now - witness

i was flipping channels earlier today and on pbs there was a show called now hosted by david brancaccio. i had never heard of the show and unfortunately i was only able to watch the last 15 minutes or so.

this episode featured peter gabriel and an organization he founded called witness. it's a human rights organization (headquartered in new york) that trains people to video tape abuses.

i DID get to hear mr brancaccio ask mr gabriel why he was doing this. why, because he certainly had enough money from the proceeds of his songs to retire somewhere in the woods and leave the hustle and bustle behind. mr gabriel's response was (and i'm by no means quoting here); that he HAD to do it. of course he lived in luxury and had many perks BUT in order to balance his life and be a GOOD CITIZEN OF THE WORLD, this was something he HAD to do. (as an aside, i never cared much for phil collins but i sure as hell ALWAYS liked peter gabriel. hey, he wrote a song about biko!)

here is the link to witness

Mission
WITNESS uses the power of video to open the eyes of the world to human rights abuses. By partnering with local organizations around the globe, WITNESS empowers human rights defenders to use video to shine a light on those most affected by human rights violations, and to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools of justice. Over the past decade, WITNESS has partnered with groups in more than 60 countries, bringing often unseen images, untold stories and seldom heard voices to the attention of key decision makers, the media, and the general public -- catalyzing grassroots activism, political engagement, and lasting change.

a follow up - LONDON CALLING

to something i originally posted: i wish i could say i was making this up

from the nation Joe Strummer, Terrorist?

by ANTONINO D'AMBROSIO
[posted online on April 20, 2006]
It really did feel like "London Calling" when I opened my e-mail April 5 to find an inbox clogged with a score of messages titled: "Man Held as Terrorism Suspect Over Punk Song." This was not spam but a news item from Reuters reporting that Harraj Mann had been detained for questioning by British anti-terrorism detectives after they received a phone call from a taxi driver who had taken Mann to the Durham Tees Valley Airport. The driver became alarmed after hearing Mann, a mobile phone salesman of Indian descent, sing along to the Clash's "London Calling." The lyric that triggered the cabbie's concern: "Now war is declared--and battle come down...a meltdown expected."
Released after questioning by British authorities, Mann fumed, "There's caution and then there's taking it to the point where it's absurd and ludicrous." Ludicrous indeed, and a chilling reminder that once again fear combined with the perversion of law has trumped rationality (not to mention democracy or basic civil liberties).
"London Calling" is a song about terrorism, but not the kind we have become so familiar with after 9/11. Written in 1979 by the late Joe Strummer, it describes the looming threat of nuclear catastrophe, environmental disaster, starvation and war. The threat or terror of nuclear destruction was something that deeply concerned Strummer because it seemed to him that some world leaders treated it as nothing more than a game. "You had Ronald Reagan campaigning on building up nuclear arms.... He said the West is losing the arms race to Russia, the 'evil empire'.... It was like toys to them or a movie where nothing bad would really happen," Strummer told me when I interviewed him in 2002. Sound familiar?
Today's reactionary political climate, built on a merciless patriotism that relies on historical ignorance, creates an atmosphere that cares little for the issues "London Calling" raises. Strummer understood the struggle to be heard over the politically hostile din emanating from a society that wraps itself in the flag of morality and virtue. "In the late 1970s, the National Front [a right-wing extremist hate group] was spreading across England," Strummer said. "They were a terrorist group if there ever was one, but bands like the Clash were deemed dangerous, evil even, by Thatcher and the like."
He understood how undemocratic democracies can become when they seek to solidify the dominant political order and maintain control under the guise of nationalism. He vividly captured that sentiment in "Whiteman in Hammersmith Palais": "If Adolph Hitler flew in today/They would send a limousine anyway."
That's why Strummer had declared early on that the Clash would be "antifascist, antiviolence, antiracist...we're pro-creative, against ignorance," while other groups (insert Sex Pistols here) were famously declaring that there was "no future." This made the Clash an anomaly in the 1970s counterculture scene, standing in direct opposition to the nihilism and alienation dominating punk. Even more, the group boldly linked itself historically to artists of every discipline who had fought against tyranny. In "Spanish Bombs," Strummer sings about the Spanish Civil War and the brutal murder of writer Federico Garcia Lorca. "Washington Bullets" illustrates Western imperialism and invokes the spirit of Chilean folk singer Victor Jara. And when Strummer learned that beat poet Allen Ginsberg was a fan, they collaborated on the haunting "Ghetto Defendant." .........

