Sunday art blogging

Artist: Edouard Manet

Image from Wikimedia Commons

So very true!

This:

Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat.

- Robert A. Heinlein

:-)

~~~

You MUST watch this, people!

Recent posting difficulties

Dear friends,

The Blogger program has been down the past couple of days and I have been unable to put up any new posts. It's now functioning again but, at the moment, I'm hard at work on organizing the Center's garage sale items. The garage sale is scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday) and so that will require all my attention as well.

I'll probably be back to posting on Sunday.

Sincere apologies for any political insight inconvenience!

Blessings to all,

Ellie

Today's CNN QuickVote

Well, this is reassuring:

Who would be more likely to get your vote for president in 2012?

Barack Obama

70%

Newt Gingrich

30%

~~~

Horrible, horrible man

I refer, of course, to John Boehner. First this:

It is off the table. Everything else is on the table.

- John Boehner, Republican Speaker of the House, referring to tax increases as a way of dealing with U.S. debt; he has spoken of the need for "trillions, not just billions" worth of spending cuts

Now take a look here:

[Monday], John Boehner outlined his list of demands for raising the debt ceiling, saying that unless the Obama administration and Senate Democrats accept trillions of dollars in Republican spending cuts, the House GOP would not increase the federal debt limit, even if that leads government default, a collapse of global financial markets, and another severe recession.

[Tuesday], the White House compared his proposal to economic terrorism...

Now here's a little context:

Financial: The U.S. is spending more than $100 billion per year in Afghanistan
Human: 1,570 Americans killed, more than 10,000 wounded
More than 10,000 civilian Afghan deaths, 3,000 in 2010 alone

The above statistics are from an email sent out by Sojourners.

Solution: End these wars! It's preposterous that we choose to cut social services while maintaining expensive, unnecessary wars. Also morally reprehensible.
~~~

Yeah, probably

Look at this:

The American people, they're very simple people.

- Wang Qishan, Vice Premier of China, saying, in a rare interview on U.S. public television, that Americans have a limited understanding of China's "ancient civilization" and are generally drawn first to Europe
~~~

What a question!

This one:

GOP Assault on Truth: Why Do Conservatives Pretend They Know More About Science Than Scientists?

Here's how it gets started:

Earlier this year, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) introduced legislation “repealing the...[EPA’s] scientific finding that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are endangering human health and the environment.” That’s right, politicians voted to repeal a scientific finding. It failed in the Senate. But if Republicans were to take control of the White House and Senate, the bill would undoubtedly become law.

Really. Do go read the rest of it. It's an eye-opener.
~~~

Sunday art blogging

Artist: Renoir

Image from Wikimedia Commons

"America Is Shutting Down"

I strongly recommend that you read a short opinion piece entitled "America Is Shutting Down" by Thomas Heffner. Here's a snippet:

How could we be so careless as to let the the U.S. descend in so short a time from being a wealthy and productive nation to one controlled by lobbyists, living on imports, selling our companies to our foreign competitors and living on ever increasing debt.

The rest of it is truly worth reading and thinking about as well.
~~~

In honor of Mother's Day

This:

We have a beautiful
mother
Her green lap
immense
Her brown embrace
eternal
Her blue body
everything
we know.

- Alice Walker

Indeed

What is the true threat of terrorism?

Here's something I just found and I think it is very well put:

Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy a country’s way of life; it’s only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage. The more we undermine our own laws, the more we convert our buildings into fortresses, the more we reduce the freedoms and liberties at the foundation of our societies, the more we’re doing the terrorists’ job for them.

--Bruce Schneier

~~~

The role of torture

I think this is an important headline:

Torture May Have Slowed Hunt For Bin Laden, Not Hastened It

And an important point as well.

Here's a little part of what it says:

"I think that without a doubt, torture and enhanced interrogation techniques slowed down the hunt for bin Laden," said an Air Force interrogator who goes by the pseudonym Matthew Alexander and located Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, in 2006.

It now appears likely that several detainees had information about a key al Qaeda courier -- information that might have led authorities directly to bin Laden years ago. But subjected to physical and psychological brutality, "they gave us the bare minimum amount of information they could get away with to get the pain to stop, or to mislead us," Alexander told The Huffington Post.

"We know that they didn’t give us everything, because they didn’t provide the real name, or the location, or somebody else who would know that information," he said.

In a 2006 study by the National Defense Intelligence College, trained interrogators found that traditional, rapport-based interviewing approaches are extremely effective with even the most hardened detainees, whereas coercion consistently builds resistance and resentment.

Let's give this analysis some attention, shall we?

