Climate-Change Skeptics
by Meteor Blades
Fri Mar 05, 2010 at 09:15:03 PM PST
The following groups say the danger of human-caused climate change is a ... FACT:

U.S. Agency for International Development
United States Department of Agriculture
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
National Institute of Standards and Technology
United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Energy
National Institutes of Health
United States Department of State
United States Department of Transportation
U.S. Geological Survey
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
National Center for Atmospheric Research
National Aeronautics & Space Administration
National Science Foundation
Smithsonian Institution
International Arctic Science Committee
Arctic Council
African Academy of Sciences
Australian Academy of Sciences
Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts
Academia Brasileira de Ciéncias
Cameroon Academy of Sciences
Royal Society of Canada
Caribbean Academy of Sciences
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Académie des Sciences, France
Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences

Some readers and contributors here find trouble with statements like that. That is how the Wausau Daily Herald labeled the Keillor column that I have the link below from. The Chicago Tribune labeled it Unreality is the current reality. I wish Keillor were right, he ends by saying eventually we will wake up. I wish I had that much faith.

While I was reading this column I was thinking of one reader/contributor in particular who takes great offense when I say that logic is illogical. Of course logic is logic and illogical thoughts are illogical. I was assuming one could assume that I was talking about reality, not the fantasy world where one would assume that we as humans would function logically.

Keillor says in the column basically that the Republicans would be laughed out of town for being totally illogical. He says that their ideas make "perfect sense if you're a shut-in and your TV is locked on Fox New, but not if you are ambulatory and able to read English."

Real Time is back and Bill Maher takes on the Tea Baggers in this edition of New Rules.

Maher: And three, cult members always attribute all of their problems to one simple explanation. Now here's an amazing statistic. In a recent poll almost ninety percent of Tea Baggers said that they thought taxes had either gone up or stayed the same under Obama. Only two percent thought they went down. But the reality is taxes have gone down for ninety five percent of working families taxes went down.

Think about that. Only two percent of the people in a "movement" about taxes named after a tax revolt have the slightest idea what's going on...with taxes.

So, it would be easy to just mock, except that those who fall under the control of cults aren't necessarily weirdoes, they're victims. And we shouldn't forget that these people are our relatives, our neighbors and the folks at the next table in the restaurant. Especially if that restaurant is Hooters and it's dollar wing Wednesday.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/real-time-new-rules-tea-part... watch the whole clip!

Why Spirituality is Needed in Politics

By Dave Belden

I used to think that the left / liberal tradition was all about struggle, anger, and righteous indignation. That was what fueled generations of oppressed and marginalized people to fight the status quo to free the slaves, reform the factories, gain the vote, enforce standards for safe food and medicine, combat racism, sexism and homophobia, and win all the democracy, rights and social safety nets so far gained. But I have realized that, even more than angry struggle, its success has been borne out of empathy. You only get ready to give rights and respect to others if you still the insistent voice of your own ego and self-absorption long enough to put yourself in their shoes and feel what they are feeling. It’s about imagination and compassion.

too cute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lWY_KFYcZg&feature=player_embedded#

http://www.drewlitton.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/supersaints1.gif

http://www.teamglorybound.com/

Subject: The $100 Bill

It's a slow day in a little East Texas town. The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

On this particular day a rich tourist from back east is driving through town. He stops at the motel and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

As soon as the man walks upstairs, the owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.. The guy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit. The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner. The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/522881/sotu_as_national_rorschach_...

Yes, some of us over react, see the previous post about President Obama. Not just is that poster speculating, if the elections were held a week ago, they are not; but he also speculating that all judgment of good or bad ended a week ago. A far bigger concern should be The Supreme Court allowing elections to be bought and sold, to the point that people don't wake up. I have faith that they will and so does this weekend Keillor column.

I think it is a must read for those upset over current events.

Government is in the hands of realists and in the end we shall prevail.

http://www.kansascity.com/273/v-print/story/1701518.html

Dave:
As a loyal Marathon County Democrat I beg you to do the right thing. Vote yes on the Senate Health Care bill. You know there are hundreds of reasons not to, but we need your leadership to get this through the House.

I hope you saw this article in the NYTimes by Paul Krugman:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/opinion/22krugman.html?pagewanted=print

Please do the right thing.
AM Hecht
Op-Ed Columnist
Do the Right Thing
By PAUL KRUGMAN

A message to House Democrats: This is your moment of truth. You can do the right thing and pass the Senate health care bill. Or you can look for an easy way out, make excuses and fail the test of history.

Tuesday’s Republican victory in the Massachusetts special election means that Democrats can’t send a modified health care bill back to the Senate. That’s a shame because the bill that would have emerged from House-Senate negotiations would have been better than the bill the Senate has already passed. But the Senate bill is much, much better than nothing. And all that has to happen to make it law is for the House to pass the same bill, and send it to President Obama’s desk.

After Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize speech, anyone still questioning whether he is really a Christian, rather than a Muslim aligned with fanaticism, needs to seek therapy forthwith.

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2009/12/...

They scorned "any idea of moderation" and greeted with contempt any effort "to understand a question from all sides." Their primary goal was "to acquire power" by frustrating those in authority at every turn. If the President "made a reasonable speech," they "took every precaution to see that it had no practical effect." Although "professing to serve the public interest," they in fact "were seeking to win" power "for themselves." In "their struggles for ascendency, nothing was barred."

No we are not talking about the new Publican Party
interesting article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-r-stone/the-republican-struggle-f...

