Monthly Archives: May 2011

fascism

Is America evolving into a Fascist country? 8

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First of all, let’s define Fascism.  According to Wikipedia which, due to their large eclectic environment of editors, is one of the more reliable, non-biased sites. Fascism is:

… a radical, authoritarian nationalist political ideology.  Fascists advocate the creation of a totalitarian single-party state that seeks the mass mobilization of a nation through indoctrination, physical education, and family policy including eugenics. Fascists seek to purge forces and ideas deemed to be the cause of decadence and degeneration and produce their nation’s rebirth based on commitment to the national community based on organic unity where individuals are bound together by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood. Fascists believe that a nation requires strong leadership, singular collective identity, and the will and ability to commit violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong. Fascist governments forbid and suppress opposition to the state.

Fascists promote violence and war as actions that create national regeneration, spirit and vitality. Fascists exalt militarism as providing positive transformation in society, in providing spiritual renovation, education, instilling of a will to dominate in people’s character, and creating national comradeship through military service.

Fascism is anti-communist, anti-democratic, anti-individualist, anti-liberal, anti-parliamentary, anti-bourgeois, anti-proletarian and anti-conservative. It entails a distinctive type of anti-capitalism and is typically, with a few exceptions, anticlerical Fascism rejects the concepts of egalitarianism, materialism, and rationalism in favour of action, discipline, hierarchy, spirit, and will. In economics, fascists oppose liberalism (as a bourgeois movement) and Marxism (as a proletarian movement) for being exclusive economic class-based movements. Fascists present their ideology as that of an economically trans-class movement that promotes resolving economic class conflict to secure national solidarity. They support a regulated, multi-class, integrated national economic system.

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Now, having defined what fascism is, here are 14 defining characteristics of fascism, according to Dr. Lawrence Britt who has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes.  I found this rather unsettling as there are several characteristics I am seeing within our own country.  I do not want to point them out as I would rather have you, as the reader, determine if you see the same similarities that I do, without “guiding” you to them:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights – Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military – Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism – The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media – Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security – Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts – Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections – Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

I found this rather unnerving.

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Source

About these ads

Did you know that the internet automatically filters your search results? Reply

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Google, Facebook, amongst many other sites auto-filter your search results. Although this may be appealing to many people, myself amid a significant percentage of other internet searchers, prefer a myriad of results. Ideally, I want to see both sides of the issue if I am searching for an item in the news. Not just conservative, or not just liberal viewpoints. Or primarily mainstream news sites, as they themselves filter the news.

In this video by TED, you will see how the same search for “Egypt” resulted in quite different results.

 

Germany to shut down nuclear reactors by 2022 Reply

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Angela Merkel has committed to shutting down all of the country’s nuclear reactors by 2022, a task said by one minister to be as mammoth as the project to reunite East and West Germany in 1990.

Monday’s announcement, prompted by Japan’s nuclear disaster, will make Germany the first major industrialised nation to go nuclear-free in decades. It gives the country just over 10 years to find alternative sources for 23% of its energy.

The move, hammered out at a mammoth 14-hour overnight sitting at the Bundestag, came amid mass nationwide protests against nuclear power and at a low point for the chancellor’s Christian Democratic party (CDU), support for which has crumbled at the ballot box in five regional elections this year.

Although the proposal was welcomed among the general population, who have long been opposed to nuclear power, it was a move derided by one of Merkel’s own MPs as “knee-jerk politics”.

The plan is to keep shut eight reactors which were suspended in March in the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, and to close the rest by 2022.

The phase-out must be ratified in parliament and is likely to face strong opposition from utility companies. On Monday a spokesman for the energy giant RWE said that “all legal options” were on the table.

 

Last week, grid operators warned the phase-out could result in winter blackouts – a prospect Merkel scoffed at . She insisted the decision would not lead to Germany simply importing nuclear power.

“We will generate our own electricity from other sources,” the chancellor told a press conference in Berlin. She said the plans would give Germany a chance to be a “trailblazer” for renewable energy, suggesting it could eventually earn, rather than cost, the country money.

Energy firms warned that the decision – a total policy reversal – would require significant investment in energy infrastructure. Philipp Rösler, new head of the FDP party, which rules in coalition with the CDU, agreed, likening the task ahead to that which faced Germany in 1990 after reunification. A study in 2009 showed that €1.3 trillion (£1.1tn) had been transferred from the West to rebuild the East.

This comparison was also made in an editorial by the left-leaning Tageszeitung newspaper on Monday, which said Merkel’s decision was “historic” and “a moment like the fall of the Berlin Wall”.

