The Philozopher's Stone

The 1 Percent, Revealed | Mother Jones

2011-12-19T11:59:00.000-08:00

The 1 Percent, Revealed | Mother Jones: the idea of the "liberal elite" could not survive the depredations of the 1 percent in the late 2000s. For one thing, it was summarily eclipsed by the discovery of the actual Wall Street-based elite and their crimes. Compared to them, professionals and managers, no matter how annoying, were pikers. The doctor or school principal might be overbearing, the professor and the social worker might be condescending, but only the 1 percent took your house away.

This about sums it up... There are some lucky folks on the upper end of the middle class, or even at the bottom of the upper class, that annoy us with their arrogance or even their good fortunes. However, in the final analysis, it is the real "one percenters" that are behind the greatest transfer of wealth from the bottom 99 to the top 1% that history has ever witnessed. The socialisation of risk and privatisation of reward is the most breath taking theft in recent history, and our government has done next to nothing to hold these crooks accountable.

TFTD: Wisdom is Like Air

2011-10-04T13:45:00.001-07:00

Wisdom is not solely The domain of any one person, religion, or epistemology. It is like the air we all breath… it has always been here and we have always shared it.What you think of as belonging solely to you can only be held inside of you for a short time, but eventually it must go out into the world to be shared, reused, and consumed by every living thing. When you breath in wisdom, it changes you and you change it but its essential nature is unchanged. If you close it in, air becomes stale and eventually loses its ability to sustain life. Wisdom, like air, must be renewed by returning to nature.Wisdom can be sweet or it can carry the reek of death. Live a life where you can enjoy sweet air, but never close yourself away from the bitter or unpleasant truth of existence. If you never smell the foul stink of bullshit, how will you appreciate the sweet smell of desert flowers after the rain? Go out into the world and experience the wisdom of other people, places, and beliefs and one day you may find a place where the air is sweet to your liking, and you will know you are home.

Government OF, BY, and FOR the People - Lokpal for India, Lokpal for USA

2011-08-16T14:13:00.002-07:00

I just finished reading a article in the NY Times about India's "Second Battle for Independence". The article is about Mr. Anna Hazare, who was arrested yesterday for attempting to stage an unsanctioned public fast. Mr. Hazare is at the front of a national movement to battle public corruption. Check out the article, "Hundreds Arrested in India Over Planned Protest", at Nytimes.com: http://nyti.ms/pnQNy3

Mr. Anna Hazare walks the path of Mahatma Gandhi as he declares his intention to "fast unto death" if the Indian government does not create the independent anti-corruption body known as Lokpal. His declaration reminds me of Ghandi's fast which preceded India's independence from Britain.

Corruption is a huge problem in India, where the CM of Karnataka was recently found to have allowed illegal mining in the state. Infrastructure projects in Bangalore have dragged on for years as a result of ongoing public and private malfeasance. By contrast, a recently effective CM in Andhra Pradesh was able to create a modern freeway from the new airport to the city of Hyderabad. You can see the difference between a well run state, and one riddled with corruption.

In America, corruption is not a secret problem. Here, corporations are now allowed to spend unlimited money to push political issues or support politicians running for election. In addition, our politicians spend significant portions of their terms in office "fund raising" which often means hosting $1000-plate dinners.

America needs to take note: peaceful protest can work, and one man can change the course of human history. This knowledge is one of the gifts we received from India, through Mahatma Gandhi, and was one of the inspirations for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We must demand change of our government and we must "be the change you wish to see in the world" (MK Gandhi).

American Priorities

2011-07-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

Response to "A Deal They Cannot Make" from The Economist magazine:

There are no leaders in the GOP, just angry reactionaries. Sadly, they do represent a significant portion of the American Electorate. Worse, the party machinery and talking heads have gotten so good at selling lies and misinformation, that it will be a long time before America recovers.

America's problems are systemic rejection and mistrust of academic excellence and scientific achievement. High School football stars earns huge scholarships while good grades result in Jr College for those lucky enough to continue their education past grade 12. Intelligent and thoughtful discussions are pushed aside for popularity contests, and rather than celebrate our differences as unique strengths, we punish them as aberrations from an ignorant religiosity. Our politicians are as twisted as our priorities... Life reflects art; in this case the caricature.

"Corporate Greed" is a Redundant Expression

2011-03-05T12:15:00.002-08:00

Corporations do what they must, and it is up to the people to decide what constraints to impose on them. The idea of treating corporations as "people" is especially troubling, and only in America are corporations treated as such.

The measure of corporate morality is profit, and the only way to force a corporation to behave according to societal norms and expectations is to impose restraint, or regulations as they are more commonly known, on them so that all corporations operate on a level playing field based on the moral disposition of society.

Before we get too far into it, let's be specific: This essay speaks to the issue of "For-Profit Corporations," and not those corporations organised for the purpose of legal and financial organisation to carry out some specific goal like charity, political action, or other activities carried out by "Non-Profit Corporations."

The Nature and Definition of the Corporation as Sociopath
Corporations have only one goal: Make money for their shareholders. To carry out that goal is their only "moral" obligation. Corporations are not people even though they are run by people. By themselves, corporations have no conscience, and the behaviours demonstrated by corporations in countries with loose regulations or weak government are routinely indifferent to the damage they cause to people or the environment.

The problem is that shareholders demand profits, and have the power to replace the people leading a corporation. As a consequence, corporate leaders who would otherwise make decisions that are good for people and the corporation are steered off course by the demands for profit. Even worse, the demands of corporate leadership are well suited to people who are afflicted with a mental aberration that eliminates their capacity for empathy, or concern for the well-being of people. The clinical term for these people is "Sociopath," or as they are more commonly known: Psychopaths.

The true nature of the corporation is that they are inherently incapable of empathy. A corporation is not a person, though it may be made up of people. The very idea that what is good for business is good for people, is inherently flawed because the goals of people are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. On the other hand, the corporation has only one aim: Profit. Where the two come into conflict, all things being equal (meaning no government regulations), the corporation will take action based on what earns the most money, not what is best for the people they affect.

If we measure the behaviour of some corporations regarded as "bad," we might make some observations using the nomenclature from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), for the diagnosis of "Antisocial Personality Disorder," under which we will find the definition of the popular term Sociopath and Psychopath:

Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviours as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest;
Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;
Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead;
Irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults;
Reckless disregard for safety of self or others;
Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behaviour or honour financial obligations;
Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another.

If you look at the events in the business world from 2008 - 2010, you consistently see behaviours demonstrating one or more of the points. In almost every case, you will find an example of government regulations that have been removed, or where the consequence of breaking the law was less than the profit to be made.

Multinational Corporations, and those that are "too big to fail" are the reason we need to understand the fundamental nature of the corporation. Moreover, we need to understand the nature of the people who lead these global entities whose decisions affect the lives and health of the entire planet and the people living on it. Corporations are not people, do not have human emotions, and will never act in accordance with the needs of people except where those people are the shareholders.

When a individual demonstrates sociopathic behaviour, and are consistently shown to be a danger to society, they are locked away to protect society. Corporations, which are inherently sociopathic, are a problem that is orders of magnitude larger and more complex; How do you "treat" or "lock up" a corporation? By the same token, we cannot eliminate corporations because they have as much potential for good as they do harm. Therein lies the dilemma of the preventing harm, without eliminating the benefit.

The Story of the Scorpion and the Frog
There are many variations to the story of the Scorpion and the Frog, which is older than writing. The story goes something like this:

The Scorpion and the Frog
It happened one day that Scorpion came to a river that he could not cross, because he could not swim. As he stood there wondering what he would do, Frog came swimming down the river. Scorpion called out to Frog, "Frog, will you help me cross the river? I need to cross to return to my home."

Frog heard Scorpion's call and turned to him and replied, "Scorpion, I cannot help you. If I come close, you will sting me and I will die." Said Scorpion in turn, "Silly Frog! Of course I will not sting you. If you carry me across, and I sting you, you will drop me into the river and I will die."

Frog swam up to the river's edge and said to Scorpion, "OK, Scorpion, if you promise not to sting me, I will carry you across the river." Scorpion looked Frog in the eye, and speaking in his most sincere voice said, "Frog, I promise I will not sting you if you carry me across the river." Upon hearing the sincerity in Scorpion's voice, and believing that it was in Scorpion's best interest not to sting him, Frog allowed Scorpion to climb onto his back.

As they were swimming across the river, Scorpion started to feel anxious and began stepping around on Frog's back. Frog said to Scorpion, "Are you OK back there? You seem a little anxious. No need to worry, I will get us across safely." Scorpion said, "Yes. Everything is fine. I'm just enjoying the view."

As they were passing the deepest part of the river, Frog felt a tiny little sting right in the middle of his back. He knew then, that Scorpion had lied to him. As the poison began to burn through his body, Frog said sadly to Scorpion, "Scorpion, you have killed me and broken your promise. In stinging me, you have killed me, and now you will drown. Why did you do this terrible deed?"

Scorpion thought for a minute, and then said with a calm but sad voice, "Dear Frog, I'm sorry to have stung you. I tried to resist this urge, but in the end I could not stop myself."

As the frog began to sink into the river, the last thing he heard Scorpion say was, "I am a scorpion, and it is the nature of scorpions to sting. Foolish is he that would think any creature would not act according to his nature." And with that, Frog slipped below the water and died.

The age of this story gives some idea of how long people have been considering this story of morality. All things in this world act according to their nature. It is for this very reason that it is so important to understand the nature of the Corporation. Without something to restrain them like governments or unions, corporations will continue to act according to their nature.

Can you imagine what would have happened to the Frog if he had insisted that Scorpion allow him to hold his stinger while they cross the river?

Can you imagine a world where ...

Corporations freely supply money to people to get elected, in order to insure that laws are created or abolished that serve the Corporation's interests?
Politicians seek to undermine the power of the people to work together to counterbalance the power of the Corporation's interests?
People willingly give up or eliminates all ability to keep the powers of corporations in check?

I can imagine that in that world, you will be a slave.

The Way Forward
What has happened until now has been a warning of what is to come. Corporations do not die, or live natural lives like people do. In order to guarantee that America, or any nation, continues to be a country of, by, and for the people, the people must stand up and let government and corporations know that we will not march into that bleak future; they must either drag us there kicking, fighting, and screaming, or else we must have a better future to look forward to.

The people of America need to get angry, and they must get organised. They need to put more energy and money into getting their kids to school than they do on their Television subscriptions. American needs to put investment into bridges and trains before they spend on arenas and sports complexes.

We are all in this together, even the rich. And the richest among us didn't get that way just because they were lucky, had a great idea, worked hard, or made smart decisions. The rich got rich, because they were given a great education, live in a country with excellent roads and bridges, and live under the rule of law that makes all of that possible to obtain and keep. They owe it to their country to give back for the many opportunities they've been given. And yes, they owe a larger percentage of their incomes than their secretaries give.

We must establish the principle that "good for business" has to include "... and people," and define our laws accordingly. This means government regulation. It means standing up for the rights of people in this country before we worry about the rights of people on the other side of the world. It also means feeding our children, before we put fuel into jets based on foreign soil.

Demand a government that stands for your interests first, and business interests second.

If Corporations are sociopathic, and they are funding the next round of elections, what do you think is going to happen to your government? Take a look at what is happening in Wisconsin this month (Feb 2011), and ask yourself who you are rooting for? If you aren't rooting for the people, you should really search your soul and ask yourself why not.

A Better Future
Remember that story of the Frog and the Scorpion? The version I shared earlier is based on the most popular version of the story handed down in the West. I leave you with this parting thought... Not every sting kills the frog.

Watch this video, based on the Eritrean version of this story... the ending may surprise you:

Atheist Spirituality? Possible, wonderful, and more

2011-01-19T02:50:00.000-08:00

This post started off as a response to the essay What is Atheist Spirituality? from the blog Atheist Spirituality. Unfortunately it got so long that it wouldn't save as a comment, so here we are.

For much of my early life, I hung onto the title "Atheist," and it turns out to have been pointless. "Atheist" is just a word, but it is well understood by most people, and serves as a convenient logical hat rack to hang additional thought on. At this point in my own spiritual development, I've decided that I'm essentially a Buddhist (minus the magical mysticism), and truly appreciate the need for spiritual development as much as physical, emotional, and intellectual training; would that be "Secular Buddhism?"

I think the essay What is Atheist Spirituality? says a lot of what I've intuitively felt, and I'm glad the author wrote it. I was trying to capture a similar notion in some of my previous entries in this blog: Awakening the Mind and Spirit - The Hierarchy of Consciousness and This world is my temple.

In my second posting, I was trying capture the flavour of spirituality, minus god, or as you (the anonymous author of the essay I'm responding to) so eloquently put it "Atheist Spirituality."

It's worth pointing out that Buddhism does not speak to the notion of "God" one way or another, as to whether there is such a thing. The simple morality encapsulated in the Eightfold Path is easy to teach, and highly nuanced, and it doesn't matter if you believe or not, because the morality is universally applicable.

As to the question of God or No God? Who cares. A better question is Good or Not Good. The point, I think, is that we should ask does one's adopted belief system encourage him to be more moral, compassionate, ethical, and fair? We can argue that God is a delusion, but I think that an "Atheist" who is secure in their beliefs and mature in their approach would not seek to disabuse or convince anyone because that aspect of belief is personal, and words are convenient devices to understand the world around us. Call it Gaea, Mother Nature, God, or whatever, but it's still "Nature" and words added or changed don't take away from the breathtaking majesty or inherent mystery of waves crashing at the ocean, or air moving in and out of your lungs, or waterfalls, or rainbows, or children with a million questions and no end of energy to ask them.

The conclusion I've reached is that some people need more words and certainty than others, and what is served by disabusing them? To prove you're right? Why.

Spirituality is as important to Human need as food, shelter, and companionship. I would argue that if the source that feeds you does not poison you or ask you to do evil, then belief in one or more Gods is no worse for the species than certainty that there is no God. I will raise my children with any device that serves to teach them to be moral, and spiritually healthy, be that Buddhism, Christianity, Paganism, or anything positive I can draw from the world around me. I won't mention "God," but I won't shrink from it either. I will, and already have, explain to my children that God is an idea that helps people understand the world around them, not an actual person.

None of this speaks to the issues surrounding Religion, theology, dogma, or modern-day religious fundamentalism and extremism, which are separate and much more challenging aspects of existence that we *all* have to tackle at some point.

So to answer the implied question: Can Atheists be Spiritual? The answer is a resounding Yes. The need to feel something outside our self/ego is as much a part of Human nature as walking upright and pulling fruit out of a tree. Or falling out of the tree with no fruit and wondering "why me?"

Thank God I have a brain in my head to consider the question!

Prayer for Harmony between Systems of Honour and Law

2011-01-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

A couple years back, I was lamenting what I saw as the decline of honour, which I believe extends to personal responsibility, among other external demonstrations. I was trying to understand why it appears to be on the decline given that there are so many people that I've asked about it, who feel that honour is very important.

The answer that I found was both surprising and saddening. The "Honour System" is antithetical to the "Legal System." As a society increases its dependence on a system of laws, it must act to discourage or weaken competing systems based on honour. An example would be "Honour Killings," which are socially acceptable in some parts of South Asia, even though they are technically illegal.

