 | "There's Justice In The Universe" |
| Posted 7/30/2011 8:34 AM CDT After reading a recent AAS article about Evangelical Christians' goals, I'm reminded of other societies in times past and present where one religious sect dominates to the detriment of religious freedom for all. In modern times, the Puritans who fled religious persecution were themselves, in turn, persecutors. The same with Mormons, Sunnis, Shiites, Hindus, etcetera. Anytime anywhere one religious group dominates, there is the potential for persecution to swing like a pendulum -- even if the dogma being preached is atheism. The only people in America who oppose the separation of the church and the state are those church people who want to control the state. Those of us who are familiar with history and who value freedom understand the value of a balance between religion and secular interests. [The power of the pulpit in a Democratic Republic is enough. And still has little to do with spirituality (Christ's message) / and is properly reinforced by a 1954 law that bars religious organizations and nonprofit groups that accept tax-deductible contributions from endorsing specific candidates.] A great movie that demonstrates this is "Agora". The historical drama also highlights the relationship between religion and science -- amidst the decline of Greco-Roman polytheism and the Christianization of the Roman Empire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agora_%28film%29 "Agora" is set in Roman Egypt (Alexandria), concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hopes of pursuing 'physical freedom' (but loses his way spiritually) & the female Greek philosopher that both he and Alexandria's Roman prefect are in love with -- but whom neither can have because of her need to remain independent of a man's control (which firebrand Christianity could not tolerate). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1186830/ Note: As you're watching the movie, sometimes remind yourself of what comes just a few hundred years later. And then use that comparison to examine today's headlines. http://explorethemed.com/RiseIslam.asp |
| Posted 7/29/2011 5:07 AM CDT Through tax breaks, loopholes and subsidies, billions of our tax dollars are being transferred into corporate coffers. Meanwhile, corporate lobbyists and their allies in Congress are trying to cut funding for public protections that benefit the American people. Our tax dollars should be used to prevent reckless corporations from ripping us off and poisoning our environment -- not to pad corporate profits. Big Business lackeys in Congress are trying to cut funding for public protections that make life better and safer for all Americans. Tell your Congressmen to fully fund the vital agencies that protect us from wrongdoing. Take Action: http://www.citizen.org/no-corporate-subsidies |
| Posted 7/27/2011 10:27 PM CDT In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day." The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment." He was right -- "our" generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day.... we had something more effective... READ: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/they-didnt-have-green-thing-back-then-16948.html |
| Posted 7/27/2011 5:45 AM CDT http://tinyurl.com/4ydr2hd  Grover Glenn Norquist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Norquist "Trickle-down economics" is a term attributed to humorist Will Rogers, who said during the Great Depression that "money was all appropriated for the top in hopes that it would trickle down to the needy." More humor: http://tinyurl.com/3kc3ono Libertarians, Tea Partiers, 'laissez-faire activists', 'fiscal conservatives' all justifiably want to see taxes reduced and government reduced. Except that their leaders don't all 'necessarily' want to see tax breaks and subsidies taken away from big businesses and the wealthy -- Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, opposes the elimination of $6 billion in ethanol subsidies because removing subsidies and tax breaks is supposedly "the same as raising taxes". Also, recently Boehner changed his mind about accepting Obama's offer to cut $4 trillion from the deficit over ten years through spending cuts, SS & Medicare reform, and tax increases WHEN his "caucus" objected to raising $1 trillion in new revenue over a decade by removing tax breaks for oil companies, corporate-jet owners and hedge fund managers did he reverse course. http://theweek.com/supertopic/topic/107/the-national-debt |
| Posted 7/26/2011 5:57 AM CDT For the last ten years, mankind has lived nonstop in space. Now we need to go beyond the low orbit that the space shuttles and the International Space Station were designed for. Thus, a new space race has begun -- with private aerospace companies selling rides to NASA. Driven by NASA objectives and rewards (for now), every robotic space space probe, satellite and experiment is launched by commercial rockets. And numerous companies are competing to 'provide the rides'. http://tinyurl.com/3rcb8hb |
| Posted 7/25/2011 7:14 AM CDT Americans are underemployed and underpaid. Labor compensation in the USA is at a 50-year low relative to both company sales and USA's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Despite 'supposed' burdens of health care costs, environmental compliance and other regulations, profit margins are at their highest levels in over fifty years. And though innovation and offshoring contributed to increased profits, the major reason is due to reductions in both wages and benefits. As the conversion of 'wage income' to 'profits' by corporations continues (in conjunction with increasing numbers of Asians entering the world labor force), Americans can expect to have to learn to live more like the immigrant laborers that we still continue to 'onshore'. http://tinyurl.com/3mkrwnq http://tinyurl.com/4xyb39t |