The government’s vocabulary seemed to consciously echo the reunification process, with Merkel heralding an “Energie-Wende” – “die Wende” is the word for change which became shorthand for the fall of communism and reunification.

Die Welt, a conservative daily, said the policy U-turn demonstrated a “creeping rejection of the economic model which has transformed Germany into one of the richest countries in the world”.

The French poured scorn on Germany’s decision. “Germany will be even more dependent on fossil fuels and imports and its electricity will be more expensive and polluting,” said the French industry minister, Éric Besson. German households pay twice as much for power than homes in France, where 80% of electricity comes from atomic plants, he said.

Germany last year was a net exporter of power to France, according to data from the French grid operator, RTE. This trend was reversed last month after the accident at Fukushima and Merkel’s decision to halt Germany’s oldest reactors.

“Germany’s energy policy will only work if there are improvements at the same time,” the EU energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger, said on Monday.

He said there was a need for better grid infrastructure, storage capacity and forward planning as well as a more pronounced rise in renewable supply.

Germany plans to cut electricity usage by 10% and double the share of renewable energy to 25% by 2020.

Merkel first mooted an accelerated exit from nuclear power within days of the Fukushima meltdown, ordering a three-month “moratorium” during which nuclear power could be debated.

It was a remarkable U-turn. In September 2010, she had committed to extending the lives of Germany’s 17 nuclear plants.

Many of her party are unhappy with her handling of the situation.

“Knee-jerk politics like the reaction to Fukushima does not pay dividends,” said Mike Mohring, the head of the CDU faction in the Thuringian state parliament, last week.

Among other G8 nations, only Italy has abandoned nuclear power.

Article from The Guardian

Incredible water-spout footage off of New South Wales coast of Australia Reply

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Waterspouts fall into two categories: fair weather waterspouts and tornadic waterspouts.

Tornadic waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water, or move from land to water. They have the same characteristics as a land tornado. They are associated with severe thunderstorms, and are often accompanied by high winds and seas, large hail, and frequent dangerous lightning.

Fair weather waterspouts usually form along the dark flat base of a line of developing cumulus clouds. This type of waterspout is generally not associated with thunderstorms. While tornadic waterspouts develop downward in a thunderstorm, a fair weather waterspout develops on the surface of the water and works its way upward. By the time the funnel is visible, a fair weather waterspout is near maturity. Fair weather waterspouts form in light wind conditions so they normally move very little.

If a waterspout moves onshore, the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning, as some of them can cause significant damage and injuries to people. Typically, fair weather waterspouts dissipate rapidly when they make landfall, and rarely penetrate far inland.

Information from National Ocean Service website

Adam Kokesh (TV/Radio host) body slammed & arrested at Jefferson Memorial in DC because dancing is illegal Reply

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On May 28, 2011 Television host Adam Kokesh and several other activists participating in a flash-mob were arrested at the publicly-funded Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Their crime? Silently dancing, in celebration of the first amendment’s champion; a clear violation of their right to free-expression. In an excessive use of force, video was captured of Adam being body slammed and placed in a choke for his non-crime.  Watch the arrest in the following video taken by Adam…

Source from Adam Vs The Man website

Adam Kokesh

Adam Charles Kokesh (born February 1, 1982) is an American activist and talk radio host. Kokesh was a Corporal in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and is a veteran of the Iraq War. He is an outspoken opponent of the U.S. military intervention in Iraq and has received media attention related to anti-war protest activities.

Adam enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1999. In 2004, he served in Fallujah. Working a checkpoint was a responsibility while in Iraq. He brought home a pistol from Iraq in 2004, violating military rules, and preventing him from returning on a second Iraq tour. Kokesh “had risen to the rank of sergeant after three-and-a-half years in the Reserves” and “was demoted to corporal and soon thereafter discharged honorably with a re-enlistment code that basically said, ‘you can’t re-enlist.’” Having experienced combat in Fallujah, Kokesh received the Combat Action Ribbon and the Navy Commendation Medal after his honorable discharge from active duty.

After his discharge, and during a March 19, 2007, protest he attended, Kokesh was in the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR); a superior officer identified him in a photo caption in the Washington Post. On “March 29, a Marine major sent him an e-mail to tell him he was being investigated for misconduct by appearing at a political event in uniform. Kokesh responded, telling the major what he thought” and used an expletive in his reply, resulting in an additional misconduct charge. The charges were “brought under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which applies only to service members”, confusing some veterans and lawyers.

In May 2007, a hearing was convened to consider changing Kokesh’s military discharge from “honorable” to “other than honorable” on two points: “Disrespect toward a Superior Commissioned Officer”, and violating “Wearing of the uniform” regulation. The panel recommended Kokesh be given a “general discharge under honorable conditions”,a discharge status below “honorable”, and above “other than honorable.”  Kokesh appealed the decision, and was denied.