A codified legal system almost implies other, competing systems of codified behaviour, which must be discouraged, weakened, or eliminated altogether. Imagine someone trying to say they can do something in America because their religion says it's OK or the way to do it (e.g. Sharia, Polygamous Mormonism, ritual sacrifice).

As the system of law becomes the primary codified system of behaviour, only that behaviour which is specifically proscribed will be avoided, and only when the police aren't around to catch you. Unfortunately, you cannot legislate morality any more than you can force someone to have common sense.

What is needed is a parallel system that can survive in harmony with the accepted, primary legal system. Where the legal system is lacking, the alternate system can fill in or supplement. Religion has long served this role, but is actively on the decline as America becomes increasingly secular

In 1990 only 8.5% of the population identified themselves as having no religion, which climbed to 15% by 2008. During the same period, self-identified Christians declined from 86.2% of the population to 76.0%, although it's worth noting that the number of Christians rose numerically from 151 mil to 173 mil. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States, citation #4 from Trinity College, 2008).

I'm not a Christian, but I agree with many of the teaching in the New Testament. My favourite quotes being "Love your neighbour as you love yourself," "Judge not, lest ye be judged in turn," and "as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." Jesus sounds like my kind of guy! So if there are so many Christians in America, why do we have homeless, hungry, and the death penalty? Why do people feel like their ugly, vituperative comments, either on a Facebook comment thread, or through the traditional media, are in any way acceptable? Where is the shame and indignation?

It seems to me we are living in a time when there is an abdication of morality, justified by technical adherence to the current codified system of law. I'm not sure what the root cause is, but this realisation makes me sad. The ongoing argument between Left and Right seems to be symptoms of this larger ugliness. I hope I live to see the day when humanity regains its humanity, and the system of secular law provides the floor for conduct, but we all aspire to higher standard of ethical and honourable behaviour.

WikiLeaks' Most Terrifying Revelation: Just How Much Our Government Lies to Us | World | AlterNet

2011-01-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

From WikiLeaks' Most Terrifying Revelation: Just How Much Our Government Lies to Us | World | AlterNet

Do you believe that it is in Americans' interest to allow a small group of U.S. leaders to unilaterally murder, maim, imprison and/or torture anyone they choose anywhere in the world, without the knowledge let alone oversight of their citizens or the international community? And, despite their proven record of failure to protect America -- from Indochina to Iran to Iraq -- do you believe they should be permitted to clandestinely expand their war-making without informed public debate? If so, you are betraying the principles upon which America was founded, endangering your nation, and displaying a distinctly "unamerican" subservience to unaccountable authority.

Julian Assange furore deepens as new details emerge of sex crime allegations | Media | guardian.co.uk

2010-12-18T15:34:00.001-08:00

From Julian Assange furore deepens as new details emerge of sex crime allegations | Media | guardian.co.uk

"'That is a set-up worthy of a totalitarian state, [and] tells us how far the US has travelled from its first amendment and its democracy. The events in Sweden feed into this. Right from the beginning, there has been a public smear on Julian Assange. This is not to say it is a 'CIA conspiracy'; but it has been a studied smear with many beneficiaries.'"

What is the truth of Assange's conduct in Sweden? That's not clear, but the signs point to this being a smear campaign by proxy against Wikileaks. What happened to our much-touted First Amendment and Freedom of the Press?

It may be old hat to refer to 1984, by George Orwell when trying to understand how governments work, but you have to ask "How far is too far?" when it comes to the governing of a nation? The American response to Wikileaks says as much or more than anything the leaked diplomatic cables ever could. We are far from that distopian future, but each step takes us closer to a future we want one that we want to avoid.

My mother always said "The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions." I wonder which side is more guilty of this.

Opinion: Drawing the line on tax breaks - Sen. Bernie Sanders - POLITICO.com

2010-12-10T20:18:00.005-08:00

I applaud Sen Bernie Sanders's lengthy speech this afternoon. I invite you to watch it's conclusion, and read the speech at Politico.com. Here's an Except, and then below that is a short video where you can here Sen. Sanders speaking for himself:

Sen. Sanders Speech begins, Friday 10 December 2010.

Here's an excerpt from Opinion: Drawing the line on tax breaks, by Sen. Bernie Sanders (from POLITICO.com):

Despite Republicans’ loud rhetoric about the “deficit crisis,” the GOP now wants to add $700 billion to the national debt over the next 10 years — by extending the Bush tax breaks for the top 2 percent of earners. Families who earn $1 million a year or more would receive, on average, a tax break of $100,000 a year.

Republicans also want to eliminate or significantly reduce the estate tax, which has existed since 1916. Its elimination would add, over 10 years, about $1 trillion to our national debt.

All benefits would go to the top 0.3 percent. More than 99.7 percent of families would not gain a nickel. But Walmart’s Walton family would receive an estimated tax break of more than $30 billion if the estate tax were repealed.

I certainly respect the entrepreneurs that are able to become millionaires and even billionaires, but let's ask the question: What country was it that gave them the freedom and opportunity to make all that money in the first place? Having a higher tax rate for those that earn more makes sense, but not the Robin Hood take from the Rich and give to the Poor way that so many ideologues would have you believe.

I , for one, do not believe that the 'free health care' enjoyed by the poor should be reserved to them alone. The 'Welfare State' is a demeaning and morally bankrupt idea. Again, not for the reasons you think. Medicare should be allowed to be the gold standard is can be, by providing for the basic health needs of *every* American. We need to eliminate the wasteful Veterans Administration hospitals and create a health care option that gives everyone the basic health care this country needs to keep its people fit and healthy so that we can compete and win on the global stage. For those that want more than the basic option, I believe the market is being enough to allow for private alternatives (thinks USPS and FedEx/UPS).

Where does this money come from? Eliminate the overlapping mesh of public and private insurers in America and recognise that Health Care is a public, national good that everyone pays into and everyone is entitled to use. Not just for the poor, but for all of us. From a practical perspective, today's insurers could evolve into tomorrow's 'Third-Party Administrators', a.k.a. TPAs, which are a common feature of Today's Health Care system. These TPAs could make their profit through efficient processing of the necessary administrative work needed to provide services to the American people.

Socialism has become a bogeyman and the idea that 'it has had it's day' is worse than a stretch of the imagination; it has never even been given a chance. American's are so afraid of communism, they have displaced their fear and prejudice of this political system onto Socialism, which is an economic system. Socialism is not an all or nothing proposition, and does have a place in a market economy. It is one option and tool that can be used by our government to 'Secure the common good.'

There is nothing in our founding documents that dictates which economic system we should use, and it would be foolish to assume that what worked in a society of a few million privileged (i.e. property owning) white Anglo-Europeans will work in a country with hundreds of millions, many of whom will live to be 2 - 3 decades longer than was the norm in the 18th century.

If you're still not convinced, ask yourself why American Democracy is defended by an autocratic, socialist organisation we call the 'Military.' It's a system that meets the needs, of the country. It serves the common good, and for the many people who make a career of it, it's not a terrible way to live your life.

We're all in this together, so make it work

2010-11-12T21:25:00.001-08:00

Bad Help is better than no help. The world, its people, and its systems are imperfect. It's hard to delegate a task or chore to someone when you think you can do it better, but how will they grow if you never give them the chance?

When you plan a task, make sure that you allow for the time it would take someone else to get it done and include the time it takes you to explain it twice. Expect it not to come out right the first time, and help your helper work to get it right.

The oil that smooths the rough edges of life, people, and relationships is compassion and empathy. We're a tiny little planet in a giant, uncaring universe. All we have is each other.

Matthew Morrison Speaks On Bullying

2010-11-04T17:12:00.000-07:00

While in Ohio earlier this year, Matthew gave an interview about the problem of bullying in schools.

For more information please visit:
http://www.thetrevorproject.org
http://www.itgetsbetterproject.com

KCRA Poll: Mendacity or Audacity? You Decide.

2010-11-02T22:28:00.001-07:00

NBC Affiliate, KCRA Channel 3, brings you a gift this Election Season by way of a Poll on their Web site:

California elects Brown and Boxer. Why is our state strongly supporting Democrats when the rest of the nation is leaning toward Republican candidates?
Because we have a higher percentage of registered Democrats in California
Because we had a poor choice of Republican candidates
We often run counter to the opinion in the rest of the country
California voters continue to make poor decisions

Call me crazy, but do the "answers" look like they are suggesting that Republicans only lost because the wrong candidates were chosen?

Nice Job KCRA! Who Says only Fox affiliates can be Crazy like a Fox?

Learning about the things we fear...

2010-11-02T00:56:00.003-07:00

Op-Ed: Our Ignorance and Our Interests: Why We Need to Learn More, Not Less, about Islam and the Arab World

"In the past 30 years, we've spent more money, sold more weapons, sent more troops, fought more wars, lost more lives, had more economic and political interests at stake and expended more diplomatic capital in the broader Middle East than anywhere else on the globe. And yet recent polling shows that two-thirds of all Americans can't point to Iraq on a map."

by Dr. James J. Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute.

Feed Your Mind:

Who Are Arab Americans? by Helen Samhan, from Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia
Google Time Line: Arab Learning Greek History
Resetdoc.org -- History: The Middle Ages, when the West wanted to learn from the East, by Charles Burnett
Slate.com -- Once and Future Islam, A Sufi imam challenges moderate Muslims to fashion a new, American faith. By Lee Smith
Hudson Institute -- What About Muslim Moderates?, by Nina Shea and James Woolsey

Before you fire up your email and start flaming me for being a Liberal apologist, consider the simple fact that Christianity has the same potential for abuse and radicalism as Islam. I think what separates American Christian and Muslim radicals is economics and demography more, although I do agree that fundamental teachings of both religions can be internally inconsistent, and are subject to broad interpretation to support the arguments of both "Extremists" and "Moderates."

In previous posts, I've expressed my belief that Spirituality is an inherent hunger for the self-aware being (i.e. it's part of being Human). The need to satisfy our spiritual hunger is the means by which Religious radicals are able to feed us their more and less toxic teachings. When we find a source of positive Spirituality, we blossom and glow as individuals and as a people, but when we are fed a negative source of hateful, intolerant invective, individuals are convinced to murder in the name of their so-called religions.

Ignoring Climate Change is a Crime and Moral Abdication

2010-09-03T11:00:00.001-07:00

In response to this cartoon from the Sacramento Bee (Rex Babin Cartoons - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee):

Obviously it would take some time before things were as bad as depicted in this cartoon, but the point is to provoke thought on this issue. The challenge and cost of meeting the goal of emission reductions is exactly the kind of mental challenge that is needed to spur new technologies and keep California at the front of global innovation.

"Head-in-the-sand" arguments about CO2 not being a pollutant are patently absurd. Pollution is just a word. CO2 is just as natural as ozone, which is great in the stratosphere but an irritant (and pollution) at ground level. CO2 may be natural, but it's the concentration of this gas that is the problem. Pretending that increasing CO2 concentration is not a problem is simply a form abdication of responsibility by the generation in power.

It is utter, willful ignorance to assume that climate change is not a threat to humanity. This type of willful disagreement has a harsher name: Criminal Negligence. What is most upsetting to me is the colossal arrogance and selfishness of people who insist that Global Climate Change doesn't exist. Climate Change (a.k.a. Global Warming) is the biggest threat our species has ever faced. You may pretend it doesn't exist because to acknowledge it means that you have to admit that fixing it will be hard and will require shared sacrifice that you don't feel you should pay for.

I cannot believe that any human being would be so selfish that they would gamble with the future by playing ideological games. This is brinkmanship of the worst variety because the consequences will not be paid by the players, but by their children. I hope that the deniers at least have the sense to be ashamed of their selfishness.

In the Centre of the Storm, I Found Peace

2010-08-09T20:19:00.001-07:00

Today, I stood under a cloud while rain and thunder raged around me. The wind howled and screamed angry vitriol, like an angry banshee, trying to knock me down from my place of peace.

The storm was a cacophony of voices, strident and false. I raged at the angry winds until I was out of breath. I shouted until I had no voice. I was the storm, and I raged with this knowledge too. The cycle continued and thunder flashed from my eyes as my anger and frustration grew and left me hollow in my centre.

I closed my eyes to gather strength for what came next, but...

In the centre of the storm, I found peace.

To those inspired by faith in the divine, you would know this feeling as being touched by grace. I was at peace in that moment.

The howling wind became as a gentle breeze and the angry rain fell on my face like a spring shower, and washed away my worries and my cares. In that time of chaos I found my place, and knew my role.

My task is not to rage and shout like the storm, but to be a foundation of strength for my family, my friends, and my fellow man. My role is not to be the angry man shouting from the rooftops, but to be the bedrock and the pillar of strength.

My strength is love and peace and hope and charity and reaching out and stilling the troubled water that falls around me by staying calm and letting it flow over and past me. Let the storm bring floods and I will build a boat, let it bring fires and I will carry water to put them out, let it bring ice and I will open my door and share my warmth.

In the centre of the storm, I found peace.

I no longer believe that I need to be louder or more clever; I need to be calm and at peace. I will not fight fire with fire. I will put out the fires of discontent with the cool stuff of life, which is water.

I closed my eyes while the storm raged around me, and I found peace and knew that its strength lay in me; I no longer had to worry about the storm. I opened my eyes and saw not a storm, but a gentle rain.

In the centre of the storm, I found peace.

BREAKING NEWS: Social Justice and Lady Liberty were found dead this morning.

2010-08-06T16:36:00.002-07:00

Washington DC — Social Justice and Lady Liberty were found dead this morning. The prime suspects are Greed and Shadenfreude, who were last seen wearing business suits from Armani and driving in the back of a Lexus SUV. Caution: Do not approach these individuals as they have been known to kill the spirit without provocation while demonstrating a sociopathic indifference to the people's lives they leave ruined in their wake.

These sociopaths are employed by Faux News, a conservative agenda-driven media conglomerate with ties to terrorist organisations like the American Enterprise Institute (side note), Goldman Sachs, and Focus on the Family. Authorities suspect that Greed and Shadenfreude are in fact paid hit men working for the Murdoch Mafioso Famiglia. DO NOT approach these killers. If you see them, call the Center for American Progress and request an immediate infusion of psychic antivenin, followed up by a large dose of FactCheck.org.

Good Luck, and keep your wits about you. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, and your fancy artificial seal fur American flag (2) underwear are made from dispersed oil-infused whale skin.

Fasting on Friday for Social Justice

2010-07-04T08:17:00.002-07:00

Some protests are loud and many people chant and sing songs. Some are small, personal actions that we undertake each day. Taking the time to separate your trash into recyclable and ordinary trash is a personal action. Choosing to be vegetarian or vegan is another choice. Riding your bicycle to work or the store is yet another.

I have chosen to give up meat, and I am happier for it. PETA would have you give up eating animal protein altogether, but that's a step I cannot take. I feel happier to live without eating the flesh of animals, and happier still when someone asks me about my choice and I get to share my thoughts on vegetarianism or veganism. My choice is philosophical, and partly religious (read This World is my Temple, a previous posting in this blog).

Today, I am taking a new vow of protest in the name of social justice. Social Justice is such a broad space for discussion, but all arguments boil down the the importance of each life and equality based on the ideal that we are all equal and deserving of love, respect, kindness, and justice among other things.

