Mutual toleration of Christians

From A Letter Concerning Toleration:

Since you are pleased to inquire what are my thoughts about the mutual toleration of Christians in their different professions of religion, I must needs answer you freely that I esteem that toleration to be the chief characteristic mark of the true Church. For whatsoever some people boast of the antiquity of places and names, or of the pomp of their outward worship; others, of the reformation of their discipline; all, of the orthodoxy of their faith — for everyone is orthodox to himself — these things, and all others of this nature, are much rather marks of men striving for power and empire over one another than of the Church of Christ.

-- John Locke (1689)

New climate change web site

Marilyn Bedford sent me the following press release:

UNITED NATIONS LAUNCHES NEW CLIMATE CHANGE INTERNET SITE

A new United Nations Internet site, “Gateway to the UN System’s Work on Climate Change”, that highlights the wide-ranging work of the various parts of the United Nations system on climate change was launched today. The new website makes it easier for Internet users to find information on climate change from across the United Nations system.

The address of the new website is http://www.un.org/climatechange.

In addition to bringing Member States together to find common ground for addressing climate change at the international level, the United Nations works to assess the most up-to-date science on climate change, develop projects that assist people at the grass-roots level to adapt to the consequences of climate change and works to develop creative solutions that will reduce the emissions of the gases that cause climate change.

The new climate change gateway provides easy access to the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the latest developments on efforts to reach a new international climate change agreement, news, as well as information on future climate change events, projects in the field and climate change updates for youth. Information on the high-level event that will take place on 24 September can be found at http://www.un.org/climatechange/2007highlevel.

For more information, contact Dan Shepard, United Nations Department of Public Information, tel: 212 963 9495, email: mediainfo@un.org.

Quote of the week

This is from Sojourners, of course:

Maybe uninsured American children who can’t get adequate health care could masquerade as cotton plants or cornstalks. Then the farm bill would shower them with money and care.

- New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof

Bottled water

Did you know this?

Americans add over 30 million plastic water bottles to our nation's landfills – every day!

I got it from the MySIGG.com website.

Stop Global Warming

If you saw Oprah yesterday or last night, you know how scary the climate change situation really is. I just found an action page that gives you quite a list of things you can do. It's on a site called stopglobalwarming.org. Check it out! You might also like to take a look at Al Gore's Five Changes to Make...Now.

Extinct

Frank Ford sent me an article from The Independent entitled "Extinct: the dolphin that could not live alongside man". Here's part of what it says:

After more than 20 million years on the planet, the Yangtze river dolphin is today officially declared extinct, the first species of cetacean (whale, dolphin or porpoise) to be driven from this planet by human activity.

An intensive six-week search by an international team of marine biologists involving two boats that ploughed up and down the world's busiest river last December failed to find a single specimen.

Today, the scientific report of that expedition, published in the peer-reviewed journal of the Royal Society, Biology Letters, confirms the dolphin known as the baiji or white-fin in Chinese and celebrated for its pale skin and distinctive long snout, has disappeared.

To blame for its demise is the increasing number of container ships that use the Yangtze, as well as the fishermen whose nets became an inadvertent hazard.
...
The Yangtze dolphin navigated by sonar - its eyes are useless in the murky water - but in a motorway jammed with container ships, coal barges and speed boats, its sonar was deafened and it ran a high risk of being hit or torn by propellers.

An even greater threat came from the nets and 1,000m lines of hooks used by fishermen.

Although they did not intend to catch dolphins, the creatures became entangled in the nets or lacerated by the bare hooks - almost half of all dead baiji found in the past few decades have died in this way. In addition, pollution had fouled their natural habitat and completion of the Three Gorges Dam worsened the decline in smaller fish on which the baiji fed.

Truly tragic. Heartbreaking.

Listen up, Senator Inhoffe

It's a CNN article called "Around the globe, 2007 is on track to be a year of extreme weather". Take a look:

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Extreme weather has plagued the globe this year, a U.N. agency says, causing some of the highest temperatures on record.

