Applause

"The person who seeks all their applause from outside has their happiness in another's keeping ."
--Claudius Claudianus (340-410, Egyptian Latin poet)

Terms

"Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them."
--Samuel Butler

Teachings

"There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to other animals as well as humans, it is all a sham."
--Anna Sewell

Sacramento CA: $1 million settlement reached in jail suicides

A $1 million settlement has been reached to pay the families of three inmates who committed suicide at the Sacramento County Main Jail, The Bee has learned.

Although a final court approval still is pending, the settlement covers inmate hangings that occurred in 2002 and 2003, when the jail suffered a rash of inmate suicides.
Family members claimed the deaths resulted from inadequate training and supervision of sheriff's deputies who staff the jail, flawed policies and procedures, and negligence, indifference and malpractice by jail personnel.

Full article, Sacramento Bee, November 28, 2007

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Given all the homicides committed here in Humboldt County California by the so-called "law enforcement", a group that can't even do a half-assed job of covering up a homicide with a suicide, one has to wonder if the person in the Humboldt County government office that writes the settlement/damages checks will develop carpal tunnel.

Of course, that assumes that the judiciary in this country will be restored, and that 42 U.S.C. 1983 will be enforced once again.

TLC

Leadership

"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers."
--Ralph Nader

War

"War is terrorism with a bigger budget".
--Unknown

Enlightenment

"Enlightenment is not about imagining figures of light but of making the darkness conscious." --C.G. Jung

Stuck

"When we feel stuck, going nowhere -- even starting to slip backward -- we may actually be backing up to get a running start."
--Dan Millman

Thanksgiving, 1963

[A]s our power has grown, so has our peril. Today we give our thanks, most of all, for the ideals of honor and faith we inherit from our forefathers--for the decency of purpose, steadfastness of resolve and strength of will, for the courage and the humility, which they possessed and which we must seek every day to emulate. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.

Let us therefore proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold blessings--let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals--and let us resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow human beings throughout the world.

--President John F. Kennedy, Thanksgiving Proclamation, November, 1963

Supercomputers

"If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee. That will do them in."
--Bradley's Bromide

Major Financial Disruption

It appears that the world in general and the United States in particular are on the edge of a major disruption in the global financial system. Here’s the summary as we see it.

Source, and full article, Arlington Institute, November 14, 2007

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There is no way to do such a thorough yet concise article justice by attempting to summarize it here, but here's an outline: Basically, if the authors are correct, things are going to fall apart starting in December 2007, with the worsening credit crunch/lack of Christmas spending; approximately February 2008 the Chinese address more seriously what to do with all the US Treasury Bills (which have bankrolled the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq) they're stuck holding; and getting even worse come March 2008 when it becomes clear the dollar is not going to come bouncing back, and OPEC starts pricing oil based on the Euro.

TLC

The Growing Bangladesh Death Toll

Tim at Rolling Stone observed:

Sidr Toll Grows

3,447 dead in Bangladesh.

_________________________

My Post at Rolling Stone:


Let’s launch a war on suffering!

Oh wait, that would mean giving a damn about people over profits.

Never mind…

TLC

How To Un-Clog The Criminal Justice System

Shooting reignites Iraqi furor; U.S. issues apology 18 Nov 2007 A U.S. military convoy opened fire on a column of cars Sunday morning, killing at least two Iraqi civilians in southern Iraq and igniting a new round of anger over the apparent loss of innocent life... Police charged that the shootings were unprovoked and said six people, including two Iraqi policemen, died in a barrage of bullets. The first word of the incident came from an apology jointly issued late Sunday by the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. military, but the statement referred to only two deaths and four injuries.
Source: Citizens For Legitimate Government

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I have some friends that actively do criminal defense work. I'll be sure to let them know they no longer have to waste time on Trials. Just have the accused apologize, and down the street they go, free as the proverbial bird.

TLC

Merits

"If you wish in this world to advance your merits you're bound to enhance; you must stir it and stump it, and blow your own trumpet, or, trust me, you haven't a chance."
--Sir William Gilbert (1836-1911) English Playwright and Poet

Once

"Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul."
--Montaigne

Clinton New$ Network (CNN)

CNN Spokesman Confirms Network Chose "Diamonds And Pearls" Question
As you may have heard by now, the girl said on her MySpace page that she was forced to ask this question and that she would have preferred to ask one about Yucca Mountain. She said this in response to the storm of criticism and ridicule the question has since received.

And it looks like the girl is right: Though she did submit the question, CNN did select it and ask her to pose it.

Full article, including video, TPM Election Central, November 16, 2007


To the same effect:
CNN and the Questionable Question, New York Times, November 16, 2007


Both articles can be found at Truthout

Belief

"One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests."
--John Stuart Mill, quoted in the Columbus, Ohio, Dispatch

Something

"I'd rather do something and fail than do nothing and succeed!"
--Unknown

The Plot to Assassinate Dennis Kucinich (While Mayor Of Cleveland)

The Plot to Assassinate Dennis Kucinich

YouTube, 8:29. While watching this, just think of all the dishonest politicians who have no such concerns because they've sold out.