Protest Activities

 After returning from Iraq, Kokesh resumed his studies and completed his bachelor’s degree in psychology at Claremont McKenna College. In February 2007, Kokesh became an active participant in the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). On March 19, 2007, to mark the 4th anniversary of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Kokesh and 12 other Iraq Veterans Against the War members participated in an occupation-like mock patrol of Washington D.C. Kokesh first came to national attention after he was interviewed on CNN and his photograph appeared in newspapers throughout the country, including the front page of the Los Angeles Times at a protest during Alberto Gonzales‘s testimony to Congress regarding the dismissal of U.S. attorneys.  Kokesh, wearing his Marine Corps Boonie hat, held up a large sign counting the number of times Gonzalez said “I don’t remember” or “I don’t recall” (Kokesh claimed Gonzalez used such phrases 74 times).

In April 2007 Kokesh and a number of other activists were arrested for protesting the Iraq war in the Senate Hart Office Building. Kokesh had performed a ceremony for lost service members using an American flag.

Kokesh enrolled in graduate studies in political management at George Washington University. In October 2007, Kokesh, along with six other students, created controversy by putting up satirical political posters across the university campus. The posters featured a picture of a stereotypical Arab man and the headline “Hate Muslims? So do we!!!”, with illustrative captions explaining that the typical Muslim is equipped with a venom-spouting mouth, laser-shooting eyes, and hidden AK-47:s, among other parodical features. The poster was signed “Students for Conservativo-Fascism Awareness”, and encouraged students to visit the right-wing website terrorismawareness.org. Kokesh and the six other students publicly admitted to responsibility amidst accusations that the poster was Islamophobic, maintaining that their intent was to spread awareness of what they considered to be the overtly racist intentions of the above-mentioned website’s “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” organized by a conservative student organization and featuring David Horowitz.

On September 2, 2008, Kokesh spoke at Representative Ron Paul‘s Rally for the Republic in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he stated, “While it is our responsibility now to resist tyranny civily, while we still can, there may come a time when we will say to the powers that be, be it with your blood or ours we have come to water the tree of liberty … who will stand with me?”

On September 4, 2008, Kokesh interrupted Senator John McCain‘s acceptance speech of the GOP nomination for President at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Holding a sign reading “McCain Votes Against Vets” on one side and “You can’t win an occupation” on the other, Kokesh yelled, “Ask him why he votes against vets!” A member of the audience grabbed the sign and tore it in two. Kokesh was released shortly after being detained by local police.

Adam vs The Man

Since July 2010 Kokesh has hosted a talk radio called “Adam vs. The Man.” The program airs weekdays from the studios of 1550 KIVA in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In April 2011 his show was picked up by Russia Today television network (“RT”). Accuracy in Media criticized Kokesh’s appearing on RT, which is funded by the Russian government, saying RT uses Americans like Kokesh to make propaganda points.

Information on Adam Kokesh provided via Wikipedia

Gil Scott-Heron “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, died Friday, May 27th, 2011 Reply

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About Gil

Gilbert “Gil” Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011) was an American poet, musician, and author known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and 80s, and for his collaborative soul works with musician Brian Jackson. His collaborative efforts with Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues and soul music, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. The music of these albums, most notably Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. Scott-Heron’s recording work is often associated with black militant activism and has received much critical acclaim for one of his most well-known compositions “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”. His poetic style has been influential upon every generation of hip hop since his popularity began. In addition to being widely considered an influence in today’s music, Scott-Heron remained active until his death, and in 2010 released his first new album in 16 years, entitled I’m New Here.

Gil Scott-Heron was born in Chicago, IL His mother, Bobbie Scott-Heron, sang with the New York Oratorio Society. Scott-Heron’s Jamaican father, Gil Heron, nicknamed “The Black Arrow”, was a soccer player who, in the 1950s, became the first black athlete to play for Glasgow Celtic Football Club in Scotland.

The music of Scott-Heron’s work during the 1970s influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. He has been described by music writers as “the godfather of rap” and “the black Bob Dylan”.

