Gonna be a long Monday
Sittin’ all alone on a mountain
By a river that has no end
Gonna be a long Monday
Stuck like the tick of a clock
That’s come unwound – again
-John Prine
Sittin’ all alone on a mountain
By a river that has no end
Gonna be a long Monday
Stuck like the tick of a clock
That’s come unwound – again
-John Prine
Dan Brown faces plagiarism charges: Guardian
I read the Holy Blood/Grail but I haven’t seen the Da Vinci code, only heard about it. It does sound very close to the book. But the idea that Jesus was married to a prostitute is impossible because he was the son of God .
Actually Jesus was the son of (a bitch) another Mary who was probably a prostitute or a nice girl who got pregnant with Jesus and Paul and all later had to make up the whole business about virgin birth and the Angel Gabriel etc to cover for Jesus’s “good” name.
This book is Holy Grail is pop history as is the movie. But at least they bring up some interesting questions and you don’t have to go far back in time to find that the Vatican is always involved in intrigue and money laundering (Bank of Ambrosia Scandal 1980’s. Of course they now have a Hitler Youth as pope who has apparently been photographed with Joeseph Mengele…at least that’s the rumour. Certainly the current pope’s attitudes are almost indistinguishable from Hitler;s , they are just taking place in a more modern setting.
The Catholic Church has always been rotten to the core. History bears that out over and over and over again. From the Inquistion, to the Crusdades, the Conquest of Mexica and S.A. to the cowardly priests who supported the military junta in Argentina which dissappeared so many innocent people. The priests onlly actions were to hear the confessions of the dissappeared before they were executed by the Junta. Never raised their voice in unison.
What you are saying about the Argentine priests and the dictadura is absolutely true. Furthermore, they also ratted their own.
And when the Pope met with members of the military, he did not condem them, thus providing a certain legitimacy.
But also you should know that there where other priests who gave their lives when they opposed the dictatorship, when they tried to denounce them, and when they tried to organized those whose loved ones were dissappeared.
Those are facts. And they are documented in the report of the National Comission fro de Dissappeared (CONADEP). And, I will not be surprised the day that some of the priests start going to jail.After all we have bowed not to forget or fogive. That much we owe to the victims.
Bush is weakening the National Guard: NYT
This is really good news, Cabin. We need those Governors telling george how badly he has screwed up. Maybe that’s somebody he’ll listen to. I’m pretty sure that God hasn’t been able to get through to him. george can’t tell his own ego from the voice of god.
Oops, got a little carried away there – I wanted to say that I think all we really need is the National and Coast Guards, no more Pentagon to fling our conquering armies across the globe. Let the youngsters who want to be patriotic really serve at home.
Don’t know how much listening georgie will do..seems like last year at the Governor’s convention in D.C. he barely made an appearance and then only took about 4 questions(arranged ahead of time I think) and then took off…
If news like this does happen to get to him it just goes in one ear/out the other as it doesn’t fit in with his own preconceived idea of how things are going.
A load of gaffes, have flowed since then. MSNBC is carrying an AP article GOP governors worried about Bush
and just wondering if the latest polls are stoking the worries.
WOW!! New CBS polls has Bush ratings numbers waaaay down at 34% approval and Cheney at 18%.
Link is here
Sweet music. They have broken below their base support line. The port deal will bring these numbers much lower as new revelations that the Coast Guard had concerns about the deal resonates. Can’t be helpful.
Army equipment. Then they sent it all to Iraq and then they had to weld a whole bunch of mega super salvaged metal all over the stuff and the vehicle was never designed to pack that much weight around and guess what? It’s all fubar now! You ought to see some of the personal photos of the stuff over there. They look like they are right out of Mad Max!
Do you have links to photos of the “Mad Max” vehicles? No profound comment – I’m just curious to see how our troops have adapted their vehicles to the situation they find themselves in.
home by soldiers. I get scared about putting things like that up right now……scared that they would try to kick someones ass if it garnered a lot of attention right now.
Get the states to make it available over the counter, since the FDA won’t: Baltimore Sun
Here’s the plan:
But don’t think the anti-choicers aren’t all ready geared up for battle:
(Apologies for the diary-length comment.)
Full Article
Among her books were ‘Parable Of The Sower’, ‘Parable Of The Talents’ and the latest, ‘Fledgling’. Her books were complex, beautifully written, and thought-provoking. A sad loss for lovers of good writing.
A Fool’s Economic Paradise
I have a feeling we’re not going to have too much longer to find out just how bad this is…
Protesters storm congress over coup charges
There are some deceptive practices going on that look to possibly undermine the green efforts to reduce energy dependency. Part of the tax scam is the need for advanced technology and the control it has when it’s also put into law by politicians who benefit from the profits.
