Quote of the day

This, actually, is very consoling when you think about it:

Who knows if to live is to be dead, and to be dead, to live? And we really, it may be said, are dead; in fact I once heard sages say that we are now dead, and the body is our tomb...

-- Socrates

Animal cruelty and violence against humans

As you all know by now, animal welfare is one of my great concerns in life. What many people don't realize is what a strong connection there is between violence against animals and violence against humans.

I want to share with you a couple of links from the Humane Society:

First Strike: The Connection Between Animal Cruelty and Human Violence

Frequently Asked Questions about Animal Cruelty

Here's a sample from the FAQ:

Is there any evidence of a connection between animal cruelty and human violence?

Absolutely. Many studies in psychology, sociology, and criminology during the last 25 years have demonstrated that violent offenders frequently have childhood and adolescent histories of serious and repeated animal cruelty. The FBI has recognized the connection since the 1970s, when its analysis of the lives of serial killers suggested that most had killed or tortured animals as children. Other research has shown consistent patterns of animal cruelty among perpetrators of more common forms of violence, including child abuse, spouse abuse, and elder abuse. In fact, the American Psychiatric Association considers animal cruelty one of the diagnostic criteria of conduct disorder.

Why would anyone be cruel to animals?

There can be many reasons. Animal cruelty, like any other form of violence, is often committed by a person who feels powerless, unnoticed, and under the control of others. The motive may be to shock, threaten, intimidate, or offend others or to demonstrate rejection of society's rules. Some who are cruel to animals copy things they have seen or that have been done to them. Others see harming an animal as a safe way to get revenge on someone who cares about that animal.

Please do what you can to raise awareness, to prevent animal cruelty and to rescue and/or care for animals who have been subjected to abuse. In doing so, you will be helping humans as well.

Environmental Defense petition

Today I got an email from Environmental Defense urging me to sign a petition beginning with these words:

Throughout history every generation has a unique challenge that tests its collective mettle. For us, that challenge is global warming.

That's why we are inviting you to sign our Declaration of New Patriotism that thousands of our online activists and supporters helped draft.

We are hoping to collect at least 75,000 signatures to deliver to Congress by July 4th. So after you've signed please help us spread the word by passing this on to friends and family.

You can sign by clicking on the picture below which, you may have noticed, is now also posted on my sidebar:

Today's QuickVote

I thought you would be interested in this survey from CNN:

Are our national leaders dividing or uniting us as a nation?

Dividing - 97%

Uniting - 3%

No point in commenting, really. That speaks for itself.

A biologist answers Brownback's anti-science assertions

The response is by Jerry Coyne and it's entitled "DON'T KNOW MUCH BIOLOGY". Here's a sample:

Suppose we asked a group of Presidential candidates if they believed in the existence of atoms, and a third of them said "no"? That would be a truly appalling show of scientific illiteracy, would it not? And all the more shocking coming from those who aspire to run a technologically sophisticated nation.

Yet something like this happened a week ago during the Republican presidential debate. When the moderator asked nine candidates to raise their hands if they "didn't believe in evolution," three hands went into the air—those of Senator Sam Brownback, Governor Mike Huckabee, and Representative Tom Tancredo. Although I am a biologist who has found himself battling creationism frequently throughout his professional life, I was still mortified. Because there is just as much evidence for the fact of evolution as there is for the existence of atoms, anyone raising his hand must
have been grossly misinformed.

I don't know whether to attribute the show of hands to the candidates' ignorance of the mountain of evidence for evolution, or to a cynical desire to pander to a public that largely rejects evolution (more than half of Americans do). But I do know that it means that our country is in trouble. As science becomes more and more important in dealing with the world's problems, Americans are falling farther and farther behind in scientific literacy. Among citizens of industrialized nations, Americans rank near the bottom in their understanding of math and science. Over half of all Americans don't know that the Earth orbits the Sun once a year, and nearly half think that humans once lived, Flintstone-like, alongside dinosaurs.

