Confederate History Month sparks anger in Va.

I’ve been keeping a file on the “Sons of the Confederacy” since 2008, tracking their growth and influence. Here is a good example of how a state governor is destroying progress in race relations by turning the clock back on racial tensions after being influenced by them.

For a quick primer on the Sons of the Confederacy go to this web site. You’ll see this “Charge to the Sons of Confederate Veterans”…

“To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause for which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles which he loved and which you love also, and those ideals which made him glorious and which you also cherish."

Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander General,
United Confederate Veterans,
New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25, 1906.

 Civil rights leaders decry ‘offensive’ move; governor predicts tourism boost

Excerpt:

“Gov. Robert F. McDonnell said Tuesday that the move was designed to promote tourism in the state, which next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the start of the war. McDonnell said he did not include a reference to slavery because "there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia."

 

Dragon-sized lizard eluded science, until now

These reptiles are about six feet long and live in the trees. It’s seems kinda odd that an animal this big has just now been discovered.

Just a hunch, but I’ll bet there’s not a lot of monkeys around where these lizards hunt for fruit.

Spectacularly colored new species of monitor lizard found in the Philippines

“A dragon-sized, fruit-eating lizard that lives in the trees on the northern Philippines island of Luzon has been confirmed as a new species, scientists reported today.”

Magnitude-7.8 quake rattles Indonesia

There’s sure a lot of quakes ranging in the 7.0 plus magnitude lately. I’m talking worldwide. Earthquakes happen every second somewhere, but they just seem to be bigger lately.  

Buildings shake in Sumatra; no immediate reports of casualties

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 rattled the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Tuesday, shaking buildings and causing blackouts. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The quake struck at 5:15 a.m. local time and was centered 125 miles northwest of Sibolga, in Sumatra, a major island in western Indonesia, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It was about 28 miles deep, the agency said.

A tsunami watch was issued for the region, said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu.

U.S. court rules against FCC on Net neutrality

This is not good news. The cable companies are going to be the gate-keepers to the Internet now. That means they’ll control the content and no one can do a damn thing about it! 

Ruling is setback for agency's push for national broadband plan

"Today's appeals court decision means there are no protections in the law for consumers' broadband services," Gigi Sohn, co-founder of Public Knowledge, said in a statement. "Companies selling Internet access are free to play favorites with content on their networks, to throttle certain applications or simply to block others."

Listen to your elders – study shows they are wise

Social wisdom increases with age, study shows

Excerpt:

“It turns out grandma was right: Listen to your elders. New research indicates they are indeed wise — in knowing how to deal with conflicts and accepting life's uncertainties and change.

It isn't a question of how many facts someone knows, or being able to operate a TV remote, but rather how to handle disagreements — social wisdom.”

Oh Shit! The truth comes out about what’s really happening in Afghanistan – now what?

The truth is we’ve been wasting our time in Afghanistan and now we’re faced with the reality of the situation.

We’ve been supporting a corrupt government and overlooking rigged elections in order to keep up the facade that we were making progress there.

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Asking Afghan President Karzai to go after his corrupt brother apparently was the last straw.

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All the propaganda that has been spoon-fed to Americans is exposed by the very flunky our military planners counted on. We never should have gone there. We poured countless billions into building their infrastructure and security because Pentagon war mongers said we should. Good men and women have died fighting an un-winnable war. Both Americans and Afghans.

How long do you think it’ll be before they kick our asses out of their country? That, or we end up going to war against the regime we supported? After driving them out what do we do? Put in another puppet government and tell the world we’re still committed to making Afghanistan a free country? What hypocrisy. It’s time that it ends.  

Our good buddy Karzai is threatening to quit the political process (that’s us folks) and join the Taliban if outsiders keep pressuring him to reform, according to members of parliament.  Full story

Excerpt:

“Karzai made the unusual statement at a closed-door meeting Saturday with selected lawmakers — just days after kicking up a diplomatic controversy with remarks alleging foreigners were behind fraud in last year's disputed elections.”

7 ways the mind and body change with age

Research is finding new details on our attitudes and appearances as we grow old.