~~~

Something worth knowing about taxes

I refer to the following:

Americans are paying the smallest share of their income for taxes since 1958, a reflection of tax cuts and a weak economy, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

...

The USA Today analysis shows that if tax receipts today were at the level they were through the 70′s, 80′s and 90′s, that would eliminate “one-third of the estimated $1.5 trillion federal deficit this year.”

I found this information right here.

~~~

Friday cat blogging!

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

~~~

Fifty years ago

This:

I didn't want to die, now, but I didn't have any fear of doing what I had to do. I knew what was happening was wrong. And I had an opportunity to do something about it.

- Catherine Burks-Brooks, 71, who, as a senior at Tennessee A&I State University, took part in the first Freedom Ride in May 1961
~~~

How the public is duped

(Hat tip to Lisa Casey over at All Hat No Cattle)

Please, please listen to this:

Necessities

Sometimes I think that if this is true, we're screwed:

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.

-- The Dalai Lama

On the other hand, maybe a base line level of love and compassion is hard wired into the human make up such that we've survived so far.
~~~

The question of justice

I agree with this:

Real justice and a real call for celebration would have been to treat the attacks of September 11, 2001 for what they were, a massive, international criminal act and then set about dealing with it as we would any massive international crime - using international police forces to identify suspects, apprehend them, charge them, try them and punish the guilty. And we could have secured more than justice.

On September 12, 2001, a grieving world stood in full sympathy alongside the U.S., ready to assist. America, looked up to by so many, could have led the world into a new day where nations work together to prove once and for all that war is not the answer...

The excerpt above is from an article entitled "Justice Has Been Done?" by Mike Ferner. It's a very short piece and I recommend clicking through and reading the whole thing.
~~~

Just read it - and think about it:

(Hat tip to Lisa Casey at All Hat No Cattle)

~~~

Bitingly cynical - yet there's truth here:

Something else disturbing

This is from Reuters:

The U.S. special forces team that hunted down Osama bin Laden was under orders to kill the al Qaeda mastermind, not capture him, a U.S. national security official told Reuters.

"This was a kill operation," the official said, making clear there was no desire to try to capture bin Laden alive in Pakistan.

I thought of this immediately. Why no attempt to capture? Wouldn't justice be better served by having a proper trial?
~~~

Is celebration really appropriate?

I'm disturbed by the dancing in the streets.

Here's something from the response of Veteran's for Peace that I read right here:

Imagine the propaganda that the U.S. media could make of video footage of a foreign country where the primitive brutes are dancing in the streets to celebrate the murder of a tribal enemy. That is the propaganda we've just handed those who will view bin Laden as a martyr. When their revenge comes, we will know exactly what we are supposed to do: exact more revenge in turn to keep the cycle going.

And let us not forget this passage from Proverbs 24:

Do not rejoice when your enemies fall,
and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble,
or else the LORD will see it and be displeased...

Some things to think about, that's all.
~~~

Sunday art blogging

Artist: Van Gogh

Image from Wikimedia Commons

~~~

Presidential snark

It's from a CNN story:

President Barack Obama poked fun at everyone -- from his wife to Donald Trump -- during the annual White House Correspondents dinner, before ending his speech with a tribute to journalists who brave deadly conditions to get a story.
...
Obama then singled out an unsmiling Trump and credited him with making hard decisions -- such as firing Gary Busey over Meatloaf on an episode of "The Celebrity Apprentice" -- and succeeding in his push for the president to release his long-form birth certificate.

"Now, he can focus on more important matters like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?" Obama said, referring to Neil Armstrong's 1969 walk on the moon, the alleged UFO crash in New Mexico and the deaths of rappers Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur.

Donald Trump roundly deserved it.

And, then there's this:

As is tradition, the dinner's featured speaker [Seth Meyers] didn't let the commander-in-chief off unscathed.

Meyers said the one candidate who could "definitely beat" the incumbent was the "2008 Barack Obama. You would have loved him."

Yes, we did love him. Mr. President, what happened?
~~~

Trump

I want to call your attention to a piece in the British newspaper, The Independent. It's by Johann Hari, whose work I've respected for some time now.