Now maybe evolutionary biology isn't going to propel America into the forefront of world science, but creationism (and its gussied-up descendant "Intelligent Design") is not just a campaign against evolution—it's a campaign against science itself and the scientific method. By pretending that evolution is on shaky ground, and asserting that religion can contribute to our understanding of nature, creationists confuse people about the very form and character of scientific evidence. This confusion can only hurt our ability to make rational judgments about important social issues, like global warming, that involve science.

Our scientists need to turn into political activists if we're going to be spared a deep descent into a new dark age. May more of Coyne's caliber speak out.

Plant a tree for Mother Earth

Acacia Sieberiana

Yesterday somebody named Jeremiah left this comment:

Hi ellie,

I found your website while browsing the web and I would like to introduce you to our project, dedicated to fighting climate change and poverty, called Tree-Nation. Via our website you can plant trees for yourself or offer them to someone else. The trees are being planted in a virtual map on our website and in our real plantation in Niger. Eventually our goal is to plant 8 million trees in Africa in the shape of a huge heart. Have a look at our website to see whether you like the project and if you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

Many thanks!
Jeremiah
www.tree-nation.com

Well, I did it. I planted a tree - an Acacia Sieberiana as you see above. It cost me 24 Euros (or $48). You can plant a tree for as little as 10 Euros.

Here are the benefits of tree planting:

Fighting poverty
Stops Desertification
Produce Fruits, Medicines, Alimentation, ...
The root system draws water to the surface
Regenerate the soil
Increases land's productivity
Improve agricultural practices
Off-sets CO2 levels
Counteract Climate Changes
Park as a meeting point and shelter
Counteract Deforestation

You can name your own tree and dedicate it for any purpose. My tree is named "Karuna" which means compassion.

Do explore the Tree-Nation website and consider joining up!

ENVIRONMENT DAY

In observance of the day:

We must set an example now and move environmentalism from being the philosophy of a passionate minority ... to a way of life that automatically integrates ecology into governmental policy and normal living standards.

~ Leonardo DiCaprio

Also, take a look at this:

Message by Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director on World Environment Day - 5 June 2007

Quote of the day

What an observation:

Religion is the most dangerous energy source known to humankind. The moment a person (or government or religion or organization) is convinced that God is either ordering or sanctioning a cause or project, anything goes. The history, worldwide, of religion-fueled hate, killing, and oppression is staggering.

—Eugene Peterson (from the introduction to the book of Amos in the Bible paraphrase The Message)

Will we save the planet?

The Independent (UK) has published an article entitled "Start The Fightback To Save Our Planet: Protecting The Rainforests Offers The World One Last Crucial Breathing Space". Here's part of what it says:

Churchill’s strategy to win the Second World War was to prioritise those actions that had to be taken that day. Today we fight an equally important war - the war against global warming. Cool Earth, the charity that today opens its doors for business, offers individuals a chance to begin the fight-back for our planet.

The idea is disarmingly simple. Cool Earth, working with bodies like Fauna and Flora, who are already active on the ground, aims to allow individuals the chance to help build up a protective arm around the world’s rainforests. But why rainforests? Rainforests are the great carbon stores of the world. Last year forests the size of Britain were cut down and the CO2 released from burning these trees equalled the total CO2 emissions of the US. Some of this logging was legal. But much of it was illegally undertaken by people who have no other way of earning a living. So how can the rainforest be protected in a way that also provides local employment?

The idea is that stakeholders in this country will become stewards of the part of the forest which their contribution has secured. The ownership of the forest will be held in trust with local people who also farm the forest for its natural produce. Rubber tappers will also have similar access.

Cool Earth’s efforts will not end here. The aim is to use some of the stakeholders’ money to allow local governments and NGOs to build up schools and health services.

Supporting Cool Earth will therefore be a new way of directing overseas aid. Individual stakeholders will decide how much to contribute and all of that stakeholding will be directed immediately to where it matters; saving the forest, increasing job opportunities, and raising health and education standards.