| Posted 7/24/2011 10:02 AM CDT When 'No Child Left Behind' standards were put into place, I knew that they'd never be met. Not because of schools failing to do a good job or lack of effort by the students, but because the Normal Distribution Curve wouldn't allow it. Too many students have intelligence quotients too low to master the curriculum at the unrealistic levels targeted by NCLB. My comment was: "When the rubber finally meets the road on this, there'll be skid marks all the way to Washington." Now the feds are saying that if there are not changes to NCLB standards, 83% of all schools could be listed as failing next year. Another individual was a more blunt regarding such matters when we were given handouts about such things at teacher meetings: "Yup, too slick (as he plied it between his thumb and forefinger). Don't even make good a$$ wipe," AAS article -- http://tinyurl.com/3odvl9k Normal Distribution Curve http://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/IQBasics.aspx |
| Posted 7/23/2011 9:52 AM CDT In the days before ballpoint pens and keyboards, people had to rely on pencils, fountain pens, or quill pens. Printing was easily feasible with pencil, but cursive allowed the user of fountain pens and quills to write a continuous series of letters in a continuous fluid motion without having to start each letter separately (which could cause a small blot when the nib first began the stroke on the paper). Today, printing with a ball point pen is no faster or slower than cursive and usually more legible. As us baby boomers fade into the twilight, nostalgia for 'cursive writing' occasionally surfaces, sometimes manifesting as a desire to mandate cursive writing be used in schools. Though I think it's a good idea that cursive be mastered by all as a part of a well rounded education, I never (as a secondary level teacher) required cursive be used -- though I did demonstrate its use by writing many of my lessons in cursive to acquaint my students with reading it and with proper letter formations. From them, I did require readable penmanship and would return sloppy, hard-to-read work whether it was in cursive or printing. Article-- "Keys just can't replace cursive": http://www.statesman.com/opinion/smerconish-keys-just-cant-replace-cursive-1615681.html Making a quill pen Video (02:59)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1wyYh97LDk&feature=related (04:58)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdWT0Kbcw4E&feature=related |
| Posted 7/22/2011 11:57 AM CDT A "new" proposed "bi-partisan" federal budget plan supports the core constituencies of the Republicans (corporate welfare entitleliteists) and the Democrats (social welfare entitleliteists), but leaves the middle class supporting both sides of the aisle more than ever -- still without reducing government programs significantly. The good, the bad and the ugly -- It'd repeal the 'alternative minimum tax' (good). It'd also keep the $1000 per child tax credit (good). It'd keep the 'earned income credit' (okay). It'd reduce tax breaks for mortgage interest, health insurance, charitable giving and retirement saving (not good). It'd lower the top income tax rate for the top brackets who haven't been able to take advantage of tax breaks and loopholes provided (ugly). Google: shrinking middle class in America This gives Tea Partiers a chance to garner some support from the left if they'd go after corporate tax breaks, subsidies and loopholes created for them by Congress (and quit trying to indirectly legislate morality) as strongly as they want to go after social welfare. Of course, this balance won't happen. The Tea Partiers in Washington D.C. will continue to try and make their influence felt in the GOP (Grand Old Party) -- which, ironically, was founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854. Google 'define: enslavement by taxes' |
Posted 7/21/2011 10:34 AM CDT
Since our population density is increasing in the direction of Europe's, I thought I'd take a look at some of their cultural manifestations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_density
http://tinyurl.com/39k938t
The "Eurovision Song Contest" is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programs in the world. It is also one of the most-watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. [Sound familiar?]
http://tinyurl.com/6e7p3ap
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest
Samples:
Finland- Kuunkuiskaajat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5GP63_JBJE&NR=1&feature=fvwp
Turkey- Hadise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8gr5GS2Sno&feature=related
All Eurovision Winners from 1956-2010 Part One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLQR5Jh70rw&feature=related
Part Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vS9Te7LkVE&feature=related
More:
http://www.youtube.com/user/eurovision#g/u
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_density
http://tinyurl.com/39k938t
The "Eurovision Song Contest" is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programs in the world. It is also one of the most-watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. [Sound familiar?]
http://tinyurl.com/6e7p3ap
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest
Samples:
Finland- Kuunkuiskaajat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5GP63_JBJE&NR=1&feature=fvwp
Turkey- Hadise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8gr5GS2Sno&feature=related
All Eurovision Winners from 1956-2010 Part One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLQR5Jh70rw&feature=related
Part Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vS9Te7LkVE&feature=related
More:
http://www.youtube.com/user/eurovision#g/u
