Chinese Bushbrown (Photo credit: kuribo)
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (Photo credit: Paul L McCord Jr)
A look at the ceiling of Tharlam Monastery, flower seed pod decorations, silk decorations, Buddha's life story mural, Sakya Lamdre, Bodha, Kathmandu, Nepal (Photo credit: Wonderlane)
Buddha (Photo credit: mosesofmason)
English: Tomb of Muhammad in Madinah, Saudi Arabia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Saudi Arabia is the largest net exporter of oil in the world (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The first four verses (ayat) of Al-Alaq, the 96th chapter (surah) of the Qur'an. Egyptian Calligraphy of the first lines of Sura al-Alaq. Bahasa Indonesia: Kaligrafi surah al-'Alaq ayat 1 sampai 4 yang berasal dari Mesir. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Cover of Buddha (Lives)
Titanomaxia Trilemma Supra Saga~ ready to initiate the ultimate game (Photo credit: KevinHutchins314)
4:05 pm MSTSaudi Arabia to behead seven on Tuesday: rights group
' RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is scheduled to execute seven men on
Tuesday for crimes committed when they were juveniles aged under 18, the
British-based rights group Amnesty International said.
The seven were sentenced to death in 2009 for an armed robbery in 2006, but
Amnesty quoted the men as saying they were tortured into confessions. It
said King Abdullah ratified their sentences in February.'
Reuters
has
the story
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE9230QD20130304?irpc=932
Will we read about this on the BBC or is there Middle East desk only
interested in denigratin... more » Book Review: ‘Buddha’, a history of the life and teaching of Siddhattha Gotama
http://www.
amazon
.com/Buddha-Karen-Armstrong/dp/0143034367
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?page_id=347
Mar 2, 2013 2:31 PM
*Book Review: Karen Armstrong on Buddha **[not yet online at his site -AK]*
By Wendell Krossa
I’ve been reading/meditating my way through Karen Armstrong’s ‘Buddha’, a
history of the life and teaching of Gotama. At 29 years of age he left his
young wife and newborn son (whom he called “burden”) to wander in the
forest with other monks, begging from hardworking people. My initial
reaction to that was- this guy is a deadbeat dad, a jerk, abandoning his
young famil... more » Because Machines Never Fail, Right?
The debate over "KillBots", autonomous hunter-killer robots, continues but
never quite so quickly as the technology itself. It won't be long before
the more powerful nations field their own legions of air, sea and land,
even space-based armed, autonomous robots.
Why would governments unleash this sort of technology? For the most
powerful of all reasons, the fear that, if they don't, the other guy
will. That fear will eclipse the ethical questions, render them
irrelevant. We will because we can and because we fear if we don't, they
will. Barring some international treaty, t... more »
The Saga Continues -- Patrick Cody Morgan -- Stories of Corruption
* *
*The Saga Continues -- Patrick Cody Morgan -- Stories of Corruption*
(*Currently *in Prison for Crimes He Did NOT Commit)
The rest of the story can be found here:
http://americankabuki.blogspot.com/2013/02/flash-mob-courtesy-notice-in-support-of.html
http://americankabuki.blogspot.com/2013/03/messages-from-patriot-patrick-cody.html
**
*Good evening all OPPT Members,*
* *
*I trust everyone is doing well and pushing the OPPT Agenda to as many
outlets as possible across the world. Today is Sunday and the weather has
been Heavenly here in Houston. Though I am unable to go ou... more »
Untitled
Judge throws out Jindal's tenure law
Sequestration: SVU
There's a new crime show playing in America. It's called *Sequestration:
Special Victims Unit.*
**
It incorporates a trite Good Cop/Bad Cop gimmick so unoriginal that
it should have lost its ability to fool people by the time *Dragnet* went
off the air last century. But since this hackneyed device retains its
uncanny ability to fool most of the people some of the time, or at
least some of the people all of the time, the propaganda hacks will
only give up their tried and true technique over your dead bodies.
Here's the newest version of the stale corporate plot:
President Obama and h... more »
Researchers find shocking new Holocaust figures | The Jewish Chronicle
' The scale of the Nazis' attempt to eradicate Europe's Jewish population
could far exceed what historians have long believed to be the case,
according to a group of
academics
from the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum.
As part of a 13-year project to catalogue the sites of Nazi atrocities and
build a comprehensive map of the Holocaust, researchers have found evidence
of 42,500 Nazi "killing centres", ghettoes, forced labour camps and other
sites of persecution and murder.
The list, which covers the period between 1933 and 1945 and the different
areas occupied by the Germans,... more » NESARA News Comes Around: Confirmed Validity of OPPT
*NESARA News Comes Around: Confirmed Validity of OPPT:*
**
Here is the link:
http://nesaranews.blogspot.ca/2013/03/confirmed-validity-of-oppt.html
this is long, but there is much to say so please bear with me
One person asked me *why I was sending out information about OPPT* and said
that it was a fairytale...Well, I feel I have a responsibility to share
with others what I believe God has brought to my attention. I was still in
the process of reading and listening for more information regarding OPPT's
validity when I had a conversation with a woman who is on my ... more »
Coffee and BBQ and Music, Oh My!
This full Saturday kicked off with the monthly church singles "Coffee
Talk." For whatever reason turnout this time was mostly guys so we had some
good guy talk, especially after the outnumbered girls retreated to the
kitchen for girl talk.
But the big event for today was that about a dozen and a half of us had
tickets to Winter Jam 2013!
Southern Man is not a huge fan of contemporary Christian rock but he does
love concerts and he figured there would be at least a few good groups
there.
We met at a local BBQ place...
The gang's all here! Photo by a kind passer-by.
The decor... more »
Rodrik’s Paradox is No Paradox
Last month, Dani Rodrik wrote a piece for Project Syndicate that went all
kinds of viral. In it, he explains why he no longer views himself as a
political economist. The upshot: because if he believed the stuff he used
to believe, he’d have to accept that there’s not much room for improving
the world
Continue reading
Are Alberta’s cannily incompetent Conservatives quietly awaiting a ‘Bitumen Gusher’?
Everybody should be as happy about Alberta’s “Bitumen Gusher” as these two
guys, your blogger and former Finance Minister Ron Liepert. Below: AUPE’s
chart of the price differential between Alberta bitumen and West Texas
Intermediate crude. Below that: The Alberta government’s chart showing its
natural resource revenue projections to 2022, prepared for last month’s
Economic ... more »
Hilarion March 3, 2013
March 3-10, 2013
Beloved Ones,
You are experiencing another energetic download and are being upgraded yet
again. As you know, this process will continue until all is cleansed and
purified in your four body system. It is a time to spend going within as
much as is possible for you and for allowing your heart chakra to open more
fully so that any areas that still need purging can be worked on. If this
process feels very intense for you, go out into nature and simply connect.
This will ground you and remind you that you are a part of All That Is and
that these feelings too, shall ... more »
My Awakening & How to Get Yours
*
* *This isn't just hype, I've received the Oneness Blessing in conjunction
with the Wholeness Blessing and its quite remarkable. I had it done in
person, however unlike the Wholeness Blessing for healing, the Oneness
Blessing can be done online - its all about energy. -AK*
*
* *
* *My Awakening & How to Get Yours*
Peter DeBenedittis, Ph.D.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
I’ve recently received the gift of Awakening. Awakening is a
neuro-biological shift that declutches your consciousness from your mind.
The result is a permanent state of consciousness that totally eliminates
inner confli... more »
"Let Them Eat Cake!"