I MISS THE CLASH

rock the casbah

Now the king told the boogie men You have to let that raga drop The oil down the desert way Has been shakin' to the top The sheik he drove his Cadillac He went a-cruisin' down the ville The muezzin was a' standing On the radiator grille CHORUS:The shareef don't like it Rockin' the Casbah Rock the Casbah The shareef don't like it Rockin' the Casbah Rock the Casbah By order of the prophet We ban that boogie sound Degenerate the faithful With that crazy Casbah sound But the Bedouin they brought out The electric camel drum The local guitar picker Got his guitar picking thumb As soon as the shareef Had cleared the square They began to wail CHORUS Now over at the temple Oh! They really pack 'em in The in crowd say it's cool To dig this chanting thing But as the wind changed direction The temple band took five The crowd caught a whiff Of that crazy Casbah jive CHORUS The king called up his jet fighters He said you better earn your pay Drop your bombs between the minarets Down the Casbah way As soon as the shareef was Chauffeured outta there The jet pilots tuned to The cockpit radio blare As soon as the shareef was Outta their hair The jet pilots wailed CHORUS He thinks it's not kosher Fundamentally he can't take it You know he really hates it

Casual prejudice

or how some people don't mind tossing the 'n' word around (among other words) even in front of strangers. on some occasions people will be DYING to use the 'n' word, yet because they are a bit wary of who they are speaking to, chose another in it's place - but you still GET THEIR DRIFT. yes, this STILL goes on in america but mr harris, it goes on in britain as well. no one is without their prejudices. it is shocking though, how deeply some of these beliefs lay. i'm NOT just talking about black vs white either. it's racial, it's social, it's sexual, it's economic........
it's IGNORANCE and FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN


Guess who's coming to dinner?

In the first of his weekly dispatches from New York, Paul Harris reveals how casual racism among the white middle classes is still rife in parts of the United States Thursday April 20, 2006
Lizzie was charming and fun in the way only old ladies from the Deep South can be. Her voice was not so much tinged by a lilting accent as positively laden with it. She was 80 years old and as full of life as someone a quarter of her age. She was funny and warm, kind and intelligent. She had studied political science at college and then travelled the world. She was deeply Republican but her opinions could surprise. On the hot button conservative issue of the day - abortion - she was keenly pro-choice, loudly declaring that she could not stand it when men told women what to do. 'And it is ALWAYS men who talk about abortion,' she said with a glint in her eye. 'Well, it's none of their damned business.' She was, in short, the perfect dinner guest.
Until she started talking about 'the niggers'. And 'how lazy' they were. It is hard to underestimate the shock value of the N word in American polite society. Or impolite society come to that. There is nothing so offensive. To hear Lizzie - especially someone as seemingly sweet and fun as Lizzie - use the word openly was a gobsmacking experience. It also raised some fairly unexpected questions when it comes to table manners. How do you react? Especially as she was a neighbour invited to a family dinner party. Cowardice won the day. Nervous glances were exchanged. The subject was changed.
But Lizzie did, inadvertently, reveal some truths about the American experience that are too often glossed over. White people - especially intelligent and educated white people - calmly describing their fellow American citizens as niggers is too often portrayed as a thing of the past. Or of ignorant red necks. That all ended in the 1960s, the official version goes. Martin Luther King and JFK put a stop to it. The truth is far different. Things have changed hugely since the 1960s but that period of time is not yet history.
For the really scary thing about Lizzie talking about 'niggers' was not that she had those opinions. It was that she clearly was unaware voicing them would be shocking. It was a useful reminder of how close some 'history' really is. There are people alive today who have been involved in lynching black Americans or those working for their civil rights..........

abstinance money; is that like BLOOD MONEY?

State widens teaching of abstinence
Romney gives faith group sex ed grant
By Andrea Estes and Tracy Jan, Globe Staff April 21, 2006
Governor Mitt Romney yesterday announced that the state will funnel nearly $1 million in federal funds to a faith-based organization to teach abstinence to public middle school students in a dozen more communities across the state.
''We teach sex education, but there's no portion of sex education which talks about the advantages of waiting. . . ." said Romney. ''We're saying let's provide an opportunity for parents and school districts to add abstinence to the curriculum. It's not abstinence only. It's abstinence also."
It will be the first time that the state will spend federal abstinence education funds in Massachusetts for classroom programs. The state has received $700,000 in abstinence money yearly since 1998, but the money has gone only toward a media campaign urging teens to wait before having sex.
The money will now go to Healthy Futures, a Boston-based agency that already runs abstinence programs in several dozen schools across the state. The program, free to the school districts, will be available to schools in 12 communities with high numbers of teen births, including Boston, Lawrence, Lowell, and Lynn, said Rebecca Ray, Healthy Futures program director. The group, which currently gets some federal money directly, will contract with another agency to offer similar programs to students in the western part of the state.
With the new grant, the number of students who take part in Healthy Futures classes will nearly double over the next two years, from 5,500 to 9,000, Ray said.......

blackwater

read the story. it's long, it's scary, it's corrupt, it's immoral, it's in the "NAME OF GOD AND COUNTRY", it's disgusting, IT'S REAL and it's STILL going on

Blood Is Thicker Than Blackwater

oh my goddess!!!

