350 quotations, poems, essays, and prayers in celebration of loving and caring for the good earth.
Monthly Archives: March 2010
Book Review: Prime-Time Health
An excellent resource filled with valuable health tips for men and women over fifty who are in a prevent mind-set or repair mode and want to live a longer life.
Book Excerpt: Aspire
Kevin Hall on those who inspire and encourage as great givers and appreciators.
Book Review: Aspire
An unusual and appealing uncovering of the hidden and often very revealing meanings of words.
Book Review: The Moral Underground
A hard-hitting account of the wage-poor middle-class and lower-income families and those willing to bend the rules at work to help them out.
Book Review: The We Generation
Wise advice for parents on how to nurture connections and compassion in the lives of their children.
Book Excerpt: A Mystic Garden
Gunilla Norris on finding spiritual meaning in gardening.
Book Excerpt: Let Go, Move On
Venerable Master Hsing Yin on being grateful for the generosity of others.
Rightwing Human Rights supporters come to the defense of Amnesty International’s Gita Sahgal
Amnesty Board member suspended for opposing the Taliban
by James Fryar, Australia
Amnesty International sounded like a great idea when I first heard of it. Their ideal of supporting he release and rights of political prisoners worldwide sounded like a really worthy cause way back. It still would be but unfortunately Amnesty turned out to be more driven by leftist politics and grandstanding towards that end, rather than being a crusading group determined to stand up to oppression regardless of who was carrying it out, or their ideology.
It became blindingly obvious that the organization was agenda driven when despite the horrors being committed by the communist block and its allies, it preferred to look for its villains in the West especially the US. I guess if you are going to take on governments, its safer to pick those with a strong ideal of due process.
Now, the head of Amnesty International unit for Women's Rights, Gita Sahgal, has been suspended by the group, for opposing the alliance of the group with a top Taliban supporter in the UK Moazzam Begg. Begg is the “jihadi” group, Cageprisoners based on supporting the Guantanamo prisoners, of whom he was a member until 2005 after being picked up in Pakistan in the wake of the Afghan invasion.
Amnesty turns a blind eye to brutality of the Taliban
Sahgal in an interview with NPR commented:
[Begg supports] an international caliphate, yes, and they believe in systematic discrimination. Both gender discrimination, discrimination against religious minorities, they're anti-Semitic. You know, on various counts, they would not be considered good partners for human rights organization...
I had a flourishing career. I love my job. But I don't feel safe at Amnesty International when it has thrown a protective cover around Moazzam Begg.
Treatment of women in Islamic countries varies from place to place, however the Taliban regime were deplorable and probably one of the worst.
Ms. Sahgal states that only accepted her job at AI after insisting to Widney Brown, senior director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty, that she be allowed to address their alliance with Begg and his group. It would be difficult for any serious supporter of women’s rights to accept an alliance with such a misogynistic group as the Taliban or their supporters.
Her biggest supporters are now on the libertarian and conservative Right: The Left has abandoned her
It is interesting to observe that the only real support she is receiving at present seems to be coming from human rights advocates on the right such as Libertarian Republicans in the U.S., right blogger Bob Brockley of south London who opposes the anti semites and Stalinists of the UK, and conservative columnist Mona Charen.
The left over recent years have increasingly allied themselves with radical Islam, possibly because as collectivists they share a hatred of such Western values as liberty, individualism, free market capitalism. They are also swayed by the old adage, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” after all anyone who burns George Bush (or Tony Blair) in effigy must, in their opinion, share their values.
Editor's Note - James Fryar is an oil field worker living in south central Australia. He's a member of the Australian Libertarian Society. His blog is Real World Libertarian.
Pelosi says she now shares Tea Party "common values": Her GOP opponent John Dennis having an impact?
"The voices of the free market are going to stand up and fight for what it takes to preserve what this Republic is all about." -- John Dennis, Republican candidate for Congress, California CD 5
From Eric Dondero:
John Dennis is the the Republican nominee for US Congress against Nancy Pelosi. In over two decades in Congress, Pelosi has not yet faced a serious challenger. But in an increasingly favorable GOP year, even Pelosi's seat is starting to look a little soft for the Democrats.
So far, Dennis has been running a largely grass-roots oriented "stealth" campaign. But his extensive precinct walking, and door knocking maybe be eginning to have an impact.
Incredibly, over the weekend this news broke, from ABC News (via Memeo):
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has much in common with the Tea Party. The speaker now says she shares views with movement she dismissed last summer as being “Astroturf” -- her suggestion that the grassroots of the Tea Party were a creation of the Republican Party.
In a “This Week” interview with ABC’s Elizabeth Vargas, Pelosi said, “We share some of the views of the Tea Partiers in terms of the role of special interest in Washington, D.C., as -- it just has to stop. And that's why I've fought the special interest, whether it's on energy, whether it's on health insurance, whether it's on pharmaceuticals and the rest.”