Influence

Scott-Heron’s influence over hip-hop is primarily exemplified by his definitive single “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” sentiments from which have been explored by various rappers, including Aesop Rock, Talib Kweli and Common. In addition to his vocal style, Scott-Heron’s indirect contributions to rap music extend to his and co-producer Brian Jackson’s compositions, which have been sampled by various hip-hop artists; among the most notable is rapper/producer Kanye West, who has sampled Scott-Heron and Jackson’s “Home is Where the Hatred Is” and “We Almost Lost Detroit” for his song “My Way Home” and the single “The People,” respectively, both of which are collaborative efforts between West and Common. Scott-Heron, in turn, has acknowledged West’s contributions, sampling the latter’s 2007 single “Flashing Lights” on his latest album, 2010′s I’m New Here. Scott-Heron admitted ambivalence about his association with rap, remarking in 2010 in an interview for the Daily Swarm, “I don’t know if I can take the blame for it”, referring to rap music. He preferred the moniker of “bluesologist”. Referring to reviews of his last album and references to him as the “godfather of rap”, he said, “It’s something that’s aimed at the kids.” He added, “I have kids, so I listen to it. But I would not say it’s aimed at me. I listen to the jazz station.”

West named Scott-Heron, among others, as a major influence on his own latest offering, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, where portions of his work “Comment #1″ appear on the album. “We Almost Lost Detroit” has also been sampled by Brand Nubian member Grand Puba (“Keep On”), Native Tongues duo Black Star (“Brown Skin Lady”), and underground notable MF DOOM (“Camphor”). Furthermore, Black Star MC Mos Def has sampled Scott-Heron’s “A Legend in His Own Mind” on the Q-Tip-featuring song “Mr. Nigga,” and producer Dr. Dre (some of whose early G-Funk compositions mirror Scott-Heron’s musical style in both texture and sentiment, specifically “Lil’ Ghetto Boy,” which in fact samples Scott-Heron contemporary Donny Hathaway) recorded the song “Blunt Time,” on which former Death Row Records rapper RBX interpolates the opening lyrics from Scott-Heron’s recording “Angel Dust.” In 2000, CeCe Peniston as well used a sample of a Heron’s song (“The Bottle”) while recording her single “My Boo”.

His Death

Scott-Heron died on the afternoon of May 27, 2011, at St. Luke’s Hospital, New York City, after becoming ill upon returning from a European trip. He is survived by daughter, Gia from his marriage to Brenda Sykes. Scott-Heron had confirmed previous press speculation about his health, when he disclosed in a 2008 New York Magazine interview, that he had been HIV-positive for several years, and that he had been previously hospitalized for pneumonia. The cause of Scott-Heron’s death has yet to be announced.

In response, Public Enemy’s Chuck D stated “RIP GSH…and we do what we do and how we do because of you.” on his Twitter account. His UK publisher, Jamie Byng, called him “one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met”.

On hearing of the death, R&B singer Usher stated “I just learned of the loss of a very important poet…R.I.P., Gil Scott-Heron. The revolution will be live!!”. Richard Russel, who produced Scott-Heron’s final studio album, called him a “father figure of sorts to me”.

Eminem stated that “He influenced all of hip-hop”.

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Information provided by Wikipedia

Footage of Spain police beating protesters, over 100 injured Reply

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More than 100 people were injured in Spain as riot police clashed with protesters on Friday, as authorities cleared away a makeshift camp set up as part of a Spain-wide demonstration against the country’s economic problems. The trouble started when police tried to clear the protesters from a main square in Barcelona. Many of the protesters, who are angry about high unemployment, anti-austerity measures and politicians’ handling of the economy, refused to move. Video from a local broadcaster showed officers beating the demonstrators and dragging them on the ground.


Google’s odd search results Reply

All, Lighter side of life, Science & Technology • Tags: , , , , , ,

I’m sure we have all seen the odd drop-down search results that Google will automatically pull up based upon the number of searches previously done on that topic.  So thought I’d have some fun and see what the majority of some searches are…

“Why does….”

So kids being turned on by their mother is occurring enough to be in the top 5 searches?  Are they all named Oedipus?

“Telling someone….”

Is this before or after you have had sex?

“I hate it when I…”

These all made me scratch my head, so I took a peek.  The buying a bag of air is not a poor infomercial purchase, but is referencing a Facebook posting “I hate it when I buy a bag of packaged air and there are chips inside.”  Well, couldn’t you tell when you picked it up that there were no chips in it?  Or when there is very little rustling, there probably are not many in there?  Pick another bag…

The others are all Facebook postings, as well.  I guess they don’t have anything better to do.  Wait… what am I doing?  I’m actually searching this stuff…….  Uhhhh…. on to the next one, then.

“My boss is….”

Okay, no comment.  Next…………

“My husband…”

To all the people who google these items, the next item to google should be “divorce lawyer.”

“My wife has…”

Any husband who is googling borderline personality disorder… just watch your back.

And is there an epidemic of wives having ear infections?

“How to quit…”

Looks like Facebook has reached number 5 in the world of addiction.