(you can't see me but i'm slapping myself on the forehead and my eyes are pleading to the heavens)

United States is no help to Iraqi women

By BONNIE ERBE
GUEST COLUMNIST
A new poll of leaders of Iraqi women's-rights groups finds that women were treated better and their civil rights were more secure under deposed President Saddam Hussein than under the faltering and increasingly sectarian U.S.-installed government.
This is doubly troubling. It's troubling first because the Bush administration used the issue of women to justify its now widely criticized invasion of Iraq in part by promising to improve the situation of women.
It's troubling second because the administration has issued news releases, held public meetings and tried to gain media attention (as well as U.S. public support) for all the "good" it's supposedly doing the women of Iraq via this invasion.
The poll was released last week by the Integrated Regional Information Networks, a U.N. news agency covering sub-Saharan Africa, eight countries in central Asia, and Iraq.
IRIN reports the survey findings as follows: " ... women's basic rights under the Hussein regime were guaranteed in the constitution and more importantly respected, with women often occupying important government positions. Now, although their rights are still enshrined in the national constitution, activists complain that, in practice, they have lost almost all of their rights."
Moreover, leaders of women's groups say that in Iraq's new government, more men in power follow conservative Sharia (to wit, Islamic law) on women's rights and on their role in society. Senar Muhammad, president of the Baghdad-based non-government organization Woman Freedom Organization, is quoted by IRIN as saying, "When we tell the government we need more representation in parliament, they respond by telling us that, if well-qualified women appear one day, they won't be turned down. ... Then they laugh at us."
The report says more men are ordering women to "take the veil" (wear coverings from head to toe), and fewer women are working in professional jobs than when Saddam was in power.
Why did we not hear this news first from the Bush administration? Perhaps because the administration is too busy trying to put a positive "spin" on the situation in Iraq. A quick tour of the White House's own Web site reveals the administration has plenty of time to promote the kind of Iraqi women's events that make it look good. In November 2003, President Bush's public-relations personnel staged a photo op with female members of Iraq's Governing Council........

beam me up scotty

from the political pit bull

say bye to scotty

i want to sit smack dab in between valerie and ludacris

Valerie Plame To Attend White House Correspondents Dinner
By Joe Strupp Published: April 19, 2006 1:30 PM ET
NEW YORK Will Valerie Plame be the talk of this year's White House Correspondents Dinner? E&P has confirmed that she is slated to attend this year's gala, along with her husband Joseph Wilson and several other notable non-journalist guests, such as Alex Trebek and Ben Rothlisberger, according to organizers. As in the past, attendees at the annual black-tie affair, to be held on April 29 this year, often look for a controversial visitor who might spark extended gossip around the open bar. When outsiders such as Donna Rice, Michael Moore, Fawn Hall or Ozzie Osborne were escorted to the gathering, they sometimes drew nearly as much attention as the president during his remarks....

...She and Wilson will be guests of ABC News. Other "outsider" guests include tennis star Anna Kornikova, rap star/actor Ludacris and James Denton of "Desperate Housewives...............

mr simcox and i say: let's keep 'em ALL out

the wops, the chinks, the gooks, the kikes, the jungle bunnies, the spicks, the wet backs, the towel heads,the queers, the dykes, the faggots, the polacks, the camel jockeys, the ones with brown eyes, the ones with red hair, the jains, the pagans the mentally challenged , the left handed, the old, the infirm.............


Minutemen to Bush: Build Fence or We Will

By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
Associated Press Writer

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Minuteman border watch leader Chris Simcox has a message for President Bush: Build new security fencing along the border with Mexico or private citizens will.

Simcox said Wednesday that he's sending an ultimatum to the president, through the media, of course - "You can't get through to the president any other way" - to deploy military reserves and the National Guard to the Arizona border by May 25.

Or, Simcox said, by the Memorial Day weekend Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteers and supporters will break ground to start erecting fencing privately.

"We have had landowners approach," Simcox said in an interview. "We've been working on this idea for a while. We're going to show the federal government how easy it is to build these security fences, how inexpensively they can be built when built by private people and free enterprise."


Simcox said a half-dozen landowners along the Arizona-Mexico border have said they will allow fencing to be placed on their borderlands, and others in California, Texas and New Mexico have agreed to do so as well.

"Certainly, as with everything else, we're only able to cover a small portion of the border," Simcox said. "The state and federal government have bought up most of the land around the border. I suspect that's why we'll never get control of the border."

But he said the plan is to put up secure fencing that truly will be an effective deterrent, and to show how easily it can be accomplished.

how many could this amount of money feed?

how many could it shelter and educate and heal and warm and clothe?

i should avoid reading about this kind of spending. it puts me into a foaming at the mouth kind of mode. my eyes bug out, my head turns 180 degrees and i spew green slime. my temperature rises, my skin turns red and then i explode (or implode).

WHY
WHY
WHY

War costs have nearly doubled since the invasion of Iraq, Washington Post will report

War costs have nearly doubled since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to a story set for Thursday's Washington Post, RAW STORY has learned.