*Profits Without Workers*
Recovery in U.S. Is Lifting Profits, but Not Adding Jobs by Nelson
Schwartz, The New York Times March 3, 2013* *
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/business/economy/corporate-profits-soar-as-worker-income-limps.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130304&_r=0
[excerpted] With millions still out of work, companies face little
pressure
to raise salaries, while productivity gains allow them to increase sales
without adding workers. [end]
*They Say: "Let Them Eat Cake!"*
As Automatic Budget Cuts Go Into Effect, Poor May Be Hit Particularly
Hard
by Annie... more »
Radioactive Waste Coming to a Road Near You
The Sydney based rare-earths mining company Lynas wants to build a refinery
in Malaysia. Resistance within Malaysia from “Save Malaysia Stop Lynas” has
been strong because of the “low grade radioactive waste that comes from
processing rare-earth elements.”
Rare earths are 17 elements that have strong magnetic and conductive
properties. They are often found in radioactive ores such as thorium.
Malaysia’s government wants to proceed but the environmental risks have
fueled the resistance.
Some Malaysian legislators who support Lynas insist that all radioactive
waste must be expo... more »
The Test for Extending Time
*Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc. v. Froese*, 2013 ONCA 131 deals with the
test to extend time generally. In the specific case the Court was
considering extending time to file a motion to seek leave to appeal:
[15] The test on a motion to extend time is well-settled. The
overarching principle is whether the “justice of the case” requires that an
extension be given. Each case depends on its own circumstances, but the
court is to take into account all relevant considerations, including:
(a) whether the moving party formed a *bona fide* intention to
appeal within the relev... more »
Laser Quest
The weekend is here at last and it will be a full one! Tonight the "boys
night out" and "girls night out" once again combined, this time at Laser
Quest.
Ready for action!
We took a mid-game break at the Taco Cabana across the street...
A wretched hive of scum and villainy...we must be cautious.
The highlight of course was the "Ironman" round - thirty heart pounding
minutes of action. It was great fun! And, yes, Southern Man did come in
first - yes, *first* - in one of the rounds, against thirty-odd opponents.
That's a rarity as he is usually put to shame by the younger players ... more »
Kathleen Parker airbrushes one of the e-mails!
*MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013*
*Not unlike Pravda of old:* Yesterday morning, we reviewed a deeply
clueless piece at Salon concerning the boob song of Seth MacFarlane. To
read that post, just click this.
Yesterday afternoon, we spent some time puzzling over Ezra Klein’s latest
column. See our previous post.
Our public discourse is a rolling clown show, a reliable forum for
incomprehension, improbable tales and manifest disinformation. That said,
we were also struck by the column Kathleen Parker wrote concerning poor Bob
Woodward and his persistent night sweats.
Parker has been a bit of a... more »
Tuna population collapse fears fail to curb Japan’s appetite – ‘This is undermining Japan’s own national interests’
[image: In this 5 January 2013 file photo, an employee of Kiyomura Co.,
poses with a head of a bluefin tuna at Sushi Zanmai restaurant near Tsukiji
fish market in Tokyo. Tuna is one of the most expensive fish in the world
and is dwindling so rapidly that it could vanish from the ocean within a
generation. Photo: Koji Sasahara / AP Photo]
By MALCOLM FOSTER, Associated Press
28 February 2013
TOKYO (AP) - It is the king of sushi, one of the most expensive fish in the
world - and dwindling so rapidly that some fear it could vanish from
restaurant menus within a generation.
Yet there ... more »
Your moment of Zen
So much agitation on the intertoobz this morning. I'm rather cranky myself.
Figuring we could all use a lovely image to hold in our heads today. Maybe
it's just me, but this photo just exudes peacefulness.
[Photos are better if you click on them to embiggen.]
Economist Bill Black: "[B]oth parties have conspired to bring us disaster. In this case, sequester is the fourth shoe to drop in austerity, and collectively this has strangled the recovery and may even put the U.S. economy back into recession." "So just to remind everybody, the sequestration formula deal was a proposal by President Obama." "...household wealth for the middle class is down to where it was 18 years ago. There's over a 15 percent of loss in wealth of the middle class and the working class and a massive increase in corporate profitability, where we get all these productivity gains..." "And virtually all of those productivity gains during the Great Recession have gone to the richest not 1 percent but the richest 0.001 percent."
------------------------------
* the**REALnews
Permalink*
March 4, 2013
*Sequestration - Fourth Austerity Shoe Drops*
Bill Black: Both parties have conspired to bring us a disaster; Obama's
sequestration plan gives cuts without blame
*Watch full multipart The Black Financial and Fraud Report*
More at The Real News
*Bio*
William K. Black, author of THE BEST WAY TO ROB A BANK IS TO OWN ONE,
teaches economics and law at the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC).
He was the Executive Director of the I... more »
Conquest of the Planet of the Bride of the Son of the Return of Cranky Blogging
Oh, where to start.
Yes, Democrats during Woodrow Wilson's first term passed a whole lot of
legislation, and Wilson acted as a legislative leader. A. Scott Berg got
that much right in his NYT piece yesterday asking Barack Obama to be more
like Wilson.
But that's about it.
Look, the very first thing to ask about a president's success with Congress
is the partisan context. Woodrow Wilson enjoyed solid Democratic majorities
in Congress during his first term -- not just two years, but the whole
term. Republicans took back a very slim House majority in 1917, with
Democrats retaining th... more »
Bruce Baker on the Final Piece of KIPP's 4 Million Dollar Study
Not to worry. Gates, alone, has given tens of millions to the KIPP home
office and many of its chains. Hundreds of millions of tax-sheltered
dollars have been given by hedge funds, CEOs, corporate foundations, etc.
Gates has a history with Mathematica, having paid almost a half-million
dollars for some research in 2009 on another of his projects. If there is
any doubt that Gates expects to get his money's worth, have a look at the description
of this grant's purpose:
Mathematica Policy Research
------------------------------
*Date: *July 2009
*Purpose: *to provide rich data that ... more »
Ahmad Chalabi Was Not President Bush’s Man For Iraq
In January 2004, President Bush gave his State of the Union speech. Part of
the address was about the war on Iraq. Afterward, many pointed out that
Ahmad Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) was seated in
the gallery right behind First Lady Laura Bush. Commentators took that as
an endorsement by the White House. In fact, despite many in the
administration being fans of the INC, the President felt the exact
opposite. Bush did not believe that Chalabi should be the next ruler of
Iraq.
Ahmed Chalabi at the 2004 State of the Union standing in the back left next
to ... more »
Sequestration Equals Exactly What NeoLibs Have Been Advocating Forever
Sequestration a puzzle to you? Bet it's not to the Neolibs in charge. And
certainly not to the American Everyman: You’ll notice that most of the
sequestration plan falls under the category of Redirection of public
spending, but much of it also contributes to the overall agenda of
destabilizing various public institutions with an eye on the eventual
privatization. Almost all of the cuts to
Why Can't Corporate "Reformers" Get Their Spin Straight?
My first question was why Rick Hess took a sabbatical from his blog, Rick
Hess Straight Up, and turned it over to someone who would promote the
opposite of the “Billionaires Boys Club’s” vision of “reform.” Guest
blogger Becca Bracy Knight wrote that system leaders should take a “team of
rivals” approach. They should start with a listening tour and solicit
ideas from the entire community. Knight promoted a decentralized approach
where administrators support teachers, as opposed to dictating to them. She
explained the great successes that were achieved in Washoe County, Nevada;
F... more »
Study suggests ‘moral purity’ may overcome politically conservative resistance to environmental science
[image: Children in Kenya dig drinking water from the sand, 23 April 2009.
Photo: Kenya Red Cross Society]
By Paul Rosenberg
25 February 2013
Could feelings of disgust be the key to saving the planet from global
warming? Strange as it might seem, the answer may be yes.
Concern over environmental harm is disproportionately a liberal phenomena,
but concern over violating the purity and sanctity of nature cuts across
ideological lines. What's more, it's not an abstract concern. Violations of
morality of the purity/sanctity kind are linked to a visceral disgust.
This isn't just idle... more »
Can Ezra possibly believe his new column!
*MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013*
*The three faces of Ezra Klein:* Over the weekend, we caught most of Ashley
Judd’s 94-minute presentation on C-Span concerning women’s health.
Judd spoke with a roomful of graduate students in public health at George
Washington University. To watch the whole session—it's very impressive—go
ahead: Just click here.
We were impressed by the depth of Judd’s knowledge and experience. During
the lengthy Q-and-A period, we were also impressed by those graduate
students—by a string of well-informed, deeply intelligent, deeply involved
young adults.
We were impress... more »
Stanford scientists help shed light on key component of China’s pollution problem
[image: Air pollution over the CCTV building in Beijing, China, 18
January
2012. Photo: Sean Gallagher]
By Rob Jordan
25 February 2013
(Stanford Report) – It's no secret that China is faced with some of the
world's worst pollution. Until now, however, information on the
magnitude,
scope and impacts of a major contributor to that pollution –
human-caused
nitrogen emissions – was lacking.
A new study co-authored by Stanford Woods Institute biologist Peter
Vitousekreveals that amounts of nitrogen (from industry, cars, and
fertilizer)
deposited on land and water in China by way of r... more »
Sunday Globe Special: Atop Mt. Washington
*Been there about 35 years ago.... *
"Mt. Washington’s wintry ferocity draws weather tourists" by Billy Baker |
Globe Staff, March 03, 2013
MOUNT WASHINGTON, N.H. — An *environment more violent and hostile than any
other spot in New England*....
The idea that Mount Washington — just three hours from Boston and, at 6,288
feet, a puppy compared with the great mountains of the world — could
compete for the title of World’s Worst Weather feels implausible. The term
comes from a 1940 article by a Harvard meteorologist titled “The Worst
Weather in the World,” though the article was mor... more »
Why Can't Corporate "Reformers" Get Their Story Straight?
My first question was why Rick Hess took a sabbatical from his blog, Rick
Hess Straight Up, and turned it over to someone who would promote the
opposite of the “Billionaires Boys Club’s” vision of “reform.” Guest
blogger Becca Bracy Knight wrote that system leaders should take a “team of
rivals” approach. They should start with a listening tour and solicit
ideas from the entire community. Knight promoted a decentralized approach
where administrators support teachers, as opposed to dictating to them. She
explained the great successes that were achieved in Washoe County, Nevada;
F... more »
Graph of the Day: Trends in forest canopy green cover over the eastern United States, 2000-2010
[image: Trends in forest canopy green cover over the eastern United States
from 2000 to 2010 derived from NASA MODIS satellite sensor data. Green
shades indicate a positive trend of increasing growing season green cover,
whereas brown shades indicate a negative trend of decreasing growing season
green cover. Four forest sub-regions of interest are outlined in red, north
to south as: Great Lakes, Southern Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic, and
southeastern Coastal Plain. Photo: NASA]
Contact: Ruth Dasso Marlaire, ruth.marlaire@nasa.gov, Ames Research Center,
Moffett Field, California,
650-... more »
Sunday Globe Special: Swiss Surprise
"Swiss look set to tighten corporate pay" by Frank Jordans | Associated
Press, March 03, 2013
BERLIN — Foreign executives who moved their company headquarters to
Switzerland to get better tax deals for their firms may find themselves
paying the price for it this weekend. Voters Sunday are expected to pass a
referendum proposal to *crack down* on *excessive corporate pay packages*.
If the ‘‘Rip-off Initiative’’ succeeds, shareholders will be given the
right to hold a binding vote on a company’s compensation of executives and
directors. This includes both base salary and bonuses.
... more »
Shin Bet uncovers Hamas terror cell in Hebron | JPost | Israel News
Is anyone surprised?
' Security forces uncovered a Hamas terror cell in Hebron planning attacks
on Israeli targets, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced Monday.
The suspects plotted to carry out a combined explosives and shooting attack
on an IDF position in the Hebron area.
The cell was led by a Hamas member in Gaza who had been released under the
prisoner exchange deal to free captive soldier Gilad Schalit.'
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=305270
Somewhere in America, a Brooks Brothers is Missing a Mannequin
Poor prick.
Roger Ailes' Intellectual Flea Circus, aka Fox "News", insists on
inflicting the Romneys on us again four months after the Election, as if
being treated to a dose of Mitt at CPAC later this month wasn't bad enough.
And Mitt is whining that it "kills" him he's not in the White House. Gee,
didn't one of his 27 toothy sons say just a month ago that he really didn't
want to run for, you know, the second time in a row?
It was the same sense of entitlement that sent Romney packing not for
the White House but to one of his 121 mansions (La Jolla, I think. The o... more »
Read Stuff, You Should
Happy Birthday to Sergio Romo, 30.
Plenty of good stuff:
1. All about Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who will reportedly be nominated to
fill the vacancy at OMB that's been there for over a year. From Dylan
Mathews. My reaction: if all goes well with her stint at OMB, she would be
a logical short-list candidate for a future White House Chief of Staff
opening.
2. Do Republican Party taboos wind up just transferring more influence
to...Barack Obama? Dave Weigel makes the case.
3. Health care and sequestration, from Sarah Kliff.
4. Sean Trende makes the case for why sequestration politics ... more »
93 Democrats Kicking Seniors to the Curb??
Is your Democratic legislator more concerned with getting elected than
representing you???
Ninety Three Congressional Dems have chosen not to stand up for their
senior constituents.
But Michele Kimball, executive director of AARP Minnesota, said that would
mean reduced benefits, even for those already on the program.
"We believe this is actually going to set our seniors back," she said.
"Going with a chained CPI is not the answer, and there are other ways that
you can look at controlling Social Security costs and strengthening it for
the future. The chained CPI is absolutely not th... more »
Necklace and Earring Organizer
For years my husband has complained that I never wear the jewelry he buys
me, he has always thought it was because I didn't like it. In reality, I
always forgot I had it. I decided I needed something visual, that would
show me not only all the necklaces I own, but the earrings as well. This
organizer is perfect for both. It really helps me visuals combinations and
I now wear a variety of everything I own. Construction of this necklace and
earring organizer is pretty simple, but it does require some tools.
You will need:
A board 2 x.5 feet
14 cup hooks ( I used 22.225 MM)
mesuaring ... more »
NYT Loves Charter...Propaganda
I sent the letter below to the NYT, but it wasn't included. See the letters
they did post HERE.
Re: “Better Charter Schools in New York City”
The recent editorial on NY charter schools (Stanford CREDO report) offers
misleading praise about charter-based educational outcomes and reform.
Carefully considered, charter school data from NY, like charter school data
across the U.S., tend to have a range of student outcomes strongly
associated with factors such as race and class. Those same claims are fair
characterizations of traditional public schools. In most ways, charter
schools mirr... more »
Who Renounces Their American Citizenship?
Sunday, Vermont's Independent Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted, bright and
early, that "Today, the 400 richest Americans are now worth a
record-breaking $1.7 trillion-- more than 5 times what they were worth just
2 decades ago." I guess you can still make the kind of fortune in America
that gives you the opportunity to dominate society and call the shots.
These people even have their own political party-- the GOP-- and pretty
much control what the Democrats do as well. I have some kind of foggy
recollection about the Founding Fathers opposing the whole notion of the
formation of th... more »
The Open Road - Technology - 3d Computers
I mean, we all know computers are three dimensional ...
I think what this Open Road Tech article means is 3D Display. Do you like
what I did there, guys? One search hit on Free Planet, and you've got
yourselves a feature article. That's the power of information acquisition.
I even took the trouble to go find a movie of the thing in action for ya!
Anyway, onto your feature - a real 3D Display for your here-soon laptop
future.