Today, I take a new vow to fast on Friday for the next year, and maybe longer. For at least the next year, I vow to consume no food, alcohol, coffee, or take any sustenance except water and fruit juice on Fridays. My plan will be sure to conflict with some special day or night, and when asked I will use the opportunity to explain that I am Fasting on Friday in the name of Social Justice.

Wikipedia explains Social Justice well enough, but I think it's worth taking the time to articulate the specific issues that I am concerned with:

Oligarchy and Political Dynasty as de facto aristocracy in the modern era. Modern government systems allow for individuals to accumulate massive wealth, which is then passed on to their heirs. I agree that this should be allowed to some extent, but there needs to be a limit to the amount of money (i.e. power) that a parent can pass on his or her children.
Poverty. It is one thing to have no wealth or station, it is entirely different to have nothing and not have any place to go for help. In the U.S. we have a pretty good system to provide food to those with the least means. The question should be asked, however: Why do we have members of the military who rely on food stamps? Why do people lose their homes because of medical bills? These issues should not be, and even in the Great Recession, we can do something about it.
Quality and Equality of Opportunity. Finish High School and you may qualify for minimum wage. Finish University and you may qualify for a livable wage. Finish Graduate studies and you will qualify for a middle class life for you and your children. Finish your Doctoral studies and you qualify to be a leader among men. So why don't more people finish, or even start, advanced education? Every year it gets harder to start work on advanced education because every year it gets more expensive.
Hipocracy. Life and Religion are rife with inconsistent application of action in the context of professed belief. "All Men are Created Equal," but if you're gay you can still be thrown out of the military. If you don't speak much English, but have lived in America your whole life, you are second class. Hipocracy isn't hard to find since it's everywhere, all day, every day.

There are so many reasons to protest for Social Justice, and so may ways to go about it. For myself, I have chosen a non-violent protest that allows me to personally experience the privation that follows a lack of social justice. It's such a small thing to consider... miss a few meals. Will it have any impact? I hope so.

We are all brothers and sisters in my temple. If I cannot directly help my brother, I can at least learn empathy and concern for him. I dedicate Friday to my brothers and sisters to whom social justice has been denied. I will fast in the name of children who also miss a meal, not of their choosing. it's such a small thing. My next challenge will be to find a way to act on Fridays to directly help those in need.

I invite you to join the protest and make Friday Fasting something we all do as a reminder of how lucky we are.

Nicholas David Sanabria likes

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Poverty is a form of slavery

2010-07-03T12:53:00.000-07:00

What would you do to escape poverty? Nearly anything, I'm sure. I don't mean poverty in the sense that you don't get a nice holiday each year, but the kind where you struggle to feed yourself or your children. This is the kind of poverty I have never known, but I have seen it's effects.

Poverty is a special form of slavery. Slavery means a life without choices or opportunities. Poverty is especially good at denying opportunity. Poverty leaves a mark on the body and spirit, which is recognised by anyone who looks.

If a society predicated on slavery is worthy of abolition, what is the proper treatment of a people that rely on poverty, which is a form of slavery, to maintain an artificially high standard of living?

Poverty is a cruel form of slavery. A slave who is chained in place knows that to be free, he has only to break the chains that hold him. How can he break chains he cannot see?

This world is my temple

2010-06-20T10:48:00.001-07:00

Some of the greatest works of art, music, and architecture have been created to exalt a god or a religion, or a religious ideal. The world is full of beautiful minarets and flying buttresses created to project a sense of awe in the devotees of man-made religion. As beautiful as these works are, I have to reject them.

This world is my temple, and it is full of wonders that existed before humans walked its lands, swam in its waters, or flew through her skies. Nothing that has been created by men is as awesome or beautiful as sun breaking through the clouds. Nothing I have seen is more magical than the birth of a new life. Each religion seems to exalt water in some way, but nothing feels as amazing as diving into water and feeling it rush past me, caress my skin, or support my body and soul.

My heart aches to see what we are doing to foul my temple. This is your temple too. The spirit needs to be nourished by the grace of life, but how much of that grace will we feel as we continue to snuff it out, cover it over, or cut it down? Will your heart soar in a church, mosque, or temple of men like it will when you hear the thunder of waves falling on the shore, or birds singing in a tree, or children laughing at play?

The wisest among us know that the land does not belong to us; we belong to the land. We are of it, and it sustains us. We were not granted dominion over this temple, but were lucky enough to be born into it. The distinction between humans and other life in this temple is false, and I must reject it. We all belong to the temple as we belong to each other.

You would not throw trash on the floor in your own house, nor in the places you worship. Why would you foul my temple, which is also your true temple? Why would you disrespect your mother who gave birth to you, and who sustains you, and allows you to flourish? If there is a god, it is the Earth, which is our temple and our provider.

You are also part of this temple, as are we all. As am I, and so are the animals, and the air, and the oceans, and the lands. This is the true nature of the search for spiritual sustenance, which is simply the embracing of the true nature of life. We are alive, and that is magical in every sense of the word. The divine is in all of us, and we are divine.

This life is a gift, and we were all born into the temple, that is the Earth. God is an idea assigned to the quest for the need to sustain our spirit. The love we seek in the embrace of god can be found in the embrace of our brothers and sisters. The kindness we look for from god is the kindness we show each other, and ourselves.

This temple is yours as well as mine. You were born into it. When you wake up from the fevered dreams that you call life, you will see that you are already here and the god you seek is you. The love you desire is the embrace that we all have to give.

That which is divine in me, bows to the divinity in you. The words matter less than the meaning. This world is my temple, and that which is divine is already among us waiting to be recognised and remembered. Wake Up.

Are you a Tourist or a Traveller?

2010-06-16T21:41:00.001-07:00

On the road of life you can be a tourist or a traveller. A tourist expects magic and fantasy, but a tourist enjoys a place as found. It's ok to be a tourist sometimes but one should look for life's intrinsic beauty each day. Life is a journey, not a destination.

Travel is fatal to prejudice...

2010-04-12T08:40:00.001-07:00

More than 2,000 years ago, a Philosopher named Plato wrote a story called "The Cave." In The Cave, people were chained to the wall and their only view of the world was the shadows that played across the floors and walls. Plato suggested that if you were to take someone out of the cave and show them the "real" world, they would not believe it at first but once they did, would never be able to return to the cave and if they did would not be able to convince those that lived there of the real world outside the cave.
This story points to a basic Human insight that remains true today. People can become accustomed to any misery, which they accept as normal or at least something they can live with. The reason is simple: If you've never known anything better/different, it may never occur to you to question your existence or place in the universe.
Two thousand years later, Mark Twain pointed to the antidote for the problem of ignorance and closed-mindedness:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Broad, wholesome, charitable views cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth.” - Mark Twain

Values and Existential Moments

2010-02-20T14:14:00.000-08:00

There are time when I get stuck thinking about my basic existence: Who am I? Who should I be? Why am I here, and should I be somewhere else? These questions are not practical, but in the quiet moments they are existentially important.

An "existential moment" is that point in life where big things can happen, or have already taken place. Decision points, tragedy, calamity, birth, death, moving... The basic nature of your existence is questioned or challenged. We are offered temptations in our lives to stray from the mindful path we want to follow and at those times a healthy person will ask these important, introspective questions. Either we are paying attention to our own lives or we are not. Failure to ask these questions on a regular basis leads to Existential Crisis, when most or all of your choices are gone and you have to simply choose "to be, or not to be," which is shorthand for "struggle on, or quit."

Existential Crisis is painful, but can be minimised or avoided by embracing the Existential Moments in our lives. These are sometimes small like "Stay up late and watch a movie, or go to bed and wake up ready for school or work." or complicated like "Honey, I'm pregnant." during these Moments, big and small, we have to evaluate the choices through the lens of our values, which is why teaching, learning, and practising them is Existentially important.

What are your values? What is important to you in your life? Do your values support your goals?

Knowing what your values are, and what you want to achieve in your life (short and long-term) makes it easier to act during the Existential Moments in life: At the turning points in your life, your Values are the signposts for the path you should follow. Courage and Integrity may be required for the more difficult decisions, but in the end you can make the right choice.

Your challenge today, and every day that follows, is to choose one of your values, and find a way to exercise that value; put it to work and build up your spiritual muscles. Start by writing down the values that are most important to you: kindness, compassion, integrity, honour, courage, truthfulness, patience, love, mudita, happiness, efficiency, or whatever is important to you. After writing it down, make yourself a little note about that value and why it is important to you. Make the effort every day to live your values, so that when life's Existential Moments happen you are ready to make the best choice before the Moment passes and your choice is taken from you.

Peace and happiness are not a given, but I wish you both from the bottom of my heart!

Namaste!

Educating the Spirit - Teaching Art and the Humanities

2010-01-30T17:30:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite classes in college was the story of the "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema." This introduction to ethnography was enlightening and disturbing at the same time. Writing an ethnography must be the most clinically detached and relativistic endeavour I've ever encountered. What is interesting is that the author attempts to present an entirely objective recording of a group of people without judgement and from their own perspective, as a third-party observer. My wife and I regularly watch the show Bones on TV because we like the actors and we both get a giggle out of Emily Deschannel's social awkwardness and caricature of the ad absurdum depiction of the pure anthropologist.

Scientific curriculum is not the same as one's occupational practicum. In other words, what we learn at school isn't exactly what we do as part of our jobs, but it clearly influences our approach and colours our perspective. The study of the Humanities should open our eyes to the complexity and nuance of the human condition. It is not enough to educate our children on topics of math, grammar, and physical science; we must educate their spirits and their emotions.

The question is how do you insert explicit spiritual (not religious) education into an education system that was designed to simply train the next generation of factory workers? The U.S. Public School system is, for the most part, an excellent preparatory system, but it comes up short when it comes to the humanities. It's sad that art and music classes are cut, but there's always room in the budget for intramural sports.

The Humanities is not a cold discipline. On the contrary, teaching the humanities is one of the best ways to balance the hard disciplines of math and science with colour and light. The goal is to develop the whole person so that our children will go out into the world and create works of love and compassion and not just bombs and genetically engineered Frankensteins.

Awakening the Mind and Spirit - The Hierarchy of Consciousness

2010-01-21T23:54:00.001-08:00

This morning I woke up and was still tired. My body was tired, and my instinct was to keep sleeping. Logically, I considered that my wife could use my help getting the kids up, but my instinct was to stay warm and comfortable in bed. I really love my wife, and I want my kids to get to school so they can get an education and be ready for the challenges ahead in their lives. So I had a dilemma; a choice needed to be made: Do I stay in bed or do I get up and help get the kids ready for school? What do I do if my wife doesn't ask for my help?

This scenario illustrates the kinds of choices we are faced with every day of our lives. Little choices that pass through the lenses and filters of our consciousness. What sharpens the focus of our consciousness? What gets in the way, preventing us from making the best, or right, decision?

I could stay in bed, and get more sleep. Maybe I need more sleep. Maybe I'm just selfish. And what if I am? Those kids should get themselves up and off to school since it's their futures at stake and not mine. Don't they know that? Don't they?

There is a Hierarchy of Consciousness that our decisions pass through. We evaluate each choices at each level in the hierarchy from our physical needs up through our spiritual needs. Each layer depends on the one before it, and is supported by it. Each layer of consciousness can be undermined by the one below, but the more we feed the needs of the higher layers the easier it becomes to resist our baser instincts.All of this has been said before by philosophers throughout the ages. What is new or different in my musing? Nothing. Or Something? Can I pique your interest enough to ask these questions of yourself and to think consciously about your actions and choices? That is my hope. That is all I ask.

Hierarchy of Consciousness

There are four stages in the Hierarchy of Consciousness, as I define them: Body, Emotion, Reason, and Spirit. In order to be conscious, you need to be alive. Thus your body is the first stage of your conscious mind and includes the workings of your physical Body and brain. Your Emotions are the most basic part of your consciousness and drive us to actions that don't make sense such as anger, fear, and lust. Your Rational mind approaches the world with logic and method. Finally, your Spiritual mind asks you to consider the mystery and wonder of life and the universe around us.

At the base of the Hierarchy of Consciousness is your Body. If you've ever had a fever you know how hard it is to think clearly, and yet even in your most fevered state you might feel fear or anger, and still be able to act on those feelings. You may be delusional, though, and thus your fear drives you to irrational acts or could save your life if your house was on fire. We must keep our body in reasonably good shape in order to approach the next level of consciousness.

The next step in the hierarchy is your Emotions, or instincts. We are born knowing how to feel, but not how to respond. We know we're hungry, but we have to learn that biting mommy won't put food in our tummies. We must learn to respond to the powerful emotions that are part of the oldest and deepest part of our consciousness. This has recently been defined as Emotional Intelligence, and is a part of our consciousness that can be trained and educated. There is a lot of back-and-forth tugging between Instinct and Reason, but without education and training instinct invariably wins out.

Untrained intelligence is called cunning, which is simply your instincts guiding your conscious actions. Greater intellect can yield greater cunning, but emotions are all about yourself and therefore cunning is about using your smarts to get what you want. In this, one can begin to see how important it is to balance the parts of our consciousness to prevent one from dominating the other. Education, either formal, or informal, allows one to develop Logic and Reason. A trained intellect learns to balance the needs of body, instinct, and external demands. Reason may ask us to make a decision that is contrary to our instincts such as rushing into your house when it is on fire to save your family.

This brings us to Spirit. When my belly is full, and I am sitting on the sofa with my wife, I feel full and full of love. I have an education and intellectually satisfying work, however modest, and now I have time to consider how awesome and wonderful it is that I am alive, have a family, and live in relative peace and comfort. Can it be any better than this? And yet, a nagging part of my consciousness asks me: You have so much! Why not use it to help others? This question comes out of my Spiritual Consciousness.

It was not until my physical, emotional, and intellectual needs had been satisfied that I was able to contemplate the world outside of my immediate sphere. Spiritual Consciousness is that part of us that seeks to understand the universe and our place in it. It is the part of us that allows us to think beyond ourselves, beyond our families, and beyond the concrete world to consider the value of intangible things like Honour, Patriotism, and Altruism. Like every part of our consciousness, our spirit can be trained and educated. Lacking spiritual training, we may fall prey to the unscrupulous behaviour of others, or to be influenced to behave in such a way as to betray ourselves, our family, or our people.

In summary, the Hierarchy of Consciousness describes the nature of ourselves and the way we see and interact with the world and people around us. Education and Training influence the maturity and capability of our consciousness, and a balanced education allows us to make choices in an awakened, or aware, fashion. There is a tug-of-war ever present between your body and your spirit, and the needs of both affect the whole self; failure to train and sustain the body, emotions, intellect, or spirit can result in very undesirable outcomes.

The good news is that you've read this far, and taken the first step in training your consciousness. Awareness of need is the first step down the path to an Awakened Mind. Helping you achieve an Awakened Mind is the ultimate goal of this philozopher.

Next time: Distorted Religion - Warping the Spirit.

Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh are Cruel and Insensitive Idiots

2010-01-17T00:20:00.001-08:00

I denounce Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh and their recent comments disparaging the plight of Haitians. It's Unbelievable and unimaginable that they could sink to this new low, but they have and it's disgusting. If anyone deserves to be cursed, it is these two. Keith Olberman wouldn't wish them to Hell, but I certainly wish they would take the place of a Haitian suffering on the island of Hispañola and learn some compassion and empathy for the suffering of others which they dismiss with such cavalier disregard for basic human decency.