Part of the scamming is the practice of spraying coal with diesel fuel or similar product to qualify for the credit….but that’s all that’s done. It also heps explain why that detail didn’t get more attention in news reports and accounts of details involved in the Sago mine explosion.
Part of the scamming is the practice of spraying coal with diesel fuel or similar product to qualify for the credit.
I didn’t know about that…thanks, Rumi.
If you have a chance to read the entire article, it’s worth a few minutes time. It’s a real eye-opener in explaining odd alliances that are forming and mostly some of the splits in the Democrat-Liberal-Green forces that should be uniting instead of dividing.
I read this earlier this morning and it makes you wonder what other boondoggles/taxpayer ripoffs are in these bills that are voted on -that most in Congress don’t even read.
Shouldn’t really call it a boondoggle but what it is, criminal fraud as far as I’m concerned..but made legal by lobbyists and crooked congresspeople in bed together.
It looks like the power still goes to the business/govt alliance even when the result might be a criminal conspiracy. Maybe the days of whistleblower protection are over.
“We call him a defendant,” she said. “He’s accused of breaking the law…. If we feel that the evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt in our minds that a crime has been committed, it’s our job as a criminal prosecutor to file a case.”
Although state law protects whistle-blowers from retaliation by their employers, they can still be criminally prosecuted, said Tom Devine, legal director at the Washington, D.C.-based Government Accountability Project.
…but they are allowed to look the other way if evidence of a crime by the govt or a preferred business is possible.
There may be grounds for challenging this practice in court; I’m surprised some group like NRDC hasn’t taken it on. From the Time article:
The obvious intent there [obvious to me, but then maybe it’s because I’m a chemist by training?] was to require that the molecules comprising the coal be reacted to form molecules of oil or natural gas. Sugar-coating the coal is not the same thing. If it were, you could no longer list “chocolate” as an ingredient of M&Ms – it’s been candy-coated, so it’s no longer chocolate, by that logic. The fact that there are still chocolate molecules present inside M&Ms, and not molecules of, say, nicotine or aspirin, means that there has been no chemical alteration by the physical process of coating the chocolate with something different.
Or in terms W might recognize from his college days: mixing tequila and beer doesn’t chemically alter the alcohol into, say, caffeine.
Thanks for explaining that so well. It’s a good example of what has become acceptable in too many areas. The letter of the law is upheld but the spirit is violated. I stumbled across this issue before but avoided talking about it because some green groups were involved. It appears that some famous neocons have exploited this to manipulate opinion against muslim populations. It is also tied in with patents owned that involve technology required to be used and other tax breaks that go with that.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq Feb 27, 2006 (AP)– Sunni Arabs are ready to end their boycott of talks to form a new government if rival Shiites return mosques seized in last week’s sectarian attacks and meet other unspecified demands, a top Sunni figure said Monday.
Four mortar rounds exploded Monday on a Shiite neighborhood, killing four and wounding 16, police Maj. Moussa Abdul Karim said. U.S. helicopters fired on three houses 15 miles west of Samarra and arrested 10 people.
U.S. soldiers patrol in west Baghdad, Iraq. The curfew emergency measure was relaxed on Monday after unrest last week claimed nearly 200 lives. AP Photo/Khalid MohammedMeanwhile, there was no word on the fate of Jill Carroll, an American journalist seized last month. The Sunday deadline set by her kidnappers in a message this month to a Kuwaiti television station passed without any new message from her abductors.
● Army to Pay KBR for Most Disputed Iraq Costs: NYT
Under the type of contract awarded to KBR, “the contractor is not required to perform perfectly to be entitled to reimbursement,” Rhonda James, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was quoted in the report as saying.
Halliburton said in January that audits on potential overcharges for KBR’s dining services and fuel supply costs had been wrapped up in 2005, resulting in additional income from fees. The company did not specify how much income it had received.
KBR has reported about $15.4 billion in revenues from its operations in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
full story
Lahore – When President Bush lands in Islamabad later this week, it may be the closest he ever comes to being in the same neighborhood as Osama bin Laden. His nemesis is probably only a few hours drive away in Pakistan’s Pashtun belt, now considered to be al Qaeda Central and one of the world’s most dangerous regions.
During the past 12 months or so, CIA and Pentagon officials have quietly modified the line they employed for three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks – that bin Laden was hiding out “in the tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.” Now the same officials say with some confidence that he is “not based in Afghanistan.” Whatever ambiguity there was in the past is gone: Bin Laden is in Pakistan.
[snip]
Almost everything the administration claims about the al Qaeda leader is tinged with bravado and untruthfulness.