Donald Trump's Lunacy Reveals Core Truth About the Republicans

Take a look:

Trump is every trend in Republican politics over the past 35 years taken to its logical conclusion. He is the Republican id, finally entirely unleashed from all restraint and all reality.

The first trend is towards naked imperialism. On Libya, he says: "I would go in and take the oil... I would take the oil and stop this baby stuff." On Iraq, he says: "We stay there, and we take the oil... In the old days, when you have a war and you win, that nation's yours." It is a view that the world is essentially America's property, inconveniently inhabited by foreigners squatting over oil-fields. Trump says America needs to "stop what's going on in the world. The world is just destroying our country. These other countries are sapping our strength." The US must have full spectrum dominance. In this respect, he is simply an honest George W Bush.

I hope that terrifies you.

And I really want to urge you to read the rest of the article. There's more.
~~~

Those monster tornadoes

I agree about the irresponsibility:

It is irresponsible not to mention climate change. … The environment in which all of these storms and the tornadoes are occurring has changed from human influences (global warming).

-- Dr. Kevin Trenberth, one of the world’s top climate scientists

I found the above in an article over on the Think Progress website.
~~~

Here's an interesting headline:

Alex Chilton (Big Star) Died Because we don't have Universal Health Care

Very interesting analysis of the situation.

Some of the comments are insightful as well.

~~~

UPDATE: In fact, here's a good comment for you:

The other day, an older gent came to our door.

He was trying to raise money to pay for the heart surgery his baby granddaughter needs (hole in her heart). Apparently the parents are stuck in the 'make too much for government programs (SCHIP, etc) but not enough to afford insurance' category. Every time I go into a store I see another jar, collecting for yet another sick individual who can't afford health care. The number of interschool email messages asking for donations for similar is rising every day. A nation should define its success by how well it cares for its most vulnerable citizens. We fail.

Exactly!

Truly the snark of the week

Right here:

The good news is, President Obama was born in America. The bad news is, so was Donald Trump.

--Jay Leno

Today's headline

I'm sending you over to read a VERY short transcript of a Jim Hightower commentary:

From Democracy to Plutocracy

Yes, that's what's going on.

Here's a snippet:

Today's media and political powers... keep using the word "conservative" to describe current political trends in our democratic republic. Poor choice of words. From the Koch brothers to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, from GOP House Speaker John Boehner to such anti-worker governors as Scott Walker of Wisconsin, an autocratic power grab is underway...

Rather, a word from America's past best encapsulates their goal: plutocracy. It's the direct opposite of democracy, which is government by the many, by all of the people--by us. Plutocracy, on the other hand, is government by the wealthy--by them and for them.

What I simply don't understand is why "we the people" are letting this happen. I really don't.
~~~

Today's CNN QuickVote

I'm not sure what to think of this:

Who would be more likely to get your vote for president in 2012?

Obama

69%

Trump

31%

It seem to me that even having as much at 31% of respondents preferring Trump bodes ill for our country. What on earth qualifies him to be president?

~~~

Lincoln's warning about corporations

Oh, my. Look at this:

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.

-- President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)
~~~

Even Fox News finally gets it

that the president was born in the United States. Take a look:

The REAL issue:

Oh dear, dear, dear!

A friend sent me this today and, somehow, I'm not restraining myself from passing it on to you:

Who is undeserving? Of what?

I was sorting through some computer files and came across the following. Unfotunately, I cannot give you a source. It's a comment by someone named Becky and I didn't save a link to the original article so I've no idea where I found it. It's very good though and I hope you'll read it:

I’m British - by the definitions of many Americans I basically live in a ‘socialist state’ I suppose, although I wouldn’t say that myself.

I am a well-educated professional, with two degrees. I have never been out of work or drawn welfare benefits. I have earned every penny I ever had. So far so good.

But what I didn’t earn is the benefits of a family with a strong work ethic, who taught me personal responsibility, who supported me through my education, who showed an example by always working themselves. I didn’t earn being born middle class, which has given me huge advantages in my life.