This one's from a recent TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design)
conference. And I like it a lot. And you'll like it too. You'll like the
way you've gotta ... more »
Inconsistency
“The breed of the hesitant and the weak ...of those ...who believe in
telling the truth but rather than tell a distinguished painter that his
paintings are daubs will praise him politely,” he wrote, “this breed of the
inconsistent is still one of the main hopes for the continued survival of
the human race.” If the goal of being confronted with one’s own
inconsistency is to make us more consistent, then there is little to
celebrate here.
Leszek Kolakowski
"In Praise of Inconsistency"
Sunday Globe Special: Wall Street Profits From Payday Loans
*What, you didn't read the fine print? *
**"Banks’ role in payday loans gets scrutiny; Act as collectors of interest
that could top 500%" by Jessica Silver-Greenberg | New York
Times, February 24, 2013
NEW YORK — Major banks have quickly become *behind-the-scenes allies* of a
raft of Internet-based payday lenders that offer short-term loans with
interest rates sometimes exceeding 500 percent.
With 15 states banning payday loans, a growing number of the lenders have
set up online operations in more hospitable states or far-flung locales
like Belize, Malta, and the West Indies to m... more »
How You Can Disprove Sarah Palin by Just Looking at the Night Sky
*by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy*
Palin is a "young Earther" who believes in the Biblical young universe,
created by God some 6,000 years ago. Much longer ago than just 6,000 years
was the beginning of a vast migration of an African tribe out of Africa,
into Asia and eventually across the Bering Straits into Alaska enroute to
what is now called the United States. It is hard to imagine how they
managed to begin or complete this journey if the universe had not yet been
created!
As they passed through Sarah Palin's 'back yard', she was NOT at home! She
would not be conceived an... more »
‘Rodman-gate’: Can ‘Useful Idiots’ please Stop Shilling for North Korea?
Studying North Korea inevitably means people ask me pretty outlandish
stuff. People have asked, if the North really believes long hair is bad for
socialism, if that goiter on Kim Il Sung’s neck made him crazy, if Kim Jong
Il’s platform shoes meant that he liked disco, and if North Korean women
are good
Continue reading
Feed The Hungry
The United Nations Right To Food Envoy, Olivier De Shutter, has taken the
Harper government to task for its cavalier treatment of the hungry:
The United Nations right-to-food envoy says the Harper government's
controversial decisions to scrap the long-form census and negotiate a free
trade deal with Europe will make it more difficult to fight poverty in
Canada.
Those are among the many cutting observations made by Olivier De Schutter,
the United Nations' special rapporteur on the right to food, who will
release his report Monday in Geneva at a meeting of the UN Human Rights
Coun... more »
My response to the BBC's Leanne Buckle re the BBC Trust's response to my appeal to the BBC Trust
Further to the BBC's response to my complaint, I have replied.
Dear Leanne Buckle,
In reply to the BBC's letter that you sent me, I have some comments.
First of all the BBC have made an error in fact, in the letter sent to me.
The letter states this:
'The Senior Editorial Adviser considered the first element of the
complaint, that holding the Q&A on a Jewish High Holy Day denied Jews the
opportunity to participate.
The Senior Editorial Adviser noted that this was indeed a High Holy Day
when many Jews spend time in the synagogue4 and when many observant Jews
would not consider it ... more »
Sunday Globe Special: Leveeing You All Wet in Missouri
*‘‘We’re going to increase development in an area we’ve designed to flood.’’
*
"Decision sought on 60-year-old Missouri wetlands plan; Levee project for
Mississippi River in dispute" by Juliet Eilperin | Washington
Post, February 17, 2013
WASHINGTON — A *coalition of opponents* — scientists, taxpayer advocates,
and environmentalists — warn that the St. Johns Bayou and New Madrid
Floodway project will *sever one of the river’s remaining natural flows*.* *
*
*
*First of all, if that is the coalition that opposes it must not be a good
idea, and secondly, screwing around with the rive... more »
Jeremy Bowen's choice of Rosh Hashonah for a Twitter Q&A
Here
is the full letter that I received from the BBC Trust re my complaintre
Jeremy Bowen's choice of Rosh Hashonah, one of the two holiest
days in
the Jewish calendar, for a Twitter Q&A on the Middle East. *My
reply which
I have just sent will follow very shortly.*
notasheepmaybeagoat@gmail.com
Our Ref: 1888392
19 February 2013
Dear Sir/Madam
twitter Q&A with Jeremy Bowen
Thank you for writing to the BBC Trust about the choice of date for a
Q&A
on twitter
with the BBC’s Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen. I am very sorry that you
were
unhappy about the scheduling of this event.
I ... more »
ADVERSE INFERENCES FROM FAILURE TO CALL EVIDENCE
Where a party to a proceeding fails without explanation to call an
available witness or evidence that is of a material or corroborating
nature, it is open to a judge alone or one directing a jury to comment on
its relevance to the factfinding process. The drawing of an adverse
inference is subject to certain limitations and qualifications expressed in
the discretion of trial judges to comment being exercised with caution and
subject to “the infinitely varying facts of different cases”: R. v.
Gallagher, [1974] 3 All E.R. 118, referred to in R. v. Zehr, [1980] O.J.
No. 1130 (Ont. C.A... more »
ELM GUEST HOUSE; MISSING BOYS; LEON BRITTAN; WARWICK SPINKS
*Martin Allen?*
*Two children who disappeared in south-west London may be linked to Elm
Guest House.*
Elm Guest is the boy brothel allegedly used by top people linked to MI5,
the police and Margaret Thatcher's cabinet.
The Metropolitan Police say that the boys' disappearances are not being
re-investigated.
*Police failings put dozens of children at risk from notorious paedophile
ring*
*Martin Allen*, a 15-year-old boy, vanished on 5 November, 1979.
*Martin Allen, 15, was last seen by a friend at King's Cross Tube station
as he made his way home from school on November 5, 1979.... more »
George Gamow: 109th birthday
March 4th was the birthday or deathday of at least 15 famous enough
physicists. For example, cosmologist Robert Henry Dicke (recall the
Brans-Dicke scalar-tensor gravity and an amplifier) died in 1997. Ta-You
Wu, the father of Chinese (not only nuclear) physics died in 2000. Particle
experimenter Simon van der Meer died in 2011. Statistical mechanic Richard
Tolman was born in 1881.
But I think that George Gamow is the most important character in this
group. He was a very interesting and funny man of a sort and most of his
cute stories may be found in *My World Line*, his autobiogra... more »
Untitled
*Our Views: No shackles on LSU experts?*
*Scientists pinpoint Assumption sinkhole's cause*
*Monday Reads ~Skydancing *
Digging Up a Post About Detroit
*Literally.... *
No sign of Hoffa’s body at Detroit site" by Corey Williams and Mike
Householder | Associated Press, October 03, 2012
DETROIT — Like many others that came before it, the *latest search* for
former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa has *come up empty*.
Tests on soil samples gathered last week from a backyard in suburban
Detroit showed no traces that Hoffa — or anyone else — was buried there,
Roseville police announced Tuesday....
Thus ended the *latest in a long string of tips and rumors* about one of *America’s
great mysteries*.
Over the years, authorities have dug up a... more »
You Have a Right to This Post About Michigan
"Mich. governor says he’ll sign right-to-work bill" by Chris Christoff |
Bloomberg News, December 08, 2012
LANSING, Mich. — The plan prompted *demonstrations* in the Lansing Capitol *by
hundreds* of chanting union supporters, some sporting Santa Claus hats. *
Police* used *pepper spray* and arrested eight members of the crowd before
closing the building, said Shanon Banner, a State Police spokeswoman.
The measures in the *Republican-dominated Legislature* would end closed
workplaces in which employees must pay union dues and fees. The bills would
cover public and private employees... more »
Monday Morning Linkage
Good morning, ducks! Let’s start the week in Pakistan The horrific
and systematic killing of the Shia in Pakistan continues in full swing.
