Thursday, June 30

Iraqi Invasion & Occupation

The President of the United States made a speech last night. I was impressed again by his consistent ability to speak without addressing the issues of the subject. He said that it is "wrong to set artificial deadlines". I agree. But did that answer any question about setting actual, Real deadlines for withdrawal? Not for me. He said we would be there until "We Win." That made me wonder what he was celebrating on the deck of the carrier when he said the war was over, and we had ........., (WON?) But he didn't say what we were looking to win. Even Ted Kennedy asked for specific guidelines to determine our progress in objective terms, and certain benchmarks for marking the arbitrary "progress" in this Occupation. Without specific points of reference, we are blindly moving more men into a continually dangerous position just to "proudly serve." But President Bush used his evasive speech patterns to avoid any specific references, and continued as if his concepts were actual answers. Either he truly doesn't know what he is doing (a distinct possibility), or he is trying to hide a specific, and apparently unpopular agenda. Perhaps he thinks that the general public would not aquiese to an agenda that specified the goal of 9 (or 90) permanent Military Bases in Iraq. Perhaps his agenda of seeking world domination and his goal to "spread Democracy around the world" might not sit well with any other country but his own private world.
But his own private world has its own sky, and is somewhat selfish and warped from reality here. Please ask him to go back to Texas. Maybe he'll get lost in killing his prisoners there.

Tuesday, June 28

social security-whassup?

http://www.ecolanguage.net/

If You're Not Outraged, perhaps You're not paying Attention...

Like Fish?
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/050627cod.shtml

Jon Stewart on the American flag

Even if the flag burning amendment does become law, the larger problem will remain of how to respectfully dispose of older, tattered flags. Well, fortunately the U.S. official Flag Code has a suggestion about this. Quote: 'The flag, when it is in such a condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem of display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.' . . . In response, the House Republicans are calling for tattered flags to be kept alive via a feeding tube."

Perhaps it is already...

the inimitable Billmon


javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/07/11/politics/20050712rove_graphic.html', '20050712rove_graphic', 'width=570,height=600,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')

"Rove is falling back on his classic strategy of rallying the base. What's more, he's mainlining it a much rawer and more savage version of the conservative message than the White House usually permits itself. While the customary surrogates -- Fox News, Rush, the blogger hyena pack -- have snarled and snapped, the results apparently have been found wanting. Now Bush's "brain" is stepping into the ring himself.
But, like fellow psychopath Mike Tyson, Rove isn't just telegraphing his punches, he's also displaying the depths of his fear. The rhetorical ear chewing and head butting is a clear sign the champ doesn't have the juice any more, and knows it. Rove is trying to get by on sheer intimidation. He's pushing as many primordial conservative buttons as he can -- leaning on them, in fact -- in hopes he can once again make the dreaded liberals the story, not the march of folly currently sinking into the Iraqi quicksands...
The long, sad history of the human species has amply demonstrated that a scapegoat doesn't have to be credible in order to be believable, as long as the target audience is predisposed to believe it. Conservatives have spent the better part of the past four decades writing "liberals" -- a suitably abstract synonym for "enemy" -- into the same role filled in other times and places by the Elders of Zion. And two generations of Americans have absorbed the poisonous brew, either directly or indirectly. It is (along with dirty money) the bitch's milk of the modern GOP machine.
All along, the bedrock of Rove's political "philosophy" has been the conviction that propaganda will always trump reality -- as long as the desired message is consistent with existing popular myths and prejudices. And his preferred tool for meshing the two has always been the conservative base and the enormous gravitational pull it exerts on the weak-minded middle.
Now, finally, that strategy appears to be crashing onto the rocks of a losing (if not already lost) war in Iraq. But it's worth remembering that the Rovians have been right much more often than they've been wrong about the gullibility and ignorance of both the corporate media and the mushy middle. Maybe that time is past. Maybe, like Tyson, the propaganda machine has pounded itself into exhaustion -- its impotence exposed for all to see.
Maybe. Like I said, the sheer volume and (dare I say it?) shrill hysteria of the current conservative hate campaign is itself a positive sign. But I'll believe the machine is finished only when I see Rove's flabby carcass stretched out cold on the canvas.
And we're not there yet. Not by a long shot."

(And if you despise this logic, don't go here:http://billmon.org/archives/001936.html)

Also,
http://news.google.com/news?svnum=10&hl=en&ned=us&ie=ISO-8859-1&as_qdr=&as_drrb=b&as_mind=22&as_minm=6&as_maxd=31&as_maxm=6&q=%22Karl+Rove%22

Ain't no socialist, but %^$ the Democrats!