In a recent interview with Roger Hedgecok, Dennis said:
When we first started this I have to admit my goals and objectives were more modest than victory in a conventional sense. But back in December we all starting talking in the campaign, ya know, maybe we can do this, maybe we can pull this off. And then, then Scott Brown happened, and um, everything's changed since then.
We have a forumula as to what it's gonna take to defeat Nancy Pelosi, and we're gonna try to execute it.
From his website; Born in Jersey City, the son of a longshoreman, graduate of Fordham Univ. He is the founder of the San Francisco chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus and currently the head of the Campaign for Liberty San Francisco.
John is a board member of the Republican Liberty Caucus California, has served as an alternate on the San Francisco Republican Central Committee and is a member of the National Rifle Association.
Editor's Comment - John Dennis does not share many of the foreign policy objectives of this website, nor of the Pro-Defense Libertarian movement on the whole. (We agree with him 100% on domestic matters!) However, Ms. Pelosi supports pro-defense even less. Given that this is San Francisco, we're willing to put our foreign policy differences aside and fully support Dennis for Congress!
Republican Liberty Caucus endorses Jessica Puente-Bradshaw for Congress – Texas CD 27
From Eric Dondero:
The day before Primary Day here in Texas. Over the weekend, the TX Republican Liberty Caucus released their list of endorsed candidates. Many standard names of Liberty-supporting Republicans are on the list. (See list at RLC.org). But a last minute addition was made: Jessica Puente-Bradshaw. She is running for the Solomon Ortiz seat, on the Texas Gulf Coast, from Corpus Christi to Brownsville. (District immediately south of Ron Paul's CD-14).
Ms. Puente-Bradshaw is of course, a favorite of this web site. (We first covered her weeks ago here at LR.) She is a "Tea Party gal." She can be seen in these two photos at the Tea Party protest in Brownsville, (right on the Mexican border), back in July.
A sampling of her top stances:
* Free Enterprise: I believe the government has interfered enough in our economy. From the printing of money, mortgage crisis, and exploding deficit, the Obama administration will not fix a struggling economy with more and more debt. Our country's economy IS resilient and can come back to better than expected levels. Congress, get out of the way and let free markets take the lead.
* Border Security: we have been walking a fine line between the need for border control and the idea of racism. Enough! I PLEDGE to work to make REAL immigration reform. I will not allow the left guilt our country into lax border security that puts us all in danger. As a Hispanic woman who was raised in the border town of Brownsville, I have first hand knowledge of the importance of border safety. It is not about racism, it is about safety!
* Health Care: Controlling 16% of an economy by the federal government, and closed door sessions are a clear indication that the Health Care bill is nothing more than a nefarious desire by an administration to control the people. I pledge that while in congress, I will work with other conservative legislators to REPEAL, REPEAL and REPEAL!
Of particular note, immediately upon learning of the endorsement Jessica posted the RLC-backing announcement on the home page of her campaign website.
She faces two other opponents tomorrow.
All the best Jessica, y mucha suerte! from your friends in the Libertarian Republican movement.
NeoNazi skinheads join Muslim march on Paris against French Jews
On the Boulevard in front of the world famous Louvre'
From Eric Dondero:
Jesse Petrilla an associate of the United American Committee, filmed this while on a trip to Paris in mid-January.
3 jackbooted NeoNazi skinheads are clearly visible marching in front of the rally. A girl in a black coat joins them for a brief instant.
Hezbollah flags are seen throughout the rally. A banner is unfurled in support of Jihadists fighting against the Iraqi government. Towards the end of the video a Jewish Star of David flag is burned by the demonstrators.
Demonstrators are chanting "Khaibar Khaibar ya yahud, jaish Muhammed sa-ya'ud" translated from Arabic meaning genocide for the Jews, "slaughter and beheadings."
Out of the Cap-and-Trade Frying Pan, …
Three key senators are engaged in a radical behind-the-scenes overhaul of climate legislation, preparing to jettison the broad "cap-and-trade" approach that has defined the legislative debate for close to a decade. ...
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) ... , Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) ... plan to introduce legislation next month that would apply different carbon controls to individual sectors of the economy instead of setting a national target.
It is hard to imagine a worse policy than the Cap-and-Trade program being kicked around Congress, but this new proposal fits the bill.
For all its problems, CAT at least allows markets to price the permits, which means economic considerations determine who emits more or less carbon (given the number of permits).
The command-and-control system being suggested by Graham et al. means politics, not costs and benefits, will determine who gets to emit carbon. Another victory for crony capitalism.
Time-energy correlations in solar flare occurrence
Authors: E. Lippiello, L. de Arcangelis and C. Godano.<br />Astronomy and Astrophysics Vol. 511 , page L2<br />Published online: 09/02/2010<br />
Keywords:
Sun: flares ; methods: data analysis .