I hope that this new low will see these fools drubbed off the air and shunned from any work higher than washing dishes in the meanest ghettos.

Nurture the Spirit

2009-12-30T04:52:00.000-08:00

Feed the body - food,
and the mind - books.
Do we neglect the spirit?

To be whole we must nurture the whole self.
Look inward and reflect,
but remember: we are threads in a common cloth.

God was separated from the classroom, but when we kicked out religion, it seems we may have also kicked out the nurturing of the spirit. Religious schools do not have this limitation, but American public schools do, and thus this basic need seems unmet.

I am a Buddhist, by way of a choice made as an adult. I am a father, by way of the happy choices I've made. Finally, I am a husband, also by a happy choice. It seems I have a duty as a father and husband that I have not lived up to for myself or for my family.

My children's spiritual education has been haphazard, at best, and I intend to correct this as my only 2010 resolution for the new year. I probably cannot convince the school to hold a non-denominational moment of meditation, but I can at least teach my children to do this for themselves. I can also join a sangha where we can find the company of other families looking for the same spiritual nourishment.

I wish I had discovered Buddhism as a child, and been taught by my parents. I hope that I can feed their spirits and fill them up with as much joy as I can before they leave to live their own lives.

Thus I resolve, for 2010, to nurture the spirit of my family and to become a more mindful and compassionate person.

A Comparison Between the US and Other Rich Nations

2009-12-30T01:52:00.000-08:00

A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE US AND OTHER RICH NATIONS:

The following statistics are a 1991 comparison of the United States with Northern Europe, Japan and Canada. The comparison is especially revealing because all these nations are more liberal and democratic than we are. Their voter turn-outs are 50 percent higher; their corporate lobbying systems are much less developed; their taxes are higher, their safety nets larger, their societies more equal, their labor unions stronger.

America needs a new cultural revolution based on people power. We need to take back our country from corporate lobbyists, mega-corporations, and turnstile to-and-fro exchange between our government regulators and the companies they are supposed to be protecting us from. Americans are fed a daily lie that we are the best country in the world, and the Socialists in Europe are deviants from the norm. I think it is we that are out of sync, and it's time that that we set things back on the right path. It's time to take back out country.

Music Make Magic Memories

2009-09-18T11:58:00.000-07:00

Music makes magic memories. A song on the radio, a first kiss, a high school marching band, a wedding song... Hearts shrink and swell at 99BPM with horns and strings. Remember.

Consider... the value of one

2009-07-09T23:58:00.002-07:00

Short or long,
bitter, sweet, and bittersweet,
cogent or vacuous,
word.

Predicate, object, tense, adjective, subject, verb, syntax, semantic,
sentence.

It's been a long time!

2009-07-09T23:05:00.003-07:00

What has happened in the two years since my last post? So many things.... Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo360, my own domain, TV, a new president, a new era. And yet, still there are things upon which we muse, ponder, considering, and stew.

Look for me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/philozopher

Locavore, Get Your Gun - New York Times

2007-12-14T01:21:00.000-08:00

Locavore, Get Your Gun - New York Times: "EVERY year, 15 million licensed hunters head into America’s forests and fields in search of wild game. In New York State alone, roughly half a million hunters harvest around 190,000 deer in the fall deer hunting season — that’s close to eight million pounds of venison. In the traditional vernacular, we’d call that “game meat.” But, in keeping with the times, it might be better to relabel it as free-range, grass-fed, organic, locally produced, locally harvested, sustainable, native, low-stress, low-impact, humanely slaughtered meat."

Well said! Now if I only knew how to hunt.

A fundamental failure of leadership

2007-12-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

TheStar.com | News | This guy was the green prime minister? : "What we are witnessing is a fundamental failure of leadership. We now have had a government that has dismantled what little the previous government put in place to reduce emissions, and has all but abandoned any attempt to make serious inroads on our rising emissions."

Thank you David Suzuki. I couldn't have said it any better myself.

Islam’s Silent Moderates - New York Times

2007-12-07T10:11:00.000-08:00

Islam’s Silent Moderates - New York Times: "If moderate Muslims believe there should be no compassion shown to the girl from Qatif, then what exactly makes them so moderate?"

Now and Forever - New York Times

2007-12-04T07:08:00.000-08:00

Now and Forever - New York Times: "Priorities don’t get much more twisted. A country that can’t find the money to provide health coverage for its children, or to rebuild the city of New Orleans, or to create a first-class public school system, is flushing whole generations worth of cash into the bottomless pit of a failed and endless war."

You go Bob! This man speaks truth to power, and I like it!

Failing Infrastructure by the Numbers

2007-08-20T06:20:00.000-07:00

Failing Infrastructure by the Numbers: "Maintenance on highways, bridges, dams, and water treatment systems is a convenient place to cut corners when politicians need to appear tough on spending, since the results of routine upkeep are not flashy. But perpetual underfunding and deferred maintenance accelerates structural decay and contributes to disasters, as in the cases of the New Orleans levees or Minneapolis bridge. It’s time to make planes, trains, and automobiles safe again and restore the jewels of American ingenuity and engineering."

Take a look at this. The numbers are pretty upsetting. Please call your Member of Congress and tell them you want our infrastructure to be taken care of properly and stopp playing stupid plitical games when our country's roads and bridges are crumbling under our feet.

One week before the bridge collapsed in Minnesota, a bridge collapsed here in California. It was surreal hearing about the collapse in Minnesota just a few days after one collapsed here for the same reason: Neglect.

If you're not mad, you're not paying attention!

Capital, L.A. ban smoking in parks - sacbee.com

2007-08-10T16:04:00.000-07:00

Capital, L.A. ban smoking in parks - sacbee.com: "Studies back the need to restrict smoking even outdoors, Martin said. In a Stanford University report released earlier this year, researchers Wayne Ott and Neil Klepeis found that -- within a few feet of a smoker -- exposure to secondhand smoke could be the same outdoors as indoors."

This is an interesting development.

Radical Islamists bash U.S. for their self-inflicted miseries | San Jose Mercury News - Victor Davis Hanson

2007-08-07T13:27:00.000-07:00

San Jose Mercury News - Victor Davis Hanson: Radical Islamists bash U.S. for their self-inflicted miseries: "The time is over both for coffee-table talk in the West about a pie-in-the-sky 'reformation' needed in Islam, and the endless habit in the Middle East of blaming others for self-inflicted miseries."

Thanks God for the Human Secularists!

What consumers want from online news | Media & Entertainment - The McKinsey Quarterly

2007-08-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

online news sources - What consumers want from online news - Media & Entertainment - Publishing - The McKinsey Quarterly: "[R]espondents expressed clear preferences for certain platforms. Television and the Internet, for instance, were much more likely to be described as useful (by 45 and 26 percent of the respondents, respectively) than were newspapers, radio, and magazines (18, 10, and 1 percent, respectively). When asked to explain which sources of news were most useful, respondents expressed a preference for those offering convenience, comprehensiveness, or timeliness rather than quality. Specifically, they were far more likely to consider a news source useful because it “is the easiest way to get news,” “covers the most topics,” or makes it “easy to get news whenever I want it” than because it has the most accurate content or the deepest analysis"

This analysis points to a very sad modern reality, and it looks to me like the biggest casualty will be the Magazine publishers. I frequently read The Atlantic and The Economist, which are fantastic sources of deep analysis and probative thought. What will these magazine's publishers (and more importantly, their advertisers) do after reading this article and others like it?

I really hope that magazines will be able to fight back with something innovative online. I think the Economist does a great job with its many, regular email newsletters which I find bring me to it's site on a regular basis. Unfortunately, a Web-only subscription to this site is just as expensive as subscribing to the print version (bummer!).

Investing in Our Children | AmericanProgress.org

2007-08-01T22:45:00.000-07:00

Investing in Our Children: "The United Kingdom has also taken a hard look at its system of financial assistance for families with children. One finding was that its universal child benefit program did not provide enough financial support for families with young children. Accordingly, benefit rates were raised quite substantially for families with a child under the age of six. A similar problem existed in the means-tested welfare system. There, too, benefits were raised the most for families with the youngest children, with particularly large increases for families with infants.

As a result of the increased incentives to work alongside the tax and benefit changes, the lowest-income families—in particular those with young children—have seen the largest percentage increases in income. How are they using the money? Research shows that low-income families are spending the additional money on items for their children such as shoes, clothing, books, and toys, as well as on purchasing cars and telephones. At the same time, they are spending less money on alcohol and tobacco."

Why is helping those most in need is such a terrible thing to do. It seems like it's OK if a Church does the income redistribution, but if it's done by a government body, it's not OK. America is slipping down the toilet and I put the reason squarely at the feet of short-sighted conservatives who believe that America is better off in the state it was at the turn of the last century where the rich were super rich, and everyone else struggled.

Our government can do better. Americans must demand it.

Opinion - Eugene Robinson: It is way past time for Gonzales to go - sacbee.com

2007-07-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

Opinion - Eugene Robinson: It is way past time for Gonzales to go - sacbee.com: "Gonzo has managed to do something no one else in Washington has managed in years: create a spirit of true bipartisanship. After his pathetic act in front of the committee Tuesday, it's no surprise that Democrats want to investigate him for perjury. But it was Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican, who looked Gonzo in the face and told him, 'I do not find your testimony credible, candidly.'"

It wasn't until this administration that I appreciated the fundamental flaw in our presidential system. In a parliamentary system, a no confidence vote by the House of Commons (a.k.a. Representatives) would mean the end of the executive branch. No trial. No messy impeachment. Just a new vote.

Of course, under such a system Nancy Pelosi would now be president (sorry, I mean Prime Minister) and we wouldn't even need to discuss this further. Sigh.

You have to wonder if the GOP isn't trying to break our system of government on purpose.

Uh-O Canada: The Newest Nearshore Threat?

2007-07-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

Uh-O Canada: The Newest Nearshore Threat?: "[T]echnology companies, frustrated with the difficulty of bringing skilled foreign workers to the United States to staff their companies, will follow in Microsoft's footsteps to Canada, where it is easier for foreign nationals to obtain work credentials."

This is interesting considering that Canada's strong dollar means that any move along these lines would be more about access than cost. As of this morning, the exchange rate is CAD $1.00 = USD $0.9592 ($1.00 = C$1.04) Hmmm... I wish I'd converted all of my money to loonies back in 2004 when USD $1.00 would have bought me CAD $1.21.

C'est La Vive!

After a Brutal Attack, Many Hope for Change but Few Expect It - New York Times

2007-07-19T21:23:00.000-07:00

After a Brutal Attack, Many Hope for Change but Few Expect It - New York Times: "When she returned from checking on the car — borrowed from a friend because hers had recently been stolen — a throng of men, their faces covered, followed her inside.

They had two guns, she said. They stayed three hours.

“Nobody came for us,” the woman, 35, said in the interview with WPTV. “Nobody even called the police for us.”"

I lived in Florida when I was a child, and can tell you that this problem is related to the fact that in Florida, parents who spank their children risk going to jail. More importantly, this state is typical of other Southern states in that those with money live very nicely, and those without live impossible-to-believe lives of third-world poverty.

Can you believe that there is a waiting list to get into this place? Can you imagine "moving up" to this? What kind of society are we allowing?

It boils down to this: Poverty (at home or abroad) cannot be ignored because it is an infection. The welfare reforms of the 90's combined with the unbelievable give away to the rich in the for of tax reductions in the current decade are the reason for this and explain how we got here. It is better to spend the money preventing the infection in the first place (food stamps, reduced-cost or free daycare, education grants) than it is to clear the infection (police, courts, prisons, etc) and heal the wounds they leave behind.

A better world is possible. I know this in my heart. Our children are being sacrificed on the alter of "free market" capitalism that is anything but. The rich are bleeding us slowly so we don't notice and cannot die. Unless America joins hands to fight the underlying causes of these problems, they will continue to get worse.

Register to vote. Take your butt to the poll at voting time. Call your elected officials and let them know that you believe a better world is possible and you want them to do something about it.

If you're not angry, you're not paying attention.

Twilight Zone Filibusters - New York Times

2007-07-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

Twilight Zone Filibusters - New York Times: "In postponing real action to September and beyond, Republicans laughed off the all-night debate as a “slumber party” of “twilight zone” theatrics by the Democrats. In fact, Bush loyalists seem trapped in the twilight zone, ducking their responsibility to represent constituents by applying credible pressure on the president to come up with an end to his sorry war."

The NYT Editors are much more polite that I would be in describing GOP hypocracy.

George "Bring em on!" Bush is certainly our worst president ever, but the present-day Republican party is going to be remembered for it's partisanship, indifference, and outright greed when historians look back and note the final days of the Republican party.

A landmark in corporate welfare - Yahoo! News

2007-07-19T00:42:00.000-07:00

A landmark in corporate welfare - Yahoo! News: "The drug company comrades-in-armchairs should compete for their margins like everybody else, not be propped up by nonnegotiable government overpayments. Instead, analysts estimate that this congressionally sanctioned price support program, unmolested by market forces, will result in at least $30 billion in windfalls to drug companies in the next decade.

When the bill was being debated, taxpayers were told the program would cost $400 billion. Today, realistic estimates put the figure at more than $1 trillion. The big drug companies, of course, love this. All those multiyear investments in lobbying have paid off – allowing them to use your tax dollars to boost their earnings."

This is despicable. It makes me sick to to how Republicans claimed this was a program for the needy, but was in fact a program for the already-wealthy Big Pharma companies. Americans need to wake up to the fact that over the last six years, the GOP has been taking them to the cleaners and the only thing getting cleaner was their pockets! I hope that there is a special place in Hell set aside for these hypocrites.

Politics - Effort to criminalize patient 'dumping' may be facing defeat - sacbee.com

2007-06-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

Politics - Effort to criminalize patient 'dumping' may be facing defeat - sacbee.com: "In March 2006, a homeless woman in a nightgown was dropped off by a taxicab near the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles' Skid Row.

Carol Ann Reyes was suffering from high blood pressure, a low-grade fever and dementia, according to hospital documents.

Yet she had been discharged by a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Bellflower, 20 miles away, and dropped off on one of the meanest streets in the nation.

A video surveillance camera captured her wandering in a daze. Since then, Reyes has come to embody the practice of patient dumping and been featured on newscasts worldwide and in 'Sicko,' the latest film by director-provocateur Michael Moore."

Civilization's Judgment and Rotten Fruit

A civilization is judged by how it treats its weakest and least able. We will be judged harshly. This is a little story, but is like a bruise on the skin of a rotten fruit: It's a visible symptom of a truely rotten condition.

America is rotting from within because our government and corporate leadersheep cannot look farther than the next full fiscal quarter. American politicians are led from one corporate trough to another like the greedy pigs they are... aren't we already paying them enough?

It's time to roll out a system of public campaign financing across the land and separate the politicians from the the gifts, golf, and graft that is teasing the "big red button" of our country's demise.

How sad that such a small number of people care. Someday, when America wakes up and there's nothing left but rotten fruit, they may ask what happened to all that nice pork they were promised, and won't even be able to answer the question themselves.

Are You There, George? It's Me, Ava.