The pattern is all too familiar. A prominent Democrat commits the unpardonable sin of stating an unpleasant truth about crimes that are being carried out by the White House and the Pentagon in the name of the “global war on terrorism.” He is subjected to a torrent of denunciations from the extreme right-wing elements that control the Republican Party. Accusations of treason and “stabbing our troops in the back” are echoed and amplified by the mass media. The Republicans demand a retraction and apology, and the Democrats demonstratively distance themselves from whomever in their midst made the offending remark.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jun2005/dems-j24_prn.shtml

the State of PBS

"They're Already Centrists
Public radio and television have been moving to the middle of the political spectrum for years. Partly, it's about a desire for a larger audience and greater impact. But it's also about the need for corporate sponsors. Throughout public broadcasting, knee-jerk leftism is history."

http://nationaljournal.com/scripts/printpage.cgi?/powers.htm

solutions

"She's a great documentary filmmaker, in part, I think, because she can drive people crazy,"
They don't know what to make of her," Mr. Fanning said. "She's foreign, surprising, she's like a Martian. That's what is disarming."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/arts/television/27bike.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/opinion/27eggers.html?th&emc=th

Idle much?

http://www.alternet.org/story/22190/

Over there, down under, an ally

http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,15734656%255E421,00.html

Monday, June 27

Rankings- from Expat World

2004 QUALIITY OF LIFE INDEX
Thanks to International Living newsletter we can report to you on their 2004 Quality of life Index. Once a year they take a calculated view of the world and rate over 194 countries in an attempt to qualify the overall quality of life. The objective is to provide a comprehensive guideline and comparative ranking of the quality of living in nearly every country on the planet Earth. There's usually no argument that the USA affords a comfortable way of life because of its infrastructure but you may have to give up some freedom today to be able to "live" with this comfortableness. Down under, New Zealand and Australia rank high in many categories.
How are the numbers crunched? -- 100 is the highest score, 0 the lowest. Cost of living is 15 percent, Culture and recreation is 10%, Economy is 15%, Environment is 10%, Freedom is 10 percent, Health is 10%, Infrastructure is 10%, Safety and risk is 10 percent and Climate is 10 percent.

Cost of Living/Leisure & Culture/Economy/Environment/Freedom/Health/Infrastructure/
Risk & Safety/Climate/Final Score
United States 77 79 84 79 76 80 100 100 90 85

Denmark 66 95 74 85 100 96 70 100 79
84

Switzerland 41 92 73 84 100 100 100 100 78 83

Australia 54 86 61 76 100 90 94 100 98
82

New Zealand 78 84 60 78 100 91 69 100 85 81

Norway 58 100 76 68 100 92 63 100 71 80

Monaco 77 83 62 63 92 71 78 100 90 79

Austria 60 82 62 94 100 92 59 100 77 78

Canada 60 80 63 72 100 88 72 100 68 77

Malta 73 70 50 82 100 93 30 100 100
76

FAST FACTS ON THE WORLD'S TOP 10 COUNTRIES
-There are 190-million credit card-carrying consumers in the United States. The average number of cards per person is eight, and the average balance per household is $8,562.
-New Zealand's capital, Wellington, boasts more restaurants per capita than New York City.

Gw update

Uh-Oh, George, that's 60%(!) on the economy and the war. Guess Karl's crystal ball might need another buff. http://americanresearchgroup.com/economy/


Kristol's Glidepath to Ruin:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/26/opinion/26kristof.html?th&emc=th

Saturday, June 25

Nearly All Libraries Offer Free Web Access

What's Good?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/national/24library.html?th&emc=th

a Letter to Karl

(At 30, Kristen Breitweiser lost her husband in the World Trade Center attacks.)

"Karl when you say, “Conservatives saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and prepared for war,” what exactly did you do to prepare for your war? Did your preparations include: sound intelligence to warrant your actions; a reasonable entry and exit strategy coupled with a coherent plan to carry out that strategy; the proper training and equipment for the troops you were sending in to fight your war? Did you follow the advice of experts such as General Shinseki who correctly advised you about the troop levels needed to actually succeed in Iraq?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/kristen-breitweiser/karl-roves-understandin_3103.html

