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Tom D Ford's comments:
on Rape Rehab
I agree that there should be no statute of limitations on rape and I wonder why there is one. Especially on child rape.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue
"It's too bad we don't have civics courses anymore in high school."
Yep, we have lost an awful lot by letting Conservatives cut our school funding.
Their cutting of Physical Education, PE, has contributed greatly to the obesity epidemic, and now instead of developing American born kids into Olympic athletes, we have our corporations bringing in lots of foreign born athletes, giving them US Citizenship and putting US Olympic uniforms on them.
Conservatism has cost us a lot.
Yep, we have lost an awful lot by letting Conservatives cut our school funding.
Their cutting of Physical Education, PE, has contributed greatly to the obesity epidemic, and now instead of developing American born kids into Olympic athletes, we have our corporations bringing in lots of foreign born athletes, giving them US Citizenship and putting US Olympic uniforms on them.
Conservatism has cost us a lot.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Listening In
A long time ago I was talking to an Army Officer about this kind of stuff and he pointed out that there are so many laws that just about anything you do or say could get you in trouble.
This Bush administration version of the Total Information Awareness Program (TIA) does just that, they vacuum up anything and everything and something you said or wrote sometime somewhere puts you in jeopardy. So if you are anti- Bush or any other upcoming administration they can use your information against you.
So I suggest just carrying on with your life as if you were a Free American Citizen under a past Liberal government and expect to have to fight Bush when and or if he and his Big Brother Conservatives attack you.
This Bush administration version of the Total Information Awareness Program (TIA) does just that, they vacuum up anything and everything and something you said or wrote sometime somewhere puts you in jeopardy. So if you are anti- Bush or any other upcoming administration they can use your information against you.
So I suggest just carrying on with your life as if you were a Free American Citizen under a past Liberal government and expect to have to fight Bush when and or if he and his Big Brother Conservatives attack you.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Fast Fish Nation
This sounds like a very interesting book.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue
One of the great patriots of our current time is Lt Erin Watada, a soldier who refused to obey an illegal order to commit a War Crime.
He is the only soldier who has lived up to the US Army recruiters slogan ?Army Of One?. He swore to uphold and defend our Constitution and is currently being punished by being courtmartialed for doing just what the US requires its Officers to swear to do.
He is the only soldier who has lived up to the US Army recruiters slogan ?Army Of One?. He swore to uphold and defend our Constitution and is currently being punished by being courtmartialed for doing just what the US requires its Officers to swear to do.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue
A couple of things belong in this version of Emilies list:
Search for the words to the Australian song Waltzing Matilda.
Search about The Christmas Truce of World War 1.
Search out ?War is a Racket? By Major General Smedly D. Butler, USMC retired. Here is one site I found with it:
http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
Here is some information about that great warrior:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
Search out Mark Twains ?The War Prayer?
Search out what happened in The Charge of The Light Brigade.
Search for the words to the Australian song Waltzing Matilda.
Search about The Christmas Truce of World War 1.
Search out ?War is a Racket? By Major General Smedly D. Butler, USMC retired. Here is one site I found with it:
http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
Here is some information about that great warrior:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
Search out Mark Twains ?The War Prayer?
Search out what happened in The Charge of The Light Brigade.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Fast Fish Nation
Hello!, Steinbecks ?Cannery Row? was about that fishery and that California fishery is now essentially extinct!
The Loggers of Oregon ate huge amounts of sardines, you can see that in their trash dumps AKA to anthropologists as kitchen middens.
I have not read the book but I have been taking notice of the scientific reports about the oceans and it looks to me that people are strip-mining the oceans like Big Coal strip-mines the earth.
But killing off the oceans fisheries one by one is not the same as using up all the coal, a dead resource; eventually the fisheries will collapse, and maybe the salmon this year is an indicator, but when the ocean fishes collapse, well the great Dust Bowl will probably look small by comparison.
Soylent green?
The Loggers of Oregon ate huge amounts of sardines, you can see that in their trash dumps AKA to anthropologists as kitchen middens.
I have not read the book but I have been taking notice of the scientific reports about the oceans and it looks to me that people are strip-mining the oceans like Big Coal strip-mines the earth.