Sunil Dasgupta asks: “How will India Respond to Civil War in Pakistan” (h/t
C. Barwa) General Musharraf has promised (again) that he is coming back to
rescue Pakistan… But will it be the crazy,
Continue reading
Democrats Against Democracy
*Why not just get rid of the thing completely?*
"Electoral College changes sought" by Steve Peoples | Associated
Press, January 19, 2013
After back-to-back presidential losses, Republicans in key states want to
change the rules to make it easier for them to win.
From Wisconsin to Pennsylvania, GOP officials who control legislatures in
states that supported President Obama are considering changing state laws
that give the winner of a state’s popular vote all of its Electoral College
votes, too.
Instead, these officials want Electoral College votes to be divided
proportionally, a ... more »
Your Spice Rack as a Medicine Cabinet: 5 Hidden Healers in Your Kitchen by Elizabeth Renter
Source: http://pinterest.com/toshimitsuohana/fyi-food-posters/ Your
Spice Rack as a Medicine Cabinet: 5 Hidden Healers in Your Kitchen
by Elizabeth Renter
Natural Society, 3 March 2013
*You don’t have to be a chef to know that some herbs and spices taste good
in certain dishes. Likewise, you don’t have to be a professional herbalist
to use many of these same spices and herbs to treat and prevent illness and
disease. Your kitchen should double as your medicine cabinet, as you’ll
often find what you need without having to hit the drug store or the
pharmacy.*
While we could writ... more »
Saving the Great Lakes
*It's going to cost how much?*
"Program launched to aid Great Lakes cleanup; University works to provide
science for US decisions" by John Flesher | Associated Press, October 31,
2012
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The University of Michigan is establishing a
research program designed to make sure the federal government bases
decisions in its billion-dollar battle to clean up the Great Lakes on solid
science, officials said Tuesday.
Shortly after President Obama took office in 2009, his administration
kicked off *the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative* to begin solving
problems that exp... more »
Man in Urgent Need of Self-Sensitivity Training - National Review Online
Seriously? Oh ffs
Today’s edition of the* Toronto Star* effortlessly produces the headline
of the day:
*Black police officer faces charges for not investigating racial taunts
against himself*
Thanks toThe national Review for the spot.
The next hate fest
'...when news surfaced that the Israeli Army has the lowest rate of rape
against enemy civilians, radical anti-Zionists argued that this was because
Israeli soldiers were so racist that they didn't find Palestinian women
attractive enough to rape!'
Anti-Semites blame Jews for everything...
http://m.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_next_hate_fest_SkBbx8UR7iKUIEbqRs3rZO
New Space Drive Works
Right now, without any special technology it is already good enough and no
it does not contravene the laws of physics unless you think physics is
perfectly described by Newton. Super conducting technology gives us a true
space drive that will also be able to lift of from the Earth, throw in a
fusion drive like the one they are working on at Focus Fusion and space is
ours.
It is not anti - gravity or magnetic exclusion which are both effective
options to consider although our knowledge of gravity is still pretty weak.
Yet the potential outright thrust is huge and uses only d... more »
Google Maps Owns the World
Google is certainly not lacking ambition and I am sure we will see
original drawings folded in as well. Over the life of any building, these
do go missing and as we might expect record keeping although generally good
can still be awfully fussy. After all, a century is an awfully long time
for storage to be paid for.
The magic of digitalization is that storage is easy and cheap and is be
coming way more secure.
What is important here is that Google is leading the way to dominate this
sector. This is a beginning but it is clear that establishing the presence
now means tha... more »
Kill Shot Remote Viewing Prediction
The problem with the kill shot as it is called is that it could well be a
creditable threat. It is plausible that a massive solar flare a couple of
orders of magnitude greater than ever encountered could cause serious
damage. Yet we are close to transitioning our civilization into
technological protocols that minimize the effect. By this I refer to the
natural tying of modern tower living to agriculture. It would be simple to
generate below ground refugia in a self sustaining tower with little impact
on cost.
We are extremely vulnerable as long as our grid is used to dist... more »
Greening the Desert
*Greening the desert*
This is a short reminder just how feasible it is to green the desert. It
is not really a lot of work either and the maintenance can be minimal.
Taking this individual example and applying it thousands of times gives us
a desert eating enterprise that easily self renews as exhaled moisture
returns at night as rain.
The rapid return of fungi is impressive. The mulch cover also shelters the
forming soils from the sun. it does not need much moisture to sustain all
this.
The more serious take home for all of us is that we do not have to wait
for the est... more »
VILLA EGERTON
*Villa Egerton.*
*
*We girls are thinking of taking a holiday.
One possibility is Villa Egerton.
This property has three housekeepers, a butler, a chef and a chauffeur.
Not as many staff as we are used to, but we'll manage.
*Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, and his mistress Coco
Chanel*
Coco Chanel liked the French Riviera, and Villa Egerton.
Churchill in the News
Villa Egerton has views of Monte Carlo and the Mediterranean.
It has seven bedrooms and five-acres of gardens.
Well, we girls can share rooms.
Winston Churchill spent several summers at Villa ... more »
THE USA'S TERRORISTS; AGHANISTAN, CHINA, RUSSIA, SYRIA
Professor Zalmay Gulzad is an Afghan native who teaches political science
at Harold Washington College in Chicago.
At Global Research, 2 March 2013, Zalmay Gulzad reports that the USA
created the Islamist terrorists
AUDIO
According to Gulzad:
*1. *The USA created the terrorists in Afghanistan, and then in the Middle
East and North Africa.
*2. *The Pakistan military runs Pakistan.
The USA, with the help of the Pakistan military, is trying to stay in
Afghanistan.
*3.* Afghanistan is very important geopolitically.
Afghanistan has oil and copper.
Afghanistan has a 150-mile bor... more »
Egypt's Economy in Dire Straits Two Years After Revolution
Related:
*Egypt's Problems Escalate*.
*Failure of Egypt's Revolution*.
Egypt's Economy in Dire Straits Two Years After Revolution. Source: *PBS*.
Watch Egypt's Economy in Dire Straits Two Years After Revolution on PBS.
See more from PBS NewsHour.
Obama Launches False Flag on Internet to Take it Over
Attacking the free Internet is a bad idea. The culture won't accept it.
Obama Launches False Flag on Internet to Take it Over.
O2 launches app: Skype
O2 has launched an app which lets users make and accept phone calls and
texts through a tablet, computer or Smart phone. Tu Go is obtainable for
Android, Apple's iOS strategy and Windows 7 PCs except limited to pay
monthly subscribers so excludes corporate accounts.
O2's owner Telefonica has experimented with voice over internet protocol
before with its Tu Me app which was launched in 2012 with limited
achievement. Tu Go has been accessible through Apple's iOS store since
October last year, although had formerly restricted its functions to about
1,000 testers. *It works over Wi-F... more »
Meet & Greet Monday (#MtaGt)
Welcome to Meet & Greet Monday!
Banner by Art Ist
Grab our banner for your site:
Do you have an Eco-friendly blog? Do you occasionally write about the
environment or ways to live green? If you answered yes to any, you're
invited to link up. Here are the rules:
1. If you have a green-living blog or a blog where you sometimes write
about the environment, sustainability, etc., please use the "linky" below
to list your site.