Stakeholders’ support is not limited to trees. Rainforests are full of life. For each acre a stakeholder will also know that they are protecting a magnificent variety of mammals and insects as well as a rich biodiversity springing from the forests’ flora and fauna. Orangutans, sloths and tree frogs are just a few of the species threatened with extinction as rainforests are plundered.

Here's something that's said toward the end:

It is quite clear that, late in the day, governments are becoming aware how short the time is to save our planet. A further aim of Cool Earth is to build up a membership which helps the debate leapfrog the current agenda being drawn up so painfully by governments.

It gladdens my heart that there are people who are at least trying. May this effort have much success!

Cuban health care

We have a lot to learn from Cuba about health care. Take a look at these excerpts from an article entitled "Why Cuba Is Exporting Health Care to the U.S.":

They live longer than almost anyone in Latin America. Far fewer babies die. Almost everyone has been vaccinated, and such scourges of the poor as parasites, TB, malaria, even HIV/AIDS are rare or non-existent. Anyone can see a doctor, at low cost, right in the neighborhood.

The Cuban health care system is producing a population that is as healthy as those of the world's wealthiest countries at a fraction of the cost. And now Cuba has begun exporting its system to under-served communities around the world -- including the United States.

The story of Cuba's health care ambitions is largely hidden from the people of the United States, where politics left over from the Cold War maintain an embargo on information and understanding. But it is increasingly well-known in the poorest communities of Latin America, the Caribbean, and parts of Africa where Cuban and Cuban-trained doctors are practicing. In the words of Dr. Paul Farmer, Cuba is showing that "you can introduce the notion of a right to health care and wipe out the diseases of poverty."

Health Care for All Cubans

Many elements of the health care system Cuba is exporting around the world are common-sense practices. Everyone has access to doctors, nurses, specialists, and medications. There is a doctor and nurse team in every neighborhood, although somewhat fewer now, with 29,000 medical professionals serving out of the country -- a fact that is causing some complaints. If someone doesn't like their neighborhood doctor, they can choose another one.

House calls are routine, in part because it's the responsibility of the doctor and nurse team to understand you and your health issues in the context of your family, home, and neighborhood. This is key to the system. By catching diseases and health hazards before they get big, the Cuban medical system can spend a little on prevention rather than a lot later on to cure diseases, stop outbreaks, or cope with long-term disabilities. When a health hazard like dengue fever or malaria is identified, there is a coordinated nationwide effort to eradicate it. Cubans no longer suffer from diphtheria, rubella, polio, or measles and they have the lowest AIDS rate in the Americas, and the highest rate of treatment and control of hypertension.

As you may remember, Cuba offered to send doctors to help us during the Katrina catastrophe. We refused to our shame:

1,500 Cuban doctors volunteered to come to the Gulf Coast. They waited with packed bags and medical supplies, and a ship ready to provide backup support. Permission from the U.S. government never arrived.

Here's how the article ends:

Even more revolutionary than the right to health care for all is the idea that an investment in health -- or in clean water, adequate food or housing -- could be more powerful, more effective at building security than bombers and aircraft carriers.

I grieve for my country when I think of what could be if only we had the will and the simple willingness.

Suppose a Democrat did these things...

You know what I hate? Double standards. And the press definitely has one for Democrats and Republicans. Alternet has published an article entitled "Imagine How the Media Would Cover the Divorced Rich Republican Presidential Candidates, If They Were Democrats". Long title but it's needed. Take a look:

Imagine how the media would react if a multimillionaire, East Coast, big-city, thrice-married presidential candidate who was a progressive Democrat said his most recent music purchase was opera, his favorite fitness activity, golf, and added that he doesn't drive -- he navigates.

Or if a progressive Democratic candidate who had launched his political career by marrying into a wealthy and politically connected family, and then promptly ran for Congress, revealed that he has pet turtles named "Cuff" and "Link."

Or if a progressive Democratic candidate who was the son of a governor, who has a net worth of around $200 million, whose own campaign staff was concerned he is seen as not tough enough and that his hair looks too perfect ... imagine if such a candidate said that if he weren't running for office, he'd probably be chief executive of an auto company and that his staff boasted that the difference between him and the president is "intelligence."