2007-03-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

Are You There, George? It's Me, Ava.: "Ava Lowery, a homeschooled teen activist who posts professional-quality antiwar video shorts on her website, peacetakescourage.com, from her bedroom in a small town about an hour's drive from Montgomery. Ava, whose videos have a worldwide following thanks to the blogosphere, had decided to throw her Sweet Sixteen party on the steps of the Capitol to protest the war in Iraq."

You GO girl!

ON PARENTING: As If I Were Your Mother

2007-03-01T11:35:00.000-08:00

ON PARENTING: As If I Were Your Mother: "[A]s I was leaving my mother’s house at the conclusion of a very difficult discussion, she leaned into the car window and said, “When you have this baby, you will finally understand how much I love you.” Yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought, and sped away."

Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Crops and Keepers in Peril - New York Times

2007-02-26T21:41:00.000-08:00

Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Crops and Keepers in Peril - New York Times: "in a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie, bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply never returning to their colonies. And nobody knows why."

Hack lets intruders sneak into home routers | Tech News on ZDNet

2007-02-16T09:58:00.000-08:00

Hack lets intruders sneak into home routers | Tech News on ZDNet: "[M]iscreants are taking advantage of the default [router] passwords. 'Hackers know these defaults and will try them to access your wireless device and change your network settings. To thwart any unauthorized changes, customize the device's password so it will be hard to guess,'"

There are two very simple steps you can do to protect yourself against a remote takeover of your home router

Change the default router password as soon as you bring home any new router
Turn on the wireless security option (preferably WPA) with a different password

Seriously, these are simple steps and keep in mind that it is your identity and personal information that you are protecting. These hacks can be executed against your computer from anywhere in the world. Please help secure your non-technical friends (and parents). There are plenty of security resources available on the Net, so use them!

Tech.view | Rudolf’s revenge | Economist.com

2007-02-12T08:06:00.000-08:00

Tech.view | Rudolf’s revenge | Economist.com: "Under the hood, the modern diesel car bears little resemblance to the clunker of the 1970s. Back then motor manufacturers had plenty of experience building lumpy diesel engines for trucks, buses and even locomotives, but few of them knew how to make lightweight diesels for cars. To save money and time they simply “dieselised” existing petrol engines that seemed up to the job. Few were. Apart being smoky and smelly, they quickly earned a reputation for being unreliable and for taking ages to start."

Soot is the price of Diesel, but with particulate filters is a manageable problem. All of the inventive "alternative" fuels that are being discussed right now all seem to require more energy than older, exisitng alternatives. Hybrid engines and ethanol fuel are similar in this regard. Like it or not, in order to reduce emissions with known technology, Nuclear power is going to have to play an increased role in America's energy portfolio.

Conscientious Rejector? - Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone From Yahoo! News

2007-01-02T20:36:00.000-08:00

Conscientious Rejector? - Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone From Yahoo! News: "You know, what I'm doing is for the soldiers. I'm trying to end something that is criminal, something that should not have been started in the first place and something that is making America less safe — and that is the Iraq war. By just going there and being willing to participate, and doing my job, or whatever I'm told to do — which actually exacerbates the situation and makes it worse — I would not be serving the best interest of this country, nor the soldiers that I'm serving with. What I'm trying to do is end something, as I said, that's illegal, and immoral, so that all the soldiers can come home and this tragedy can come to an end."

Bring our troops home now!

U.S. democracy isn't a suitable export | The Japan Times Online

2006-11-27T15:07:00.000-08:00

U.S. democracy isn't a suitable export | The Japan Times Online: "One distressing factor in American politics for the last dozen years is the dismaying partisanship Republicans have insisted on. They persecuted Democratic President Bill Clinton shamelessly. I remember attending a session with three foreign reporters that the Council on Foreign Relations convened to learn what foreign countries thought of the congressional rumpus over Clinton's sexual dallying. The three reporters were unanimous: Their compatriots thought Clinton's transgression was nothing to be so worked up about and that Congress's agitation over it was puerile and prurient, an embarrassment unworthy of the U.S."

If you want to see a true democracy, take a look at the Canadian Parliament. While it's true that the parliamentary model doesn't offer the stability of the American Presidential model, it does offer voters and so called "third parties" a more-direct opportunity to be represented in government.

The American system of government is the result of the Connecticut, or Great, Compromise, where the founders determined that in order to satisfy the demands of small states less populous states like New Jersey (see New Jersey Plan), where there existed a need to insure that each state had the same voting rights, which is the role that senators serve. At the same time, the House of Representatives positions are based on the population within the state, which follows the Virginia Plan. This served to satisfy the needs of the early populations centers like New York and Massachusetts. I personally think this still serves to balance the needs of the states with the needs of the people, however lopsided it may seem at times.

Where things get mangled is in the Electoral College and Congressional Redistricting. The first is unnecessary in the technology age, and the second is subject to the fiat of the party currently in power. We can restore the integrity of presidential elections by doing away with the Electoral College. We can insure fair representation in Congress by making sure that congressional boundaries are drawn by non-partisans.

All politicians are bound to be influenced by money eventually. The only way to deal with that problem is to remove all profit motive from politics. The only way we can do that is to provide public campaign financing, so that there is no reason for politicians to accept $100,000 campaign or political action committee "donations," a.k.a. legalized bribery.

It says right in the constitution that when a government becomes too corrupt to allow democratic representation, it is the requirement of those represented to change the government.

viva la revolution!

Have you ever noticed.... Canada?

2006-11-12T11:48:00.000-08:00

When was the last time you ever saw a profile of Canadian politicians? I mean in the American media. How is it that one of our closest physical neighbors (neighbours?), our companion on the other side of the longest unguarded border in the world, and one of our primary trading partners, never seems to get much press here.

OK, sure. The total Canadian population isn't much more than California's, but they control a country with one of the largest land areas in the world!

Canada is our Number 1 supplier of oil! I mean, come on people. This fact alone should mean we need to pay more attention to what's going on up there.

Anyway, here's the link: CBC News Interactive: Democrats take control.

Can you name this fellow?

In Remembrance: Veteran's Day (U.S.A.) and Remembrance Day (Canada, et al)

2006-11-12T11:12:00.000-08:00

In honor of those who have paid the highest price for their nation, and for those who served along side... For the families who have lost a child, and the children that have lost a parent... On this day of remembrance, my heart goes out to you and I salute you.

To honor our veterans, I have culled a few gems from around the Web:

From the U.S.

TAPS

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake,
From the skies.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.

Go to sleep, peaceful sleep,
May the soldier or sailor,
God keep.
On the land or the deep,
Safe in sleep.

Love, good night, Must thou go,
When the day, And the night
Need thee so?
All is well. Speedeth all
To their rest.

Fades the light; And afar
Goeth day, And the stars
Shineth bright,
Fare thee well; Day has gone,
Night is on.

Thanks and praise, For our days,
'Neath the sun, Neath the stars,
'Neath the sky,
As we go, This we know,
God is nigh.

From Canada:

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
- John McCrae, 1915

United Nations Human Development Report 2006

2006-11-11T16:01:00.000-08:00

Human Development Report 2006: "The Human Development Report continues to frame debates on some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity. Human Development Report 2006:

• Investigates the underlying causes and consequences of a crisis that leaves 1.2 billion people without access to safe water and 2.6 billion without access to sanitation
• Argues for a concerted drive to achieve water and sanitation for all through national strategies and a global plan of action
• Examines the social and economic forces that are driving water shortages and marginalizing the poor in agriculture
• Looks at the scope for international cooperation to resolve cross-border tensions in water management
• Includes special contributions from Gordon Brown and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, President Lula, President Carter, and the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan."

The United States ranked #8 in this list of the "Human Development Index" created by the United Nations. Canada was #6. What does it mean? It means that if you live there, be damn glad you do.

The UNDP is calling on wealthy nations to help those countries at the bottom of the list like Niger (#177). The most pressing problems experienced by countries at the bottom of the list was access to clean water and proper sanitation. Can you imagine what America could have done for the world if we had spent the money on foreign aid rather than war on Iraq? Don't you think that would have gone further to reducing terrorism than killing (directly or indirectly) a few hundred thousand Iraqi civilians? The Taleban had it coming, but we're not doing such a good job in Afghanistan these days and that's where we should have spent our time and energy. BTW, the UNDP Report doesn't even provide a ranking for Iraq or Afghanistan because there isn't enough information available for either country.

Filed under the "Things that make you go hmmm... category.

The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions...

2006-10-31T02:17:00.000-08:00

Baghdad Burning: "We literally do not know a single Iraqi family that has not seen the violent death of a first or second-degree relative these last three years. Abductions, militias, sectarian violence, revenge killings, assassinations, car-bombs, suicide bombers, American military strikes, Iraqi military raids, death squads, extremists, armed robberies, executions, detentions, secret prisons, torture, mysterious weapons – with so many different ways to die, is the number so far fetched?"

As my mother frequently reminded me, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." I'm glad to be living in America. I'm usually proud to be an American. However, when I read these words they burned my heart.

Life goes on normally in the rest of the world, for the most part. There is homelessness in our American cities, murders for control of gang territory, people who commit minor (or major) fraud against their employers or employees. The pulse of life continues apace.

I too have sought some solace in religion. I am turning more and more toward my Buddhist teachings. I read the books looking for some comfort. I haven't found much. There's a lot of pain out there, and when I read River's blog I realize and appreciate that my pain is but a shadow on the wall compared to searing light of her daily existence. Where will it end? When will people of good conscience and truly upright moral fiber stand up and declare an end to the lunacy and mendacity?

Sigh...

Something is wrong in the world. If there really was a Satan, or chief of evil doing, he has played a great hand in America. We are doing his work on a global scale. I am ashamed. I am very sorry and don't know how to make it right. I voted my conscience. I voted twice, and both times I didn't get what I voted for. Yes. I suspect that there was foul play both times. It makes me sick to imagine that our system has become so corrupt that it can be so easily manipulated by the rich and powerful. I'm ready to leave and call this country quits.

It's not fair, though, that I should have to stay here. It would be worse to leave and then lose my voice entirely. It would be worse for River if other Americans, who felt heartsick over this situation, pulled up stakes and moved to a more politically friendly country, like Canada. I can't. We can't. If we do, who will be left to stand up for people in the rest of the world affected by our policies but not given a chance to vote on it?

What about my children? Should I stay and teach them to stand up for what I believe to be right or should I move them somewhere where they will be surrounded by a culture that holds life to be more dear and valuable than they do here. Life is so cheap that half a million Iraqis can die and more be displaced, but we still claim to be doing the right thing. Such hubris.

On behalf of the 50.1% of America that voted for Bush a second time, I want to apologize to the people of Iraq for my countrymen's ignorance and gross indifference to your plight. I really do believe that what comes around goes around (karma). The people who are responsible for bringing America and Iraq to this point have a lot to atone for.

We started this war, and now we own it. We owe it to you to make up for your situation. We must atone, and we will one way or another.

Environmentalist Suzuki to quit spotlight for simple life - Yahoo! News

2006-10-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

Environmentalist Suzuki to quit spotlight for simple life - Yahoo! News: "'We are intelligent, so we create our own habitat and we don't need nature except as entertainment or for the extraction of resources,' he said. 'We still don't get it, that the simple acts of eating a pizza reverberates around the world.'"

You made a difference to me Mr. Suzuki.

Whiskey Bar: Catch-52

2006-10-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

Whiskey Bar: Catch-52: "We're sending 52-year-old soldiers to die in Iraq."

Sad, Sick, Upsetting. Doesn't the Christian Bible describe Hubris as one of the seven deadly sins?

The American Emperor is full of shite

2006-10-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

Troubling Employment News: "Burdened with record amounts of debt, and faced with higher interest rates and a slowing labor market, families appear to be restricting their spending habits. This is apparent in today’s employment figures. Retail sector employment, for example, declined by 11,900 jobs in September. That is, in five out of the last six months, employment in the retail sector dropped. On average, retail lost 18,300 jobs per month over the last six months.

The fact that consumers are pulling back is also visible in construction-related employment. Job creation in construction and related sectors, such as furniture and building materials retail and real estate finance, has slowed substantially. Construction alone added only 8,000 new jobs in September, furniture and building materials retail added only another 2,100 jobs, and real estate finance only 400."

Here's an economic fact: The current administration has traded sound economic policy for a academic, neo-conservative wish list of voodoo economics that were disproven in the 80's. The fact is that America can do better than this. Yes, the tax system needs work. Yes, we've picked some strange things to tax, like stock dividends. Yes, rich people pay more taxes in terms of dollars. It's all true. BUT, we can do better.

Capitalism as a pure philosophy/epistemology is a cold and heartless beast. Isn't it strange that our culture has identified the point in our evolution where we started caring for our old and infirm as the point at which we started to become humans as we know ourselves today? Capitalism works great for the 10% of people on the right side of the bell curve, but the 80% in the middle will have mediocre lives and the 10% at the bottom are relegated to indentured servitude and a guarantee of lifelong toil.

Is that really the kind of world we want to create for ourselves? "Progressive" and "Liberal" aren't bad words people. Progessives aren't suggesting that we all run out and join a commune or overthrow the government and institute a "People's Committee." So ask yourself the question: Are you better off today than you were 5 or 10 years ago?

The question I have for you is: Do you know what a "signing statement" is? Are you ready to give up your rights for a false sense of security? Do you really think the world is safer thanks to George Bush's war on Iraq?

ABC News: Global Temperature Highest in Millennia

2006-09-26T00:57:00.000-07:00

ABC News: Global Temperature Highest in Millennia: "'If further global warming reaches 2 or 3 degrees Celsius, we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet than the one we know. The last time it was that warm was in the middle Pliocene, about 3 million years ago, when sea level was estimated to have been about 25 meters (80 feet) higher than today,'"

Is there any more to say? Enjoy your life, becuase the fatalist end-of-worlders may be right after all. The Rockies should be nice. :)

National Unity? You wish an American had said it this well

2006-09-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

CTV.ca | Gov. Gen. urges travellers to see more of Canada: "[T]he time has probably come for us to realize what we have in common. Because living together and being part of a country, being part of a nation, means being able to project ourselves and relate to common values, to certain principles, to our institutions also."

The Canadian equivalent to the "Red State vs. Blue State" polarization is the long-running secessionist debate in Quebec. Quebec voted in two referendums to stay a part of Canada, but even from way over the Southern border in the U.S., we can sense the tension even today.

What is different is that Canada and Quebec seem to be mostly past the debate and are looking toward reconciliation, where America has yet to really hit a wall in the Us versus Them Red/Blue State controversy. What is more intersting is the fact this the current political polarization seems to be encouraged by our current national leaders.

So much for the "Great Uniter."

Think American Health Care is #1? Think Again...

2006-09-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

MercuryNews.com | 09/10/2006 | Comparing U.S. health care to five other nations: "a rough comparison between U.S. health care and five other countries' systems, based on rankings by health care specialists on these measures: overall system quality among 191 countries ranked; responsiveness to patients; consumer satisfaction; health care costs per capita and percent of gross domestic product; and two indicators of population health -- the number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births, and residents' life expectancy.
The only constant among the five other countries is that they cover virtually the entire population and still spend substantially less on health care than the United States does."

How is it that we manage to spend twice as much as the Japanese and still manage to place 37th place to their 10th place position on this list of 191 countries?