Thursday, June 23

Bubble Trouble: Tom Paine

Bubble Trouble

The cover story in this week’s issue of The Economist shows a brick, labeled “House Prices” plummeting earthward, underscored with the headline, “After the fall.”
The prospect of a bursting U.S. housing bubble is the most significant near-term threat to the American economy, yet there is hardly a peep from Democrats.
This is not to say that preserving Social Security, making health care affordable and restoring a fair and sustainable international trading system are not worthwhile tasks. Indeed, they represent three of the most important medium- to long-term hazards facing the nation. The problem is, the housing bubble represents a near-term threat whose consequences are staggering. A collapse in the U.S. housing market threatens to decimate the main pillar of retirees’ capital assets, a significant source of disposable income for working families, and trigger a chain reaction that could result in an unprecedented global economic downturn.
Besides military spending, which itself is unsustainably financed by government debt, the housing sector—and the consumer spending it has facilitated—has been the only significant source of growth and jobs in the economy for the last five years. Indeed, the housing bubble has been the platform for the American economy for the last five years.
That’s because the housing bubble was created by the Federal Reserve bank as a way of deflecting the pain from the tech bubble burst in 2000.
As in any classic speculatory bubble, prices and debt got out too far ahead of fundamentals. What is confusing, however, is just when the housing bubble will actually burst. Greenspan’s Federal Reserve has tried gradual pin pricks but interest rates have stayed both stable and low. Most analysts agree that this is in large part due to the persistent foreign demand for American debt, led by China and Japan. America continues to run record trade deficits, meaning as a nation we are wracking up more and more debt. That means that not only are the market fundamentals weak here at home, the U.S. housing bubble is throwing the global economy way off balance.
And that is the most worrisome aspect to this whole situation. No one, including Greenspan, knows how or when this bubble will burst—much less how to get it under control. The economy is not responding to normal measures.
For Democrats to be silent about this looming crisis is foolish. Anyone who owns or wants to own a house is seriously concerned about this issue, and the Dems are silent. The time is now for Dems to start looking at the fundamentals of the economy, especially the housing bubble. Certainly, there are no easy answers, but that’s really the message of the bubble itself: the American economy needs a massive rethink.
Property Rights:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/politics/23wire-scotus.html?ex=1277179200&en=15be0deff62f7ed7&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Denver's Own Patty Limerick

On hope, and the West:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/22/opinion/22limerick.html?th&emc=th

Wednesday, June 22

A is for...

Some of my best thoughts come in the shower, and while not exactly original, I like the turn this one begins. Following through the days will be a compendium of word-thoughts inspired by the alphabet, which together could define the logic(ill or otherwise) for going.

Awareness, locked in the Tower of Babble
Auto-culture, and the death and danger that surround it
Atomic Anxiety
Arbitrary Assimilation of Advertising
Apathy and Ambivalence

and also

Awakenings
'At home'
Alps
Avocation, or Hey, what do I have to lose?
Abode-below Awesome Azure skies

Fly the Friendly Skies

"The federal agency in charge of aviation security collected extensive personal information about airline passengers even though Congress forbade it and officials said they wouldn't do it"

http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1051751

Tuesday, June 21

Fastracks

Denver Transit Plan Touted as Nat'l Model
By JON SARCHE, Associated Press
DENVER - FasTracks, a 12-year plan to expand bus service and add 119 miles of rail lines, has been called extraordinary not because of its scope, but because voters in a car-worshipping red state approved a $4.7 billion tax increase to pay for it.
"It's not going to get any better as the metro area grows," says Richard Feuerborn, who has taken a bus from the suburbs to his downtown Denver job for seven years. "We have a window of opportunity here to help."
The proposal is already being viewed as an example of how to boost mass transit around the nation. Despite opposition from the governor, nearly 58 percent of voters in Denver and six surrounding counties last fall accepted the argument that their investment would pay off with reduced congestion.
In fact, ballot initiatives nationwide proposing public spending on mass transit fared well last year, with voters approving 42 of 53 proposals worth some $55 billion, according to the Washington-based Center for Transportation Excellence.
One of the keys was showing residents exactly what was going to be built and when, and that the light rail lines in the Denver area had become so popular that parking was hard to find.
"Opponents were totally disconnected as to what's happening in the region," Berry said. "There is no magic bullet any more to congestion and growth. You have to have a combination of things. You have to have enhanced roads but you also have to have transit."
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_re_us/storytext/congested_colorado/15527555/SIG=10r80m7a2/*http://www.rtd-denver.com

Are you Amused?

http://hnn.us/articles/12438.html

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=8853796&src=rss/domesticNews

Bush Admin works to destroy Climate Treaty

I guess if the Resurrection is right around the corner, all bets are off on a civil, peaceful and progressive planet, eh George?

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,1509979,00.html

Your time's a comin' there, cowboy...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/opinion/27mon1.html?th&emc=th

Nagasaki: Censored

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050619/ap_on_re_as/japan_nagasaki_a_bomb

Today's Illiusion: Ponzo

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/20jun_moonillusion.htm

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarrely inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
Douglas Adams

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html

Sunday, June 19

Movie Rec--

Watched Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1958) last night. Blisteringly, achingly antiwar portrait. But for the lack of feminine roles, see it.

The story takes place in 1916 France. Kubrick marvelously contrasts the ornate palace where the generals sip their cognac with the ramshackle trenches where injured men stumble about, demoralized and shellshocked. Douglas gives a tough, gritty performance; his tense sparring with the high command features sharp, biting dialogue. The entire cast is outstanding.
MOVIE QUOTES
"There are few things more fundamentally encouraging and stimulating than seeing someone else die."--General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) to Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas)

When Kubrick asked Kirk Douglas to star in PATHS OF GLORY, Douglas responded, "Stanley, I don't think this picture will ever make a nickel, but we have to make it." France banned the film until 1974; the Swiss army censored it until 1970.