The media would have an absolute field day, yammering endlessly about how the candidate is too "soft" and is an elitist, an arrogant know-it-all with a misguided sense of entitlement who is hopelessly out of touch with the rugged regular-folk who live in Michigan and enjoy NASCAR and country music and drive pickups. There would be a real danger of Chris Matthews literally exploding on live television, unable to contain his incredulity that such a clueless candidate could possibly think a Pennsylvania steelworker would care what he has to say. (Then, with the Klieg lights turned off, Matthews would head off to one of the glitzy balls that he frequents, maintaining his place on Washington Life's "Social List" -- or perhaps he'd take a quick trip to relax by the pool of his vacation home nestled among the dunes of Nantucket. Railing against cultural elites on behalf of the Working Man is tiring, after all.)

But when the three leading (for now) Republican presidential candidates reveal their fondness for opera (Giuliani), have their pets named after fashion accessories (McCain), and boast that if they weren't running for president, they'd probably be running an auto company (Romney), it passes without notice.

Did you know that Fred Thompson once rented a red pickup truck during a campaign so that he would come across as folksy?

You know something else that galls me? It's that John Edwards is accused of being a hypocrite because he's a rich person who cares about the poor. Well, excuse me but who are we going to get help poor people? Other poor people? Rich people who are callous about the poor aren't hypocrites, huh?

Go read the article. It's an eye-opener.

Freedom and slavery

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We need to think about this:

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

- Goethe

Dictator Bush

Just in case this hasn't come to your attention, let me tell you about an article entitled "Don't We Have a Constitution, Not a King?" When I first learned of the following I was horrified but there seems to be very little news about it. Take a look:

As the nation focused on whether Congress would exercise its constitutional duty to cut funding for the war, Bush quietly issued an unconstitutional bombshell that went virtually unnoticed by the corporate media.

The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, signed on May 9, 2007, would place all governmental power in the hands of the President and effectively abolish the checks and balances in the Constitution.

If a "catastrophic emergency" -- which could include a terrorist attack or a natural disaster -- occurs, Bush's new directive says: "The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government."

What about the other two co-equal branches of government? The directive throws them a bone by speaking of a "cooperative effort" among the three branches, "coordinated by the President, as a matter of comity with respect to the legislative and judicial branches and with proper respect for the constitutional separation of powers." The Vice-President would help to implement the plans.

"Comity," however, means courtesy, and the President would decide what kind of respect for the other two branches of government would be "proper." This Presidential Directive is a blatant power grab by Bush to institutionalize "the unitary executive."

A seemingly innocuous phrase, the unitary executive theory actually represents a radical, ultra rightwing interpretation of the powers of the presidency. Championed by the conservative Federalist Society, the unitary executive doctrine gathers all power in the hands of the President and insulates him from any oversight by the congressional or judicial branches.

In a November 2000 speech to the Federalist Society, then Judge Samuel Alito said the Constitution "makes the president the head of the executive branch, but it does more than that. The president has not just some executive powers, but the executive power -- the whole thing."

The author ends by posing the following scenario:

One wonders what Bush & Co. are setting up with the new Presidential Directive. What if, heaven forbid, some sort of catastrophic event were to occur just before the 2008 election? Bush could use this directive to suspend the election. This administration has gone to great lengths to remain in Iraq. It has built huge permanent military bases and pushed to privatize Iraq's oil. Bush and Cheney may be unwilling to relinquish power to a successor administration.

Don't say you weren't warned.

Cheny's disdain for the American way

Perhaps I should say what used to be the American way.

Frank Ford sent me a New York Times editorial entitled "Dick Cheney Rules". Here's how it gets started:

Americans are accustomed to Vice President Dick Cheney’s waiting out a terrorist threat in a “secure undisclosed location.” Now it seems that Mr. Cheney wears the cloak of invisibility in secure disclosed locations.