It’s a fallacy to claim that those who are rich have ‘earned’ their money, implying that those who are poor have only themselves to blame and are basically lazy. There is no such thing as a total meritocracy. And even if there was, who is to say that those who aren’t as intelligent, or gifted deserve less if they are prepared to work? Many people, like my grandparents, work hard all of their lives, doing long hours in tiring manual jobs, and never earn a good salary. In what way are those people undeserving? Why should I have better healthcare than them? Or a better chance at education? My grand parents never saw the fruits of their labour in their lifetimes. But they did manage to provide a better chance for their children, which in turn provided a better chance for me. The dream cannot be fulfilled in one generation. I did not ‘earn’ my status alone - my grandparents must take much of the credit.

If your parents were wealthy enough to send you to an Ivy league college, and you had the right connections to help you into a fabulous job, you should thank your lucky stars, and be prepared to pass a little of your good fortune on to those who weren’t born into such fortunate circumstances as yourself, instead of guarding jealously what you supposedly earned.

We really need to think about this as we take benefit after benefit away from not only the poor but the middle class.
~~~

A headline for you today

This one:

Median U.S. household income fell 5% between 1999 and 2009. Globalization remains the core problem

It's a post on the Daily Kos website.

The figures were adjusted for inflation.

Here's how it gets started:

Technologically induced productivity whose benefits are only partially (if at all) passed along to workers. Union busting. Squeezing workers to do more with less (which was something some hotshot facilitator at a management seminar once called "work smarter, not harder" before that insulting slogan went viral). Erosion of the buying power of the minimum wage. A deteriorating manufacturing base abetted by "free trade" agreements that pit Americans against workers in China, India and elsewhere who earn 10 percent at companies which can compete without bothering with safety and environmental regulations. The sum? One of the plagues of the U.S. economy during the past few decades: stagnant wages.

And here's a paragraph from a comment someone made:

And flat wages combined with high unemployment will mean a continued diminished tax base giving those who want to destroy Medicare, Social Security, and other gov programs plenty of ammo.

This is quite worrying. And I don't think it's being pointed out by the mainstream media. More's the pity.
~~~

In honor of the day:

Vintage Holiday Crafts

Easter bunny brings eggs to big cats!

And now for today

Image from Wikimedia Commons

It's Shakespeare's birthday, y'all!

Here are a few passages I particularly like:

And since you know you cannot see yourself,
so well as by reflection, I, your glass,
will modestly discover to yourself,
that of yourself which you yet know not of.

...

A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
As much or more we should ourselves complain.

...

Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like a toad, though ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in its head.

...

The worst is not
So long as we can say, "This is the worst."

Just take each quotation one by one and let it sink in. I promise: there will be benefit with them all.

~~~

Yesterday's "Earth Day"

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

I really wanted to post something about Earth Day yesterday but I found myself really needing to devote my time to contemplation regarding Good Friday.

Here's the title of an brief article I'd like to call to your attention:

Earth Day organizers call for 'a billion acts of green'

And here's part of what it says:

If the environmental movement has a high holiday, Earth Day is it.

The annual effort to raise public awareness about the environment and inspire actions to clean it up marks its 41st anniversary on Friday, coinciding with the Christian Good Friday and Judaism's celebration of Passover.

In an effort dubbed "A Billion Acts of Green," organizers are encouraging people to observe Earth Day 2011 by pledging online at act.earthday.org to do something small but sustainable in their own lives to improve the planet's health — from switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs to reducing the use of pesticides and other toxic chemicals.

"Millions of people doing small, individual acts can add up to real change," said Chad Chitwood, a spokesman for the umbrella group coordinating efforts.

Okay. That seems rather obvious, I know. Except it's utterly true. Please don't think that any effort you make is not worth it because it is so small. These things work by cumulative effort and the more people decide to participate, the more effective they are.

I switched out all my light bulbs several years ago and started recycling everything I possibly could. These days I'm working on eliminating toxic cleaning products.

What earth-friendly activities are working for you these day? Do tell us in the comments.
~~~

In honor of Good Friday:

This is from the "St. John Passion" by J.S. Bach. The conductor is the great 20th century interpreter of Bach's works, Karl Richter.

It is a lullaby, really, to the Christ as he's laid in the tomb: "Rest well, sacred limbs."

~~~

A birther too far

If you don't know the story behind this, go right here.

~~~

A really important question

This is from a post over on Democratic Underground:

Why is nobody stating the obvious when it comes to sleeping air traffic controllers?