16 to 25? Pentagon Has Your Number, and More

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin

"The department began building the database three years ago, but military officials filed a notice announcing plans for it only last month. That is apparently a violation of the federal Privacy Act"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/politics/24recruit.html?th&emc=th

Got Joe?

http://www.hughchou.org/calc/coffee.cgi

Soma: words from out there

"If you want more finger-pointing nonsense while our nation gets run into the ground, keep watching. You can blame George Bush or liberals to make yourself feel better, giving yourself a good excuse to continue sitting on your butt staring at a box.

But it doesn't change this reality: that life is not a Hollywood movie. One of the main ways TV addiction affects the human brain is to make it think that everything wraps up in a happy ending, as all movies and shows do. It convinces people that no action need to be taken about anything, that anyone who is complaining or making an issue of something is the problem, that anyone who would take any action - other than TV watching - in response to anything is problematic and insane, that nothing ever really goes wrong, that if you just sit there and don't get too upset or mess with things we can all just stay comfortable watching our TVs, happy and basking in the blue light glow.

The world is real, the cancer deaths from pollution are real, the deaths in Iraq are real, the deficits are real, the fact that we get no vacation is real, the fact that we are virtually all dangerously overweight and getting diabetes by the score is real. And the fact that you have spent an enormous portion of your life staring at a box is real.

TV causes obesity, anti-sociality, lethargy, and a skewed view of reality that borders on insanity. It causes psychotic detachment from the people and the world around you and the inability to respond to life-threatening situations that are immediate and present dangers in your life. "

http://www.moderateindependent.com/v3i6tv.htm

Friday, June 17

A Matter of Opinion?

http://www.alternet.org/story/22098/

Sqwawk!: there is no apparent emotional or material payoff for serious thought

ALONE IN A CROWD
Don't hang up!
By Louis Rene Beres. Louis Rene Beres is a professor in the political science department at Purdue University who cannot be reached by cell phoneJune 12, 2005
Chicago Tribune

I belong. Therefore I am. At a time when "rugged individualism" has become a nostalgic myth in America, being witnessed in conversation with another--any other--is presumed to be absolutely vital. How sad. The known universe is now said to be about 68 billion light-years "across," and yet here, in the present-day United States, being seen on the phone--preferably while walking briskly with rapt inattention to one's immediate surroundings, including life-threatening car traffic or heavy rain--is a desperate cry to every other passerby: "I am here; I have human connections; I count for something; I am not unpopular; I am not alone."There exists, as Freud understood, a universal wish to remain unaware of oneself, and this wish generally leads individuals away from personhood and toward mass society. In one sense, cell-phone addiction is less an illness than an imagined therapy.Ultimately, in a society filled with devotees of a pretended happiness, it is presumptively an electronic link to redemption.In a sense, the attraction of the cell-phone machine is derivative from our own machine-like existence, a push-button metaphysics wherein every decision and every passion follows a standardized and uniformly common pathway.We believe that we are the creators of all machines, and strictly speaking, of course, this is correct. But there is also an unrecognized reciprocity here between creator and creation, an elaborate pantomime between user and used.Increasingly our constructions are making a machine out of man. In an unforgivable inversion of Genesis, it now even appears that we have been created in the image of the machine.Cell-phone addiction is merely the very visible symptom of a pervasive pathology. The underlying disease is a social order built upon nonsense, a literally mindless network of jingles, advertised meanings and ready-made ideas that deplores individuality and celebrates slogans.Our American society has lost all sense of awe in the world.Cell phones in hand, we talk on and on because we would rather not think, and we would rather not think because there is no apparent emotional or material payoff for serious thought.Holding fast to our cell phones, our fondest wish is that we should soon become interchangeable. We should be careful what we wish for.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0506120303jun12,0,5646218.story?coll=chi-newsopinionperspective-hed

Hippin' Ya

http://www.filtersmag.com/cgi-bin/Slang/read.tcl?bydate

MISCREANT

n. A person of the highest degree of unworth. Etymologically, the word means unbeliever, & its present signification may be regarded as theology's noblest contribution to the development of our language.--Ambrose Bierce, Devil's Dictionary

"There is nothing more odious than the majority. It consists of a few powerful men who lead the way; of accomodating rascals & submissive weaklings; & of a mass of men who trot after them without in the least knowing their own minds."--Goethe

Thank You, Sean! Fun with Morford

a little teaser: http://www.dubyaspeak.com/freshdubya.shtml

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/050627/27bush.htm

Bush, The Spoiled Man-Child What causes the fall of empires? Why, stubborn leaders who speak like toddlers and never admit mistakes
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, June 3, 2005 Mark Morford