[snip]
Bin Laden’s new friendship zone stretches nearly 2,000 miles along Pakistan’s Pashtun belt – from Chitral in the Northern Areas near the Chinese border, south through the troubled tribal agencies including Waziristan, down to Zhob on the Balochistan border, then to the provincial capital Quetta and southwest to the Iranian border. The region includes every landscape from desert to snow-capped mountains. Sparsely populated, it provides bin Laden an ideal sanctuary.
Bush is so inept, he’s allowed Bin Laden to survive, rebuild and regroup. Now that their base of operations is well established in Pakistan, Al Qaeda and the Taliban are again stepping up the fighting in Afghanistan. Tribal Pakistan is one huge terrorist training camp. Pakistan is unwilling and unable to deal with the situation. This article really made me very angry. Bush’s messes will be with us for many years to come.
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BRUSSELS (FT News) Feb. 27 — The European Union plans to provide the Palestinian people with over €120m in aid before the new Hamas government takes office, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU Commissioner for external relations said today.
Ms Ferrero-Waldner, who is responsible for much of the EU’s foreign aid budget, said she wanted to provide the Palestinians €40m to help pay energy bills – enough for two months supply – as well as €64m for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
● Wolfensohn Warns of Palestinian Authority Financial Collapse
● Financial Squeeze Affects Basic Human Services for Palestinians
The commander of the Israel Defense Forces division along the Gaza border, Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi, was forced to cancel his planned trip to the United Kingdom after the Military Advocacy instructed that he refrain from commencing studies at the Royal College of Defense Studies this summer, fearing that he would be arrested on charges of war crimes.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
CBC’s 5th Estate ran this documentary on Friday night/ Saturday morning. It is also available to watch via webcast at the following link: A FEW BAD APPLES
How can that lack of accountability be possible? Does the cabal have that much power over everyone else?
Go outta town for a few days and the science news just backs up all over the place – all kinda stuff – anybody got a mop? Hi, sorry I’m late to the party; so much news to dump today [huff, puff, pant, pant]…
BTW, feel free to steal any of these story ideas and run with it as a diary entry!
Statues weighing up to five metric tons and thought to be of one of ancient Egypt’s greatest pharaohs, Ramses II, have been found northeast of Cairo, Egypt’s Supreme Antiquities Council said in a statement on Sunday. Ramses II ruled Egypt from 1304 to 1237 BC, and presided over an era of great military expansion, erecting statues and temples to himself all over Egypt. He is traditionally believed to be the pharaoh mentioned in the biblical story of Moses.
Here we go again – another disease outbreak to report: Doctors in mainland France have detected a mosquito-borne disease among people returning from the Indian Ocean region, where the virus is spreading rapidly, a senior health official said on Saturday. France’s health minister has blamed “Chikungunya” fever, for which there is no known cure or vaccine, for directly or indirectly killing 77 people on the French island of La Reunion off the southeast coast of Africa [a popular vacation resort]. First recognized in East Africa in 1952, chikungunya leaves the immune system weak, proving opportunities for other diseases to set in. The name comes from the Swahili for stooped walk, referring to the posture of those afflicted.
Scientists are scratching their heads over the odd combination of a gamma ray burst and apparent supernova detected in a galaxy 440 million light years away (relatively close as these things go), trying to interpret what exactly is going on there.
Comet Pojmanski is brightening more quickly than expected after passing by the sun, for those of you with access to dark skies and a pair of binoculars. Peak observing will be through the first week of March.
Not a milestone to celebrate: On Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7:16 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the population of Earth was projected to reach 6.5 billion people. Along with this forecast, an analysis by the International Programs Center at the U.S. Census Bureau points to another worrisome milestone: Some six years from now, on Oct. 18, 2012 at 4:36 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the Earth will be home to 7 billion folks. Population growth graph here.
Expect to hear more about this study: The arrangement of a mother’s genes could affect the sexual orientation of her son, according to a new study, detailed in the February issue of the journal Human Genetics. Researchers examined a phenomenon called “X chromosome inactivation” in 97 mothers of gay sons and 103 mothers whose sons were not gay, and found another possible genetic influence on sexual orientation. Most researchers now think that there is no single gay gene that controls whether a person is homosexual or not. Rather, it’s the influence of multiple genes, combined with environmental influences, which ultimately determine whether a person is gay.
This one may be a little rough going, but the implications are profound: Many molecules involved in life come in two forms that are mirror images of each other that cannot be superimposed, like your right and left hands. Such molecules are said to be chiral. It has been a mystery and the subject of debate for 150 years why this is so. Meir Shinitzky, an Israeli biochemist, has published what may experimental evidence for the answer to this question: the asymmetry of the nuclear weak force, called “parity violation” and thought to only have effects at the subatomic level, have subtle effects on the properties of water, creating a difference in how they react with left- and right-handed amino acids, with one set of reactions being of lower energy, and thus preferred by nature. The theoretical proposal is here and the experimental data is discussed here and here.