Here's how it gets started:

Namely that this sudden "crisis" is a direct outgrowth of Reagan's union busting measures thirty years ago.

The main issues surrounding the PATCO strike of '81 concerned hours worked, staffing and safety. Pay wasn't a priority issue. Yet despite all of this, Reagan played the cowboy at high noon, and shot PATCO down. Since then, air traffic controllers have been less experienced, been forced to work longer hours, with fewer staff on board any given shift, and yes, do so with less pay. These issues have now come to the fore, with staff falling asleep on duty and other such issues. Frankly, I find it a bit of a miracle that that is all we've suffered, some snoozing air traffic controllers and not a larger, deadlier tragedy.

The entire post is not much longer. Do click through and read it all - and maybe some of the comments as well.

I well remember that strike and Reagan's actions; the whole situation seemed very ominous to me at the time. We are reaping the consequences, I do believe.
~~~

A presidential accomplishment

This is kind of sweet:

I'm the guy who got Mark to wear a jacket and tie.

-- President Barack Obama, at a Facebook event repeatedly poking fun at Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg for his casual dress sense. The two attended a formal dinner party for Silicon Valley's elite back in February where Zuckerberg wore a suit
~~~

Our taxes; our values

Here's a headline from Grist magazine that really caught my attention:

What would happen if Americans had a say in how their tax money is spent?

Here's the concept:

What if U.S. taxpayers were allowed, for some small portion of their taxes -- say, 10 percent -- to specify on their tax returns where they'd like to direct the money? [Cait] Lamberton ran some experiments to find out.

One result is that those allowed to specify some tax expenditures felt much less irritation and angst, and much more of a sense of satisfaction and benefit, toward paying taxes. That in itself would be a sea change in U.S. consciousness.
...
Respondents across the board shifted spending toward education, training, and social services -- all areas that are major job-creation engines and paths to sustainable improvements in standards of living.
...
For one thing, if taxpayers were allowed to do this, they would demonstrate -- with their own money, which carries more weight than any poll -- what they value. I'm not naive enough to think that would transform the priorities of policymakers, but over time, the disjoint between what Americans want to spend money on and what
politicians are spending on would grow difficult to ignore. Priorities would get dragged in the right direction.

Hey, there's a lot to be said for this.

Whether it's feasible or not, it's a very interesting idea to play with.
~~~

Here's your headline

You may think you know this stuff but I learned a few things:

Five myths about Planned Parenthood

And we need to know the truth with all the misinformation out there.

It's a short article in the Washington Post. Do click through and have a look.
~~~

The world's artists

Yes, yes, yes:

It is the world's artists, particularly those courageous enough to stand up against authoritarianism, for whom we need to be concerned, and for whose safety we must fight.

-- Salman Rushdie, writes in an op-ed calling for Chinese artist-dissident Ai Weiwei to be released

~~~

While we're on the subject of elections...

(Click to enlarge)

Headline of the day

This really needs to get your attention:

Programmer under oath admits computers rig elections

It's a video. I'm giving it to you right here:

The truth about our social spending

I just came across an article entitled "U.S. Ranks Dead Last In Overall Social Spending" . Take a look at part of what it says:

The conservative pundits are trying to frame this [budget] debate along the lines that the deficit and debt of the United States was created by the liberal, nanny state programs. This is an outright lie they have drummed into the heads of the American people. Unfortunately, some of the pundits are trusted sources of information for millions of people.

The United States currently ranks thirty-fourth (34th) out of the thirty-four (34) members of the OECD in regards to spending on social programs, DEAD LAST.

The amount the United States spends is currently only 7.2% of our gross domestic product on programs that make up our social contract with the American people.

The OECD is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. You can read about them right here. Members include Australia, Japan, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Slovenia, Mexico. Something to think about, people.