Know what real men do? They admit their mistakes. Know what real people do in times of great stress and strife and economic downturn? They seek help, understand they don't know all the answers, realize they might not've been asking the right questions in the first place.
Know what great leaders, great nations do at times of war and fracture and massive bludgeoning debt? All of the above, all the time, with great intelligence and humility and grace and awareness and shared humanity. Or they die.
But not BushCo. This is the hilarious thing. This is the appalling thing, still. How can this man remain so blindly, staggeringly resolute? How can he be so appallingly ignorant of fact, of truth, of evidence, of deep thought? In short, what the hell is wrong with George W. Bush?
Here it is, another bumbling, barely articulate press conference by Dubya, one of few he ever gives because he clearly hates the things and is deeply troubled by them, hates reporters who ask complicated questions and hates people who dare doubt his simple mindset, his effectiveness, his policies, his lopsided myopic one-way black/white good/evil worldview.
Go ahead, read the Q&A, linked above. It's sort of staggering. It's also very impressive, in a soul-stabbing, nauseating way.
Bush is, to be sure and in a word, unyielding. Determined. Immovable. Also, deeply confused. Myopic as hell. Frighteningly narrow minded. Weirdly random. Unlike you or me or any human anywhere who happens to be in possession of humility or subtlety of mind, Bush, to this day, admits zero mistakes. He refuses help, rejects suggestions that everything is not dandy and swell. He is confounded by questions that dare suggest he might be somewhat inept, or failing. And he absolutely insists that America exists in some sort of bizarre utopian vacuum, isolated and virtuous and towering like a mad hobbled king over our enemies and allies alike.
He is, in other words, our downfall.
His deeply hypocritical stance on stem-cell research that kow-tows to the deeply ignorant Christian Right? No real answer there. Doesn't compute. Just shrug that sucker right off.
Notice, when you read: There is no eloquent, deeply felt defense of ideas. There is no intellectual breakdown of opinion, no multifaceted explanation, no passionate clarification. And there is certainly no reference to outside ideas, a confession that we might need help, input, wisdom from our neighbors, from science, from the wise and the experienced.
Bush is, of course, not talking to you or me or anyone with a remotely active imagination when he speaks at press conferences, or at his staged, pre-screened, sycophant-rich "town hall" meetings, so full of plain, everyday folk hand-selected for their blind love of Shrub and lack of ability to ask hard questions (read this transcript of a recent town hall on Social Security, and come away stupefied at the man's shocking ability to appear just exactly as gullible and uneducated as his questioners).
He is not even speaking to conservative Democrats or moderate Republicans. He's certainly not speaking to highly educated people who harbor a sincere curiousity for and tenuous understanding of the complexities of the world.
Bush is, of course, speaking to children. He is speaking to babies. It is a decidedly shallow and hollow and oddly deflated type of language that offers not a single nutritious or substantive thought to the political or cultural dialogue, other than to expand his staggering collection of embarrassing Bushisms.
It's all merely a crayon drawing, an intellectual wading pool, a big messy cartoon world populated by manly white good guys and fanged dark evil guys and we are good and They are evil and that's all there is to it so please stop asking weird tricky polysyllabic questions.
Maybe this is appropriate. Maybe this is as it should be. After all, we are, by and large, a nation that refuses to grow up, refuses to take responsibility for our gluttony and its global effects, refuses to see the world as it is now, a mad tangle of interconnected humanity, a global marketplace, a hodgepodge of variegated religions all stemming from the same source and which therefore all require a nimble and nuanced and deeply intelligent leadership, to navigate. Qualities which our current leadership has, well, not at all.
The U.S. still behaves, when all is said and done, like one of those scared wild monkeys, clinging desperately to a shiny object despite the trap closing in all around us, unable to let go of this old, silly, faux-cowboy mentality of boom boom kill kill God is your daddy now sit down and shut up.
What causes the downfall of empires? What causes the implosion of leadership, the slide of great nations into the deep muck of recession and war and mediocrity and numb irrelevance? That's easy. Stagnation. Refusal to change. Refusal to adapt, to progress. Refusal to grow the hell up, to take responsibility for our shortcomings and failures, as well as our successes.
Indeed, George W. Bush would make a great small-town mayor, somewhere deep in a dusty, forgotten part of Texas. His still-appalling inability to speak with any depth or resonance, coupled with his brand of personable, aww-shucks, none-too-bright simpleton worldview is perfect for some cute, redneck, tiny burg. It really is.
But for a major world power caught in the throes of a desperate need to change and grow and evolve, he is, of course, imminent death, leading us deeper into a regressive ideological tar pit from which we may never emerge.
Thoughts for the author? E-mail him.
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Sustainable cities Rankings!

http://sustainlane.com/cityindex/citypage.php?name=ranking

Tuesday, June 14

Movin' in Vancouver

http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=bc_auto-co-op20050610

Cars and the Environment http://www.environmentaldefense.org/subissue.cfm?subissue=7

Mobility, US: http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/

Like Canadian Salmon?

http://www.oceansonline.ca/

Thought for Food

http://marxists.org/archive/fromm/index.htm

Our whole social system rests upon the fictitious belief that nobody is forced to do what he does, but that he likes to do. This replacement of overt by anonymous authority finds its expression in all areas of life: Force is camouflaged by consent; the consent is brought about by methods of mass suggestion.- Erich Fromm

communication breakdown

http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=168406

Saturday, June 11

tV

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/22191/

If and when there is debate on this mega-subject, it often seems to boil down to either/or judgements, qualifiers and 'well, but do you like?'. The comments are more interesting to me, and raise more questions, than does the article. I have to admit I have a problem with google-eyed addicts suggesting (intently or overtly) that if you don't kneel at the alter of wednesdays at 8:30, you're out of touch, or worse. Evidently they fear being so: yet speaking for myself, personally there are better ways of staying in touch. -J