The World Meteorological Organization said "global land surface temperatures for January and April will likely be ranked as the warmest since records began in 1880," according to the United Nations.

WMO said temperatures were 1.89 degrees Celsius (3.4 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than average for January and 1.37 degrees C (2.45 degrees F) higher than average for April.

The agency found that climate warming was unequivocal and most likely "due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels."
...
Four monsoon depressions, double the normal number, caused heavy flooding in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. On Monday, floodwaters receded in parts of South Asia, but the death toll rose to 347, officials said.
...
Southeastern Europe did not escape the unusual weather. The area suffered record-breaking heat in June and July.

I really don't have anything to say here. I just wanted my readers to see this. We all know what we have to do as a species. Will we do it or not? That's the question.

PLEASE don't shop at Wal-Mart

I know I've posted about this many times but I want to remind you once more that you are supporting exploitation on a huge scale when you shop at Wal-Mart. Here's a fact sheet about their standard practices. Please take a look at the whole page. But I will give you this excerpt if you really believe that Wal-Mart has "low" prices:

Your tax dollars pay for Wal-Mart's greed

The estimated total amount of federal assistance for which Wal-Mart employees were eligible in 2004 was $2.5 billion. [The Hidden Price We All Pay For Wal-Mart, A Report By The Democratic Staff Of The Committee On Education And The Workforce, 2/16/04]

One 200-employee Wal-Mart store may cost federal taxpayers $420,750 per year. This cost comes from the following, on average:

$36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches for just 50 qualifying Wal-Mart families.
$42,000 a year for low-income housing assistance.
$125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families.
$100,000 a year for the additional expenses for programs for students.
$108,000 a year for the additional federal health care costs of moving into state children's health insurance programs (S-CHIP)
$9,750 a year for the additional costs for low income energy assistance. [The Hidden Price We All Pay For Wal-Mart, A Report By The Democratic Staff Of The Committee On Education And The Workforce, 2/16/04]
...
Your tax dollars subsidize Wal-Mart's growth

The first ever national report on Wal-Mart subsidies documented at least $1 billion in subsidies from state and local governments.

A Wal-Mart official stated that "it is common" for the company to request subsidies "in about one-third of all [retail] projects." This would suggest that over a thousand Wal-Mart stores have been subsidized. ["Shopping For Subsidies: How Wal-Mart Uses Taxpayer Money to Finance Its Never-Ending Growth," Good Job First, May 2004]

AND they engage in union-busting AND they make health care unaffordable AND they trash the environment AND they destroy small businesses AND they force other manufacturers to outsource their labor in order to compete AND they break child-labor laws AND they break hazardous waste laws AND they practice gender discrimination.... I could go on. And from time to time, I will.

Artificial intelligence

This is an interesting quote. I'm not sure how to think about it but it intrigues me all the same:

We must develop as quickly as possible technologies that make possible a direct connection between brain and computer, so that artificial brains contribute to human intelligence rather than opposing it.

- Stephen Hawking

"I am become death..."

The inconsolable sadness in Oppenheimer's eyes is tragic.

A little comic relief

Hiroshima Day

I want to share a message with you from True Majority:

In honor of Hiroshima Day, we'd like to take a minute to reflect on just how absurd it is for America to maintain 10,000 nuclear bombs. Defense experts say that many simply aren't needed, and by reducing the nuclear arsenal our country could save $14 billion dollars -- more than enough to save the lives of six million kids who die of starvation in impoverished nations each year.

August 6th is Hiroshima Day, the 62nd anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. That attack, and the bombing of Nagasaki three days later, remain the only nuclear attacks on civilians in history.

Please click on this link to watch a short video about our nuclear arsenal. It's very sobering.

Oh my God; look at this

You simply must read the article "In Bush We Trust - Or Else" by John Diaz. It is absolutely terrifying:

It doesn’t require a subpoena of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or a brave whistle-blower to find President Bush’s latest affront to the U.S. Constitution. It’s in plain view on the White House Web site: “Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq.”