~~~

UPDATE: Well, this is a bit better. The author says the following: " I used some information that has since been corrected on the original site, Business Insider. It turns out that the United States spends 16.2% of our GDP on social programs, NOT 7.2%."

~~~

Your headline of the day

This is definitely a question I have:

Are We In the Process of Creating a New and Enduring American Underclass?

Take a look at how the article gets started:

Corporate America appears to be prospering with far fewer workers than it employed before the crash. Wages are down, the stock market is up and firms are expanding their operations overseas. Meanwhile, Congress is suffering from the delusion that our greatest problem is the deficit, rather than the extreme economic insecurity so many Americans are suffering from today. And that focus will only exacerbate the crisis on “Main Street.”

The question is whether these trends will become “the new normal,” consigning millions to an emerging American underclass. Is our notably cruel brand of capitalism ultimately leading to something that looks more like feudalism – with low-paid serfs feeling fortunate just to have an opportunity to toil for their lords' enrichment?

Consider a bleak snapshot of our ailing economy: Real corporate profits are now near an all-time high, yet one out of six working people are either out of a job or have no choice but to work part-time.

Here's what I don't understand about so-called "conservatives". Why isn't providing jobs for Americans considered a patriotic duty for these corporations that have been granted legal personhood by our system?

I simply do not understand how the CEOs involved can sleep nights. I really do not.

~~~

Sunday art blogging

Artist: Paul Cézanne

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Something about how we got here

I'd like to recommend an article entitled "How I View the American Crisis" by Robert Parry. Here's a little bit of what it says:

Generally speaking – and with a number of glaring exceptions – the post-World War II period was a time when the institutions of the Republic functioned along the lines of what we learned in our public school civics classes. The federal government drew from the lessons of the Great Depression and the New Deal to improve the country’s general welfare by creating conditions that helped expand the middle class.

...

Reagan denounced Medicare as socialist tyranny; he cracked down on the anti-war movement while governor of California; he aided and abetted right-wing death squads in Latin America; he opposed environmentalism and other government regulations; he worked to roll back civil rights, especially affirmative action aimed at ameliorating the legacy of discrimination against minorities and women. Upon taking office in 1981, with the Senate under Republican control, Reagan and his team began systematically deconstructing the institutional safeguards that had defined the New Deal and post-World War II-era.

...

Reagan emphasized, too, expanding the Right’s propaganda capabilities, coordinating with the growing network of right-wing media and attack groups that went after troublesome journalists and intimidated political critics.

...

Indeed, by the early-to-mid-1990s, there was little distinction between the mainstream news media and the right-wing press.

Starting to see where this is leading?

I do recommend that you click through and read the whole article. It's not all that long.

~~~

Something I did not know

Take a look:

In 1828, opponents of Andrew Jackson's presidential ambitions called him jackass. His response? He defiantly adopted the donkey as his political emblem. It soon became the Democratic Party's official symbol. Democrats point out the hard-working, humble and even the biblical trait of willing service embodied in the donkey.

Found it here.

~~~

Oh, I love this:

What socialism really is

You know, you'd think this would be obvious:

Socialism believes that people working together for a common good can produce a greater benefit, both for society and for the individual, than can a society in which everyone is shrewdly seeking their own self-interest.

-- Frank Zeidler, former socialist mayor of Milwaukee

Friday cat blogging!

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

What's happening where I live

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the great state of Oklahoma:

Reversing her previous position, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) is now “rejecting a $54.6 million federal grant to help create a health insurance exchange for uninsured Oklahoma residents that is required by the new federal health care law.” Instead, state Republicans are supporting the creation of an “advisory board” comprised of representatives from health insurers, among others, to help establish an exchange.

It grieved me when I read about this in the paper this morning. And to think I live here.

~~~

Politics and our wolves

This is just disgusting:

For the first time in history, Congress is removing a species ... from the Endangered Species Act based on political, rather than biological, judgments.

-- A statement from the public-interest law firm Earthjustice, on a rider attached to Congress's budget that would remove federal protections for the gray wolf

~~~

Ignoring science at our peril

Just take a look at this headline:

Scientists Find Link Between Global Warming and Earthquakes

Here's something to get you started:

Scientists have for the first time shown a link between intensifying climate events and tectonic plate movement in findings that could provide a valuable insight into why huge tremors occur. [...]

An Australian-led team of researchers from France and Germany found that the strengthening Indian monsoon had accelerated movement of the Indian plate over the past 10 million years by a factor of about 20 percent.

Lead researcher Giampiero Iaffaldano said Wednesday that although scientists have long known that tectonic movements influence climate by creating new mountains and sea trenches, his study was the first to show the reverse.

Are we going to take this seriously or just keep heading down the path toward disaster?

~~~