Excerpts from the article by Jonathan Weisman:

#
With the expected passage this spring of the largest emergency spending bill in history, annual war expenditures in Iraq will have nearly doubled since the U.S. invasion, as the military confronts the rapidly escalating cost of repairing, rebuilding and replacing equipment chewed up by three years of combat. The cost of the war in U.S. fatalities has declined this year, but the cost in treasure continues to rise, from $48 billion in 2003 to $59 billion in 2004 to $81 billion in 2005 to an anticipated $94 billion in 2006, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

The U.S. government is now spending nearly $10 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan, up from $8.2 billion a year ago, a new Congressional Research Service report found. Annual war costs in Iraq are easily outpacing the $61 billion a year that the United States spent in Vietnam between 1964 and 1972, in today's dollars.

The invasion's "shock and awe" of high-tech laser-guided bombs, cruise missiles and stealth aircraft has long faded, but the costs of even those early months are just coming into view as the military confronts equipment repair and rebuilding costs it has avoided and procurement costs it never expected........

you know who named his brand new daughter suri

(my dear dear dear friend beth-y and i are gonna open an alpaca farm {right after her husband and i open our bar which we are going to name RATTOWN. we are going to have james brown sing at the rattown opening} and that's how i knew what a suri was)

huh? once again i say PUT DOWN THAT CRACK PIPE

Rumsfeld Suggests bin Laden, Zarqawi Manipulating U.S. Press

By E&P StaffPublished: April 18, 2006 11:15 AM ET
NEW YORK When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appeared on Rush Limbaugh's talk radio show on Monday, his remarks defending himself from calls for his resignation drew wide attention. Generally overlooked were a couple of questions and answers on the subject of press coverage in Iraq.For one thing, Rumsfeld said it was important to "recognize that the terrorists, Zarqawi and bin Laden and Zawahiri, those people have media committees. They are actively out there trying to manipulate the press in the United States. They are very good at it. They're much better at (laughing) managing those kinds of things than we are."Asked why fewer reporters were embedding in Iraq, Rumsfeld said he'd talked to one journalist, and "there was a kind of impression left that 'Well, if you got embedded then you were really part of the problem instead of part of the solution and you were almost going over to the other side,' argument. I think that's an inexcusable thought, and I don't know if that's the case." He did not explain why he mentioned that, not knowing if it was true."..............

image: www.technochitlins.com

this is an outrage

please support our sister over at reluctant lactivist

i initially came across her story at alternet.org: breastfeeding at freddies

why the eff do people think women have breasts anyway? do they think it is ONLY for the amusement of men (and i must say some other women) who cannot seem to keep their eyes anywhere OTHER than there? sure i'll admit they're fun to be played with but the MAJOR duty is to feed babies. i don't want to burst anyone's bubbles (so to speak) BUT THAT'S WHY WE HAVE THEM

i'd like to teach the world to sing

in PERFECT HARMONY...................well it AIN'T that way

Coke Is Death

By Michael Blanding, The Nation. Posted April 14, 2006.
http://www.alternet.org/story/34976/

The ballroom at the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, Delaware, is the picture of opulence. Paintings of Greek gods and goddesses peer down from the walls, lit by two crystal chandeliers the size of Mini Coopers. It's here in April that the Coca-Cola Company will hold its stockholders' meeting, an annual exercise designed to boost the confidence of investors. If the meeting is anything like last year's, however, it may do the opposite.
As stockholders filed into the room in April 2005, news hadn't been good for Coke, which has steadily lost market share to rivals. Investors were eager for reassurance from CEO Neville Isdell, a patrician Irishman who had recently assumed the top job. Few in the room, however, were prepared for what happened next. As Isdell stood at the podium, two long lines formed at the microphones. When he opened the floor, the first to speak was Ray Rogers, a veteran union organizer and head of the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke. "I want to know what [Coke is] going to do to regain the trust and credibility in order to stop the growing movement worldwide...banning Coke products," boomed the 62-year-old.
That was just the beginning of a ninety-minute slugfest that the Financial Times later said "felt more like a student protest rally" than a stockholders' meeting. One after another, students, labor activists and environmentalists blasted Coke's international human rights record. Many focused on Colombia, where Coke has been accused of conspiring with paramilitary death squads to torture and kill union activists. Others highlighted India, where Coke has allegedly polluted and depleted water supplies. Still others called the company to task for causing obesity through aggressive marketing to children.
In the past two years the Coke campaign has grown into the largest anticorporate movement since the campaign against Nike for sweatshop abuses. Around the world, dozens of unions and more than twenty universities have banned Coke from their facilities, while activists have dogged the company from World Cup events in London to the Winter Olympics in Torino. More than just the re-emergence of the corporate boycott, however, the fight against Coke is a leap forward in international cooperation. Coke, with its red-and-white swoosh recognizable everywhere from Beijing to Baghdad, is perhaps the quintessential symbol of the US-dominated global economy. The fight to hold it accountable has, in turn, broadly connected issues across continents to become a truly globalized grassroots movement.
Coke shrugs off the protests as coming from a "small segment of the student population," says Ed Potter, the company's director of global labor relations. "What I see are largely well-meaning attempts to put a spotlight on some reprehensible things--but which are unrelated to our workplaces." Nevertheless, Coke has fought back with ads on TV and in student newspapers, part of a mammoth advertising budget that has increased 30 percent in the past two years, to a staggering $2.4 billion. However, as evidence against the company mounts ahead of this year's annual stockholders' meeting, so does the pressure for Coke to address its growing international image of exploitation and brutality............

