 | "There's Justice In The Universe" |
| Posted 11/8/2008 10:48 AM CST As a 'conservationist, I often find myself at odds with some extreme 'environmentalists'. A classic case in point is the debate over whether or not to 'ban garbage disposals' in an effort to be 'green' because dumping waste into the water system has environmental costs because there is evidence that the effluent that is pumped back into local water streams does affect their chemical composition and aquatic life. Even if you buy into the premise that this is a valid issue, the solution is for people to be less wasteful. After paying closer attention to what acquaintances do, I've been surprised at the amount of food they throw away. And they're not unusual, as an estimated 26% of edible food is thrown away every year in the U.S. [And one of these families is nearly bankrupt.] The squandering of our resources and money has led us to the point where food wastage will diminish as economic realities set in. Frugality, a forgotten word, will be 'renewed', and once again, garbage disposals will be safe. http://www.slate.com/id/2201176/?y=1 Also, go to ASK.COM and search under "Food Waste Facts": http://www.ask.com/web?q=Food+Waste+Facts&qsrc=6&o=0&l=dir |
| Posted 11/7/2008 2:41 PM CST In the past few years, we've heard about the possible cause of 'autism' being related to the mercury preservant formerly in children's immunizations. Though this hasn't been proven, one should stop and consider the total amount of mercury being injected into our environment on a daily basis by the burning of coal. Also to be considered is the fact that toxic metals & other toxins such as 'perchlorate' (element used in solid rocket fuel & in manufacturing processes) is widely found in our food, water and (hence) mothers' breast milk. And the list of other significant pollutants is longer than your arm. None of which holds much sway with those corporate interests that profit from lowered EPA standards. Is it any wonder that McCain, with an abysmal environmental voting record, lost? http://www.biophysicscenter.com/autism_and_thimerosal.html Previous blogs: http://www.statesman.com/sitelife/content/sitelife/persona.html?newspaperUserId=5790037&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a5790037Post%3a0a0af0b2-ef46-45db-951a-62f781c58762&sid=sitelife.statesman.com http://www.statesman.com/sitelife/content/sitelife/persona.html?newspaperUserId=5790037&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a5790037Post%3a99351bc4-6a8b-4448-9a7f-afb9f178d60e&sid=sitelife.statesman.com |
| Posted 11/6/2008 9:22 AM CST The human species evolved with 'us' vs 'them' social group competitiveness. Competition for territory and resources dictated that whichever group dominated, best survived, & was deemed superior. Whichever group out bred the surrounding groups and could best sustain warfare usually won out & whatever 'gods' they worshiped gained sway. This is facilitated when each group thinks of themselves as being The People aka 'the chosen ones'. The Christian teaching that humans can ONLY approach God through Jesus Christ is a manifestation of this. It's not enough to believe in God -- you have to believe in Christ as the Savior in a very special way in order to properly go to Heaven. And, if you're a Baptist, believing in Christ in a special way grants you superiority over Lutherans, Catholics, etcetera AND vice versa. It's all about 'usuns' being the superior social culture (aka 'chosen ones') & the rest being "thoseuns" (inferior -- thus worthy of domination). It's all quite primitive [think of the song, "Onward Christian Soldiers" then remember the Crusades]. Not at all what Christ represents = Love & Wisdom. Note: The Muslims have a case of 'usuns' vs 'thoseuns' even worse than we do. I wouldn't want to have them for neighbors like the Europeans do. |
| Posted 11/5/2008 11:08 AM CST I often provide a synopsis of what I read (with my comments) that I consider pertinent & provide links for my readers to click on if they want the full related article(s). However, the statements by State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond are so absurd that I can't shorten them without tainting the expressed views. Suffice it to say that she isn't backing down from her claim that Barack Obama has been plotting with terrorists to attack the U.S. (amongst other claims). I just hope voters are taking full measure of what she's revealing about herself and many of her fellow 'fundamentalists' [the 'holier than thou' mask is slipping]: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/11/04/1104dunbar.html http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6092607.html http://tfnblog.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/texas-state-board-of-education-extremism-on-stage/ http://blogs.chron.com/texaspolitics/archives/2008/11/state_official.html#comments http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/11/state-board-member-recycles-ob.html |
| Posted 11/4/2008 3:11 PM CST During the Vietnam War, one term that was in vogue was the word "trade-offs". Once people caught on that it meant sacrificing something 'good' for something 'not good', the government changed their 'double speak'. In that light, let me quote the Sierra Club about a contemporary trade-off: "This summer, the EPA reduced the official value of the average U.S. life from $7.8 million to $6.9 million... this had been a goal of White House regulatory czar John Graham, who tried to discount the lives of senior Americans in particular. Dubbed it "the senior death discount", today your life is worth nearly $1 million less. "Why devalue human lives? Because the less your life is worth, the less the government has to do to keep you safe. The less your life is worth, the easier it is to come up with a cost-benefit analysis showing that banning a dangerous pesticide or preventing global warming is "uneconomic," particularly as the value of future lives is discounted by 2 to 3 percent a year. Lives are valued even less by the reactionary right, whose algorithm of risk discounts them by up to 10 percent a year, so that in seven years a life is 'worth' only half as much as one today." http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200811/create.asp http://www.nationalpriorities.org/ http://www.nationalpriorities.org/related_links |