The Democrats throughout modern History, lets say at least the last half of the last century forward, have been their own wost enemy. Is it possible the Republicans are playing "topper" on this and trying to be even more crazy and more self destructive than the Democreats? Kathleen Parker, a conservative Republican thinks so:

Some people can't stand prosperity, my father used to say. Today, he might be talking about Republicans, who, in the midst of declining support for President Obama's hope-and-change agenda, are considering a "purity" pledge to weed out undesirables from their ever-shrinking party.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/27/AR200911...

http://airamerica.com/really/12-01-2009/letter-tea-baggers/

This idea sounds more and more rational.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/27/opinion/27krugman.html?th&emc=th
Krugman states that the concept was first proposed by the Nobel-winning Yale economist James Tobin in 1972. I first heard of the concept in the go go 90's when Micheal Beltz proposed it to me for just the same reasons as Krugman points out:

"Such a tax would be a trivial expense for people engaged in foreign trade or long-term investment; but it would be a major disincentive for people trying to make a fast buck (or euro, or yen) by outguessing the markets over the course of a few days or weeks. It would, as Tobin said, “throw some sand in the well-greased wheels” of speculation....

This would be a bad thing if financial hyperactivity were productive. But after the debacle of the past two years, there’s broad agreement — I’m tempted to say, agreement on the part of almost everyone not on the financial industry’s payroll — with Mr. Turner’s assertion that a lot of what Wall Street and the City do is “socially useless.” And a transactions tax could generate substantial revenue, helping alleviate fears about government deficits. What’s not to like?"

It starts "IT costs $722 to fly from St. Paul/Minneapolis to Bismarck, N.D. You can fly from St. Paul/Minneapolis to Paris for $754.

Life is unfair."

It goes on "The older brother known for his constancy, his abiding faith, his discipline, proves to be an irritant to the younger brother and inspires him to feats of recklessness and to achieve a sort of breathless happiness unavailable to constancy and discipline."

The whole thing is available here:

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/11/07/opinion/doc4af4da3abba3144...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125668948820711987.html?mod=djemnumbers

Is a very interesting article, I really liked:
"The idea that numbers are somehow pure and immune to superstitious thinking, because they're somehow more 'objective' than words, doesn't take into account the fact that every concept exists (in our minds) in an interconnected tapestry of emotionally and culturally charged signifiers," Golan Levin, designer of the interactive project The Secret Lives of Numbers, which tracks the popularity of every whole number between one and one million

Wow that title is a mouthful. One might wonder what the future of this blog is, or it's purpose. I doubt anyone will say boo if we keep it just among a "small circle of friends." Obviously if we expand to other contributors and readers we not only have to pay more attention to copyright laws, but content with more appeal. If this site is just to refer articles to the "small circle" who cares. The only "family" member who cant figure out how to get to the main site hechtmail.com has trouble clicking on links. The few other readers we have here are fully capable of clicking on links.

With that being said here is an article that I want to save for future reference. It is something to be read and thought about.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/opinion/21friedman.html

Yes that article on how we have to learn how to innovative and more educated to survive has as much to do with the future of the USA as it does with us individually, as well as as a nation, and the future of this blog.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/10/15/fox_news/
Fox News isn't even pretending anymore
Want proof that journalism has devolved into entertainment? Watch "the communications arm of the Republican Party"

By Gene Lyons

Oct. 15, 2009 |

In theory, the national news media function in a free market of ideas: a self-regulating, relentless quest for what the old Superman comics called “Truth, Justice, and the American way.” (Actually, Clark Kent’s newspaper-reporter disguise strikes contemporary audiences as a sentimental anachronism. Today, he’d be a rogue cop or a CIA operative.)

In practice, Washington political journalism has become a subdivision of the entertainment industry: its best-known practitioners are second- and third-tier TV stars, and news itself a form of politicized “infotainment.” Even lowly print reporters and pundits can greatly improve their incomes by appearing on programs like “Hardball” and copping an attitude.

“We will support the Millennium Development Goals, and approach next year’s summit with a global plan to make them a reality. And we will set our sights on the eradication of extreme poverty in our time.”

The 36 Words that prompted Bono to write this op ed in today's NYT:

Rebranding America
By BONO

A FEW years ago, I accepted a Golden Globe award by barking out an expletive.

One imagines President Obama did the same when he heard about his Nobel, and not out of excitement.

When Mr. Obama takes the stage at Oslo City Hall this December, he won’t be the first sitting president to receive the peace prize, but he might be the most controversial. There’s a sense in some quarters of these not-so-United States that Norway, Europe and the World haven’t a clue about the real President Obama; instead, they fixate on a fantasy version of the president, a projection of what they hope and wish he is, and what they wish America to be.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/opinion/11friedman.html?_r=1

great article

Googled the quote that I saw on Maddow and found this as the first entry in Google. Wonder when it will happen to this site.
http://shoutingatmytv.typepad.com/shoutingatmytv/2009/10/delight-in-each... is the Oct 6 entry that talks about what I was looking form but the main site, used in the title of this post takes you to the blog, and has some wonderful youtube links including a song by Roy Zimmerman, who I saw just last week and a funny ad about "getting it in the can."

The other day an amendment made by Al Franken passed the Senate 68-30 that prohibits the US from using government contractors that prohibit their employees from seeking legal recourse for sexual harassment. Not a single Dem voted against the amendment, but 3 out of 4 Republicans did. Why has this not been better covered in the press and why do Republicans get upset when we call them sexist?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/meet-the-senators-who-vot_n_312...

“nattering nabobs of negativism” and “hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history."

What could better describe the party of NO.

William Lewis Safire would have been 80 December 17 of this year.

We lost an interesting man today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/us/28safire.html?_r=1&hp