“How to grow…”

This comes as no surprise.

“What smells like…”

Ummm… Answers are: skunk, rotten eggs, weed… but the blue paint one?  Why are you asking?

So, there you go.  This was mildly entertaining, but not enough to do it again.

Veterans suffer and die while waiting months, years for their benefits Reply

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Clay Hunt, a Marine sniper, served two combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. When he came home with a Purple Heart and post traumatic stress disorder, Hunt asked the Veterans Administration for help. But getting medical attention was a two-year struggle. On March 31, Hunt committed suicide in his Sugar Land, Texas, apartment. He was 28.

Philip Northcutt, 38, a fellow Marine, saw intense combat in Iraq in 2004 and was wounded. He was diagnosed with PTSD in the field, but he says he was merely given sleeping pills and an anti-depressant and told to keep fighting. When he came home, he struggled to adjust, spending time in jail and becoming homeless before he started receiving disability benefits more than four years later.

When Jordan Towers, 27, came home from Iraq in 2008, the Marine couldn’t escape the feeling that he was on another night patrol in Al Anbar province, and that each step might be his last. He angered easily and snapped at people for no reason. When he called the VA, he was told it would take three months to get an appointment. He was diagnosed with PTSD a year later, but six months after the diagnosis he is still waiting to hear whether his claim for disability benefits will be approved.

The stories of Hunt, Northcutt and Towers are not unique. Similar allegations are leveled in a lawsuit against the Veterans Administration filed by two veterans groups that argue delays in the process of evaluating and treating returning veterans with mental health problems are systematic.

On May 10, a federal appeals court judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, ordering the VA to drastically overhaul its mental health care system and accusing it of “unchecked incompetence.”

Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, which filed the lawsuit against the VA along with Veterans United for Truth, said there are more than 1 million veterans currently awaiting decisions on disability claims.

Meanwhile, Susan Selke recently received a letter from the VA approving an increase in her son Clay Hunt’s disability benefits.

It arrived five weeks after his death.

Source with full article

When are we going to start taking proper care of our veterans? I may not be a full-supporter of our wars, as I feel there is more going on than is told. My contempt for these wars does not change the fact that these soldiers are the people that risk their lives every day while they walk on foreign soils, following orders from their peers. Members of our government, congress, senate, etc. all receive immediate medical care at the first sign of a sniffle, while those that dedicated their actual being sit on the sidelines discarded like a piece of roadside trash.

Our values and priorities have become severely skewed with our government. Many of our elected officials bow down to the “man behind the curtain”, such as the big oil companies… the Koch Brothers… funding hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, in donations and lobbying.

While veterans like Clay Hunt take their own lives…. Will this senseless suffering ever stop? Not while “man behind the curtain” is in control.

The Federal Courts may have ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but I have little faith we will see any change. I hope I am wrong.

Joplin MO: Receipt traveled from tornado all the way to Indiana Reply

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More than doubles previous record from 1915 Kansas tornado

Found in town of my ol’ alma mater, Purdue University.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — An Indiana couple discovered a receipt that may have blown 525 miles from Joplin, Mo., to their porch — the longest recorded journey of debris from a tornado.

Tia Fritz contacted Ernest Agee, a Purdue University professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and tornado expert, when she and her husband discovered a receipt dated May 13 from Joplin Tire on the porch of their Royal Center, Indiana, home on Wednesday (May 25). Royal Center is in north central Indiana about 45 miles from Lafayette.

“This paper traveled more than twice as far as the longest distance recorded for debris from a storm,” said Agee, who now has the receipt. “The previous record was a cancelled check that traveled 210 miles after the 1915 tornado in Great Bend, Kansas.

The distance paper travels is directly proportional to the intensity of the tornado. This paper’s journey is a testament to the strength of the EF5 tornado that struck Joplin and what that city went through.”

In order to reach Indiana, the receipt, which was folded into one-quarter of its original size, would have to have been sucked into the tornado and then carried by the jet stream for 12.5 hours, according to Agee’s estimates using wind speeds and the distance traveled. It is not known exactly how long the receipt was on the porch before it was discovered.

The devastating tornado destroyed nearly one-third of Joplin and killed more than 132 people in the city of more than 50,000. The tornado is considered the deadliest to hit the United States in 65 years.

Source

2011 Year of the Cicadas: Cicada Recipes Reply

All, Environmental, Lighter side of life • Tags: , , , , ,

With 2011 being the year of the 13-year Cicada in the south, it reminds me of the summer of 1987.

I was water-ski instructor, camp counselor up in Decatur MI at Lake of the Woods.  That was also the summer of the 17-year Brood X Cicada.  During the last part of my summer there, the trees literally roared with their “singing”, and the shells crunched underfoot as we walked across the lawn and fields.