2. If you only occasionally write about green living, please use tags such
as "green", "Eco", "Environment", etc. and then link to... more »
Sheldon And Miriam Adelson-- Two Dangerous Crime Figures Considered Too Big To Jail
Sheldon and Miriam Adelson spent more money on federal election campaigns--
all $150 million of it going to bolster right-wing Republicans-- than
anyone else in the country. Is it because they're so patriotic that they
just feel compelled towards civic mindedness? No. Adelson is an agent of
Communist China and the crooked wife is an Israeli. Both have become
fabulously wealthy fronting for the Mafia in Las Vegas and for organized
crime triads in Macao. Adelson has ensnared the chairman of the House Armed
Services Committee, a Mormon gambling addict, with immense amounts of
credit ... more »
UK Seeks to Further Fund, Arm Al Qaeda Collaborator Moaz al-Khatib
*March 4, 2013* (LD) - Resorting to name-calling, the United Kingdom's
legitimacy slumped further still as it stubbornly maintained its support
for terrorists attempting to overthrow the Syrian government, now
unsuccessfully for over 2 years. Unlike in Libya where NATO was able to
militarily intervene directly and overthrow the Libyan government before
the public realized the so-called "rebels" were in fact the US State
Department, United Nations, and the UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf)-listed Al
Qaeda terrorist organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), the
West's assaul... more »
Musical Interlude: 2002, “Stardust”
2002 (Pamela & Randy Copus), “Stardust”
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTgdp7RfBOM
WE MUST NOT FAIL BRADLEY MANNING
*Bradley Manning reading his plea statement in court, sketched by Clark
Stoeckley of the Bradley Manning Support Network.*
*Bradley Manning Support Network steering committee member Kevin Zeese, who
observed Bradley’s plea statement in the courtroom at Fort Meade, MD,
writes about what he saw, the importance of Bradley’s statement, and how we
can help the young whistleblower before time runs out.*
By Kevin Zeese
As I sat in court last Thursday at Fort Meade, watching Bradley Manning
take responsibility as the Wikileaks whistleblower, two things struck me:
(1) his thorough intellige... more »
"A Look to the Heavens"
"What's going on in the center of this spiral galaxy? Named the Sombrero
Galaxy for its hat-like resemblance, M104 features a prominent dust lane
and a bright halo of stars and globular clusters. Reasons for the
Sombrero's hat-like appearance include an unusually large and extended
central bulge of stars, and dark prominent dust lanes that appear in a disk
that we see nearly edge-on.
*Click image for larger size.*
Billions of old stars cause the diffuse glow of the extended central
bulge. Close inspection of the bulge in the above photograph shows many
points of light that are... more »
"The World..."
"The world
is your exercise-book,
the pages on which
you do your sums.
It is not reality,
although you can express reality there
if you wish.
You are also free to write nonsense,
or lies,
or to tear the pages."
- Richard Bach, "Illusions"
The Daily "Near You?"
Cupertino, California, USA. Thanks for stopping by.
Yes, tonight, Josephine
German neurologists have now confirmed what men have been telling women for
centuries: the best cure for a headache is sex.
In the study at the University of Munster in Germany, neurologists
collected data on 400 patients with the two types of headache who had been
treated over a two-year period. They found that 33 per cent had made love
during a headache. Of those, 60 per cent of migraine patients and 36 per
cent of men and women with cluster headaches had an improvement in
symptoms…
Of the migraine patients who saw an improvement in their pain, 19 per
cent had complete reli... more »
Tweets from Space
Fifty years ago, a guy orbiting Earth in an International Space Station,
sending astounding photographs from outer space directly to a video screen
in your own home or a device in the palm of your hand, could only have been
a character in a sci-fi show. Today, in real life, Cmdr Hadfield is living
on that space station and tweeting real time photographs like this.
This was from the capture of the unmanned Dragon supply ship which is a
privately owned capsule. Somehow I didn't know this until now:
SpaceX — Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — has a $1.6 billion contract
with NA... more »
Cornwell's Real-Life Crime Drama
"Author Patricia Cornwell awarded $50.9m in suit" by Milton J. Valencia |
Globe Staff, February 19, 2013
She is sitting in her posh home in the North End with a scenic view of
Boston Harbor, and Patricia Cornwell is at once ecstatic and still livid.
One of her famed works of crime fiction would not have this much drama.
A federal court jury had just awarded her $50.9 million in damages, finding
her former financial company cheated her, her wife, and her company out of
tens of millions of dollars. A federal judge could increase the award, too.
And Cornwell is sitting, one leg cross... more »
Arboles en otoño junto al lago de agua clara
[image: Arboles en otoño junto al agua]
*Nota:* Click aquí para ver más *imágenes de otoño*
Por favor visite nuestra página oficial: www.fotofrontera.com
Ardillita comiendo avellanas en el bosque
[image: Ardillita comiendo avellanas en el bosque]
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Por favor visite nuestra página oficial: www.fotofrontera.com
Barquitos y estrellas en la arena del mar
[image: Barquitos y estrellas en la arena del mar]
*Nota:* Click aquí para ver más *imágenes de Estrellas de mar*
Por favor visite nuestra página oficial: www.fotofrontera.com
Scotland's world-class-homophobic ex-cardinal admits that he's been a very bad boy -- and a very hypocritical one
*Not an "ex-cardinal" -- see Update (Correction) below*
*It turns out that former Cardinal O'Brien, who was so scathing about
"homosexual fairy stories," has more than a few real-life fairy stories
safely stashed away (he thought) in his own personal closet.*
*"Before you shrug off this news as just one more ho-hum revelation of
Catholic hypocrisy, keep in mind that Cardinal O’Brien is one of the most
outspoken and highest-profile homophobes in the entire United Kingdom."*
*-- John Becker, in the blogpost* "Breaking: After Initial
Denials, Cardinal Keith O'Brien Admits to Sex with Prie... more »
Conspiracy Theory: Intelligent People Researching "OFFICIAL STORY"s Told By "OFFICIALS" That Appear To Be LIES; I HAVE NO LEGAL REPRESENTATION...I'M JUST A PATSY ~ Lee Harvey Oswald
*Lee Harvey Oswald: I HAVE NO LEGAL REPRESENTATION...I'M JUST A PATSY -*
*Executive Action: JFK Witness Deaths and the London Times Actuary*
*CBS: By 74 percent to 13 percent, the public thinks there was an official
cover-up to keep the public from learning the truth about the assassination.
*
There's a lot MORE evidence that Oswald DIDN'T do it. Oswald was a PATSY.
Who did it were the Nixon & Bush "plumbers" & the CIA, and LBJ was
involved. And Texas oilman Hunt. And those SAME GUYS did Watergate,
btw...the same guys that did the JFK killing. Oswald was beaten up while in
c... more »
Gatito jugando con su vaso de agua
[image: Gatito jugando con su vaso de agua]
*Nota:* Click aquí para ver más *imágenes de gatos*
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Hadas volando por lugares encantados
[image: Hadas volando por lugares encantados]
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Hermoso río entre las montañas cubiertas de niebla
[image: Hermoso río entre las montañas cubiertas de niebla]
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Jugo de pera refrescante y delicioso
[image: Jugo de pera refrescante y delicioso]
*Nota:* Click aquí para ver más *imágenes de frutas*
Por favor visite nuestra página oficial: www.fotofrontera.com
Pegasos mágicos volando por los cielos
[image: Pegasos magicos volando por los cielos]
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Perritos blancos como el algodón sobre el pasto
[image: Perritos blancos como el algodon sobre el pasto]
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Rico café natural para saborear
[image: Rico café natural para saborear]
*Nota:* Click aquí para ver más *imágenes de café*
Por favor visite nuestra página oficial: www.fotofrontera.com
Spying a Post About the Supreme Court
*Shhhhhh, readers, I'm trying to listen.... *
"High court hears challenge to surveillance law; FISA expansion harms
citizens, plaintiffs charge" by Jesse J. Holland | Associated
Press, October 30, 2012
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seemed *skeptical* Monday of a *government
request to invalidate a lawsuit* challenging the expansion of a
surveillance law used to monitor conversations of suspected foreign spies
and alleged terrorists.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, passed in 1978, allows
the government to monitor conversations of such suspects abroad for
inte... more »
Weather control evidence? HAARP in action
Does Britania Have access to HAARP?
Look at the Dates on the pictures and time...Then look at the the Red
line...since when do clouds form a straight line?
This is just one week of clouds forming a straight line so to speak...but
it started shortly after the 3rd snow fall in the UK....It also took one
week for me to notice....