The Associated Press reported that Mr. Cheney’s office ordered the Secret Service last September to destroy all records of visitors to the official vice presidential mansion — right after The Washington Post sued for access to the logs. That move was made in secret, naturally. It came out only because of another lawsuit, filed by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, seeking the names of conservative religious figures who visited the vice president’s residence.

This disdain for accountability is distressing, but not surprising. Mr. Cheney has had it on display from his first days in office, when he refused to name the energy-industry executives who met with him behind closed doors to draft an energy policy.

In a similar way, Mr. Cheney seems unconcerned about little things like checks and balances and traditional American notions of judicial process. At one point, he gave himself the power to selectively declassify documents and selectively leak them to reporters. In a recent commencement address, he declaimed against prisoners who had the gall to “demand the protections of the Geneva Convention and the Constitution of the United States.”

His arrogance is truly sickening. What I don't understand is why we let him get away with it. If we had a watch dog press the way we're supposed to, he would be hounded to death about this stuff.

Dear God, this is bad

I found this through AMERICAblog:

Global warming is accelerating three times more quickly than feared, a series of startling, authoritative studies has revealed.

They have found that emissions of carbon dioxide have been rising at thrice the rate in the 1990s. The Arctic ice cap is melting three times as fast - and the seas are rising twice as rapidly - as had been predicted.

News of the studies - which are bound to lead to calls for even tougher anti-pollution measures than have yet been contemplated - comes as the leaders of the world's most powerful nations prepare for the most crucial meeting yet on tackling climate change.

The issue will be top of the agenda of the G8 summit which opens in the German Baltic resort of Heiligendamm on Wednesday, placing unprecedented pressure on President George Bush finally to agree to international measures.

But will he? Or is his lust for power so great that he honestly wants to be the person who causes the extinction of the human race?

Our mercenaries

Oh, this is very disturbing. I want to call your attention to an article called "What If Our Mercenaries Turn On Us?" by Chris Hedges. Here's part of what it says:

Armed units from the private security firm Blackwater USA opened fire in Baghdad streets twice in two days last week. It triggered a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, a reminder that the war in Iraq may be remembered mostly in our history books for empowering and building America’s first modern mercenary army.There are an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 armed security contractors working in Iraq, although there are no official figures and some estimates run much higher. Security contractors are not counted as part of the coalition forces. When the number of private mercenary fighters is added to other civilian military “contractors” who carry out logistical support activities such as food preparation, the number rises to about 126,000.

“We got 126,000 contractors over there, some of them making more than the secretary of defense,” said House defense appropriations subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D., Pa.). “How in the hell do you justify that?”

The privatization of war hands an incentive to American corporations, many with tremendous political clout, to keep us mired down in Iraq. But even more disturbing is the steady rise of this modern Praetorian Guard. The Praetorian Guard in ancient Rome was a paramilitary force that defied legal constraints, made violence part of the political discourse, and eventually plunged the Roman Republic into tyranny and despotism. Despotic movements need paramilitary forces that operate outside the law, forces that sow fear among potential opponents, and are capable of physically silencing those branded by their leaders as traitors. And in the wrong hands, a Blackwater could well become that force.

American taxpayers have so far handed a staggering $4 billion to “armed security” companies in Iraq such as Blackwater, according to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.). Tens of billions more have been paid to companies that provide logistical support. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.) of the House Intelligence Committee estimates that 40 cents of every dollar spent on the occupation has gone to war contractors. It is unlikely that any of these corporations will push for an early withdrawal. The profits are too lucrative.

Mercenary forces like Blackwater operate beyond civilian and military law. They are covered by a 2004 edict passed by American occupation authorities in Iraq that mmunizes all civilian contractors in Iraq from prosecution.

I really do recommend that you go read the rest of the article. It's loaded with important information.

You know, a prohibition against this sort of thing really ought to be in the Constitution. Quite an oversight by the Founding Fathers, if you ask me.

The immigration bill

Someone named Mike Taylor made this point on a blog supporting John Edwards:

...the big fines, like $5000 make no sense. Illegal immigrants will just stay illegal.

How on earth can people who are working below minimum wage possibly afford that?