Politics

With 40 allies, it appears we are about to start the world's latest crusade. This one will not neglect the two principal reasons for war, politics and religion. Apparently we are all incapable of learning and I despair that we shall never reach Class One status. I fail to see how any good can come of this adventure. Certainly our treasure and some young men and women will be among the costs. I, too, was once young and blood thirsty but I have mostly gotten over it. Now, old men seek to direct and influence the pawns in this game but I am no longer one of them. I don't wish to trample on anyone and simply wish to be left to my own devices. However, seemingly that i…

Israeli intelligence veterans refuse to serve in Palestinian territories Innocent people under military rule exposed to surveillance by Israel, say 43 ex-members of Unit 8200, including reservists http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/12/israeli-intelligence-reservists-refuse-serve-palestinian-territories

Hot Alaska gossip: Sarah Palin's whole family was in a nasty brawl By Adam Weinstein, gawker.com America's favorite Irrelevant Grizzly Mom reportedly screamed "Don't you know who I am?" and had to smooth things over with local police after her whole damn brood got involved in a physical fight at a "snowmachine" party last Saturday night in Alaska, multiple sources say. The altercation, first reported by several local politics blogs and largely confirmed with police by Wonkette, apparently started over a disagreement between Track Palin and man who had once dated his sister Willow. At its height, police say, the melee involved 20 people. Blogger Amanda Coyne explains th…

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/judge-thokozile-matilda-masipa-the-woman-with-oscar-pistoriuss-fate-in-her-hands-9715986.html

US supreme court to review same-sex marriage petitions from five states Private review will determine which, if any, gay marriages cases the court will take up in term beginning in October http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/sep/11/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage-petitions

US threatened Yahoo with $250,000 daily fine over NSA data refusal Company releases 1,500 documents from failed suit against NSA over user data requests and cooperation with Prism compliance http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/11/yahoo-nsa-lawsuit-documents-fine-user-data-refusal

http://billmoyers.com/2014/09/09/noam-chomsky-are-we-approaching-the-end-of-human-history/

Study: Science and Religion Really Are Enemies After All September 9, 2014 by Chris Mooney Are science and religion doomed to eternal warfare, or can they just get along? Philosophers, theologians, scientists and atheists debate this subject endlessly (and often, angrily). We hear a lot less from economists on the matter, however. But in a recent paper, Princeton economist Roland Bénabou and two colleagues unveiled a surprising finding that would at least appear to bolster the conflict camp: Both across countries and also across US states, higher levels of religiosity are related to lower levels of scientific innovation. Places with higher levels of religiosity have l…

Former World Leaders Call For Legal, Regulated Drugs

The Dangerous Myth That Climate Change Is Reversible by Joe Romm Posted on March 17, 2013 at 12:37 pm Updated: March 17, 2013 at 9:47 pm thinkprogress.org The CMO (Chief Misinformation Officer) of the climate ignorati, Joe Nocera, has a new piece, “A Real Carbon Solution.” The biggest of its many errors comes in this line: A reduction of carbon emissions from Chinese power plants would do far more to help reverse climate change than — dare I say it? — blocking the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Memo to Nocera: As a NOAA-led paper explained 4 years ago, climate change is “largely irreversible for 1000 years.” This notion that we can reverse climate change by cuttin…

Ninth Circuit destroys arguments for banning same-sex marriage 09/08/14 07:37 AM —Updated 09/08/14 09:32 PM By Emma Margolin It was a rough day for marriage equality opponents Monday, as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals seemed prepared to say for the second time that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to wed. During oral arguments in challenges to two existing same-sex marriage bans – Idaho’s and Nevada’s – and one now-defunct ban – Hawaii’s – a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based court appeared highly skeptical of any justification for excluding gay and lesbian couples from the institution of marriage. Defending bans in both Idaho and Ne…

Detailed vivisection of how it went so wrong. One World Trade Center: how New York tried to rebuild its soul When Ground Zero was finally cleared after the fall of the twin towers, New Yorkers trusted that thoughtful, ambitious urban design could make the city whole again. Why have they been so badly let down? http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/sep/08/-sp-one-world-trade-center-new-york-rebuild-ground-zero-twin-towers

Nice little filleting of Chuck Todd in particular and Sunday political-yap TV in general. Chuck Todd's Meet the Press: still trying too hard to make you care about DCWill any real American ever give a damn about the American Sunday shows ever again? Did you ever? Matt Sullivan theguardian.com, Sunday 7 September 2014 14.04 EDT ‘I hate to be the thick one on the panel,’ said Joe Scarborough, ‘but that’s my job.’ Video still via NBCNews.com The best part of Chuck Todd’s allegedly pontification-proof Meet the Press debut on Sunday morning wasn’t when the new moderator let out an “ooh” as he sensed a Twitter-happy scooplet emerging from his interview with Bara…

