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All hope for Steven Spielberg’s racially divisive West Side Story remake died in week two, plummeting 68 percent with a humiliating take of just $3.4 million. After ten days in release, which includes two weekends, this historic box office bomb has grossed just $17.9 million. The hope had been that word of mouth would give Woke Side box office legs. Sorry, nope. No legs. Just two little stumps. Between production and marketing, this stinker probably cost close to $200 million. As a result, Disney’s going to lose a fortune.

Congressman: Obama should unilaterally ‘refinance every home mortgage’ [VIDEO] By Nicholas Ballasy - The Daily Caller 11:43 PM 10/21/2011 Virginia Democratic Rep. Jim Moran told The Daily Caller on Thursday evening that President Obama should “refinance every home mortgage” without congressional approval in order to “reset the economy.” “Absolutely, I think [Obama] should do that but there are not a lot of places where he can act unilaterally,” Moran told TheDC during Conservation International’s Oct. 20 dinner in Washington, D.C. “If he chooses to act unilaterally,” Moran said, “the likelihood is that there will be language in the appropriations bills...

Sorry, But Housing And Car Sales Just Do Not Show A Coming Recession New Deal democrat, The Bonddad Blog Oct. 6, 2011, 1:45 PM ECRI's recession call has justifiably gotten much coverage. On the other hand, many have noted the lack of transparency of their method, making reliance on them a matter of trust rather than testing. An alternative to their approach is based on the research of UCLA Anderson School Prof. Edward Leamer. Prof. Leamer made an excellent presentation (pdf) about the progression of business cycles at Jackson Hole in 2007. It is research I have relied on many...

Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and a leading faculty critic of BU president John Silber, died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said. He was 87. "His writings have changed the consciousness of a generation, and helped open new paths to understanding and its crucial meaning for our lives," Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, once wrote of Dr. Zinn. "When action has been called for, one could always be confident that he would be...

By Carlos AndradeWed Jun 22, 8:48 AM ET Before the arrival of Spanish colonizers some 500 years ago, Indians in what is now Ecuador dipped their arrowheads in venom extracted from the phantasmal poison frog to doom their victims to convulsive death, scientists believe. More recently, epibatidine -- the chemical which paralyzed and killed the Indians' enemies -- has been isolated to produce a pain killer 200 times more powerful than morphine, but without that drug's addictive and toxic side effects. Pharmaceutical companies have not yet brought epibatidine to market but hope to discover other chemicals with powerful properties in...

France voices objections to placing Hamas and Islamic Jihad on the European Union's list of terror organizations, ynet reported Monday. Diplomatic advisor to President Chirac, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, is quoted to have said to the Israeli ambassador in France, Nissim Zvilli, that there is no proof that these two organizations are terror groups. "If we find that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are indeed terror groups opposed to peace, we may have to change the EU's stand," said Gordo. "However, we must not limit ourselves to one, clear cut, position." Over the weekend, Zvilli met with Gordo, said to be Chirac's right-hand...