Thursday, June 9

'Stretch Out with your Peelings'

http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/cheese052705.cfm

the payoff pitch: http://www.storewars.org/flash/index.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002294753_danny01.html

Seven reasons why families who drink milk should choose organic:
1. Produced without antibiotics. "Antibiotic overuse is a major public health problem. One of the main places where antibiotics are used today is in agriculture. Organic milk comes from organic cows that have not been treated with antibiotics, so it doesn't contribute to the growing problem of bacterial resistance."
2. Produced without synthetic hormones. "Hormones are powerful. Even trace amounts can cause dramatic changes in living beings. When you choose organic milk, you know that added synthetic hormones are not stimulating the cows' milk production."
3. Produced without harmful pesticides. "Agricultural pesticides are now widespread. They can even be measured in raindrops falling from the sky, fog rolling over the hills, 'fresh' snow, and in water we drink. Organic agriculture reduces pesticide exposure because it comes from organic cows that are fed food grown without chemical pesticides."
4. High in Conjugated Linoleic Acids (CLAs). "CLAs are important 'good fats' that have been linked to decreased heart disease and diabetes. In fact, in the May 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health reported low-fat dairy products, including milk, might lower the risk of type 2 diabetes in men.
"Milk made from cows who pasture has higher CLA content. Since many organic farmers rely upon pasturing and give their cows fresh green grass whenever weather permits, organic milk often has a high CLA content."
5. Excellent source of calcium. "Most of America's school children are failing to get the calcium they need each day for their growing bodies. Kids 4-8 years old need 800 mg per day. Kids 9-18 need 1,300 mg of calcium per day. Organic milk contains about 300 mg per eight-ounce glass and is one great way to help kids get the calcium they need. Organically flavored milks, such as chocolate and strawberry, are popular options for kids, too"
6. Organic milk is wholesome. "Organic milk is a natural, whole food beverage - unlike most beverages promoted for kids that are packed full of artificial chemical ingredients. Many of them contain high fructose corn syrup, aspartame and/or artificial chemical dyes."
7. It's the right thing to do. "Unlike factory cows, organic cows must have access to open air. Organic cows from some dairy farms are allowed to graze freely in organic pasture when it is in season. This kind of farming is kind to animals, supportive of wildlife, healthy for rural communities, respectful of our air, water and soil, and healthy for children."
"Parents need to practice the precautionary principle when it comes to the foods they feed their families," advised Greene. "This is especially true when it comes to eating higher on the food chain where pesticides and other toxins are stored in fatty tissue. By choosing organic milk, butter, and cheese, however, families can avoid this exposure."
About Alan Greene, M.D.
Dr. Alan Greene, a practicing pediatrician, father of four, and spokesperson for Organic Valley Family of Farms, has devoted himself to freely giving real answers to parents' real questions. His answers combine cutting edge science and practical wisdom with warm empathy and a deep respect for parents, children and the environment. Dr. Greene's Web site, http://www.DrGreene.com , was selected in July 2004 by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best health sites. He is also the Pediatric Expert for Yahoo! and for ParentsAction.org. Dr. Greene teaches at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and is an attending pediatrician at Stanford's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. He is a senior fellow at the University of California San Francisco's Center for the Health Profession and is a board member of the Organic Center for Education and Promotion.

RoundUp

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/pregnancy060305.cfm

Wednesday, June 8

what? it's funny

http://cryingwhileeating.com/

White House Played Down Emissions' Links to Global Warming

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/07/science/07cnd-climate.html?ei=5088&en=e2d2e276e037108a&ex=1275796800&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

Op Ed: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/14/opinion/14tue1.html?th&emc=th

And Now(guess what?): Former Bush Aide Who Edited Reports Is Hired by Exxon

Alternatives:http://www.shifting-paradigms.net/ad/1-ethics.html

order of business

1 clean cache
2 take out trash
3 bring passport and fresh underwear
http://csmweb2.emcweb.com/2005/0606/dailyUpdate.html

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. -Abraham Lincoln

Climate Cities 2005 Posted by Hello
Daily Dose of Durst
June 13, 2005
White House aide Roger Cooney removed a paragraph of an official report that stated continued global warming would cause glaciers to melt, calling it "speculative." When heat melting ice becomes speculation, we must be talking a faith-based science.

Maurice Sendak

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4680590

Where's your bassoon?

http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/cl-ca-bassoon5jun05,0,1363961.story?coll=cl-calendar

NYT registration

As many of the articles I reference here are from the New York Times, I've added the link by which anyone can register (free) for online reading. Hope it helps!
http://www.nytimes.com/register

Go Craig!