This far-reaching order of July 17 may be Bush’s most brazen defiance of the Constitution, which is no small feat for an administration that thinks it can set its own rules on electronic surveillance, torture, kidnapping, rendition, and the designation of “enemy combatants” who can be arrested on U.S. soil and held indefinitely without judicial review.

This one is a frontal assault on the Fifth Amendment, which decrees that the government cannot seize an individual’s property without due process.

Under Bush’s executive order, the U.S. government has endowed itself with the authority to freeze the American assets of anyone who directly or indirectly assists someone who poses “a significant risk” of committing a violent act that has the purpose or effect of threatening the Iraqi government, the “peace and stability” of the country or the reconstruction effort.
...
Fein said the sanctions against suspected violators would amount to “a financial death penalty.” The executive order not only calls for the freezing of assets of anyone who directly or indirectly aids our enemies in Iraq, it prohibits anyone else from providing “funds, goods or services” to a blacklisted individual. In other words, a friend or relative could have his or her assets seized for trying to help someone whose bank account is suddenly frozen. An attorney who offered legal help could risk of losing everything he or she owned.
...
The targets of the property seizures, even American citizens, would not be given any advance notice or opportunity to challenge the government’s action in court. The American Civil Liberties Union has noted that an order this sweeping could encompass “entirely innocent” activities such as an donations to humanitarian relief groups that indirectly provide what the U.S. government decides is “material support” to supporters of the insurgency.

After I read this stuff I could hardly breathe. We no longer have constitutional government. I am stunned and horrified.

Impact your world

Well, this is commendable. CNN has set up part of its website to be dedicated to recommending charities on particular issues that are in the news. The issues are:

Refugees and homelessness
Poverty
Health
Children
Planet in Peril
Natural disasters

The section is called "Impact Your World". Check it out.

The disappointing Democrats - again

I want to tell you about a Salon article entitled "Democrats’ Responsibility for Bush Radicalism". Take a look:

It is staggering, and truly disgusting, that even in August, 2007 — almost six years removed from the 9/11 attacks and with the Bush presidency cemented as one of the weakest and most despised in American history — that George W. Bush can “demand” that the Congress jump and re-write legislation at his will, vesting in him still greater surveillance power, by warning them, based solely on his say-so, that if they fail to comply with his demands, the next Terrorist attack will be their fault. And they jump and scamper and comply (Meteor Blades has the list of the 16 Senate Democrats voting in favor; the House will soon follow).

I just finished a discussion panel with ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero which was originally planned to examine his new (superb) book about the work his organization has done for years in battling the endless expansion of executive power and presidential lawbreaking. But the only issue anyone in the room really wanted to discuss — including us — was the outrage unfolding on Capitol Hill. And the anger was almost universally directed where it belongs: on Congressional Democrats, who increasingly bear more and more responsibility for the assaults on our constitutional liberties and unparalleled abuses of government power — many (probably most) of which, it should always be emphasized, remain concealed rather than disclosed.

Examine virtually every Bush scandal and it increasingly bears the mark not merely of Democratic capitulation, but Democratic participation. In August of 2006, the Supreme Court finally asserted the first real limit on Bush’s radical executive power theories in Hamdan, only for Congress, months later, to completely eviscerate those minimal limits — and then go far beyond — by enacting the grotesque Military Commissions Act with the support of substantial numbers of Democrats. What began as a covert and illegal Bush interrogation and detention program became the officially sanctioned, bipartisan policy of the United States.

I really recommend that you click through and read the rest of it - along with the comments below the article.

Health care web site

I just found a new site called Physicians for a National Health Program. The program is a nonprofit organization of 14,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance.

Here's something from an explanation of their Mission Statement:

The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, $7,129 per capita. Yet our system performs poorly in comparison and still leaves 46 million without health coverage and millions more inadequately covered.

This is because private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume one-third (31 percent) of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment though a single nonprofit payer would save more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans.