image: philly1.com/ killercoke072804.jpg

so if i wanted to protest in front of this judge's courtroom

i wouldn't have to stand 20 feet back? of course if i DID have to stand 20 feet back IT WOULD VIOLATE MY FREEDOM OF SPEECH. like that is going to happen, being allowed to protest WITHOUT a barrier that is. the buffer law was passed because SOMEONE SET FIRE TO THE CLINIC. yet the judge sees 'no danger'. ok ok


Judge overturns West Palm's clinic buffer law
By Thomas Collins
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
WEST PALM BEACH — A federal judge has ruled that a city law imposing a buffer zone on abortion protesters violates free-speech rights and has ordered the city not to enforce it.
The law — enacted in October after someone set fire to the Presidential Women's Center, the last clinic in Palm Beach County where abortions are done — created a 20-foot buffer around entrances and other public areas outside health-care facilities.
U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks ruled that the city didn't prove the existence of problems that it said the law addressed: restricted patient access and a threat to public safety. Even if it had, the law is too strict, he ruled.
"Freedom of speech is rarely an issue when everyone agrees," Middlebrooks wrote. "Perhaps more than at any other place and any other time, in cases such as this, speech guaranteed by the First Amendment must be protected."
Middlebrooks ruled that the city probably would lose its case at trial, so the law cannot remain in effect until a trial takes place.
A related law prohibiting "unnecessary noise" and "amplified sound" within 100 feet of such facilities can be enforced, although Middlebrooks wrote that he found that ordinance flawed............

dearest cia,

tell king george HE LIED
tell king george HE MUST GET US OUT OF VIET NAM, whoops i mean IRAQ.
tell king george we know he and his planted false and faulty data to get us INTO the unjust war in iraq
tell king george torture is at the very least MORALLY WRONG
tell king george he does NOT speak to his lil' imaginary friend jesus
tell king george rummy MUST GO
tell king george cheney MUST GO
tell king george to stop spying on united states citizens WITHOUT PROPER WARRANTS
tell king george NO ONE (well very few) LIKES HIM AS KING
tell king george BROWNIE DID NOT DO A HELL OF A JOB and both he and brownie effed up the people of the gulf coast FOR GENERATIONS
tell king george the price of heating oil and gas for cars is unnecessarily HIGH
tell king george to abdicate

with all my love and most sincerely,


a rose is a rose

even though someone whose feet are NOT firmly planted on this earth runs the washington times, i wanted to link to this article
CIA mines 'rich' content from blogs

i hope a CERTAIN patriotic someone (who shall remain nameless)

is on the case in florida and not goofing off somewhere in his birkenstocks!

Police: Mall Easter Bunny Removes Head, Punches Woman

POSTED: 9:29 am EDT April 18, 2006
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Authorities said a man playing the Easter Bunny at a Florida mall is accused of removing the head of the costume and hitting a customer.
Police reports said 22-year-old Arthur McClure punched Erin Johansson when she got upset that the photo exhibit was closing 10 minutes early Saturday night. The alleged incident was witnessed by dozens of people, including 15 children, at Edison Mall.
McClure said he never punched Johansson and that he was only trying to stop a fight between his wife, exhibit manager Crystal Frechette, and Johansson............

amazing amazing amazing

chernobyl

it's not just here

illustration: pharyngula.org/images/ creationism_2015.gif


there are dimwits in britain and australia as well (or so it would seem).