Tin foil hat time
Seed Newsvine
Checking the Supreme Court's DNA
*I'm sure they wouldn't mind handing over a sample.... *
"High court to hear rights challenge to DNA collection" by Jesse J.
Holland | Associated Press, February 26, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday will try to balance the rights of
*Americans who have not been convicted of a major crime* to *keep their DNA
out* of the *government’s hands* against the rights of crime victims to see
justice done.
If the court rules for Alonzo King of Maryland, *more than 1 million DNA
profiles* that have been *stored in a federal database* for *matching with
future crime scene eviden... more »
DRBC Action - March 6th - Join us in West Trenton, NJ
The Delaware River Basin Commission and the Army Corps (who sits on the
Commission and has 1 of 5 votes) have been silent as brave tree sitters and
blockaders use their bodies to defend trees and as thousands of calls and
emails have flooded the DRBC and Corps to intervene and reopen the
Northeast Upgrade docket for Tennessee Gas the past few weeks. Since the
summer, over 50 organizations petitioned the DRBC to regulate and oversee
these dirty pipeline projects.
On Friday, 67 organizations petitioned the DRBC for a second time to
intervene with NEUP and all other pipeline projects ... more »
ALEC Legislation - More $$s for ALEC Corporate Members
On one of tweetroll I follow – I saw this article listed and had to take a
peek see.
DNA collection subverts privacy
Gov. Scott Walker unveiled his budget proposals last week in a speech
before the Legislature. Many of his proposals have received criticism
throughout the state, including those on tax cuts, Medicaid coverage and
school vouchers. Although his budget proposal to collect DNA from people
arrested on felony and certain misdemeanor charges has also been
criticized, this criticism seems to have been largely lost in the maze of
other controversial proposals Walker advocat... more »
Northerntruthseeker Rant For Sunday, March 3rd, 2013
Yes, It is Sunday again... And of course it is time for my usual ranting
and raving... Mostly ranting..
First, I really want to thank everyone for their patience while my family
and myself take care of our sick mother who is now in a personal care
facility and has been responding better to her stroke medication. It is
nice to have that concern out of the way so that I can finally return to my
normal life...
I have been at this for over 6 years now, and periodically it is nice to
summarize where I stand in my views of what I see is truly wrong in this
world....Therefore, for this ... more »
Start asking questions
[image: THE REAL DEAL]
Content is copyright PC.BlogSpot.Com © Please contact author for permission
to republish: (organon at ihug.co.nz)
No "Lurch to the Right"?
I'm often struck by how quickly government pronouncements and promises come
undone thanks to its own side. Take this morning's *Telegraph* as a case in
point. It featured an article by Dave in which he rules out any "lurch to
the right", as a response to his party's spanking by UKIP in Eastleigh.
Dave writes "It’s not about being Left-wing or Right-wing – it’s about
being where the British people are. The right thing to do is to address the
things people care about; to fix yourself firmly in ... the 'common ground’
of politics." Unfortunately, even before the ink was dry on the copy... more »
WAR AGAINST IRAN: HOW WILL IT BEGIN?
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this blog over the years, there are a number
of scenarios by which an attack against Iran might be launched but just
recently two have emerged as being likely.
In one scenario it has been mentioned that the US will attack Iran using a
‘June window’ – whatever that is supposed to mean – while in another
scenario the US would give a green light to Israel to launch an attack
which the US would then support.
The first scenario stems from an Israeli Channel 10 report which, according
to a *Times of Israel *report, said:
*When he visits Israel next month, ... more »
Vic Toews: Opposition didn't stop us from appointing a crook
When I saw this tweet, I thought Stephen was kidding.
Vic Toews says it's the fault of Opposition for not catching Harper making
awful appointments huffingtonpost.ca/2013/02/28/har… #cdnpoli
— Stephen Lautens (@stephenlautens) March 3, 2013
He's not. (Bold mine.)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper downplayed concerns Thursday over an arrest
warrant for Arthur Porter, the former head of the committee that oversees
Canada's spy agency.
While Harper was minimizing worries about Porter's top secret security
clearance and privy councillor status, Public Safety Minister *Vic Toews
attacked... more »
For Los Angeles, Domestic Surveillance Drones Are Already A Reality
R. Rex Parris is the mayor of Lancaster in the Antelope Valley, a
reactionary crony of Buck McKeon's, and is best known as "the guy who tried
to ban dogs known to be favored by gangs, proposed restrictions on
landlords who want to rent to tenants with Section 8 federal housing
vouchers, helped fund a program to bus homeless people out of town and shut
down a local motel to prevent the notorious Mongols motorcycle club from
meeting in Lancaster... and kicking aside roadblocks for developers wanting
to do business in town... [C]ritics say Parris, who was elected [in 2008],
is an ar... more »
Karl Denninger, “The Journal Does It Again On Health Care”
*“The Journal Does It Again On Health Care”*
by Karl Denninger
“I understand The Wall Street Journal's generalized reaction to Time
Magazine- I have it too, given that the mag has a leftward bias that
stretches credulity on a more-or-less continual basis. But this doesn't
excuse the "well gee, you didn't exactly explain it all, so I will use that
as a claim that the problem doesn't exist" reaction from their editorial
page either. Without diminishing the epic scope of Steven Brill's Time
magazine piece about the U.S. health care system he reiterates in lengthy
detail perversi... more »
DOWN TO THE DOCTOR’S: An important constitutional
*[image: _McGrath001]**This week, Dr Richard McGrath has been sending out
submissions…*
This afternoon I sent the Libertarianz Party's submission to the Constitutional
Advisory Panel, in the hope that its members will be swayed by its themes
of limited government, equality and justice for all New Zealanders.
Without further ado, I reproduce it here:
*To the Constitutional Advisory Panel*
*Introduction
*This submission is forwarded on behalf of the Libertarianz Party, a
registered New Zealand political party formed in 1995.
The Libertarianz Party says our country should have a ... more »
Why Christy Clark Can`t Survive
You can feel the buzz, it`s in the air, change for the better and change
sooner then expected, a emergency Sunday cabinet meeting has been called,
there are a few glaring reasons why Christy Clark can`t survive this latest
internal salvo fired at her..
First off, as far as I concerned this Government has done a 100 things more
hideous, more scandalous, more hurtful than this latest misstep, and that`s
what makes this episode so delicious, the outrage towards Clark has come
from within the Liberal party, just imagine if the Liberal caucus revolted
over the HST and saved us a refer... more »
Sunday Question for Liberals
Same one as the question for conservatives: What is the most important
story that the press (that is, the neutral or "mainstream" press) is
ignoring or drastically underplaying right now?
British Columbia's Tumblin' Crispy Christy Clark
British Columbia's unelected, unelectable and outgoing premier, Crispy
Christy Clark, was nudged ever closer to the exit today - by her own party
members.
More than a hundred BC Libs met in Surrey this morning to demand Clark
resign to let somebody else, presumably almost anybody, lead the
government party into the May election. It's hard to imagine how a change
at the top could do the party much good at this point.
Recent polls find 59% of respondents favouring a change of government
versus just 24% still supporting the BC Libs. Worse still, over 70% of
respondents believe the... more »
While the mainstream media continues to hype the supposed need for sequestration - including grievous cuts in the social safety net - in order to "save the economy," top economists like Bill Black know for certain that this sort of austerity risks throwing our economy back into recession!
------------------------------
Representative Conyers needs our Support to Kill the Sequestration’s
AusterityPosted on March 1, 2013 by Devin Smith
Original Here
By William K. Black
We have been strangling the economic recovery through economic incompetence
– and worse is in store because President Obama continues to embrace (1)
the self-inflicted wound of austerity, (2) austerity primarily through cuts
in vital social programs that are already under-funded, and (3) attacking
the safety net by reducing Social Se... more »
Sunday Question for Conservatives
What is the most important story that the press (that is, the neutral or
"mainstream" press) is ignoring or drastically underplaying right now?
