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Thursday, August 25, 2011

35

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"There's Justice In The Universe"
America is the land of "fair weather" bicycle commuters.  How can I tell?  No fenders on the bicycles-- no baskets or racks, either. [Yes, I know about backpacks... but not everything is feasibly transportable in a pack]. The only way you can have fenders, etcetera in order to make bicycle commuting more feasible is to buy a special order 'Commute Bike' & then pay the special 'customized' price (for what used to be standard on any 1950s Schwinn)... unless you special order clip-on fenders, etcetera / which seems rather Mickey-Mouse to me.  So, when you hear someone raving about "we should all go green" and ride a bike to work, break it to them as gently as possible -- it won't work, as is.  If you can't transport what you need to carry with you & the cars don't get you, then the summer heat and humidity will.  Even those who ride bicycles for fun can only do so if it hasn't been raining, unless they're ready for the front & backside splattering they'll collect.

p.s. -- When I search for images on 'Europe bicycles' & 'China bicycles', I see almost only  bicycles with fenders and many, many with baskets, carriers, etcetera.

http://www.go-one.us/tech/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/cartoon.gif
Caffeinated Alcoholic Beverages: Hidden Dangers "They have more booze than other single-serving
beverages. Budweiser and Mike's are both
about 5% alcohol; by comparison, Sparks Plus
is 7%, and four maXed and Joose are about 10%. 
The single-serving 'combination' of a depressant
(alcohol) and various stimulants carries a certain
"nightclub logic";  Anheuser-Busch used to
advertise its caffeinated beer, Bud Extra, with lines
such as YOU CAN SLEEP WHEN YOU'RE 30 and
WE SUGGEST 18-HOUR MASCARA.... 
from a psychological perspective, drinking caffeine
with your alcohol is much riskier than drinking
alcohol alone. One of the fascinating things about
how humans process alcohol is that we have at
least some capacity to overcome its effects by
sheer force of will.  In other words, people who
are aware of their impairment of being intoxicated
are more 'cautious' --- but people who are led to
mistakenly believe that their impairment is reduced
by the energizing effects of caffeine (stimulant) are
much less cautious & are a greater danger to
themselves and to others."

A wired drunk is still a drunk.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1823953,00.html

In addition, it only takes 400 milligrams
a day to begin experiencing the effects of caffeine
overdose... so read the labels / not only about the
caffeine amount, but the other ingredients as well
(especially if you're diabetic, etcetera).

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/06/energy_drinks.html
During the early 70s, I was working for the welfare department in Pharr, Texas.  I was officed across the street from the ACLU headquarters (where I observed the comings and goings of many well publicized characters).  I'd worked an 'Aid to Families with Dependent Children' case for the family of a man killed in the "Pharr Police Riot" (relates to racial tensions) at a time when the United Farm Workers (UFW) was very active there in the Rio Grande Valley (a predominately agricultural region, at that time).  I even, in passing, shook the hand of César Chávez.   La Raza and the Indianismo movement were coming to the fore of Chicano pride.  LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) was gaining political strength.  And the one symbol that kept popping up was the UFW flag (Aztec eagle from the Mexican flag as the logo’s main symbol) --
http://tinyurl.com/Indianismo

So, when I see a picture at Statesman.com of Gonzalo Barrientos, a former state senator, carrying the red flag with the black Aztec eagle, I remember the above.  Reading that he was one of the people who felt slighted by City Manager Marc Ott reminded me of growing up in the Valley.  I understand 'Latino pride'.... especially as how it was explained to me by 'Freddy Fender' (before he became nationally famous). One night as we chatted over a beer(s) / he very colorfully made a point of how 'false pride' (my term, not his) had caused him much grief in his past -- and how he was learning to deal with it.  A lesson we can all learn.
[Yes, I know that the drama in Ott's office was more about demonstrative politics than pride.] 
"Since the breakup of The Soviet Union in 1991, most of Russia's former republics came together in the Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S.), which is still led by Russia. The Baltic nations joined NATO and the European Union in 2004--a course Ukraine and Georgia have flirted with recently--while the resource-rich Central Asian republics have remained largely loyal to Moscow. But after the invasion of Georgia, former members of the U.S.S.R. are now nervously eyeing a resurgent Russia on their borders."
Read about former Soviet Republics:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1834661,00.html

Points:
Russia is intent on dominating its neighbors and restoring its clout on the world stage. Putin thinks the West cherishes 'his' oil and influence over Iran too much to block his moves in Georgia.

Saakashvili was a fool to bait the Russians. Because of his miscalculation, Georgia will  lose control of its rebellious provinces. But Russia’s attack was also intended to bully Ukraine into dropping its NATO bid and to cow other former Soviet satellites into submission.

This war, like so much of modern geopolitics, was also about petroleum.  Russia controls the pipelines linking oil and natural-gas producers in former Soviet republics to the West. With Europe already dependent on Russia for a quarter of its natural gas, Western officials plotted a $12 billion pipeline through Georgia to transport gas from the Caspian Sea, circumventing the Russian monopoly. By crushing Georgia, Russia has shown investors that it could easily take out such a pipeline—which now probably will never be built.
http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/751154.html


When I started teaching school, my students complained that I made them stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance each and every morning (no other class in the school did).    Now, it's required by law for all schools to do so. 