Star of creationist circuit flies in hoping to stir the faithful in small towns of Britain Far away from lofty pulpits, a small band will gather to welcome their champion
Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent Tuesday April 18, 2006
The Guardian
Next week, an Australian will jet into Heathrow for a lecture tour that will gladden the hearts of the small but dauntless band of British creationists, believers in the biblical account of the origins of the world.
John Mackay, a former science teacher from Queensland, whose photograph shows him looking not unlike Indiana Jones, grinning in bush hat and open necked shirt, is one of Creation Science's speaking stars. He will console believers that Genesis is true, that the Earth is not millions of years old but only a few thousand and that science proves it, rather than the Darwinian theory of evolution accepted by the overwhelming majority of scientists for more than a century.
He comes here most years, though his 31 engagements from Scotland to Kent are mainly in nonconformist church halls and non-mainstream chapels rather than the loftiest pulpits or highest groves of academe. There will be talks at places like the Living Waters Fellowship at Newport, Isle of Wight, the Christian Outreach Centre in Bournemouth and the Destiny Church in Edinburgh. An appearance at Bangor University turns out to be in a hall hired by local evangelicals for the occasion.
There will even be a week-long Family Creation Conference in tents at the Cefn Lea Christian Holiday Park near Newtown in mid-Wales, for which about 40 families have signed up, at which Mr Mackay will attempt to answer fundamental questions such as: Did bees sting before Adam sinned? Why would birds need to migrate in a good world? What would polar bears do in a world with no ice and what did great white sharks eat before Aussies went surfing? The answers may seem obvious, but it is proof that even believers in the inerrancy of the Bible feel the need to seek something scientific to bolster their case.
What gives this two-month trip added point is the mounting attacks on creationism from scientists such as Richard Dawkins and Steve Jones and teachers' unions.
"I am very pleased with the brilliant publicity they give us," said Randall Hardy who runs the British branch of Mackay's Creation Research organisation from an office in Ashton-underLyne. "If I had rung up every newspaper I could not have got the same response. We ask these people to debate with John but they won't. David Attenborough replied about 10 years ago to say no, but Richard Dawkins never replies. They don't want to give us credibility. I think it is a form of censorship.
"Even some Muslims believe in creation but John would not preach in a mosque. They'd have to let him preach Jesus Christ first.
"Myself, I have been a fundamentalist Christian for 40 years. I think the Earth is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old. I am saddened that more prominent churchmen do not hold to the traditional understanding of the scriptures.".......

i didn't even think of this, but of course it makes PERFECT SENSE

Mass whale deaths tied to U.S. Navy sonar, report says

The Yomiuri Shimbun
TOKYO - The U.S. Navy's deployment of active sonar to detect submarine activity is believed to have been responsible for at least six incidents of mass death and unusual behavior among pods of whales in the last 10 years, according to a recent U.S. Congressional Research Service report.
In one of the most serious incidents, 150 to 200 melon-headed whales were observed milling in Hanalei Bay off Hawaii's Kauai Island during a Rim of the Pacific Exercise on July 3, 2004, after midfrequency sonar was used, the CRS report said.
Known as RIMPAC, the naval exercise included the participation of Japan and other U.S. allies in Asia and the Pacific.
The CRS report also listed five other incidents in which smaller whales, such as goose-beaked whales, harbor porpoises and killer whales, were found beached and dead in groups of a few to nearly 20. Many of the dead mammals had damaged hearing organs, and all five incidents coincided with U.S. naval exercises in the areas, the report said.
The potential impact of active military sonar on marine mammals, whose hearing is critical for their survival, has long been a concern. Even the deployment of low-frequency active sonar is said to cause a roaring sound comparable to that of a twin-engine jet fighter, while the midfrequency sound is believed to equal that of a rocket. Experts have warned that the sound could critically damage the mammals' hearing organs......

this is turning into a combination of

m*a*s*h (by the way i LOVE robert altman) and catch-22

only this is REAL LIFE and there is NO laughter or sound track including suicide is painless. NONE AT ALL

On Cheney, Rumsfeld order, US outsourcing special ops, intelligence to Iraq terror group, intelligence officials say

Larisa Alexandrovna Published: Thursday April 13, 2006
The Pentagon is bypassing official US intelligence channels and turning to a dangerous and unruly cast of characters in order to create strife in Iran in preparation for any possible attack, former and current intelligence officials say.
One of the operational assets being used by the Defense Department is a right-wing terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), which is being “run” in two southern regional areas of Iran. They are Baluchistan, a Sunni stronghold, and Khuzestan, a Shia region where a series of recent attacks has left many dead and hundreds injured in the last three months.
One former counterintelligence official, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the information, describes the Pentagon as pushing MEK shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The drive to use the insurgent group was said to have been advanced by the Pentagon under the influence of the Vice President’s office and opposed by the State Department, National Security Council and then-National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice......

the more i read on this the more frustrated i become

A member of the Mahdi Militia, a group overseen by cleric Muqtada al Sadr, stands guard in 2004. Khampha Bouaphanh, Fort Worth Star-Telegramis

it me? i just don't get what gives US the right to tell these people what to do or who should run their land or how and when and why they should vote. what gives US the right to storm into their homes? WE'RE upset at this and that happening in iraq? DAMN, WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO MAKE IRAQ THEIR HOME? are WE really protecting them or effing up their lives so badly it will take decades and generations to recover? (no fan of saddams here, but there WAS a better way to do this)

U.S. knew Shiite militias were a threat but took no action largely because they were focused on Sunni insurgency
By Tom Lasseter
Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. officials were warned for more than two years that Shiite Muslim militias were infiltrating Iraq's security forces and taking control of neighborhoods, but they failed to take action to counteract it, Iraqi and American officials said.
Now American officials call the militias the primary security concern in Iraq, blaming them for more civilian deaths than the Sunni Muslim-based insurgency and demanding that the Iraqi government move quickly to stem their influence.
U.S. officials concede that they didn't act, in part because they were focused on fighting the Sunni-dominated insurgency and on recruiting and training Iraqi security forces. ............