But killing off the oceans fisheries one by one is not the same as using up all the coal, a dead resource; eventually the fisheries will collapse, and maybe the salmon this year is an indicator, but when the ocean fishes collapse, well the great Dust Bowl will probably look small by comparison.
Soylent green?
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Essential Skills for the Real World (or College)
Thanks for the reply.
I think that one way of looking at it is that babies come out of the womb and act like scientists, they start gathering data, they form mental models of how the world works and they test those hypotheses.
My idea is meant to undermine the anti-science crowd, the religionists that attack science at every turn. They crush out that courageous curiosity of babies early on with their "put the fear of God into them" mentality and replace it with their creationist mythologies, putting a total stop to any further need for a baby to explore, learn about, and question their world.
It takes courage for a child to even be interested in science because the scientific method and critical thinking are incompatible with religion and so many do not even attempt to learn it. And then they socially put down kids who are interested in science as nerds, as social undesirables.
I think that one way of looking at it is that babies come out of the womb and act like scientists, they start gathering data, they form mental models of how the world works and they test those hypotheses.
My idea is meant to undermine the anti-science crowd, the religionists that attack science at every turn. They crush out that courageous curiosity of babies early on with their "put the fear of God into them" mentality and replace it with their creationist mythologies, putting a total stop to any further need for a baby to explore, learn about, and question their world.
It takes courage for a child to even be interested in science because the scientific method and critical thinking are incompatible with religion and so many do not even attempt to learn it. And then they socially put down kids who are interested in science as nerds, as social undesirables.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue
Many of those diverse looking US athletes were brought to the US and given citizenship because they were the best athletes in their native countries and the US can afford to pay for the best in the world!
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Essential Skills for the Real World (or College)
When the world thinks people who are interested in science and math are nerds, change the world!
In order to get people more comfortable in a world of science, described by science, filled with the products of science, and living by the benefits of science, I think that the early language of babyhood ought to be reframed.. Rename everything that is science to a name that describes it as science.
A baby learning to count or learning numbers is learning number science, or the science of numbers or the science of mathematics or math science.
A baby learning the alphabet is learning the science of linguistics, so it ought to be recognized with some name like letter science, or the science of letters, or alphabet science or the science of the alphabet or starting language arts science.
A baby learning to crawl, walk, run, skip, dance and all is learning the sciences asscoiated with the body, muscles, skeleton, nerves and all that, so call each by its? name, the science of body mechanics, sports science, physiological science, etc.
Eating is the science of nutrition. So lets do some snack science.
This needs brainstorming and trying out but I think that in the long run children raised in and surrounded by science will be comfortable with it and associate themselves on the side of science.
Long ago some Jesuit priest said something like ?Give me a child before the age of seven and I?ll give you a Catholic?. I think that educators and scientists could learn some lessons from religionists about recruitment and retainment as they have many thousands of years of experience in it. Not everyone will grow up to be an Einstein but many will become scientists and most will associate themselves with science if asked.
And so the world could be changed.
In order to get people more comfortable in a world of science, described by science, filled with the products of science, and living by the benefits of science, I think that the early language of babyhood ought to be reframed.. Rename everything that is science to a name that describes it as science.
A baby learning to count or learning numbers is learning number science, or the science of numbers or the science of mathematics or math science.
A baby learning the alphabet is learning the science of linguistics, so it ought to be recognized with some name like letter science, or the science of letters, or alphabet science or the science of the alphabet or starting language arts science.
A baby learning to crawl, walk, run, skip, dance and all is learning the sciences asscoiated with the body, muscles, skeleton, nerves and all that, so call each by its? name, the science of body mechanics, sports science, physiological science, etc.
Eating is the science of nutrition. So lets do some snack science.
This needs brainstorming and trying out but I think that in the long run children raised in and surrounded by science will be comfortable with it and associate themselves on the side of science.
Long ago some Jesuit priest said something like ?Give me a child before the age of seven and I?ll give you a Catholic?. I think that educators and scientists could learn some lessons from religionists about recruitment and retainment as they have many thousands of years of experience in it. Not everyone will grow up to be an Einstein but many will become scientists and most will associate themselves with science if asked.
And so the world could be changed.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Essential Skills for the Real World (or College)
I think that kids ought to be told over and over that their education is not "free", but that we taxpayers work hard to pay for their schools, teachers, and supplies, and that we taxpayers want them to work hard, have some fun, and do their best because we believe in them and we work hard and pay a hell of a lot of money to back up our belief in them!