Pirouetting Buckingham Palace guard facing disciplinary action for 'dancing on duty' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/royalfamilyvideo/11072569/Pirouetting-Buckingham-Palace-guard-facing-disciplinary-action-for-dancing-on-duty.html

Valérie Trierweiler book: 'François Hollande put me on drugs to keep me out of the way In her explosive memoir, Mr Hollande's ex-girlfriend says she put up posters of her ex-husband to show him how hard it was to deal with his ex-partner, Ségolène Royal, being in the spotlight François Hollande made sure doctors kept his spurned ex-girlfriend, Valérie Trierweiler, drugged on astronomical amounts of tranquillisers after their break-up to keep her in hospital and out of his hair, she claims in an explosive book published on Thursday. The accusation, one of many levelled at the French president in Merci Pour Ce Moment [Thanks For This Moment], came as allies and even enem…

A doomed Earth of science fiction may well become a reality Our climate altering activities are hurtling us towards the fictional future of a hot, melting world http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2014/sep/01/doomed-earth-science-fiction-climate-reality

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/29/pacific-islands-drowning-samoa-climate-change

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jul/27/water-nestle-drink-charge-privatize-companies-stocks

Cannabis-infused fizzy drinks on sale in US By Raf Sanchez, Washington 3:56PM BST 26 Aug 2014 The Telegraph A cannabis-infused fizzy drink is now on sale in the state of Washington as part of the ever-expanding US market for legal pot products. Less than two months after recreational cannabis became legal in the west coast state, Washingtonians can now get their highs out of a soda bottle. The drinks, called Legal, come in cherry, lemon and pomegranate flavours but are all infused with 10mg of liquid cannabis. The drinks cost around $10 (£6). They are being marketed as a gentler alternative to smoking that could be attractive to those still wary about cannabis. "I…

Full Text Of Pope Francis' Press Conference On Plane Returning From Korea Pope Francis said the unjust aggressor against the minorities in Iraq must be stopped but, he added, no one state can decide to intervene by itself. The crime of aggression has to be taken to the UN to decide which are the best means to stop the aggressor. He made clear I do not say bomb. He revealed that he had contemplated going to Kurdistan at the time he sent Cardinal Filoni, and said he does not yet exclude that possibility if it is necessary. He made clear his ardent desire to go to China, even tomorrow, and said he wishes to establish good relations with that noble people. He rejected th…

The Coming Climate Crash Lessons for Climate Change in the 2008 Recession By HENRY M. PAULSON Jr. JUNE 21, 2014 The New York Times THERE is a time for weighing evidence and a time for acting. And if there's one thing I've learned throughout my work in finance, government and conservation, it is to act before problems become too big to manage. For too many years, we failed to rein in the excesses building up in the nations financial markets. When the credit bubble burst in 2008, the damage was devastating. Millions suffered. Many still do. We're making the same mistake today with climate change. We're staring down a climate bubble that poses enormous risks to both o…

Widespread Support for Sending Politicians to Prison for Ninety-Nine Years BY ANDY BOROWITZ The New Yorker AUSTIN (The Borowitz Report) Last week's indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry has sparked widespread bipartisan support for the concept of sending politicians to prison for ninety-nine years. While Americans are divided about the merits of the specific charges levelled against Perry, there is near-unanimous agreement that imprisoning politicians for ninety-nine years is an idea worth exploring further, a poll released on Monday indicates. According to the poll, eighty-seven per cent of voters from both parties agreed that sending politicians to prison for suc…

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/17/james-risen-obama-greatest-enemy-press-freedom-generation

There is no doubt that there is a lot of frustration out in the US today. There is still wide spread unemployment. Most of the jobs since 2008 have been minimum wage type. Black folks seem the hardest hit although there are still way more poor white folks. However, statistics don't matter when you are unemployed. Here are some things I have read but not verified. Who knows what news source is reliable? While it is true that Michael Brown is a teen-ager, he is 18 which makes him legally a lot of things. He also reputedly is over 6 feet tall and weighs 300 pounds. Stealing cigars is no reason to kill anyone. Having that same large someone threaten your life might…

And he thought that third thing he forgot last time around was a nail in the coffin. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/us/gov-rick-perry-of-texas-is-indicted-over-veto-of-funds-for-das-office.html?_r=0