So, in honor of this years emergence of the 13-year Cicada, thought I would post some recipes found online:

And we must not forget dessert:

Photobucket

Enjoy!

Courtesy of this site

Women in China, and a school for women on marrying a billionaire Reply

All, For the Women, News: International, She speaks... • Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

 

I just finished watching this video uploaded by Al Jazeera regarding a school in China for women which teaches girls the skills to win the heart of wealthy men. This report is not what really bothered me, it was the majority of the responses given. Here are a few examples (and I’m ignoring the trolls):

I hate gold diggers >.<

I like how china is trying to become like the next america

They just simply sell themselves for Money and that will not have a good end i am sure.

Just more evidence that women want money, not happiness or love.. just throw money at them and they’re all yours…… until it runs out.

A fool and his (or her) money will soon part. That $46/hr could be better spent than on a scam like this.

this is sick….

iam sure everyones parents would want their daughters to marry rich people,its completely different dude,the chinese girls are gold diggers!

Everyone is quick to be a critic, but not move to make any changes. Plus the ignorance in these replies is simply overwhelming. Personally, this school is a very smart decision upon the founders only because of the circumstances the women in China face from the day they were born until the day they die.

It is a survival move….

Because of a Confucian tradition, boys have always been valued more than girls. Males carry on the family name, are considered better workers, receive higher wages and are viewed as the parents’ insurance during old age. When parents are restricted to having only one child, they much prefer that it be a baby boy.

The People’s Republic of China is a totalitarian state. The Communist Party is the only political entity allowed to exist within its borders. Because of this fact, much of the information on women’s rights can be classified as secret. Many statistics on kidnapping and the trafficking in girls and women, induced abortions, sterilizations, infanticides and other human rights violations are unknown.

Statistics from China are sketchy at best. They purposely remain cut off from the western world in order to minimize our influence over their people. And those statistics that do make it out of China are most likely skewed to reflect more reform for women than what is actually occurring. I have found various statistics throughout the past 15 years, and they all follow the same trend.

Illiteracy is predominant amongst women. As much as 70% of the illiterate are women during recent years.

Only slightly more than a third of college students are women. Even less go on to graduate school.

On average, women were paid only 70-80 percent of what men received for the same work. Most women employed in industry work in lower skilled and lower paid jobs.

With the one-child-per-couple law, there are still gender-based abortions occurring. Factually, men have a better life in China than women. It is also part of Chinese tradition for the children to care for their parents during their elderly years. Parents will have more security knowing a son is more apt to care for them than a daughter. This may be harsh, but the truth does not change the facts of survival.

So what is a woman to do in China? They are fighting for more equal rights, but they have thousands of years of traditional to battle against. Progress will be slow. In the meantime, each person, each family must survive. With all these cards stacked up against women, then seeking a wealthy husband is a reasonable solution. Parents will gladly pay for their daughters “education” if this helps ensure they will be taken care of by their wealthy son-in-law.

Cannot say that I blame them.

Womens Rights in China may be on the rise, but they still have a long way to go.

And for those fools who posted such ignorant comments… You are (obviously) on the internet. Crawl out from under your rock and start googling and learning. The world is at your fingertips.

I have my own saying, “Ignorance is not bliss when someone elses ignorance interferes with my bliss.”

Oklahoma tornado footage up very close Reply

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Absolutely incredible footage. First they put it in reverse to get away from the funnel, then they start driving driving parallel to it.

From Holy Tornado:

After coming really close to a giant wedge tornado in Lookeba Oklahoma, Holy Tornado then raced south to Chickasha were we once again got our visual of the mesocyclone just of to our southwest. Before this thing had condensed all the way to the ground, you could see the concentrated area where the funnel was about to emerge from the meso. It seemed like there was just a cloud of debris on the ground underneath this meso forever until it had finally fully condensed. Thereafter as the twister gets closer, it intensifies dramatically right outside Jeremy’s window. Shortly after this, you see it hit several homes in a small community and also hits a trailor house and lofts it out the back of the twister. We immediately start searching through rubble and debris. Fortunately, nobody that we know so far has been reported dead from this area although there were some injuries. May god be with the families that were effected by this and may the recovery process get underway fast and be quickly completed.

Another video from Holy Tornado:


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Other footage of the recent tornados:


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This video gives me the chills as you can first hear the warning sirens, then the crashing as the tornado hits the building – thankfully they’re in a basement


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TornadoVideosdotnet

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TornadoVideosdotnet – Just wait until about 1:16 into the video… footage up close

While My Guitar Gently Weeps Reply

All, Lighter side of life • Tags: , , ,

George Harrison, While My Guitar Gently Weeps

From Wikipedia:

“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is a song written by George Harrison. It was first performed by The Beatles for their double album The Beatles (also known as The White Album), featuring the lead guitar of Eric Clapton.