Excerpt:

“The poster child of aging seems to be a wrinkly-faced, forgetful, grumpy old man. But science is painting another, more in-depth picture of aging Americans. The elderly tend to become more happy, liberal and in many cases remain pretty darn sharp. Here are 7 ways we change as we get older.”

OKAY…so when we get older this is one thing we can expect (and even dread):

Excerpt: 

“As a person gets older, their ability to ignore distractions gets worse, according to Karen Campbell, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Toronto.”

BUT WAIT! There’s some good news:

Excerpt:

“But Campbell and her colleagues found a silver lining that might focus you: Seniors might have the unique ability to "hyper-bind" the irrelevant information, tying it to other information appearing at the same time. The ability could ultimately boost memory.”

Read the rest here.                                              Photo source

As It Stands: Easter Day reflections on the power of peace

Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 04/04/2010 01:27:23 AM PDT

Christians are observing Easter today. It's a day of peace. Many Christians will attend church to celebrate the occasion when the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, rose from the grave. Many non-believers (and Christians) encourage their children to search for Easter eggs hidden by a mythical Easter Bunny.

It's a day of peace. A day for families to be together. At least, it should be. I hope everyone in this country can find a measure of peace. Wouldn't it be nice to see the news dominated by something other than violence today?

Wouldn't it be great to see our warring political parties extend their palms and agree to disagree like civilized humans? Imagine what it would be like to go a whole day without extremists from both parties dominating the news? No talk of domestic terrorists. No incendiary words igniting violence. No lies. No anger. Just peace.

While I'm dreaming, why not imagine an outbreak of peace across the land? Partisan politics would no longer polarize our country. Instead, all Americans could turn away from the politics of fear and turn to the truth. There are many truths. Reality is a truth.

Go here to read the rest.

Top 10 Groucho Marx Quotes

There’s nothing like the fine art of sarcasm. Groucho Marx was the master of disaster in his day. Here’s the kinds of things he use to say:

10. From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it.

Read the rest here.

Fla. doc's sign warns off Obama supporters

A central Florida urologist has posted a sign on his office door warning supporters of President Barack Obama to find a different doctor.

So now we have so-called professional Republicans refusing services to Democrats. This is how ugly and stupid people are getting. The law says you can’t discriminate against gender, race, or religious beliefs. Nothing about political exclusion. This “doctor” is the most unprofessional one I’ve ever seen. I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come. The countries already divided enough.

A sign on the door of Dr. Jack Cassell's office in Mount Dora, Fla., tells patients "If you voted for Obama, seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years."

Democrats should ‘seek urological care elsewhere,’ says notice on door

Extremist letters sent to governors, FBI alerted

This is the result of extremist rhetoric; action. The Republicans should have divorced themselves from the wing nuts like the Tea Party crowd, and other extremist groups, like these “Guardians of the Free Republic.”

Instead, after the health care bill was passed Republicans incited rowdy crowds to “take their government back!” They waved flags that said “Don’t tread on me” which was basically a battle flag.

Now the results of letting extreme fear-mongerers have a voice in the Republican Party are sowing the seeds of hate and violence. This is where the “Reload” rhetoric by Sarah Palin and other right wing loons is bearing fruit. Sleep with the devil and expect to see him when you wake up in the morning.

When is the Republican Party going to wake up and disassociate themselves from these violent radicals? Maybe now that some of them are being targeted  (story below) things will change. 

More than 30 governors received letters demanding they step down

Excerpt:

“The FBI is warning police across the country that an anti-government group's call to remove governors from office could provoke violence by others.

A group that calls itself the Guardians of the free Republics wants to "restore America" by peacefully dismantling parts of the government, according to its Web site.

As of Wednesday, more than 30 governors had received letters saying if they don't leave office within three days they will be removed, according to an internal intelligence note by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The note was obtained by The Associated Press.”

ABOVE PHOTO: Governors whose offices reported receiving the letters included Democrats Jennifer Granholm of Michigan and Chet Culver of Iowa, and Republicans Bobby Jindal of Louisiana (shown here), and Jim Gibbons of Nevada.

Read the whole story here.