Could it be the multi-million dollar marketing campaigns run by Big Pharma? How about the fact that George Bush made it illegal for Medicare to negotiate a national price for prescription drugs? Or maybe, it's the bureaucracy that lays across the whole system like a funky relative or house guest that came for a visit and then refused to leave?

Whatever the reason, the result remains: 46 million Americans don't have basic health insurance. This number has only grown larger under the Bush Administration and doesn't look like it will get better.

Wake up America! It's not socialism to provide universal healthcare. It's good sense and decent and charitable thing to do.

Sorry Kids, No Money for Cops: We spent it on Iraq!

2006-09-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

Gonzales says cities must work on crime - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that cities will need to work harder to combat a spike in crime but shouldn't count on more federal funding, citing growing demands in the war on terrorism."

In case you were wondering if the War on Iraq was making the world a safer place... According to the US Attorney General, it is making it less safe because money that would otherwise come from the federal government is being spent by your buddy George W. so he can buy more toys for Iraq.

Seriously. WTF is going on when our government has its priorities so far out of whack? I've heard that Washington DC is a bubble, but this is ridiculous!

CBC News: Australia's 'Crocodile Hunter' dies in stingray attack

2006-09-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

CBC News: Australia's 'Crocodile Hunter' dies in stingray attack: "Steve Irwin, the man known around the world as the 'Crocodile Hunter,' has died in a stingray attack off the Great Barrier Reef."

You've seen him on TV and probably learned how to speak with an Aussie accent from him. No doubt you will miss him.

When I read this headline, my jaw dropped and my heart skipped a beat. A stingray isn't what I thought would kill this awesome, honest, and wonderful person. A crocodile maybe, but not a fish.

We'll miss you Steve. From my family to your extended family around the world... Our hearts go out to you. The world will be worse off without you.

A Retreat Toward Watergate - New York Times

2006-08-18T15:36:00.000-07:00

A Retreat Toward Watergate - New York Times: "Candidates have been abandoning the public financing system in droves as they compare the meager amounts they can receive with the enormous sums they can rake in from unrestricted access to private donors. The Republican-controlled Congress, a model of addiction to special-interest money, is more likely to celebrate than fight the death of public financing."

Sadly, I agree. We need to radically reimagine ways to help honest politicians stay that way. Unfortunately, it's not in their best interests to do so because of the perks and feelings of self-importance that are spewed upon them by the lobbyist scum that floats all over the sink holes that politicians must swim in to pay for their increasingly expensive, media-centric campaining that must be done every two, four, or six years.

The best thing I could imagine is that we imposed term limits on Congress that effectively limited them to a total of 18 years (9 house terms or three senate). This would reduce the need for fund raising, especially in the last term.

Pols running for a seat in Congress should get a completely free ride on the public financing system to allow anyone to run for a humble two-year term.

Folks, this isn't going to happen by itself. This requires the public's attention and voice. Take a moment to call or write your elected officials and let them know:

It's time for the Status Quo to GO!

Here's a thought, along the lines of "framing the discussion."

2006-08-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

A Democrat is someone who believes that our government should be run by the people, made up of the people, for the benefit of the people.

A Republican is someone who believes pretty much the same thing, but with a few inconsequential differences. Republicans believes that our government should be run by the rich people, made up of the rich people, for the benefit of the rich people.

Now I hear you thinking (from way over here) that that's just a bunch of hyperbolic crap, but think about if for a minute... Which party is pushing hardest for the estate tax repeal? Which party wants to wage war but won't send their children to fight in it?

Really. Be honest. Do you really think republicans give a crap about the average, minimum-wage-earning, burger flipper who should have gone to college but got a job instead to help his single mom take care of his younger brother or sister? (insert sob story here).

The point is philosophical. The Democratic Party is trying to make sure life is good for every one, not just the "fortunate sons." The fundamental issue is fairness, not communism or extreme forms of left-wing ideology: simple fairness.

The role of government is to insure that the commons are preserved for everyone's enjoyment and that everyone contributes. What kind of contribution do you think spoiled, rich kids make when they inherit $10 million from dear old, hard working grandpa?

DOT Is the Latest Victim of Computer Theft

2006-08-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

DOT Is the Latest Victim of Computer Theft: "The US Department of Transportation has announced that a laptop computer containing names, addresses and social security numbers of 133,000 Florida residents was stolen two weeks ago.
According to a letter sent to Congress on August 9, the theft of the laptop happened on July 27 in Doral, Fla., a suburb of Miami. The theft was reported to the DOT Inspector General on July 31."

I would like to go on record right now... As these data breaches continue, they will get worse. Once the public at large, and large corporatations who provide credit, realize just how vulnerable their "private" infromation is, there will be a crisis of confidence in the U.S. Credit Bureau system, which is managed by private companies.

Americans deserve a better system of trust and institutions, governmental, public, private, or non-profit, need to be held accountable for these breaches. It seems inevitable that our personal information will become available to those that want it. The real problem is when your personal information from one company is combined with personal infromation from another. Over time, aggregation of your personal infromation (and mine) will climax in a situation where it will become routine to receive bills for products or services you did not buy.

The coming "Credit Confidence" crisis will cause companies to stop providing credit or at least make it extremely difficult to get. The American dream of owning a house will get flushed down the toilet becuase someone stole your identity to fund their trip to Monoco. What good is "good credit" if it benefits criminals and not yourself? How long will it take before the U.S. Government steps in with legislation to protect us?

It's a government "of the poeple, by the people" folks. if you sit idly by and let it happen, you have nobody to blame but yourself. I'm looking into this further and will provide information and steps you can take to protect yourself and your personal information.

Help stop the killing of Alaska's wolves

2006-08-10T09:27:00.000-07:00

I just took action to end the brutal slaughter of Alaska's wolves through aerial gunning at http://action.defenders.org/savewolvesmojo, and I hope you'll join me.

More than 150 wolves have already been shot dead under the state's brutal aerial gunning program so far this year. The Alaska Board of Game allows marksmen shoot wolves from aircraft, or use low-flying airplanes to chase the wolves, run the helpless creatures to exhaustion, then gun them down at point-blank range once they're too tired to run any further.

So far, the Bush administration has refused to use its power to stop the slaughter of these magnificent animals.

We must stop the slaughter of Alaska's wolves. Help me protect these magnificent creatures by clicking the link below to send a free message to President Bush and Interior Secretary Kempthorne urging them to enforce the Federal Airborne Hunting Act before it's too late for Alaska's wolves.

Please go to http://action.defenders.org/savewolvesmojo to take action now.

Then forward this message to your friends and family and ask them to join you.

Thanks for helping to protect our precious wolves.

To take action on this issue, click on this link.

American Progress Cartoon for Thursday, 10-Aug-2006

2006-08-10T09:16:00.000-07:00

As we head into the weekend, and stretch toward the end of Summer, here's something funny for you smile about...
And something not so funny ;)

Ciao,
Dave

Subject: Today's American Progress Cartoon

Here is the latest cartoon from American Progress:

For more cartoons, browse our cartoon archive.

Subscribe to additional American Progress newsletters.

Support the Center for American Progress.

Stop the corruption, support Clean Elections

2006-08-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Friend,

Our political system is broken. The officials we elect to
represent us instead spend their time chasing big campaign
checks and using their votes to do political favors for
big-money special interests and lobbyists.

It's time to do something about it -- and we can. Will you join
me in taking action?

By enacting a system of public financing for elections we can
cut the ties between politicians and the big-money special
interests and lobbyists who currently fund their campaigns. It's
called Clean Elections, and it's already working in seven states
and two cities across the country.

Click here now to sign our petition to enact real campaign
reform by passing the Clean Money, Clean Elections Act:

http://ga3.org/campaign/CleanElections_MoJo

Under Clean Elections, qualified candidates who agree to forgo
all private contributions and follow strict spending limits
receive public financing for their campaigns, freeing them from
having to chase campaign donations from big money special
interests and lobbyists.

It's a system that's proven to work. Clean Elections has been in
place in Arizona since 2000 and has already reshaped the state's
politics. Ten out of 11 statewide officials in Arizona -
including Gov. Janet Napolitano - ran and won "clean" by
accepting public financing.

Under a Clean Elections program, voters can go to the polls
knowing that candidates will answer to them, not big-money,
special-interest contributors.

It's time to expand Clean Elections nationwide! Click here to
join the movement and pass Clean Elections today!
http://ga3.org/campaign/CleanElections_MoJo?rk=81M9YHS10XrdW

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Demand an immediate cease fire in Lebanon

2006-08-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

Where do you stand on the issue of "Peace?" Will our future be governed by vengeance killing or can we let love and compassion rule the day.

Nobody is going to "win" this war! The continuing conflict has only one sure outcome: More violence and deeper hatred.

If You're not pissed off, you're not paying attention. How hard would it be for you to spend 10 minutes to call your senators and congressman (three phone calls). Need help finding their number? Send me an email and I'll look it up for you!

This link will take you to a website that will make it super simple to let your elected politicians know how about this conflict: http://www3.capwiz.com/y/home/

Will this soldier's family be comforted to know that the cause was"just?"

A Lebanese man holds the body of his child after he was killed duringan overnight Israeli airborne operation on the eastern Lebanese cityof Baalbeck, 60 miles (100 km) northeast of Beirut, August 2, 2006.Israeli commandoes snatched three Hizbollah members, killing 19civilians in the raid. REUTERS/Mohammed Solh (LEBANON)

Israeli forces carried out a bloody air strike on the Lebanesevillage of Qana Sunday, killing at least 65 civilians, including 27 children, officials said, according to Reuters. The IsraeliOccupation Forces (IOF) claimed it attacked the town because it'sbeen used by Hezbollah fighters to launch missile attacks. (kavkazcenter.com)

These were the most delicate pictures I could find that make the point. Lebanon is under attack and this isn't the occasional rocket. Israel is killing Lebanese civilians at a rate of more than 10 for every israeli civilian. How's that for a proportional response? I guess those "civilians" will learn to stop supporting Hezbollah now, won't they?

Where do you stand?

Date: August 2, 2006 16:49:23 PDT
To: George W. Bush, President, United States of America
Subject: Demand an immediate cease fire in Lebanon

August 2, 2006

Dear Mr. President,

I am deeply disturbed and upset that our country continues to rush military support to Israel every day. The Israelis are punishing an entire country for the acts of a small minority. The illegal agression must end.

Please do everything in your power to stop the killing of children and innocent civilians. Please stop our government from continuing to feed the israeli war machine. Please demand that our government step in and stop this madness before it turns Lebanon into a dust hill and another haven for global terrorism.

We aren't creating any friends by allows israel to kill children. Now is the time to treat Isarael like the the misbehaved child that it is. Now is the time for the U.S. to say "Enough!" and demand an immedate end to the killing.

Sincerely,
David Sanabria

Can you say "Term Limits?"

2006-07-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

Sen. Stevens ridiculed for Internet gaffe - Sacbee.com
Web sites and TV comics have made the 82-year-old senator the butt of jokes and satirical songs in recent weeks for describing the Internet last month as "a series of tubes" and for speaking of sending "an Internet" instead of an e-mail.

Most of the wisecracks portray Stevens as an old man who doesn't really get the technology over which he wields influence as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

Here's a perfect example of why we need term limits on these powerful federal positions. Strom Thurmand didn't retire from the Senate until he was over 100 years old. Stevens, at 82, has been eligible for social security for 17 years. You may say that their age comes with widsom and experience. I would argue that after spending decades wrapped in the lovin embrace of that reality distortion bubble we call Washington D.C., that you wouldn't have any idea what reality was and your accumulation of years would be more baggage than asset.

Baby Boomers are going to cling to power as long as they can, as would anyone in their position. The problem is that many of the problems facing the world today come from the inflexibility and bureaucratic inertia that is their gift to us. I know another animal that likes to "stay the course:" Lemmings. And we know how they like to party.

The only way to avoid the inertia (not moving is a valid description of inertia) that comes from someone too long in their job is by preventing them form doing it for too long. Of course, how do you get the very people who benefit most form this system to ever change it?

Here's a little quote you might recognize (July 4th was only a couple of weeks ago):

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Think about it.

Why AOL Still sucks (and won't ever get better)

2006-07-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

Wow! I thought I'd be a sport today and give AOL another try, for my kids sake. I remember back in the good old days of AOL 2.0 when AOL was an awesome destination for my computer and on and on....

Those days are gone, and with them all good sense. The AOL software I tried was the MacOS version. You remember that old OS, you know the one where AOL started out first. Well, today AOL for Mac has fallen so far behind that only the version number has been updated.

Here's a laundry list of what sucks

* The AOL browser is still using the original IE rendering engine from the bad old Mac OS 8 days.
* The speed, even over my 8MB Cable Modem felt like a crappy dial-up.
* AOL Radio is Windows-only
* KOL (Kids online) is Windows-Only
* "Keywords"
* AOL Operators

I want to linger for a moment on that last item, because it happens to be the reason for this posting....

I was lucky enough to get to speak with a robot named "David Charles", who was clearly in a timezone where it is already night (I called at 14:00 PDT (GMT -08:00)). I can only guess that "David" lives in India, since it's a fine English-speaking country where those without an Indian accent, typically sound like robots as they strain their vocal chords in a vain attempt to affect an American-English accent.

Back to David... Of course, there are always the mandatory pleasantries at the beginning of our exchange, and David was an effusive flatterer (very pleasant at first). When it came to the matter of my request to cancel my service before I forgot (because I'd rather sit on an ant hill that launch AOL again). I asked David, "Please cancel my account." To which he replied "How are you logging in to AOL?" I'm thinking, "Wow, where did that come from?" So I said to him, "David, I would like to close my account."

We danced around like this for about three minutes with nice little exchanges like "I want to cancel my trial membership" ... "Are you sure you have downloaded the correct version?" and "I want to be clear... I want you to close my account." Which was followed by "I'm sorry you have had a bad experience, I would like to extend your free trial by two months. And if at the end of those two months you still aren't satisfied you can call back and cancel then. Would that be alright?" Oh. Sure. I'm thinking about trying to do this again in case I remember to call back before I get charged. It would be so nice to speak to "Michael" or "John" or (insert stage Christian name here) again in two months. Oh yeah, did I mention the disk came with a free 90 membership?

Wow. So I am trying to maintain my composure so that the robot won't engage his "accidental disconnect while on hold routine" so I can get through this torture. After the first 15 minutes of this, I'd had enough... "David, let me be clear. I want to speak with your supervisor. Now." Ok, now we're getting somewhere. David responded "I'm sorry sir, why do you need to speak with my supervisor?" "Because," I said, "You are refusing my request to cancel my account and I would like to speak with your supervisor to discuss your behavior and my request." Mmmm hmmm. That seemed to prick a nerve.

At this point, I think "David" was finally getting my point. He said "You don't need to speak with my supervisor because I am going to cancel your account as you requested." Yeah. Sure you are, I said to myself. "OK, David," I said. "I want you to cancel my account, and then I'd like to speak with your supervisor." "David, Sir, You don't need to speak with my supervisor because I am canceling your account," said the robot. I was feeling a lot irritated at this point, so I really wanted to complain to a supervisor.