| Posted 11/3/2008 5:32 PM CST "Perchlorate is a dangerous chemical used in rocket fuel and fireworks that for years has been leaking from military bases and industrial sites into water supplies across the country. Because the chemical interferes with the body's ability to make thyroid hormone, which is critical for normal development of babies' brains and nervous systems, the people at greatest risk of harm from perchlorate are pregnant women, infants and children." Read previous blog on subject for greater depth [‘Perchlorate’ Contaminating America's FOOD & WATER]: http://www.statesman.com/sitelife/content/sitelife/persona.html?newspaperUserId=5790037&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a5790037Post%3a99351bc4-6a8b-4448-9a7f-afb9f178d60e&sid=sitelife.statesman.com "The EPA has decided not to regulate perchlorate levels in drinking water, even though this toxic chemical poses dangerous risks. Tell the EPA to keep perchlorate out of our drinking water before the November 10th comment deadline." Take Action: http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_102908 |
| Posted 11/3/2008 9:59 AM CST "Old, dirty coal-fired power plants and other Big Polluters contribute to dangerous particle pollution (and soil & water) all across the country. Nearly 125 million Americans live in places where the levels of smog or particle pollution puts their health at risk and increases climate change. Children with asthma and seniors with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease end up hospitalized or having to interrupt their normal lives because the air in their community is unsafe to breathe. Air pollution from Big Polluters can be deadly, causing tens of thousands of premature deaths from SIDS, lung diseases, heart attacks, and strokes each year. Congress and the next President must step forward to clean up dirty power plants." Previous Blog / Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) Electric Power Generation: http://www.statesman.com/sitelife/content/sitelife/persona.html?newspaperUserId=5790037&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a5790037Post%3a62c8ebef-10c9-4df2-b5cf-f45fee019743&plckCommentSortOrder=TimeStampAscending&sid=sitelife.statesman.com Take Action: http://lungaction.org/campaign/vote_bigpolluters |
| Posted 11/2/2008 10:40 AM CST As the world becomes a scarier place to live in (e.g., as described by Alvin Toffler in "Future Shock"), many ordinary folks are grasping onto their Holy Bibles & Korans more firmly than ever. Hence, 'creationism' is certainly becoming increasingly popular around the world. Interestingly, 'creationism' is a 'kind of paganism' because it is reminiscent of belief in "nature gods" / who polytheistic pagans believed to be responsible for natural events such as thunder (e.g., Thor, Zeus, Jupiter, Xolotl), lightning (e.g., Tlaloc, Fulgora, Perkunas), etcetera, etcetera. God / Jehovah / Elohim / Adonai / Yahweh / Allah is the "one and only God" that 'young souls' are slowly learning to accept and understand. Until that process is complete, God will retain attributes of a 'supernatural' god in many folks' minds. "Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism -- it's turning God into a 'nature god'. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Shock http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Alt/alt.politics.bush/2006-05/msg01066.html http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/oct/01/local-professors-back-evolution-curriculum/ |
| Posted 11/1/2008 12:54 PM CDT "The SBOE is made up of 15 members elected from districts of roughly equal population and normally labors in near-obscurity, setting policies that govern more than 1,227 school districts and charter schools where some 590,000 teachers and other employees are charged with providing an education to over 4.5 million schoolchildren. "From time to time, however, SBOE finds itself in the spotlight over some controversial issue. Currently, the science curriculum is the source of controversy over the teaching of 'evolution' vs 'creationism' (contains the idea that the Earth is 6000 years old). "With eight of 15 SBOE members aligned with the 'creationists', they are often able to shape decisions to reflect their ideology. However, they have managed to arouse the ire of a growing number of parents and teachers." [Their close support from and affiliation with the Discovery Institute, a religious-based creationist national organization, says it all.] http://www.theexaminer.com/npps/story.cfm?ID=2707 Previous Blog / Mankind’s Spiritual Evolution: Are We There Yet? : http://www.statesman.com/sitelife/content/sitelife/persona.html?newspaperUserId=5790037&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a5790037Post%3a8c5523c1-9a3c-41ea-a3fc-6d188aa6b28e&sid=sitelife.statesman.com |
Posted 10/31/2008 2:10 PM CDT
When I taught secondary school Social Studies and Language Arts, I'd always do a bit of history that went with the different holidays and celebrations to both add meaning and zest to my students' understanding. Students who'd lived in Texas had no real appreciation of how serious the business of not 'winter killing' (exposure to winter conditions) up North in the old days was / which is a part of understanding the roots of Halloween.
The following is an excerpt from the links that are below:
"The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter."
http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=713&display_order=1&sub_display_order=1&mini_id=1076
http://emailnewsletters.aetv.com/h/images/!History/news/hosted_2008_1030.htm?HPF_rid=7827404&HPF_mid=1642_T1_Url0
The following is an excerpt from the links that are below:
"The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter."
http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=713&display_order=1&sub_display_order=1&mini_id=1076
http://emailnewsletters.aetv.com/h/images/!History/news/hosted_2008_1030.htm?HPF_rid=7827404&HPF_mid=1642_T1_Url0