And here's another good quote:

Private health insurance was an idea that worked during part of the last century; it will not succeed through the 21st Century. With jobs increasingly service-based and short-term, the large employment-based risk pools that made this insurance system possible no longer exist. Medical care has become more effective and more essential to the ordinary person, but also more costly and capital-intensive. The multiple private insurance carriers that emerged during the last century can no longer provide a sound basis for financing our modern health care system.

The website is just full of great information on this subject. I really recommend it.

UPDATE: Here's a comment I found after an article dealing with the health care problem. It addresses the prediction that the quality of health care would go down if we went to a universal, single-payer system:

My 2 cents: I'm married, have 2 children and excellent health insurance through my husband's federal job. I had one of my kids in England under the NHS, socialized medicine. My other child was born in the US under our insurance.

The care I got in England was much, much better than the care I got here. We stayed in the hospital an extra day when my son was ill (minor issue) after being born, without having to clear it was anyone. A midwife come to our house to check me and the baby every day for a week after we got home from the hospital. Then every few days for another few weeks. I could walk to my doctor's office and get an appointment almost any time I asked. Prescriptions were about $14 each, no matter what the medicine. When my son had a possibly serious problem I got a referral and appointment right away. There was no paperwork and all the records were computerized.

Here I have to drive 40 minutes to the doctor, and if I don't call 10 minutes after they open their sick appointments are used up. We have tons of paperwork and copays etc. My husband's coworker with the same insurance has a seriously ill child. He is struggling to afford care for her, despite having really good insurance. Dealing with the paperwork and denied claims and all the garbage is almost a full time job for his wife.

Health care is going to be my #1 priority deciding who to vote for next election.

I agree with this person. When I lived in Ireland I did not hear one complaint about the nationalized health care system.

Something LBJ said

This is really quite sad when you think of all that's happened since he said this:

This is the richest and the most powerful country which ever occupied this globe. The might of past empires is little compared to ours. But I do not want to be the President who built empires, or sought grandeur, or extended dominion.

I want to be the President who educated young children to the wonders of their world.

I want to be the President who helped to feed the hungry and to prepare them to be tax-payers instead of tax-eaters.

I want to be the President who helped the poor to find their own way and who protected the right of every citizen to vote in every election.

I want to be the President who helped to end hatred among his fellow men, and who promoted love among the people of all races and all regions and all parties.

I want to be the President who helped to end war among the brothers of this earth.

-- Lyndon Johnson

"Conservatism" and our infrastructure

I want to share with you an article called "Are the Dead From the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse Victims of Conservative Ideology?" Here's how it gets started:

The tragic collapse this week of a stretch of I-35 spanning the Mississippi river in Minnesota was shocking but should come as no surprise. America's core infrastrucure has been falling apart in very visible ways during the past few years. It's a predictable outcome of the rise of "backlash" conservatism; we've swallowed 30 years of small-government rhetoric, and it's led us to a point in which our infrastructure, once the pride of the developed world, is falling apart around us. We're reaping what we've sown.

Minnesota's Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty, reacted to the disaster by calling a press conference and, with a steely determination worthy of Rudy Guiliani, lying to the American people. Pawlenty insisted that inspections in 2005 and 2006 had found no structural problems with the bridge. But the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that the bridge "was rated as 'structurally deficient' two years ago and possibly in need of replacement." The bridge was borderline -- with a 50 sufficiency rating; if a bridge scores less than 50, it needs to be replaced.

According to the Pioneer Press, the bridge's suspension system was supposed to receive extra attention with inspections every two years, but the last one had been performed in 2003.

The governor had every reason to obfuscate; in 2005, he vetoed a bipartisan transportation package that would have "put more than $8 billion into highways, city and county roads, and transit over the next decade." At the time, he was applauded by many Republicans for his staunch fiscal "conservatism."

Oh my. Karma's a bitch, right? The sad thing is that, in this case, it's the innocent who reap the consequences. (On the other hand, wonder how many of those who died or were injured actually voted the Republicans in? Were those tax cuts for the rich really worth it?)