I don't have any kids but I believe in investing in educating all children because we all benefit as fellow human beings.
And paying for education is a far better investment than paying for prisons for people who were not properly educated.
I don't have any kids but I believe in investing in educating all children because we all benefit as fellow human beings.
And paying for education is a far better investment than paying for prisons for people who were not properly educated.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue
I posted the Einstein quote just to add to Emilys' list of different views on patriotism.
You know of course that Einstein lived through a right-wing Conservative government in Hitlers Germany and so had the experience of blind patriotism like we have experienced under the current Bush/Cheney government and Conservative Republicans.
No, I would probably check in as superpatriotic. I grew up as the son of an Air Force Officer and lived on base most of my childhood, so it was psychologically conditioned into me from my birth in a military hospital. Martial music all the time, parades, total immersion really, in patriotism.
Civilians have no idea. No idea.
Military schools, military family escape drills from the base in case of attack, military aircraft always flying overhead, flags everywhere, everyone uniformed and saluting. All of it.
In seventh grade I was ordering Boy Scouts around marching in close order drill.
My heart beats to patriotic music so much that when rock and roll came around I had a hard time getting into it.
But when I was in jeopardy of needlessly dying in Vietman in the mid sixties I started learning about Conscious Objectors and so studied that history and studied what the people like Einstein thought about patriotism. I ended up suing the government all the way up to and including the Secretary of Defense under Nixon in order to get them to obey the law and recognize me as a Conscious Objector and give me an an Honorable Discharge from the US Army. I won. I had a Marine Infantry Captain friend come back from Vietnam and tell me he wished he had the courage I had. I had a Marine single LRP ( Long Range Patrol which means sniper) friend come back from Vietnam and tell me he wished he had my courage to face down my government.
So I have experienced the entire range of patriotism from being born into it and loving my government to being anti-patriotic and hating what my government did and working to change it. I have all of those behaviors inside me and available to use if I so chose. Nobody can outdo me in being patriotic and it would be damned hard to outdo me in being against blindly-obedient patriotism.
I don?t just wear some superficial flag pin like some kindergartner who needs reminding with a note pinned to his collar, or who feels like his duty is done by putting a yellow magnetic sticker on his Conservative Republican car.
I grew up in it, it?s in my bones, my blood, my heart. It is my hearts beat. And I know what it?s like to fight for the ideals of my countries founders instead of blindly following the orders of some current neo-fascist ?leaders? from the oil industries.
You know of course that Einstein lived through a right-wing Conservative government in Hitlers Germany and so had the experience of blind patriotism like we have experienced under the current Bush/Cheney government and Conservative Republicans.
No, I would probably check in as superpatriotic. I grew up as the son of an Air Force Officer and lived on base most of my childhood, so it was psychologically conditioned into me from my birth in a military hospital. Martial music all the time, parades, total immersion really, in patriotism.
Civilians have no idea. No idea.
Military schools, military family escape drills from the base in case of attack, military aircraft always flying overhead, flags everywhere, everyone uniformed and saluting. All of it.
In seventh grade I was ordering Boy Scouts around marching in close order drill.
My heart beats to patriotic music so much that when rock and roll came around I had a hard time getting into it.
But when I was in jeopardy of needlessly dying in Vietman in the mid sixties I started learning about Conscious Objectors and so studied that history and studied what the people like Einstein thought about patriotism. I ended up suing the government all the way up to and including the Secretary of Defense under Nixon in order to get them to obey the law and recognize me as a Conscious Objector and give me an an Honorable Discharge from the US Army. I won. I had a Marine Infantry Captain friend come back from Vietnam and tell me he wished he had the courage I had. I had a Marine single LRP ( Long Range Patrol which means sniper) friend come back from Vietnam and tell me he wished he had my courage to face down my government.
So I have experienced the entire range of patriotism from being born into it and loving my government to being anti-patriotic and hating what my government did and working to change it. I have all of those behaviors inside me and available to use if I so chose. Nobody can outdo me in being patriotic and it would be damned hard to outdo me in being against blindly-obedient patriotism.