Christy Romer on the Minimum Wage
In today's *NY Times*.
I agree with a lot of it. She concludes with a view that is common among
economists: An expansion in the earned income tax credit would be a
lot better than an increase in the minimum wage. I would have added one
additional thought: Over the years, we have already seen substantial
expansions in the EITC. (See below.) Since we already have the better
policy, let's not pursue the worse one.
Source.
Junk that non-news NOW!
This is how newscasters *should* treat infotainment non-news that somehow
gets mixed up with real news:
[Hat tip Diana Hsieh]
Content is copyright PC.BlogSpot.Com © Please contact author for permission
to republish: (organon at ihug.co.nz)
QUOTE OF THE DAY: On Marriage
“Marriages ought to be a matter of contract and not based on any myth or
superstition. Folks should not be interfered with if they want to form a
family union, however it is configured, so long as it isn’t some kind of
criminal gang.
“What I do find odd is for the White House to butt in here…”
- Tibor Machan, “Democracy & Gay Marriages”
Content is copyright PC.BlogSpot.Com © Please contact author for permission
to republish: (organon at ihug.co.nz)
Going on the Job Market? Pick up Fifty Shades of Grey or a Ukulele!
Traveling home today from a great conference with some awesome Ducks and
non-Ducks. The conference, hosted by Debbi Avant (U of Denver) and Oliver
Westerwinter (EUI) at the University of Denver, was on the topic of
networks, governance, and security. I learned a lot and will hopefully
write a nice, normal research -related post sometime
Continue reading
The Truth About Those Iranian Hostages - It All Comes Out Eventually: How Hollywood and the CIA Collude On Screen
Finding it harder and harder to suspend disbelief at the movies? Who
wouldn't? With thousands of documents to support his position, Mansoor says
that the “hostage crisis” was a political “management tool” created by the
pro-Bush faction of the CIA, and implemented through an a priori Alliance
with Khomeini’s Islamic Fundamentalists.” He says the purpose was twofold:
To keep Iran intact and
"How It Really Is"
•
Leonard Bernstein, “West Side Story - America”
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPlcE3GcoFc
•
But you know, folks, with the total mess this country is in any more,
and it's going to get a *lot* worse, why would anyone want to come HERE?
- CP
•
"Detroit Facing Fiscal Emergency"
- http://beforeitsnews.com/
"Long Border, Endless Struggle"
*"Long Border, Endless Struggle"*
By Damien Cave
PENITAS, Tex. — "The border fence behind Manuel Zamora’s home suggests
strength and protection, its steel poles perfectly aligned just beyond the
winding Rio Grande. But every night, the crossers come. After dark and at
sunup, too, dozens of immigrants scale the wall or walk around it, their
arrival announced by the angry yelps of backyard dogs. “Look,” Mr. Zamora
said early one recent morning, “here they come now.” He pointed toward his
neighbor’s yard, where a young man in a dark sweatshirt and white sneakers
sprinted toward ... more »
The best of times, the worst of times . . .
MOSCOW,
1937: time of terror. The Atlantic has a fine article/book review by
Benjamin Schwarz, "Moscow Under Terror". It's a wonderful description of
a surreal environment with real horrors, and worthy of pondering.
Genrikh Yagoda
Yezhov and Stalin
Satire: “Pentagon: Cuts Could Hamper Ability To Invade Countries For No Reason”
*“Pentagon: Cuts Could Hamper Ability *
*To Invade Countries For No Reason”*
By Andy Borowitz
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)— “The spending cuts mandated by the
sequester may hamper the United States’s ability to invade countries for
absolutely no reason, a Pentagon spokesman warned today. The Pentagon made
this gloomy assessment amid widespread fears that the nation’s ability to
wage totally optional wars based on bogus pretexts may be in peril.
“Historically, the United States has stood ready and able to throw billions
of dollars at a military campaign with no clear ratio... more »
Napoleon On Tragedy
*Related:*
*Napoleon On Men of Destiny*.
*Napoleon On Speculators And Profiteers*.
*Napoleon On An Age of Transition & The Dangers of A Militarist Government
*.
*Napoleon On Alexander The Great*.
*Napoleon On Public Debts*.
*Napoleon On Public Opinion*.
*Napoleon On Homer*.
*Napoleon On The "Courage of 2 A.M."*
*Napoleon On Statesmen.*
From, *"The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection from His Written and Spoken
Words,"* edited and translated by J. Christopher Herold. Columbia
University Press: New York. 1955. Pg. 148-150.
[Conversation, December 1, 1805, on the eve of A... more »
Europe Takes on Executive Pay
Three articles - well worth your read
SNIPS
Published on Sunday, March 3, 2013 by Common Dreams
*Swiss Overwhelmingly Vote to Curb Executive Pay*
"Fat cat initiative" reins in corporate pay
- Andrea Germanos, staff writer
On Sunday Swiss citizens voted overwhelmingly to rein in exorbitant
executive pay.
Days before the Swiss vote, the EU parliament approved a plan to cap
bonuses for financial executives and bankers.
Read the whole thing
>>>>>HERE<<<<<<<
And then there is this longer article:
SNIPS
Swiss citizens have voted to impose some of the world's strictest controls
on execu... more »
Gov. Pence's Pal, Doden, to Collect Over Half-Million in Ft. Wayne Charter Rent
With permission from Karen Francisco:
*Charter school charades*
*Karen Francisco | *The Journal Gazette**
That sound you heard Wednesday? That was the sound of the Indiana Charter
School Board rubber-stamping a real estate deal to benefit a politically
connected Fort Wayne business owner.
How else to explain a 5-1 vote to "replicate" an unproven school that has
drawn few students in Indianapolis and met strong resistance from the Fort
Wayne community during a public hearing held just 7 business days after
local school officials and were notified? The application was approved less
t... more »
you can feel it
Pay attention
to what Maria Rosario says at 3:20.
"They Live."
Swiss vote to cut down CEO payola
A big majority of Swiss citizens have had enough of corporate greed:
The government said 67.9 percent of voters had backed allowing shareholders
to veto executive pay proposals as well as banning big rewards for new and
departing managers, one of the highest approval rates ever for a popular
initiative.
While anger at multi-million dollar payouts for executives has spread
around the globe since the financial crisis, Swiss direct democracy -
including four national referendums a year - means public outrage can be
translated into strong action.
Funny. I was just thinking if we had ... more »
What's for Dinner? . . . Who the Hell Knows?
OK, I get that most (normal) people are not interested in politics. As long
as all is relatively well in their little worlds, people don't much care
who's in charge.
But what I DO NOT GET is how people can be unconcerned about the food and
water they ingest.
Oh yeah, there are recalls and scares and stories, like the horse meat
'scandal' and the more recent revelation that tuna ain't tuna.
84% of fish samples labeled "white tuna" were actually escolar, a fish that
can cause prolonged, uncontrollable, oily anal leakage.
Then there are bigger fish to fry, so to speak.
Alberta shi... more »
Sunday Classics: This "Russian theme" used by Beethoven should be familiar
*The Alban Berg Quartet (Günther Pichler and Gerhard Schulz, violins;
Thomas Kakuska, viola; Valentin Erben, cello) plays one of Beethoven's most
beautiful creations, the Molto adagio from Op. 59, No. 2, in June 1989.*
*SUNDAY AFTERNOON NOTE*: At the moment the audio clips haven't always been
loading right. If that's the case, I can only ask you to try again later.
Sorry! (Sigh.)
*UPDATE*: Archive.org seems to have had some sort of system crash -- ohboy!
*SUNDAY EVENING UPDATE*: All seems to be OK now!
*by Ken*
Here's Beethoven's version of what he noted as a "*Thème russe*":
The... more »