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/22149/

Downing St, ETC.

http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050613&s=scahill


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-523-1660300-523,00.html
sayeth the other Jesse : http://tvnewslies.org/blog/?p=4

words

"Conversation is fruitful only between minds given to consolidating their perplexities" - Emile Cioran

Tuesday, June 7

Coast leaving scientists with a sinking feeling

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/topstory/3210967
America's breadbasket has clogged up the gulf...

What eBay Could Learn From Craigslist

from the NTY:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/business/yourmoney/05digi.html?th&emc=th

hydrogen?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/automobiles/05AUTO.html?pagewanted=2&th&emc=th

Op-Ed Avian

Op-Ed Contributors
Grounding a Pandemic

By BARACK OBAMA and RICHARD LUGAR
Published: June 6, 2005
Washington —
Earlier this year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the possibility of avian flu spreading from Southeast Asia "a very ominous situation for the globe." International health experts say that two of the three conditions for an avian flu pandemic in Southeast Asia have already been met. First, a new strain of the virus, called A(H5N1), has emerged, and humans have little or no immunity to it. Second, this strain can jump between species. The only remaining obstacle is that A(H5N1) has not yet mutated into a form that is easily transmitted from human to human.
However, there have been some alarming developments. In recent months, the virus has been detected in mammals that have never previously been infected, including tigers, leopards and domestic cats. This spread suggests that the virus is mutating and could eventually emerge in a form that is readily transmittable among humans, leading to a full-blown pandemic. In fact, according to government officials, a few cases of human-to-human spread of A(H5N1) have already occurred.
The precedent that experts fear is the 1918 flu pandemic, which began in the American Midwest and swept the planet in the era before air travel, killing 20 million to 40 million people. As John M. Barry, author of "The Great Influenza," has observed, "Influenza killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century; it killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24 years."
It is essential for the international community, led by the United States, to take decisive action to prevent a pandemic.
So what should we do? Recently, the World Health Organization called for more money and attention to be devoted to effective preventive action, appealing for $100 million.
Congress responded promptly. A bipartisan group of senators obtained $25 million for prevention efforts (a quarter of the request, the traditional contribution of the United States), allowing the C.D.C., the Agency for International Development, the Health and Human Services Department and other agencies to improve their ability to act.
International health experts believe that Southeast Asia will be an epicenter of influenza for decades. We recommend that this administration work with Congress, public health officials, the pharmaceutical industry, foreign governments and international organizations to create a permanent framework for curtailing the spread of future infectious diseases.
Among the parts of that framework could be these:
Increasing international disease surveillance, response capacity and public education and coordination, especially in Southeast Asia.
Stockpiling enough antiviral doses to cover high-risk populations and essential workers.
Accelerating research into avian flu vaccines and antiviral drugs.
Establishing incentives to encourage nations to report flu outbreaks quickly and fully.
So far, A(H5N1) has not been found in the United States. But in an age when you can board planes in Bangkok or Hong Kong and arrive in Chicago, Indianapolis or New York in hours, we must face the reality that these exotic killer diseases are not isolated health problems half a world away, but direct and immediate threats to security and prosperity here at home.

Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, is its chairman

Saturday, June 4

Rio's poor sprout life anew on denuded rain forest hillsides

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/03/MNGTHD2UDR1.DTL

Happy Birthday Allen Ginsberg

HOWL
Jack Kerouac broke with Allen for being too "political"
on that note, find a way to celebrate today: IMPERSONATE AUTHORITY DAY

free rads

This apple a day keeps the doctor further away
04 June 2005
From New Scientist Print Edition

A RED Delicious apple a day keeps the doctor furthest away. This variety contains higher levels of disease-fighting chemicals than some other varieties, a Canadian study has found.
Apples - and especially their skins - are a good source of dietary antioxidants. These help neutralise reactive molecules called free radicals, which have been linked to cancer, Alzheimer's and heart disease. A team led by Rong Tsao of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Guelph, Ontario, measured the antioxidant activity of the skins of eight popular apple varieties.
Red Delicious apples had the strongest antioxidant activity, more than six times that of the wimpiest variety, Empire. Ida Red and Cortland varieties took second and third place, well behind Red Delicious. Although the top three apples on Tsao's list were red, he says colour is not a reliable indicator of antioxidant content. The results will be published in the 29 June issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

freedom fighter

MUNI WIRELESS - U.S. Representative Pete Sessions of Dallas has just introduced federal legislation to ban municipal broadband networks nationally. HR 2726 (ironically named "Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005") would give the local phone company veto power over any municipal projects they don't like. They'll do anything to stifle competition. I guess when the markets just don't work for you, run to the legislature and get your lobbying machine in gear.
I checked Representative Session's bio and it reads in part:[] Congressman Sessions joined Southwestern Bell Telephone Company after graduating from Southwestern University. Over the next 16 years, he served at the internationally renowned Bell Labs in New Jersey and as District Manager for Marketing in Dallas. Thanks to this private sector experience, Congressman Sessions understands the need to fight bureaucracy and to utilize market-driven solutions to effectively solve problems in our communities and in government. []

"A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both."