I don?t just wear some superficial flag pin like some kindergartner who needs reminding with a note pinned to his collar, or who feels like his duty is done by putting a yellow magnetic sticker on his Conservative Republican car.
I grew up in it, it?s in my bones, my blood, my heart. It is my hearts beat. And I know what it?s like to fight for the ideals of my countries founders instead of blindly following the orders of some current neo-fascist ?leaders? from the oil industries.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Strong Arguments
I wonder how many soldiers in Iraq use steroids to build themselves up to carry their loads and do their soldiering.
Any comments from the guests?
Any idea if roid rage contributed to some of the wild shooting sprees against Iraqi civilians?
Any comments from the guests?
Any idea if roid rage contributed to some of the wild shooting sprees against Iraqi civilians?
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Playing God?
"The question worth pursuing might be: "What is it that leads certain groups of civilized peoples not to ruin their lands, as opposed to other groups that do?"
Yes, a well framed question.
And another version that changes "What" to Who" as the first word of the question.
And what is it that trains people into allowing someone to lead them into doing what they do? I suggest that religion is the basic boot camp for propaganda and the idea of ?God? is the first great lie. Consider how religion is installed into children absolutely without any evidence for the proposition, and then consider how that training is reinforced and continued into ?adulthood?.
I suggest that religion is the problem at the root cause of your question and also my version of it.
Yes, a well framed question.
And another version that changes "What" to Who" as the first word of the question.
And what is it that trains people into allowing someone to lead them into doing what they do? I suggest that religion is the basic boot camp for propaganda and the idea of ?God? is the first great lie. Consider how religion is installed into children absolutely without any evidence for the proposition, and then consider how that training is reinforced and continued into ?adulthood?.
I suggest that religion is the problem at the root cause of your question and also my version of it.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue
Here is what one of the smartest people who ever lived had to say about it:
"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!" - Albert Einstein
"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!" - Albert Einstein
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Playing God?
"A rude fact is that desertification follows the sons of Abraham. That is what I mean by "white". Those three religions that come out of the Abrahamic sky god tradition (Jewish, Christian, Islam)."
The promise of an after-life in some heaven seems to let them treat this world as something to just use up and trash instead of valuing as a world to be preserved for their and our children.
And here's a different view of Buddhism that might change your ideas of it:
http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html#notes
Friendly Feudalism: the Tibet Myth
The promise of an after-life in some heaven seems to let them treat this world as something to just use up and trash instead of valuing as a world to be preserved for their and our children.
And here's a different view of Buddhism that might change your ideas of it:
http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html#notes
Friendly Feudalism: the Tibet Myth
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Playing God?
Well, that was an interesting show.
I keep thinking that when the white settlers first came across the eastern Oregon high desert it was grasslands from the now Bend area to the Oregon border with very little sagebrush and juniper. Those grasslands were settled, over grazed and turned into the now sagebrush covered lands. That is a huge area that humans changed but where is the historical memory? Who teaches the people of what happened in the past so that people can learn and do something different in the future?
If the victors write the history don't they also write the deaths of their children by leaving out the lessons possible? ( that last sentence is not quite right but there is something in there that needs thinking about)
I keep thinking that when the white settlers first came across the eastern Oregon high desert it was grasslands from the now Bend area to the Oregon border with very little sagebrush and juniper. Those grasslands were settled, over grazed and turned into the now sagebrush covered lands. That is a huge area that humans changed but where is the historical memory? Who teaches the people of what happened in the past so that people can learn and do something different in the future?
If the victors write the history don't they also write the deaths of their children by leaving out the lessons possible? ( that last sentence is not quite right but there is something in there that needs thinking about)
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Playing God?
The looming problems I see coming are how humans address the human population growth problems; through constant wars, through birth control, through famines, etc?
I think Malthus was right but technology has just delayed the crisis and in fact enabled humans to way overdraw our resource accounts.
I think Malthus was right but technology has just delayed the crisis and in fact enabled humans to way overdraw our resource accounts.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Playing God?
If dams or fish is the question; Windmills are the answer!
Remove the dams and restore the fish runs by building clean windpower.
Remove the dams and restore the fish runs by building clean windpower.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on Playing God?
"Playing God?"
We humans started playing God when we first created God in our image. We are the referent.
We humans started playing God when we first created God in our image. We are the referent.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
view in context