TLC

Compromise

"There can be no compromise with war; it cannot be reformed or controlled; cannot be disciplined into decency or codified into common sense; for war is the slaughter of human beings, temporarily regarded as enemies, on as large a scale as possible."
--Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) first female US Representative

Built

"The entire economy of the Western world is built on things that cause cancer."
--From the 1985 movie "Bliss"

How A True Opposition Candidate Acts

Bhutto Calls on Musharraf to Resign

Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Tuesday called on Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to resign and ruled out serving under him in a future government after she was placed under house arrest for the second time in five days.

Full AP wire service article, SF Chronicle, November 13, 2007

__________________

If *your* choice for 2008 hasn't called for the US dictatorship to resign or be impeached, are they truly part of the opposition? Or part of the problem?

TLC

Crux

"The crux... is that the vast majority of the mass of the universe seems to be missing."
--William J. Broad

Signs

"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.
--Ayn Rand(1905-1982) Author
Source: Atlas Shrugged, Francisco's "Money Speech"

Row

"Pray to God, but keep rowing to shore."
--Russian Proverb

Security III

"Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction."
-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Wilson Nicholas, 1803)
Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition),
Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 10:419.

Living

"Being on the tightrope is living; everything else is waiting."

--Karl Wallenda (January 21, 1905 - March 22, 1978)
Founder of The Flying Wallendas, an internationally known daredevil circus act famous for performing death-defying stunts without a safety net. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Wallenda

Rapture Rescue 911: Disaster Response for the Chosen

I used to worry that the United States was in the grip of extremists who sincerely believed that the Apocalypse was coming and that they and their friends would be airlifted to heavenly safety. I have since reconsidered. The country is indeed in the grip of extremists who are determined to act out the biblical climax--the saving of the chosen and the burning of the masses--but without any divine intervention. Heaven can wait. Thanks to the booming business of privatized disaster services, we're getting the Rapture right here on earth.

Just look at what is happening in Southern California. Even as wildfires devoured whole swaths of the region, some homes in the heart of the inferno were left intact, as if saved by a higher power. But it wasn't the hand of God; in several cases it was the handiwork of Firebreak Spray Systems. Firebreak is a special service offered to customers of insurance giant American International Group (AIG)--but only if they happen to live in the wealthiest ZIP codes in the country. Members of the company's Private Client Group pay an average of $19,000 to have their homes sprayed with fire retardant. During the wildfires, the "mobile units"--racing around in red firetrucks--even extinguished fires for their clients.

Full article, by Naomi Klein, The Nation, issue of November 19, 2007

Awaken

"Wake up! If you knew for certain you had a terminal illness--if you had little time left to live--you would waste precious little of it! Well, I'm telling you...you do have a terminal illness: It's called birth. You don't have more than a few years left. No one does! So be happy now, without reason--or you will never be at all."
--Dan Millman, 21st century philosopher
from The Way of the Peaceful Warrior

A New Earth? What About The One We Have?

Almost every week now, planet hunters are discovering new worlds, not in our solar system but in the far reaches of our galaxy. So how close are astronomers to finding a planet that supports life?

Here on Earth, Cameron and his team are part of a new wave of astronomers who are scouring the galaxy for glimpses of unknown worlds and, in recent years, their success has been astounding. While our own solar system lost a planet last year, thanks to the unceremonious demotion of Pluto from planet to "dwarf planet", Cameron and his peers have found more than 250 new worlds, in solar systems far, far away. With almost every week that goes by, new discoveries are made. This evening, in fact, planet hunters in America are to declare a major coup with the announcement from Nasa of a newly discovered solar system that has striking similarities to our own.

Full article--fascinating and well worth the read--Guardian UK, November 6, 2007

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What if they found life on Earth...would we stop, in the US alone, killing 7 - 10 million cats and dogs annually because they're inconvenient, 10+ billion animals because they're tasty (45+ billion worldwide), 31 million on ranches because their dead bodies feel and/or look good against our skin. We just passed 1.1 million dead in Iraq, because the oil companies demand control of the supply--and thus the price--of oil. And just think how many Iraqis--and Americans--and anyone else stepping foot in Iraq for hundreds of thousands of years to come--will die slow agonizing deaths because of the widespread use of depleted uranium by the world's gangster, er, "policeman". Throw in another 115 million lives taken in the US alone every year for "experiments" in order to bolster corporate profits and create a charade that their deaths serve a purpose. And let's not forget the 62 million people that die every year because adults have failed to learn what any properly-raised 3-year-old knows: Clean up your mess.

So remind me: Why are we poking around the cosmos? It certainly not due to a respect or appreciation for life.

TLC

Money

"Money isn't the most important thing in life, but it's reasonably close to oxygen on the "gotta have it" scale."
--Zig Ziglar

Cliffs

My dad always used to say, "If you're falling off a cliff, you may as well try to fly. You have nothing to lose."
--Captain John Sheridan, Babylon 5

Security II

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature nor do the children of man as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."
--Helen Keller 1880-1968, Blind/Deaf Author and Lecturer

Education

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882, American poet, essayist)