Friday, June 3

cold, metal reality

http://worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/wawjune2005.html#execsum

http://www.fas.org/main/content.jsp?formAction=297&contentId=367

http://www.alternet.org/story/21827/

the Long Emergency

This (2005) book was written by the geographer and novelist James Howard Kuntsler. I've read this over the last week, and wether we wanna admit (any) moral or ethical weaknesses in the gay march of capitalism, the book rocks ones socks. Consensus on climate change is a done deal. Scary, intelligent and sobering, this book. How much is fiction? Be here now, indeed.

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/21737/

Fun Excerpts from the book!!
"What one ..saw in the 1980's and 1990's was the commoditization..of public goods into private luxuries, the impoverishment of the civic realm, and, to put it bluntly, the rape of the landscape--a vast entropic enterprise that was the culminating phase of suburbia. The dirty secret of the American economy in the 1990's was the that it was no longer about anything except the creation of suburban sprawl and the furnishing, accessorizing and financing of it. It resembled the efficiency of cancer.....Americans didn't question the validity of the suburban sprawl economy. They accepted it at face value as the obvious logical outcome of their hopes and dreams and defended it viciously against criticism. They steadfastly ignored its salient characteristic; that it had no future either as an economy or as a living arrangement."
"A hundred years ago , just before the introduction of fossil-fuel based technologies, more than 30 percent of the American population was engaged in farming. Now that figure is 1.6 percent. The issue is not moral, academic, or aesthetic. Rather it's a matter of those ratios being made possible only because cheap oil and automation made up for so much human labor."
"To put it simply, Americans have been eating oil and natural gas for the past century, at an ever-accelerating pace. Without the massive "inputs" of cheap gasoline and diesel fuel for machines, irrigation, and trucking, or petroleum-based herbicides and pesticides, or fertilzers made out of natural gas, Americans will be compelled to radically reoganize the way food is produced , or starve."
"(The result) could be years of collective paralysis, indecision, and cognitive dissonance, culminating in social upheaval."

and in support:

http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=mj05cavallo

http://www.grist.org/advice/books/2005/06/07/weeks-beyondoil/index.html?source=weekly

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050627/reaching_the_saudi_peak.php

from the National Conservative Weekly...

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7591

he said it

Few people think more than two or three times a year. I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week - George Bernard Shaw

walmart

http://www.alternet.org/story/22128/

Move Over, Beans

New California Climate Initiative Trumps Bush Administration

http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000270.php

Thursday, June 2

Union of Concerned Scientists

An Awesome source of info and knowledge anyone can use....

http://www.ucsusa.org/index.cfm

(nudge) http://www.globalgreen.org/pledge/

skin deep

http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep/

More numbers than you can possibly...

http://www.worldometers.info/

Richard Florida interview/article

The Flight From America
By Lakshmi Chaudhry, AlterNet. Posted May 31, 2005.
Richard Florida's new book warns that an isolated and hostile post-9/11 America may find itself on the losing end of the global competition for the ultimate economic prize: creative talent.

We believe, at the highest level, that our military power will save us, but it won't and it can't. I think that this world, like you said, is a much more multi-centered, multi-polar world where people no longer have this one choice, America, in terms of where to live. And the other thing is that because we're a big and somewhat isolated and insulated country, they tend to say: Well, if some Indian people, Asian people, Europeans don't come here, that's fine; we're a big country. No one understands that creative talent is now spread completely around the world.

What I fear is that this creative impetus can migrate globally. It's not likely to migrate back to communities in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma City, or Tulsa. These places are no longer are competing against San Francisco and Boston, and Austin and Seattle. They're competing with Sydney, and Melbourne, Vancouver, Toronto, Dublin, Amsterdam, Stockholm. We keep looking at our great creative advantages as invincible when we have rates of housing affordability and income, inequality we haven't seen since the Great Depression.
People like my grandparents or like you came to the United States -- even 20 years ago -- saying this is the place where I want to be. Now the United States is no longer that place. That's the important thing.

http://www.alternet.org/story/22104/

in the beginning...

JW; in the interest of fostering discussion, answering wild queries with kooky explanations, and otherwise confounding the status quo; does birth this 'blog' herein the 1st of June, 2005. Let it be no more shadowy vapors, pregnant silences or warty toads; this enterprise.
1. Beth and Jesse want to move overseas.
2. They've thought, talked among themselves, researched, hemmed and hawed, known when to fold 'em, and are now all in for New Zealand!
3. There are too many reasons to list, and that is why we might gather around this campfire.
4. Quite simply, our rationale[to follow] can be perceived both positively and negatively (as can the American way of life, Spam, or cologne) sometimes even simultaneously. Yet another reason to klatsch!

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be - Kurt Vonnegut