NCBI ROFL: Are birds smarter than mathematicians? Pigeons perform optimally on a version of the Monty Hall Dilemma. | Discoblog
“The “Monty Hall Dilemma” (MHD) is a well known probability puzzle in which a player tries to guess which of three doors conceals a desirable prize. After an initial choice is made, one of the remaining doors is opened, revealing no prize. The player is then given the option of staying with their initial guess or switching to the other unopened door. Most people opt to stay with their initial guess, despite the fact that switching doubles the probability of winning. A series of experiments investigated whether pigeons (Columba livia), like most humans, would fail to maximize their expected winnings in a version of the MHD. Birds completed multiple trials of a standard MHD, with the three response keys in an operant chamber serving as the three doors and access to mixed grain as the prize. Across experiments, the probability of gaining reinforcement for switching and staying was manipulated, and birds adjusted their probability of switching and staying to approximate the optimal strategy. Replication of the procedure with human participants showed that humans failed to adopt optimal strategies, even with extensive training.”
Thanks to Rebecca for today’s ROFL!
Image: flickr/Let_Ideas_Compete
Related content:
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Bonus double feature: pigeons vs. grad students, it’s a tie!
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Sorry Tommy, even this pigeon thinks your painting sucks
Gore vital | Bad Astronomy
I know mentioning Al Gore, let alone linking to him, is like throwing red meat into the pit of denialists, but Gore’s Op Ed in today’s New York Times is really quite good. I wonder if he reads my blog? He hits a lot of the points I have the past few days… though he doesn’t mention the troglodytes in the South Dakota and Utah legislative bodies.
The only point he makes I’m not sure about is the capping of carbon emissions, simply because I haven’t looked into the issue. One more thing on my to-do list.
Anyway, I will be much amused, I’m sure in a schadenfreudelicious sort of way, about the comments that will ensue below. I know! Let’s make it a game! Score ten points for every comment that makes fun of "Inconvenient Truth" without addressing the content of the Op Ed, 20 points for anyone who clearly didn’t read the Op Ed but comments anyway, 30 points for a comment thoroughly rebutted by science (either previously known or pointed out in a subsequent comment) but ignored by the commenter, and 100 points for someone who comments making fun of Gore’s name. First person to 1000 points wins!
What do you win? A planet 1° Fahrenheit warmer than it was a century ago! Hurray!
Night Business Kiss | The Intersection
This week’s addition to The Science of Kissing Gallery features the first comic book! This kiss was drawn by artist Benjamin Marra and appears in Night Business. He writes:
In this particular scene we have Leonard Masterson, boyfriend to one of the main characters and soap-opera actor, on the set of his soap “The Lives We Live,” kissing his costar, while taping an episode.
Check out more of Marra’s fantastic artwork here. My personal favorite is the fold-out featured in Rolling Stone.
Submit your photograph or artwork to the Science of Kissing Gallery and remember to include relevant links.
Light The Halls With LEDs
More than twice as efficient as compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), light emitting diodes (LEDs) are steadily creating a new standard for green lighting. Once limited to traffic lights, Christmas lights, and scoreboards, LEDs are quickly becoming an attractive alternative to traditional lightin
Topeka, Kansas Changes Name in Attempt to Get Google’s Gigabit Fiber [Google]
Bill Bunten is the mayor Google, Kansas—formerly known as Topeka, Kansas. He signed a proclamation temporarily renaming the city in an effort to convince Google to make Topeka a test site for a gigabit fiber Internet connection.
According to Bunten, he hopes that changing the city's name for the entire month of March "would set Topeka apart from other cities vying for Google's attention, which include Grand Rapids, Mich., and Baton Rouge, La."
Ah well, do whatever it takes, Bunten. It's not like this is Topeka's first peculiar name change, anyway. In 1998, the city was renamed "to "ToPikachu" to honor a nationwide kickoff of the Pokemon franchise. [CJ Online]
Gizmodo’s #tips Box: Ghosts, Lego Models, and Torture Devices [Comments]
Oh, this weird box at the center top still baffles people. Is it where you search? Is it where you submit blackmail? What sort of comments go in there? Find out in this week's edition of Gizmodo's Tips Box.
Of course tips aren't the only thing you can submit through that box since it leads you to the wonderful land of tag pages, but let's focus on the hot-hot-hot tips that came in through it this week, shall we?
We got introduced to something oddly tasty looking called the BatterBlaster by mhsrebelguy06. (Warning; Some sound plays automatically on the linked site.) Speaking of mhsrebelguy06, he also taught us about how women are amazing firewalls.
We also got to see a neat infographic shared by dfp3050 that breaks down spending and religious beliefs.
Our dear otko decided to be funny and give us a $5 tip. (I haven't received a check yet, buddy!)
CrispyAardvark has found some rather neat Lego models by 15-year-old Sven Junga:
ochee_ found weird contraptions that made me want to hug all the world's children and promise them that I won't ever shove them into one of these torture devices disguised as freaky art:
Oh, and this week there were a ton of videos dropped into #tips. Here are a few amusing-yet-far-too-weird ones:
That's some of the craziness that we've sifted through this week, but we encourage you to add to it—both silly things and serious tips.
We're proud of our comment system and commenter community. In fact, many of our posts come from items submitted to our #tips box. Gizmodo's Tips Box is a regular feature to show the funny, scary, and freaky things we just couldn't post, but want to share.