Talking Points: Call for Senate Hearings on Pedophile Priest Crisis, 11 AM Good Friday L.A. Cathedral

“Congress had hearings for 9 11, for Waco, and for steroid abuse, are the tens of thousands of victims of sex abuse by clergy in the United States any less deserving?  I spoke with Jim Robertson, L.A. SNAP leader yesterday, and he told me this is what he plans to say at the event this morning, 11:00, at the Catholic Cathedral downtown L.A. at 555 Temple Street.” 

Go here for full story.

The Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time

As judged by notoriety, creativity, and number of people duped…

#1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

1957: The respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

Related:
• The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest (full-length article)

Go here to read the rest.

 

A Thursday Morning Primer on America’s Militia Groups

“…people across the militia world, and people like Mark Potok, who tracks extremist groups at the Southern Poverty Law Center, who study it, agree that anxiety within that world is rising — from economic frustrations growing out of the recession, or fear of the Democratic Party leadership in Washington, or both — and that small, outlier groups like the Hutaree are probably the ones to keep on eye on.” Link below:

Militia Draws Distinctions Between Groups

U.S. Agent Infiltrated Militia, Lawyer Says (April 1, 2010)

9th Member of Militia Arrested (March 31, 2010)

Militia Charged With Plotting to Murder Officers (March 30, 2010)

(Video) Homeland terrorism threatens the country

(Video) Arrests reveal militia groups on the rise

(Video) Analyst: Militias are ideologically diverse

Vatican fights back against pedophile priest accusations

 Nothing is going to change in the Catholic Church. It’s continuing to protect pedophile priests, and the Vatican says the pope can’t be tried for their sins as he’s a “Head of State.”

If you’re a Catholic, this must be difficult to process. The man sitting in St.Peter’s throne, the head of the entire church, condones pedophilia. His actions are proving that. Read what he’s saying. So what you think. Here are some links that will help you understand what’s happening:

Best New Catholic Church Defense: It’s not pedophilia if the boys were post pubescent!

How much did the pope know about kiddie-touching priest?

Pope on the Ropes: Your 2010 Papal Scandal Primer

The pope’s lawyer prepares for a fight

Vatican: Pope has immunity in sex abuse trials

How powerful are extreme militia groups today?

                             Hutaree.com photo above shows trained militia.

Militias more connected than they claim

The common wisdom congealing around the Hutaree story is that the militia members are part of some off-shoot, unique, religious cult that has nothing to do with anything else.

Rachel Maddow scratches the surface of the story with Crooks and Liar’s David Neiwert and finds that common wisdom falls apart.

Nine Michigan Militia members charged with terror plot

Nine members of a violent Michigan militia  have been accused of plotting a terrorist attack on law enforcement agents.

“Six Michigan residents, along with two residents of Ohio and a resident of Indiana, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit on charges of seditious conspiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, teaching the use of explosive materials, and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence,” said U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade and FBI Special  Andrew Arena.

Despite doubt, Karzai brother retains power

President Obama recently visited Afghanistan and talked to to their president Karzai about corruption in their government. Karzai said he would work on ending it. His idea of “ending corruption” doesn’t jive with reality. Just look at how rotten his brother is: 

Key figure in southern Afghanistan is accused of links to drugs, corruption

What If Fox News Actually Wants Mob Violence?

How easily things get twisted and distorted when a political party has an agenda of “no cooperation.”

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Fox News talkers did their best to trivialize the illegal, terrorist threats made against elected officials, and implied they were deserved.

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Emails: it’s a good idea to question the truth of forwards

Below is an email that is going around right now. It’s one of those “forward this” if you agree with the message.

What I’m curious about is how many people think the information is true in the following email? How many think the writer is totally misinformed? 

So what do you think readers?

“For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they didn't pay into Social Security, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws.

The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform that is being considered...in all of its forms. It came out today that the staff that help right this law is exempt as well. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical.  We do not have an elite that is above the law.  I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever.  The self-serving must stop.”

image source

An optical illusion for a rainy day…

 

 

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Do you find something unusual in this picture? 

If not just move away from the screen and try focusing on the center portion.

Now do you see it?

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