A Shi'ite militiaman patrols the streets of Sadr City in August 2004. David P. Gilkey, Detroit Free Press

which state are YOU in?

looks like my state is SAFE (for now). i am going to reiterate my postion on this once again. i am NOT 'pro-abortion'. i AM pro-choice.

'Roe v. Wade': The divided states of America

Updated 4/17/2006 7:50 AM ET

By Susan Page, USA TODAY

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two hours after South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds signed an abortion ban last month, NARAL Pro-Choice America blasted an e-mail to its supporters: "Is your state next?"

The South Dakota legislation and the abortion rights group's warning are early skirmishes in a battle over what states would do if the landmark Roe v. Wade decision were overturned — though both sides concede that may never happen.

If it does, a fight that for three decades has focused on nine members of the Supreme Court would be waged instead among more than 7,000 legislators in 50 state capitals.

"Now is the time to get moving on this in Ohio," says Tom Brinkman, a state legislator who has introduced a bill to ban almost all abortions. Meanwhile, Kellie Copeland of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio is braced. "Our supporters feel the fight is coming back to the states," she says......

good for you mr lamparello

Supreme Court rejects Falwell appeal to stop Fallwell.com

RAW STORY
Published: Monday April 17, 2006



The Supreme Court, on Monday, turned down an appeal of a case by Jerry Falwell to shut down a Website that bares an almost identical name but attacks the evangelist's views on gays and lesbians, RAW STORY has found.

Last August the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Christopher Lamparello was free to operate his website at www.fallwell.com because he had "not evidenced a bad faith intent to profit" from it (PDF link to Appeals Court opinion).

"We agree with the Fifth and Sixth Circuits that, given these circumstances, the use of a mark in a domain name for a gripe site criticizing the markholder does not constitute cybersquatting," the Appeals court said.........

i know i'm going to check out fallwell.com

i personally would have whizzed right on principal marquez' desk

please note, this is an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL to boot. i would have that woman's resignation if it was teh LAST thing i did

School Makes Kids Use Buckets for Toilets

17, 6:21 AM (ET)
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INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) - An elementary school principal trying to prevent student walkouts during immigration rallies introduced a lockdown so strict that children weren't allowed to go to the bathroom, and instead had to use buckets in the classroom.
Worthington Elementary School Principal Angie Marquez imposed the lockdown March 27 as nearly 40,000 students across Southern California left classes to attend immigrants' rights demonstrations.
Marquez apparently misread the district handbook and ordered a lockdown designed for nuclear attacks.
Tim Brown, the district's director of operations, confirmed some students used buckets but said the principal's order to impose the most severe type of lockdown was an "honest mistake."
"When there's a nuclear attack, that's when buckets are used," Brown told the Times. The principal "followed procedure. She made a decision to follow the handbook. She just misread it."
A message left by The Associated Press for the principal at the school before business hours Monday was not immediately returned, and Marquez did not return telephone calls from the Los Angeles Times.
Appalled parents have complained to the school board. Brown said the school district planned to update its emergency preparedness instructions to give more explicit directions........

have you ever heard a loon?

or seen one for that matter? they're amazingly beautiful birds with a HAUNTING cry, well more like a wail.

there's a place in connecticut called great pond. i saw my first loon there many years ago. i was spellbound

Loons Change Tunes After Finding a New Home, Study Finds

Nicholas Bakalar for National Geographic News
April 11, 2006
Birdwatchers know that male loons have characteristic calls that remain relatively stable from year to year.
But a new study has found that when a male loon (see photo) changes territories to find a new mate, he changes his call, too. Why this happens is a mystery.
Charles Walcott, a biologist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, lead the research, which focused on loons in a Michigan wildlife refuge.
Walcott explains that the male's call—or yodel—is highly significant for other males, and scientists have decoded only part of it.
"The yodel is an important signal from one male to another," Walcott said. "We know that the yodel codes for the size of the loon—the bigger the loon, the lower [pitched] the yodel. ......

(top photo: thebirches.com bottom photo: idiocentrism.com)

how can they get away with saying this?

king george says there IS no problem. there IS NO global warming. he believes this SO MUCH he's allowing all sorts of laws protecting our earth to be repealed. if it's good enough for king george, IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE REST OF US dammit!

Global Warming Could Cause Mass Extinctions by 2050, Study Says

Brian Handwerkfor National Geographic News
April 12, 2006
A new study suggests that global warming could threaten one-fourth of the world's plant and vertebrate animal species with extinction by 2050.
The report's authors reached their conclusion after estimating potential changes to habitats—and the resulting loss of species—in 25 biodiversity "hot spots" around the world. The ecologically rich hot spots include South Africa's Cape Floristic Region, the Caribbean Basin, and the tropical regions of the Andes Mountains. These territories compose only a small fraction of the planet's land area but contain large numbers of Earth's flora and fauna.
"These [hot spots] are the crown jewels of the planet's biodiversity," lead author Jay Malcolm of the University of Toronto told the Canadian Press.
"Unless we get our act together soon, we're looking at committing ourselves to this kind of thing."
The report appears in the current issue of the journal Conservation Biology. .....