Unfortunately, David wasn't going to give me that pleasure. "David, I have told you at least three times, unequivocally, that I want to cancel my account. Each time, you have tried to redirect our conversation and overcome my objections. At this point, I believe that you aren't going to do what I have asked and I also believe that AOL has instructed you to behave like this so I'd like to speak with your supervisor so I can tell them that this practice is odious and very unfriendly." You're gonna love his response... "I'm sorry sir, you can't speak with my supervisor because they're all in a meeting." (gut punch, go for the throat). I said, "David, let me speak with your supervisor right now or give me a number to call so that I can continue that part of our conversation." His response is classic, and so sad. "There aren't any supervisors and the only number you can call is 888-211-3926."

Ok, it was time to stop playing. "David, please close my account now." "Yes sir, I'm closing your account...." a mouthful of legal gibberish and then, "Please stay on the line for this important information." So there I was, 17 minutes into the call, and I'd finally managed to get a real robot telling me my cancellation number: 214933649.

David Charles, wherever you are: Go suck an egg.

AOL, wherever you are: You already suck, so I have nothing for you.

Time to figure out that AOL on Mac OS sucks: 10 minutes
Cost of the call: 17 minutes of my life
Time to write this blog entry: another 15 minutes of my life

Total satisfaction: none. All I got was this knot in my stomach.

So the moral of the story is that AOL still sucks, and AOL on the Mac is total crap. They have so many Windows-only features that they should be honest and stop selling AOL to Mac Users and change their name to "Microsoft Online." Oh. I forgot myself. There's already a Microsoft Network (MSN).

I think you can tell where AOL is going to be in a few years.

Salon.com News & Politics | War Room

2006-03-08T20:57:00.000-08:00

Salon.com News & Politics | War Room: "Last month at firedoglake, Jane Hamsher asked what an antiabortion person would do if he found himself in a burning fertility clinic with a 2-year-old child and a petri dish full blastulas -- and couldn't save both. Mike Stark, who runs a blog that encourages liberals to torment right-wing talk radio hosts, took up the torch by calling into WABC and putting the question to host Andrew Wilkow."

Take a look. This is exactly the kind of non-argument that right-wing extremists love to throw at progressives. It's about time someone took the fight to their front door.

CBC News - Viewpoint: Georgie Binks

2006-02-25T21:10:00.000-08:00

CBC News - Viewpoint: Georgie Binks: "About a thousand couples get bad news every year in this country. Some discover their baby has a chromosomal problem, like Down Syndrome. Others find out about conditions they've never heard of. Their baby may be missing a brain stem, have spina bifida, or possibly a rare disease that will kill a child after a year or two. By the time they get the diagnosis, the baby's heart is beating and the woman can feel it kicking inside.

So what does the couple do? According to the report issued by the Royal Commission on Reproductive Technologies in the early 90s, chaired by Patricia Baird, about 80 per cent decided to terminate the pregnancy. Armed with as much information as they can gather in a short time, many decide to abort. Doctors admit that even people who know very clearly what they want to do have a difficult time dealing with it."

It's always good to get some outside perspective on the contentious issue of abortion. I haven't been able to get up the heart to post anything lately. Sorry, but the news has been too depressing here in the States. I had to poke this issue in light of this weeks news from South Dakota where abortion was just banned outright. I hope that the people of America wake up form their lethargy.

It would be a shame if America continues its slide toward increasingly conservative standards and if this law passes, I hope that it would be overturned by the courts.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | PM issues blunt warning on climate change

2006-01-30T14:37:00.000-08:00

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | PM issues blunt warning on climate change: "concerns expressed by the head of the British Antarctic Survey, Professor Chris Rapley, that the huge West Antarctic ice sheet may be starting to disintegrate.

Scientists believe such an event would raise sea levels around the world by almost 5m (16 ft)."

Why aren't we hearing more about this stuff? Why aren't world leaders taking climate change more seriously? I mean 5m? That will put most of Florida under water, and you will really be able to kiss New Orleans goodbye.

I think that the world missed a huge opportunity when America elected George Bush as it's president. I'm still sick over the whole afair. America desperately needs a president like Al Gore.

Al, please try again! The whole world needs you!

Health Progress - Executive Summary - Center for American Progress

2006-01-26T18:30:00.000-08:00

Health Progress - Executive Summary - Center for American Progress: "86 percent of Americans say they support ‘reforming our current health care system to provide affordable health care for all Americans.’ We would point out that this language secures significantly higher initial support than we have historically seen for the more common phrase ‘universal health care.’ Support for the proposition is broad, including at least 80 percent of those in virtually every demographic group and every region of the country; even 76 percent of Republicans agree."

American business have spoken... Healthcare is their single biggest labor-related cost. Add to that, international competition against companies that operate in countries with "universal healthcare," and you have a formula for change.

In order to compete on a level playing field, America needs to change the way it consumes and pays for healthcare. Further, we need to change the profit equation so that hospitals and care providers are free to focus on delivery and not on billing and payment issues.

I'm no genius, but I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who can figure out how to make all of this work. Take the US Postal Service for example. The have a federal mandate and are able to carry it out for a little more than the cost of delivery. Nationalized Healthcare isn't a just a political issue. It's a matter of our country's future both in terms of financial cost and society's well being.

Imagine: A global pandemic bird flu sweeps across the globe and we have 46 million people in the U.S. that don't have insurance. How many of them are going to wait until they are sick or dying before seeking medicla assistance. If they can't afford health insurance, what makes you think they will be willing to spend money on a trip to the doctor? Nationalized Healthcare resolves so many issues like privacy, information sharing, medical history discrimination, genetic discrimination, and on and on.

Take a minute to call your congressman or woman. Let them know that it is time for change. Act fast! The future is now.

Salon.com | The big lie

2006-01-18T21:43:00.000-08:00

Salon.com | The big lie: "[W]ho tells the truth to the man who is driving straight into the setting sun and thinks he's heading due east? His wife murmurs that, uh, maybe we should look at a map, and he accuses her of being a defeatist who tries to tear him down any way she can in order to conceal her own lack of ideas."

Thank you Garrison Keillor! I wish I could have come up with that line.

America's economy | Danger time for America | Economist.com

2006-01-14T09:40:00.000-08:00

America's economy | Danger time for America | Economist.com: "Part of America's current prosperity is based not on genuine gains in income, nor on high productivity growth, but on borrowing from the future. The words of Ludwig von Mises, an Austrian economist of the early 20th century, nicely sum up the illusion: “It may sometimes be expedient for a man to heat the stove with his furniture. But he should not delude himself by believing that he has discovered a wonderful new method of heating his premises.”"

I believe that I was saying the same thing last year, proving once again that you don't always need a weather man to tell you it's going to startt raining.

Open Letter to U.S. Representative Rob Simmons, CT 2nd District

2006-01-01T21:06:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr. Simmons,

I am writing to you to let you know how I feel about the behavior of the President. When President Bush originally ran for President, one of his positions was to restore dignity and honesty to the presidency. He has failed on both counts. It is time to take action. It is time to Impeach President Bush.

It is my feeling that it is time to begin impeachment proceedings against this president and his administration, including vice-president Dick Cheney. I ask that the President and Vice President be investigated and presecuted for High Crimes against the American people. He has failed this nation and it is time for him to go. This can only happen if a majority of the House makes it happen. It can only happen if Republicans, like you, take a stand for our country that trancends your party affiliation.

President Clinton was impeached for lieing about having sex with his intern. Shouldn't we hold President Bush to the same high standard of truth and integrity? President Bush lied us into war in Iraq, has broken the law, and has consistently demonstrated a lack of regard for the Constitution. This president is a danger to our nation in a greater sense than any terrorist ever could be and it's time to stop it.

I am asking you as a constituent and a real American patriot:

Stop letting this administration abuse its powers, hurt our country, and get more American soldiers killed. It's time to impeach President Bush.

Sincerely Yours,
David Sanabria

cc: Rob Simmons, http://philozopher.blogspot.com/

Salon.com | "The law is king"

2006-01-01T15:52:00.000-08:00

Here's an excellent excoriation from your favorite and mine, Sydney Blumenthal."

Salon.com | "The law is king": "[S]o far as we approve as monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King..."

MercuryNews.com | 12/22/2005 | A forceful rejection of `intelligent design'

2005-12-23T21:49:00.000-08:00

MercuryNews.com | 12/22/2005 | A forceful rejection of `intelligent design': "Based on evidence gathered at trial -- much of it provided by proponents of intelligent design -- Jones showed that intelligent design ``is a religious view, a mere relabeling of creationism, and not a scientific theory.'' That's true starting with the origins of the movement down to the ``Of Pandas and People'' textbook that Dover school officials promoted as an alternative to evolution texts. The textbook's authors, it turns out, removed the word ``creationism'' from an early draft and replaced it with ``intelligent design'' after the U.S. Supreme Court barred the teaching of creationism in public schools in 1987.
Among the teachable nuggets you'll find in the decision is the fact that science is based on observable natural phenomena; intelligent design requires belief in supernatural causes -- that's the realm of religion, not science. You'll also find that while there are some holes in Darwin's theory of evolution, there is no real debate in the scientific community about its validity. If intelligent design has any place in public schools, it is in comparative-religion or social-studies classes."

More good news on this non-debate. Emphasis added.

Wake up and pay attention: Climate Change is real and it needs to be taken seriously right now!

2005-12-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

Today's big posting is like a return to some of my longer pieces of the past. I have found several disturbing and encouraging pieces of news lately, and when taken together are important enough to spend the time doing more than a simple news clipping.

Read on...

courant.com | Multistate Plan Targets C02 Emissions: "AUGUSTA, Maine -- Connecticut and six other Northeast states have agreed to set up a first-of-its-kind system designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, governors around the region said Tuesday.

The so-called cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon dioxide emissions would cover electric generating units with a capacity of 25 megawatts or more.

Emissions of carbon dioxide would be capped at current levels - about 121 million tons annually - from 2009 to 2015. Incremental reductions over four years would then aim to curb emissions by 10 percent by 2019."

It appears that state governors have decided to stop waiting for the federal government to take the lead on climate change and are doing something about it themselves. This is excellent news. I hope that this will lead to other state's governors making similar laws into effect.

I won't hold out hope that this will shame the Bush Administration into doing something because they made it very clear several years ago, when they pulled out of the Kyoto Accord, that they were more interested in short term gain for powerful corporations than they were for the health and well being of the world at large and in particular those who don't have a monetary or "in kind" contribution to make to George Bush's "re-election fund."

I read a really scary article that was publish by The Atlantic Magazine way back in January 1998. The article, by William H. Calvin, The Great Climate Flip-flop appears to describe the scientific basis for the movie The Day After Tomorrow.

Here are a few excerpts:

ONE of the most shocking scientific realizations of all time has slowly been dawning on us: the earth's climate does great flip-flops every few thousand years, and with breathtaking speed. We could go back to ice-age temperatures within a decade -- and judging from recent discoveries, an abrupt cooling could be triggered by our current global-warming trend. Europe's climate could become more like Siberia's. Because such a cooling would occur too quickly for us to make readjustments in agricultural productivity and supply, it would be a potentially civilization-shattering affair, likely to cause an unprecedented population crash. What paleoclimate and oceanography researchers know of the mechanisms underlying such a climate flip suggests that global warming could start one in several different ways.

For a quarter century global-warming theorists have predicted that climate creep is going to occur and that we need to prevent greenhouse gases from warming things up, thereby raising the sea level, destroying habitats, intensifying storms, and forcing agricultural rearrangements. Now we know -- and from an entirely different group of scientists exploring separate lines of reasoning and data -- that the most catastrophic result of global warming could be an abrupt cooling.

Essentially, however malintended Republicans may have been in choosing to use the verbally neutered expression "Climate Change" in lieu of "Global Warming," the may be more correct and prescient that they could have imagined. According to the science described in this article (from 1998, mind you) global warming will cause a an abrupt global cooling by changing the world's heat distribution system. Day After Tomorrow simplifies this by describing the desalinization of the ocean in the North Atlantic.

The image below is from NASA. It illustrates the path of the North Atlantic Current and other Polar currents.

The BBC has a good article that describes an article published in the Journal Nature. The original article is locked behind an expensive subscription plan (so much for academic freedom) so the best I could find was this article from the BBC:

BBC News | Ocean changes 'will cool Europe': Researchers from the UK's National Oceanography Centre say currents derived from the Gulf Stream are weakening, bringing less heat north.

Their conclusions, reported in the scientific journal Nature, are based on 50 years of Atlantic observations.

They say that European political leaders need to plan for a future which may be cooler rather than warmer.

The findings come from a British research project called Rapid, which aims to gather evidence relating to potentially fast climatic change in Europe.

and

The NOC researchers admit that the case is not yet proven.

The analysis involves only five sets of measurements, made in 1957, 1981, 1992 and 1998 from ships, and in 2004 from a line of research buoys tethered to the ocean floor.

Even if the trend is confirmed by further data, it could be down to natural variability rather than human-induced global temperature change.

"This issue of variability is very important," said Harry Bryden, "and we do not have any good grasp of it.

In 2004 buoys were deployed from ships onto tethers
"Models can predict it, but we think we ought to go out and measure it."

Michael Schlesinger from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a leading expert in models of climate and ocean circulation, believes that even with these caveats, the NOC team has probably come up with a link to human-induced climate change.

"The variability question is the right one to ask," he told the BBC News website, "but the phasing is wrong."

A decade ago Professor Schlesinger showed that the North Atlantic conveyor undergoes a natural 70-year cycle of strengthening and weakening.

"The Bryden measurements are out of phase with this cycle," he said.

"The natural cycle had a northern cooling until the mid-1970s and a warming afterwards, and here we see an apparent cooling."

I believe that change is inevitable in any system. We are likely to see this change during our lifetimes, but that doesn't mean that it will cause the extinction of the Human species. One thing is certain to happen: Life as we know it today will change either by our own actions, proactive, or more haphazardly as a reaction to events as they unfold around us.

There's more work to do on this issue and the end result isn't clear. For myself, I believe that there is great reason to hope for a bright future thanks to today's news from the Hartford Courant. We all have work to do and preparation is needed. Get to work people!

ACLU: Call for Special Counsel

2005-12-20T14:55:00.000-08:00

American Civil Liberties Union: : "ACLU CALLS FOR SPECIAL COUNSEL: ADD YOUR VOICE
President Bush broke the law when he secretly authorized the National Security Agency to spy on Americans.
No American is beneath the law's protection. And no one -- not even a U.S. president -- is above the law's limits."

It's time to take back our country. Send a message to your senators now.

American Civil Liberties Union: ACLU Wallpaper

2005-12-20T14:47:00.000-08:00

American Civil Liberties Union: ACLU Wallpaper

CRS Report - Congress as a Consumer of Intelligence Information

2005-12-15T23:22:00.000-08:00

CRS Report - Congress as a Consumer of Intelligence Information:

"The President's position also affords him the authority - which, at certain times, has been aggressively asserted (1) - to restrict the flow of intelligence information to Congress and its two intelligence committees, which are charged with providing legislative oversight of the Intelligence Community. (2) As a result, the President, and a small number of presidentially-designated Cabinet-level officials, including the Vice President (3) - in contrast to Members of Congress (4) - have access to a far greater overall volume of intelligence and to more sensitive intelligence information, including information regarding intelligence sources and methods. They, unlike Members of Congress, also have the authority to more extensively task the Intelligence Community, and its extensive cadre of analysts, for follow-up information. As a result, the President and his most senior advisors arguably are better positioned to assess the quality of the Community's intelligence more accurately than is Congress."