The song was ranked #135 on Rolling Stone‘s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time“, #7 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time, and #10 on their list of The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs

Inspiration for the song came to Harrison when reading the I Ching, which, as he put it, “seemed to me to be based on the Eastern concept that everything is relative to everything else…opposed to the Western view that things are merely coincidental.” Taking this idea of relativism to his parents’ home in northern England, Harrison committed to write a song based on the first words he saw upon opening a random book. Those words were “gently weeps”, and he immediately began the song. As he said:

“I wrote “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at my mother’s house in Warrington. I was thinking about the Chinese I Ching, the Book of Changes… The Eastern concept is that whatever happens is all meant to be, and that there’s no such thing as coincidence - every little item that’s going down has a purpose.”While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was a simple study based on that theory. I decided to write a song based on the first thing I saw upon opening any book – as it would be a relative to that moment, at that time. I picked up a book at random, opened it, saw ‘gently weeps’, then laid the book down again and started the song.”

The initial incarnation was not final, as Harrison said: “Some of the words to the song were changed before I finally recorded it.” A demo recorded at George’s home in Esher includes an unused verse:

I look at the trouble and see that it’s raging,
While my guitar gently weeps.
As I’m sitting here, doing nothing but aging,
Still, my guitar gently weeps.

As well as an unused line in the very beginning:

The problems you sow, are the troubles you’re reaping,
Still, my guitar gently weeps.

This line was eventually omitted in favour of the one appearing on The Beatles. An early acoustic guitar/organ take of the song, released on Anthology 3 and also used as the basis of the Love remix, featured a slightly different third verse:

I look from the wings at the play you are staging,
While my guitar gently weeps.
As I’m sitting here, doing nothing but aging,
Still, my guitar gently weeps.

The band recorded the song several times, including a version with a backward guitar solo (as Harrison had done for “I’m Only Sleeping” on Revolver), but Harrison was not satisfied. On 6 September 1968, during a ride from Surrey into London, Harrison asked Eric Clapton to add a lead guitar solo to the song. Clapton was reluctant—he said, “Nobody ever plays on the Beatles’ records”—but Harrison convinced him and Clapton’s solo was recorded that evening. Harrison later said that in addition to his solo, Clapton’s presence had another effect on the band: “It made them all try a bit harder; they were all on their best behaviour.”

91-year-old grandmother’s suicide kits seized by the FBI 1

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SAN DIEGO, May 26 (UPI) — A 91-year-old Southern California woman said Thursday FBI agents seized the suicide kits she makes at home and sells by mail.

The story from Huffington Post on May 1st, 2011

A La Mesa, California grandmother has recently been making headlines for her unconventional and deadly business.

Sharlotte Hydorn, a 91-year-old grandmother, has apparently been selling $60 suicide kits online, stirring much debate about the legality of the practice. Just four months ago a 29-year-old man was found dead by his brother after using one of the do-it-yourself kits, according to the Daily Beast.

How the grandmother-turned-suicide-facilitator began selling the kits, which are available for purchase under the name of the The Gladd company, is a story of personal anguish. According to the Daily Beast, Hydorn’s own husband died a painful death from colon cancer almost 30 years ago.

Many have spoken out against Hydorn’s business, including the family of Nick Klonoski, who took his life using the kit. “In a society where so many people suffer from depression and other mental-health disorders,” Zach Klonoski, Nick’s brother, said at a hearing, “this company has found their niche in the market by peddling death. This is analogous to putting a gun-vending machine next to a depression clinic. The Gladd company, so named as to avoid suspicion in case family members happen to sign for or come across the package, made $60 off my brother’s death.”

The grandmother defends her business regardless. “I’m doing what I can to improve the world,” she told 10News. “There’s a lot of heartache and difficulty here.”

The kits create a simple suffocation device that uses helium to take away life.

About 1,600 are sold every year. To this point, California does not have laws enacted that make this type of business illegal, despite many recent calls to enact laws that will limit the availability of such devices.

From 10News.com:

Charlotte makes the kits — which cost buyers $60 — by taking large plastic bags and sewing soft elastic bands around the opening. There is a slot in the bag for a plastic tube carrying helium gas to be inserted. Helium — when inhaled in its pure form — is deadly. Kit users are responsible for securing their own helium gas.