At the start of this new school year, I offer the following YouTube clip to inspire those who find the 'Pledge' tiresome:

Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance  (04:20)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfz2XDXaeqc&feature=related

Climatic variability on the timescale of tens of
thousands of years used to be a predominant
pattern in earth history… until the Isthmus of
Panama rose to impede the equatorial flow
of the Atlantic into the Pacific.  Since then,
the past few million years has been punctuated
by many rapid climate transitions, most of them
on time scales of centuries to decades or even
less. All the evidence indicates that most
long-term climate change occurs in sudden
jumps rather than incremental changes…
all I can safely say at present is that the
planet was some 5° to 9°F warmer during
the last interglacial period (Eemian) than it is
today…. and that was without extra greenhouses
gases being added ‘into the mix’.




http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2006/2/3/0394/97545

Antarctica is losing mass at an increasing rate
(59% increase in the past decade according to
measurements by the Gravity Recovery and
Climate Experiment satellites).  Geophysicist
Donald Blankenship of UT Austin points out
that even if the ocean's temperature miraculously
and suddenly stabilized, Antarctica would
continue to lose mass -- because the West
Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) glacier bed, as
one moves inland from its edge, plummets
farther below sea level and the ice gets thicker..
and as the glaciers melt and retreat inland, more
and more of their ice will come into contact
with the already warmer water, while the area
on which new snow can gather will decrease.

http://tinyurl.com/56bcok

 This is a double hit that will cause the
WAIS to melt at a further increased rate --
leading to the point where there won't be
enough mass in the WAIS to for its
decrease to remain predictable.

Looking at Greenland, the 1 1/2 mile thick
ice layer that has been accumulating there
since the last interglacial period ended
130,000 years ago is also shedding ice
at increasing rate.  It's doing it so fast
that the scientists in the North Greenland
Ice Drilling (NEEM) project are seeing it
disappear right from 'under their noses'.
It is probably this scientific endeavor that
will lay to rest any remaining doubts as to
the role that CO2 plays in our current
climate change reality.  Since increased
CO2 levels correlated directly with previous
geologic eras' warming periods, the
completion of the NEEM project will cause
greatly increased panic... especially when
you consider that temperatures during the
peak of an interglacial period are much
warmer than what we're experiencing now
--- even without the increased CO2 levels
that we'll be carrying when that time interval hits.

So, it's now time to learn how to pronounce
'anthropogenic'....




Organic Consumers Association and allies
sent a letter to Kellogg's, requesting that
Kellogg's not use sugar from genetically
engineered sugar beets in its products or
face a consumer boycott.

Kellogg's has responded, claiming that US
consumers do 'not' care if their food contains
Genetically Engineered (GE)...  however,
poll after poll have demonstrated that Americans
want GE foods labeled and restricted.

Monsanto Corporation's RoundUp Ready
Genetically Engineered Sugar Beet is designed
to withstand massive doses of toxic weed killers.
Roughly half of all processed foods contain
sugar from sugar beets.  Monsanto's GE sugar
beets will expose millions of consumers to
untested and unlabeled "Franken Foods" &
exposure to Round Up [Note -  Round Up doesn't
completely break down in less than a year as
Monsanto claims... which means some goes into you.]

http://www.organicconsumers.org/kelloggs.cfm

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.cfm
With the number of out-of-wedlock births
increasing every year in the USA, half of
the births in 12 years will be "single mother"
births.  That's not what we called it when
I was a kid, but that's another sign of changing
social mores & values.  Another thing that's
increasing is the number of people shacking up....
done 'ostensibly' to avoid the financial
obligations of marriage.  What's occurring in
Australia that will cause 'cohabitation' to
lose some of its allure is a new law that
treats couples who are 'shacking up' as having
"de facto relationships".... which means
that a couple who are shacking up will
have the same financial responsibilities
to deal with when they try to go their
separate ways. 

For example, if Sarah and Simon are
cohabiting and Sarah suddenly inherits
a pile from her grandmother, Simon
can claim some of that money when
he dumps her.  In other words, a gold
digger
wouldn't have to get a ring on
her/his finger to lay hands on someone's
fortune.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/de-facto-choice-deserves-respect/2008/08/03/1217701846384.html

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/till-debt-do-us-part-a-rude-shock-for-de-factos/2008/08/03/1217701853597.html
The following is written by a friend:

Doesn’t this ad on TV sound Great? Except we are not going to tell
you serve your country when we need you. BUT don’t ask for any help or support when you get discharged.
You can turn in a claim for medical and financial help but make sure you don’t need it soon that is within 3 years. This way it can get lost in the system (black hole).
I am a 62 year old disabled Vietnam Veteran that got spit on when returning from Vietnam in 1969 in the Dallas airport. Why do any of our Veterans have to beg for medical or financial assistance? Should it not be easy to give assistance? Those now homeless hungry Vets were proud men and woman when ask to serve their country.
Now because they are handicapped, old and disabled we, the American Government/people make them beg for any and all help. The VA says fill out this claim and it will take on the average of 2-3 years to be processed. This way the Vet will get frustrated and give up or just DIE.
I personally have claims/appeals that have been on someone’s desk for over 3 years. I will state “It did not take me 3 years to sign-up when my country needed help in March of 1966“. I have written letters begging for help as high as President Bush. Congressman Michael McCaul of Texas was the only one that was willing to help. I even requested to be considered a financial hardship. That had no meaning, claims and appeals are still stuck in the system.
I ask for help because I was about to lose my home. The foreclosure date had been set for my home to be sold. I forwarded the foreclosure notice to the Congressional VA office in Waco. This had no weigh, in other words no one in Waco’s VA office cared whether my family ended up another disabled VET on the street.
This is a major problem, it seems that our government had rather care for homeless, hungry people of other countries than their own Veterans.