This story has been flying just under the radar since the Clinton administration – is its time coming soon? Federal scientists surveying fish in the Potomac River continue to find smallmouth bass with a freakish quirk: The males are making eggs and sperm. Researchers suspect that these “intersex” bass are victims of a newly recognized form of pollution: trace amounts of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals flushed down toilets or flowing from farms’ animal waste. Compounds including antibiotics and caffeine drain through sewage systems largely untouched, collect in rivers and streams, and eventually return in tiny amounts to drinking water.
A pebble-bed nuclear power plant is being developed in South Africa. Scientists say it is clean and safe [interview here], and will revolutionize the energy industry, especially for developing nations, but not everyone agrees. You can download the Living On Earth radio programs (currently featuring this and other energy-related stories) as podcasts here.
Another story from the Captain Renault (“I’m shocked, shocked!”) school of environmental management: the journal Environmental Health has reported that industry-commissioned scientists withheld data suggesting even small amounts of chromium, a known carcinogen used in the steel, aerospace, electroplating and industries, can be deadly – just as the government is set to issue new workplace regulations on the metal.
When shoppers browse the seafood counters at Holiday Quality Foods’ 19 grocery stores in rural Northern California today, they will find a new Safe Harbor brand, the nation’s first line of low-mercury fresh fish. [Wasn’t this a plot line in “The Sheep Look Up?” – which you must read if you haven’t already.]
Time magazine reports that today only about 1,100 of the nation’s 15,000 biggest chemical plants participate in a national voluntary security program. I know I feel safer after hearing that… NOT.
A good snapshot overview of the current state of climate change thought in the scientific community is available here. The headline says it all: “Climate change forecast getting worse.”
But here’s some good news: Souped-up microscopic fungi could help cut the US gasoline habit by converting a billion tons of agricultural waste into domestic fuel, while also slashing greenhouse gas emissions. Filamentous fungi and other microbes can be bred to break down an array of feedstocks, including wood chips, corn stalks and switch grass, that require no fertilizer and less input than traditional sources of the fuel. James Woolsey, former CIA director under Bill Clinton, compared the state of the science for the new ethanol to the quick rise of the aero industry after the first flight. “The Wright Brothers have flown,” said Woolsey.
This sounds like good news, too: A study on attitudes toward and knowledge of climate change and energy policy finds similarities and differences between Americans and citizens of other countries. Americans do not see climate change as quite the problem other nations do; however, 93% of Americans agree climate change is a problem [!!!] and are more willing to spend money to address the problem than some other nations. Overall, the polling shows that Americans are ready for a meaningful policy on climate change. Washington, are you listening?
Not only is the following sentence possibly the longest ever posted on BMT, it’s full of grammatical errors, for which I apologize.
Meir Shinitzky, an Israeli biochemist, has published what may experimental evidence for the answer to this question: the asymmetry of the nuclear weak force, called “parity violation” and thought to only have effects at the subatomic level, have subtle effects on the properties of water, creating a difference in how they react with left- and right-handed amino acids, with one set of reactions being of lower energy, and thus preferred by nature.
I fully anticipate that when I die I will be sentenced for punishment to correct the grammar and to diagram that sentence under the strict oversight of Sister Regina de Sales, my 6th grade English teacher, who will be brandishing her yardstick…
Lots of interesting stuff here, KP. Thanks! I’ve started forwarding the enviro links to a colleague who I learned recently is of a similar mind. Appreciate your gathering, posting, and commentary.
My impression is that most (honest) researchers thought this years ago. It was the grant-grabbers and sloppy journalists (and hype-happy editors) who thought otherwise, and generally well-meaning but misguided activists who made the “gay gene” meme popular.
I thought it was overly simplistic from the get-go, and thought the reliance on it as an activist argument was naive and short-sighted. It’s the “Don’t hurt me, it’s not my fault” argument. Screw that.
While the influences on sexual orientation are certainly worth exploring from an intellectual standpoint, from a political standpoint it’s irrelevant. In a supposedly free country, it shouldn’t fuckin’ matter whether one’s orientation is genetic or environmental or some combination.
Bermuda invaded by feral chickens
Or maybe Cabin Girl already knows this.
bleeding heart liberal who wants to save the chickens.
Yep, that’s her.
They have feral chicken swarms in Bermuda? Guess you won’t be vacationing there anytime soon, huh, maryb?
(Thanks for delurking for this one!)
Feral Chicken Swarm (FCS)- is this a new term for flamewar? Or only framewars involving DHinMI?
Hmm…DHinMI = Feral Chicken. Sounds about right.
Now if only someone would subvert the dominant pecking order over there.