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IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW HAS CONTEMPLATED SUICIDE PLEASE CALL THENATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE AT 1-800-273-8255

Tell Secretary Clinton to Say No to the Kochs Reply

All, Environmental, Keystone XL, Koch Bros and ALEC, News: International, News: US, Politics - US • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has the ability to stop Koch Industries, Inc. from profiting off a pipeline that would carry the dirtiest oil on Earth through six states, one of America’s most important aquifers and almost 2,000 miles of American homes and farmland.

Help us reach our goal of 50,000 individuals telling Secretary Clinton to say No to the Kochs and Yes to protecting Americans at http://kochbrothersexposed.com/tellclintonno

Other articles about the TransCanada pipeline:

Are the Koch Bros. Stonewalling Congress on Their Keystone XL Pipeline Interest?

Koch Brothers Positioned To Be Big Winners If Keystone XL Pipeline Is Approved

Tar Sands: The Most Destructive Project on Earth

Are the Koch Bros. Stonewalling Congress on Their Keystone XL Pipeline Interest? 2

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Rep. Waxman is seeking answers from the Kochs, after a SolveClimate News article first exposed the brothers’ deep involvement in the oil sands industry.

By Elizabeth McGowan, SolveClimate News

WASHINGTON—Rep. Henry Waxman’s attempts to find out if a proposed controversial Canada-to-U.S. Gulf Coast oil sands pipeline will benefit Koch Industries appears to have hit a dead end.

More…

Koch Brothers Positioned To Be Big Winners If Keystone XL Pipeline Is Approved 2

All, Environmental, Keystone XL, Koch Bros and ALEC, News: International, News: US

Obama’s bitterest political enemies already import and refine 25 percent of oil sands crude reaching the U.S., and stand to profit from an increased flow.

The Keystone XL pipeline, awaiting a thumbs up or down on a presidential permit, would increase the import of heavy oil from Canada’s oil sands to the U.S. by as much as 510,000 barrels a day, if it gets built.

Click here for more information on the Canadian oils sands – which is considered to be the most destructive project on Earth

More…

Tar Sands: The Most Destructive Project on Earth 5

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Environmental Defence has released a report calling the Alberta Oil Sands the most destructive project on Earth.

Few Canadians know that Canada is home to one of the world’s largest dams and it is built to hold toxic waste from just one Tar Sands operation,” Rick Smith, the executive director of Environmental Defence.

More…

Pig Paper: Canada 1975 Issue No.01, The Who coming to Toronto 1

All, Lighter side of life, Pig Paper • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Pig Paper was Canada’s very first self-published music fanzine, and for twelve years reported not only on the birth of that country’s independent music scene, but came to exemplify and epitomize the very DIY ethic itself.

Beginning life in the early Seventies as record-hunting correspondence between founder/publisher Gary Pig Gold and his oldest friend, Doug “Rock Serling” Pelton, the first Pig Paper to be made available to the public was a mock-concert program sold during a 1975 appearance by The Who in Toronto.

Within two years, The Pig Paper was covering Canada’s nascent punk rock community, publishing some of the first-ever in-depth articles on such bands as Teenage Head, The Viletones, and Simply Saucer as well as early reviews and interviews with The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Talking Heads and many others. Each issue also contained material on vintage acts such as The Beach Boys and Elvis Presley, as well as offering performers such as Half Japanese and Jandek many of their initial appearances in print. More…

CBPP CHART: Bush Policies Dominant Cause Of National Debt 2

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The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has updated and refined a widely cited chart, laying out the origins of the country’s current fiscal trajectory. And as before, the lion’s share of the problem comes from ongoing George W. Bush-era policies — particularly deficit-financed tax cuts, which eliminated Clinton-era surpluses and left the Treasury poised for a huge hit when the financial crisis and economic downturn further eroded federal revenues.

By the end of the decade, CBPP projects that, on the current trajectory, the Bush tax cuts, exacerbated by the economic downturn, combined with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will account for the significant majority of public debt as a share of GDP.

Without those factors, and without the need for stimulus measures under President Obama, CBPP projects that the debt-to-GDP ratio would have dropped under both Presidents Bush and Obama.

Aerial footage of Joplin MO, destroyed by EF-5 tornado Reply

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Aerial photos of the Missouri city of Joplin taken on Tuesday showed the widespread devastation wrought by the record-breaking tornado that struck over the weekend, with entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble and massive buildings levelled. The National Weather Service said Sunday’s twister was an EF-5, the strongest rating assigned to tornadoes, with winds of more than 200 miles per hour. With 122 people confirmed dead so far, it was the deadliest single twister since the National Weather Service began keeping official records in 1950 and the eighth-deadliest in US history.