.”

• While conducting training with law enforcement agencies in Bosnia in 2005, one our translators identified a high-ranking in a seminar by saying, “That man is a war hero.” Our other translator later said, “That man is a war criminal.” War hero? War Criminal? Terrorist? Who is correct?

• In 2012, Columbia news, views & reviews posted this “You just might be a (gulp) terrorist if you like to browse in private … “