Alfred Cumming,
Specialist in Intelligence and National Security
Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division

There you have it folks. This comes to you straight from the horses mouth. Despite continual Bush Administration lies to the contrary, this quote comes to you straight from the Congressional Research Service.

2005 Continues the Warming Trend

2005-12-15T23:07:00.000-08:00

2005 Continues the Warming Trend: "The world's temperatures are on an upward trend, Hansen wrote in an e-mail, 'because it is being driven by the Earth's present energy imbalance, which is substantial.' As long as humans keep adding more heat-trapping greenhouse gases, Hansen added, 'the planet stays out of energy balance.'"

Not news. What are you going to do about it?

MercuryNews.com | 12/15/2005 | It's time U.S. got serious about global warming

2005-12-15T14:05:00.000-08:00

MercuryNews.com | 12/15/2005 | It's time U.S. got serious about global warming: "The evidence is mounting that greenhouse-gas emissions are causing temperatures to rise, and that the effects of global warming could be devastating. Already, glaciers are melting, polar ice caps are shrinking, coral reefs are dying and coastlines are threatened by rising waters. And scientists are increasingly saying that even emissions cuts on the scale envisioned by nations who signed on to Kyoto may not be sufficient to halt global warming."

In case you hadn't heard ;)

Death penalty support ebbs as tough new option arises - Yahoo! News

2005-12-13T07:52:00.000-08:00

Death penalty support ebbs as tough new option arises - Yahoo! News: "Backers of capital punishment claim that the threat of death is responsible for the decline in the nation's murder rate to its lowest level in 40 years. That argument has major holes, however. The South has carried out 80% of all U.S. executions, and the region still has the nation's highest murder rate. Meanwhile, murder in New York City is heading for a 44-year low, even though New York hasn't executed anyone since 1963.
The death penalty is, of course, irreversible. As such, it requires a level of perfection the criminal justice system is incapable of attaining. More than 120 people have been released from death row in recent years because of evidence they were either innocent or wrongly sentenced. In at least two cases, in Missouri and Texas, authorities are investigating whether innocent people were executed."

It amazes me that given the number of errors and mistakes that our justice system allows for that we continue to allow the death penalty to be given. This is not a punishment and not a deterrent: it is a form of revenge. Revenge is not a business that I want my government to be involved in.

Think Progress | The Rea$on For the $eason: House Speaker Hastert To Go "Christmas Shopping On Camera"

2005-12-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

Think Progress | The Rea$on For the $eason: House Speaker Hastert To Go "Christmas Shopping On Camera": "Over the weekend, Pope Benedict warned that 'rampant materialism' was 'polluting the spirit of Christmas.'
Apparently, the conservatives in charge of the federal government don't agree. This morning on CNN, Time reporter Mike Allen reported that President Bush and his allies will be 'doing all kinds of things...reminding people the economy is good.' (For what it's worth, the people don't agree. Sixty-three percent of Americans view the economy as either 'bad,' 'very bad,' or 'terrible.')"

Christmas is a great excuse to get together and spend money. Thank God and mega corporatations it's so easy to refinance your house at competitive rates so that you can afford to get your kids a few extra $100 worth of presents... That's sending the right message for sure!

Inuit accuse Washington of violating human rights - Yahoo! News

2005-12-08T11:06:00.000-08:00

Inuit accuse Washington of violating human rights - Yahoo! News: "Environmentalists said the petition broke new ground as a cross-border attempt to address climate change. Some Pacific island states, threatened by rising seas, have threatened lawsuits against the United States. Lawyers say such a case would be extremely costly and very hard to win.

A report by more than 250 experts last year said the Arctic was warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, threatening indigenous livelihoods. It said Arctic sea ice could disappear in summers by 2100."

It's amazing how the whole course of human history has been affected, perhaps dramatically, by the election of a big-business, pollution-supporting, failed ex-oil executive scion of wealth and privilege to the top job at the world's most-powerful nation. Where would we be if we had elected a socially awkward, technocratic, tree-hugging, democrat from Tennessee instead?

America, you can be proud to be the greatest nation in history. I hope you're still proud 20 years from now. Your moment may soon be done and your position is threatened by hubris, indifference, and a mistaken belief that your actions have no consequences.

'Good government requires good people' - Yahoo! News beautiful day in Hartford!

2005-12-08T10:48:00.000-08:00

'Good government requires good people' - Yahoo! News: "Good government requires good people. If we don't do a better job of engaging federal workers - providing them with effective leadership and rewarding them for performance - then we can expect to see the low morale reported by employees at SBA and FEMA to spread across our government, along with all the problems that typically accompany disenfranchised personnel."

I have only two words: Public Servant.

New Scientist Breaking News - Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age

2005-11-30T20:32:00.000-08:00

Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age: "Nobody is clear on what has gone wrong. Suggestions for blame include the melting of sea ice or increased flow from Siberian rivers into the Arctic. Both would load fresh water into the surface ocean, making it less dense and so preventing it from sinking, which in turn would slow the flow of tropical water from the south. And either could be triggered by man-made climate change. Some climate models predict that global warming could lead to such a shutdown later this century.

The last shutdown, which prompted a temperature drop of 5%uFFFDC to 10%uFFFDC in western Europe, was probably at the end of the last ice age, 12,000 years ago. There may also have been a slowing of Atlantic circulation during the Little Ice Age, which lasted sporadically from 1300 to about 1850 and created temperatures low enough to freeze the River Thames in London."

Scary. Sounds like that movie "Day After Tomorrow." This should add a little incentive to think seriously about climate change.

Progressive Prescriptions for a Healthy America

2005-11-26T18:58:00.000-08:00

So you like to forward email, eh? Here's something for you to pass along then. Please spread far and wide. Why? Because our country has 46 million people that have no healthcare or insurance coverage. Do you honestly believe there are that many "lazy" people in this country? The truth is that healthcare costs have become so onerous to our major corporations (like G.M.) that they are laying off people now and cutting back on their pension and retirement promises (like United Airlines). You want to do something about it? Write to your Congressman or woman. How about a letter or a phone call to your Senator. This is a national problem and is only going to be solved by the federal government. Don't like "big" government? You'd probably be surprised to know that the Republicans have managed to increase the size of the Federal government more than any administration in the last 50 years.

If you're not upset, you're not paying attention. Don't just sit there, do something!

http://www.congress.org/

Progressive Priorities: Progressive Prescriptions for a Healthy America - Center for American Progress: "America’s health system is in crisis, leaving out too many and costing too much. Forty-five million Americans lack health insurance today. Millions more are struggling to pay premiums that are growing five times faster than wages, even as their benefits shrink. While some Americans have access to the most sophisticated medical care in the world, others are left to overcrowded emergency rooms, underfunded clinics, or no health care at all—all because they lack the insurance it takes to pay for the care they need. These injustices are inconsistent with Americans’ respect for human dignity and commitment to opportunity for all. Unlocking our health care system’s potential for everyone in America is the great moral challenge of our time.

To meet this challenge, the Center for American Progress proposes a practical, fair, and responsible plan to improve our health, not just our health care system. Rather than dismantling our current system and starting from scratch, the Center’s plan builds on the system’s strengths while responding to its serious shortcomings. By embracing this approach, the Center’s plan guarantees affordable, valuable health coverage for everyone, including those who have coverage today. Our reforms ensure that cost is not a barr"

Get the Report now (PDF)

The Progress Report - American Progress Action Fund

2005-10-31T10:55:00.000-08:00

The Progress Report - American Progress Action Fund: "ALITO SUPPORTS UNAUTHORIZED STRIP SEARCHES: In Doe v. Groody, Alito argued that police officers had not violated constitutional rights when they strip-searched a mother and her ten-year-old daughter while carrying out a search warrant that authorized only the search of a man and his home. [Doe v. Groody, 2004]"

If you thought Miers was a dud, wait until you hear who she was softening us up for. Get ready for a fight, and bunker down for the "Nuclear Option" becuase this is a fight for the future of America's Soul.

Salon.com News | The V.A.'s bad review

2005-10-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

Salon.com News | The V.A.'s bad review: "On Oct. 8, Greg Morris, 57, was found by his wife, Ginger, in their home in Chama, N.M., an old mining town of 1,250 in the Rocky Mountains. Lying at Morris' side were a gun and his Purple Heart medal. For years, Morris had been receiving monthly V.A. benefits in compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder. Next to his gun and Purple Heart was a folder of information on how the V.A. planned to review veterans who received PTSD checks to make sure those veterans really deserved the money."

My heart goes out to these soldiers and their families. Didn't we already hurt these men and women enough?

This is unconscionable. Our soldiers deserve our respect, admiration, and support. If there is fraud in the PTSD support system, rooting it out will cause more damage than just leaving it alone. If 400 soliders are "faking it", that is still only $1 million in fraud. If this study causes the death of even a single soldier (as was the case) the government has failed in its commitment to our soldiers.

Human life cannot be measured in dollars and cents. Any fraud in this system should be considered cost-of-doing-business to support our veterans who are in the most dire need of our support.

The federal government is trying to cut V.A. benefits in a number of areas and this is not the way to "Support our troops!" The American public needs to demand better from its elected officials.

The links below should help you find your federal Senators and Representative. In addition, I have provided a couple of other links if you are interested in looking for more info on this issue:

U.S. Senate (Senate.gov)

U.S. House of Representatives (House.gov)

Yahoo! MegaVote (capwiz.com)

National Center for PTSD (VA.gov)

Military Veterans PTSD Reference Manual (PTSDManual.com)

Gateway to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Information (PTSDInfo.org)

Sticker shock over shell shock (Salon.com)

Google Search (Google.com)

Left Alone | MotherJones.com (November 2005. Vol 30, No. 6)

2005-10-22T23:54:00.000-07:00

Left Alone: "private life derives from political life and that it is now in grave danger. It is threatened by government intrusion into our private affairs and religious meddling with our government. It is threatened by mandatory drug tests and ubiquitous electronic surveillance. Most of all, it is threatened by the existence of people who cannot enjoy a private life of their own. When a person who works 60 hours a week cannot afford to buy a home, when women are not safe from assault in their homes, when 50-year-old National Guard reservists are yanked from their homes, when soldiers who have completed their assigned tour of duty are told they cannot go home--in short, when the aggregate home life of the nation cries out for dissent-- then domestic retreat amounts to self-imposed house arrest. The powers that be are supposed to do that to us; we are not supposed to do that to ourselves.

Samuel Johnson said, 'To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends.' A progressive will add that it is also an end that ought to include everyone--that needs to include everyone. To be happy at home without giving a damn about anyone else's happiness is an abandonment of hope, including, ultimately, any hope of being happy at home."

This is The best article I've ever read describing the conflict I feel all the time. Anyone who has ever read through my Blog will probably see this theme played out through my ongoing interest in what's happening in Canada. It's amazing to have found this article that wraps up my conflict so neatly. I invite you to read it and read the message inside.

I'll give you a hint: A life of peace and quiet in the privacy of your home requires a commitment to the public life that makes it possible.

For me, this means that all of the "good advice" given to me by my family over the years to "focus on your family" wasn't so good. The energy exerted by our forebears to give us the "good life" we have today is actually in danger of being taken away from us. If freedom isn't free, neither is the 40-hour workweek. Our way of life is the result of blood, sweat, and tears shed by people who made up the abolition, labor, civil rights, and every other good social movement throughout the history of our country. If we take that for granted and stop working for our country, our country is going to stop working for us. Democracy, like a rare flower, is naturally entropic; if we don't work to take care of it, it will die of neglect.

I can't sit by and enjoy the privileges that I have been given or even those that I have earned without wishing... wishing that everyone had the same opportunities that I had growing up. How great was it that I had family to give me a hand-me-down computer when I was eight or nine (when I wrote my first line of code). How fortunate I was to have grandparents that lived on a beautiful lake that I got to visit and grow up in. How lucky simply to be born with light skin, and male. I have to admit that I felt my share of stupidity like the time in ninth grade that a stupid jock ran up behind me and punched the back of my head. At the time I couldn't understand why he would think I was gay or queer (probably the eyeliner and the bleach job).

I met people in basic training that only joined the Army because that was the only way out for them. That's not a very good way out. I've seen some things: not as many I would wish and more that I ever wanted to. It's not whining. My life was easy compared to many. My problems were mostly just the ones I created myself. My only desire is to give others a hand up, not a hand out.

We need to get up off our asses and do something to insure the future that today's plutocrats are trying to take from our children and others that will follow. How many of the men and women in our military are on foodstamps? It's not a small number. How many Wal-Mart employees are on Medicaid? That's not a small number either. This isn't a "bleeding heart" problem, this is a matter of decency and compassion.

Cliché you say? Only because you've heard it so many times, you've decided to block it out.

We are living on an inflection point in history's timeline. There are events unravelling around us today that require attention, compassion, and just a little bit of our time. What does it mean to be human? What is our role here on Earth? Shouldn't we be the stewards of this planet? Am I not my brother's keeper? Yes I am.

Love to all of you,
Dave

PS. Check out Zencast.org. This is a great podcast and you may find #16 and #20 especially enlightening. I strongly recommend iTunes for managing the great bounty of available podcasts.

Senate Republicans agree on health cuts, aide - Yahoo! News

2005-10-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

Senate Republicans agree on health cuts, aide - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Finance Republicans,
aiming to find $10 billion in savings, have reached a deal on
health care budget cuts and will release details on Thursday
afternoon, said an aide to committee chairman Sen. Charles
Grassley.
Senate conservatives had hoped to trim Medicaid, the joint
federal-state health program for the poor, by about $10 billion
over five years but moderates on the panel pushed for some of
the savings to come from Medicare, the federal health program
for the elderly."

This is a breathtaking demonstration of the hipocracy of the "Compassionate Conservative" movement. Last year, Republicans crowed about how they had managed to pass the new "Perscription Drug Benefit." Not only did they underplay the total cost of the program, but they fired the guy who dared to tell the truth about the true cost of the program. Now, they want to cut the Medicare program by $10 billion anually to trim a total of $50 over the next five years.

Excuse me! What the hell are they thinking? How can they seriously even consider this? Why don't they allow the !@#$! tax cuts they passed to expire as planned? THis would restore the government budget to a balanced state and would preserve programs that avoid people having to decide whether they should see a regular doctor about throat infection or end up in the emergency room at even greater expense to society.

These stupid decisions are the real reason America is slipping down the toilet! Wake up America and realize that Conservatism is more about preserving the bank accounts of people who's daily concerns are more about how to keep their team of accountants honest than if they will be able to pay for their kids school lunch becuase they don't qualify for free lunch.

These decisions affect real people who are really trying to do the best they can but they just can't make it. This is the richest country in the world and also all of history. How dare the American government even consider taking away one of the most humane social saftey nets our increasingly ambivalent culture has left? Is there no shame or compassion left in the Republican party?

Autumn in Connecticut

2005-10-20T16:16:00.000-07:00

Photo: Hebron, CT. 20-Oct-2005.

This year's Fall foliage has just started changing. It goes quickly so enjoy while you can!