huh i say! what does NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC know about the earth that king george doesn't? what nerve they have! trying to scare us and tell us if we don't start watching what we're doing (NOT TOMORROW BUT TODAY) we're all doomed

there is a new cassandra wilson cd out

i've not heard it yet BUT you know i'm going to soon

i love this woman's voice. she did one heck of a rendition of the weight on belly of the sun

(please someone explain to me why so many people know who brittney spears and jessica simpson are and not so many know cassandra???? i just don't understand at all)

Album Review: Cassandra Wilson, "Thunderbird" (Blue Note)

April 13, 2006 03:01 PM
by GF Sheffer live Daily Contributor

T-Bone Burnett is a great producer. When he has the opportunity to work with ultra-talented musicians---as he did on the soundtrack to "O Brother Were Art Thou"--he delivers amazing results. Now, add "Thunderbird," the latest release from jazz chanteuse Cassandra Wilson (music), to Burnett's list of accomplishments.
Eschewing the jazzy arrangements of Wilson's past for a more modern sound and style, Burnett bridges the gap between the blues of yesterday and the blues of tomorrow. Admittedly, some of these neo-blues tunes can wade too far out into the swamp. "Strike A Match" is drenched in electronics, courtesy of Mike Elizondo, whose work certainly seems more appropriate for Fiona Apple than it does for Cassandra Wilson. Nevertheless, Burnett coaxes the most from this cast, which includes renowned session players like drummer Jim Keltner and guitarists Colin Linden and Mark Ribot...............

i found this story fascinating

what turns someone into a terrorist? what turns someone like YOU OR ME into a suicide bomber? these questions are never answered. well they cannot be at this point.

Unlikely Candidate for Car Bomber

The airport worker enjoyed Hollywood's club scene. His hand was found chained to the steering wheel in Iraq's deadliest attack.

By H.G. Reza
Times Staff Writer

April 15, 2006

There was nothing like it in Jordan, Raed Mansour Albanna told his American friend. They were in a Hollywood club and — fueled with beer and shots of Jagermeister — Albanna was dancing with abandon. The pounding music was liberating and the young Muslim was on his game.

It was a few months before 9/11, and Albanna had left the constraints of his Islamic country far behind. In America, friends said, he had found what he was looking for — sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

"He was into partying. We hit some pretty wild clubs in Hollywood," said Steve Gray, who worked with Albanna at Ontario International Airport and considered him a close friend.

Albanna, 32, had a fondness for American women, the grunge sound of Nirvana and Harley-Davidson motorcycles and the bad-boy image they conveyed. He told friends he loved the freedom he felt in America.

All the more reason his friends were dumbfounded when they were told that the funloving Jordanian had become a suicide car bomber, pulling off the deadliest single attack in Iraq. U.S. authorities said he killed 132 Iraqis outside a Hillah medical clinic Feb. 28, 2005.

A hand chained to a steering wheel revealed fingerprints that identified him as the bomber. It was the only body part that remained.

While the unlikely background of the bomber was made public in media accounts, recent interviews offer a clearer view of how Albanna's initial anguish over the 2001 terrorist attacks seemed to degenerate to a deep anger and frustration.

At the time of the bombing, Albanna's friends in Southern California found it unthinkable that a man who had embraced the United States with such gusto would trigger such carnage in the name of Al Qaeda.

Albanna was "the last person I thought would become a terrorist," said Lee Khalaf, a friend............

more incompetancy (that COULD lead to more deaths)

the other day i posted a story about computer drives and flash memories from UNITED STATES MILITARY COMPUTERS being sold in the marketplaces of afghanistan. now, it turns out WE are buying them back. WE are buying our OWN HIGHLY CLASSIFIED merchandise back with what money? is it OUR money. the money you and i pay for taxes?

U.S. Buys Back Stolen Data by Afghan Base

By DANIEL COONEY, Associated Press WriterFri Apr 14, 2:50 PM ET

American investigators armed with a "box full" of cash have paid thousands of dollars to buy back stolen computer drives — many of which contain sensitive military data, shopkeepers outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan said Friday.

But dozens are still on sale, including memory sticks with information ranging from U.S. troop resumes to photographs of Air Force One during President Bush's visit last month.

The surfacing of the stolen computer devices has sparked an urgent probe to discover how security could have been breached at the heavily guarded Bagram base, which coordinates the fight against Taliban and al-Qaida militants and includes one of the military's main detention facilities for suspected terrorists.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Mike Cody said he could not comment because an investigation was ongoing.

Shopkeepers let an Associated Press reporter review about 40 of the drives on a laptop computer Friday. Most were blank or did not work, but three contained data, including a soldier's military discharge certificate, troop resumes and photographs of Air Force One during Bush's visit to Afghanistan last month.

One shopkeeper, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of retribution, said soldiers went around the market outside the base Thursday carrying "a box full of afghanis (the Afghan currency), buying all they could find."...........