A letter to the Financial Speculators

Dear Thieves,

I have come to warn you as Jacob Marley's ghost came to warn Scrooge (loosely quoting Dickens): "You will wear the chain you forge in life. You make it link by link, and yard by yard... For it is truly required of everyone, that one's spirit should walk among his fellow men, and travel far and wide. If that spirit does not, it is doomed to wander the world and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared."

How do you feel now? Are you happy in your cold, big house? Are you beloved by all you have touched? Does your money comfort you in the loneliness of your thoughts? What if you lost all your money? What would you have then? Do you have friends who come through for you in the hard times?

You sure did have what Scrooge would admire as "a good head for business." You sold out yourself, your fellow brothers and sisters, our children, your country, and mankind, but you did do a lot of business. You took the easy way. You took the greedy way. It didn't feel right, but your values are "greed is good." As Dr. Seuss' character, the Once-ler, says, "If I didn't do it then someone else would." You justified your lies.

"Would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? ...It is a ponderous chain!" Every time your ego clouded your judgment, every moment you were silent when you should have spoken, every dream you have shattered, is a link on your chain.

The hubris you wear as a shield now prevents you from knowing, "This means YOU." But someday, your chain will keep you awake. Someday, your chain will wear you down. Someday, your chain will chill you with its loneliness.

There is no way out. The only way is sacrificing short-term payoffs for long-term benefits: "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings were a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" Your business distracts you from your real business.

The rest of us wish you "a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. You'll be very merry and very happy, we have no doubt!"

Why US students are 29th in the world...

The "crazy Christians" are after us!!!

Re: Origin Theories Clash: Pinellas School Board would teach Intelligent Design...

The reason the US is 29th in the world in science instead of 1st is because our leaders and educators are being duped by the "Wedge Document" campaigns. These school board leaders need to go back to school, as they have not had a proper science education: These leaders are apparently easily duped by a PR campaign promoting an idea that in no way reflects critical thinking skills, the scientific method, or qualifies as a scientific theory. This ignorance would be laughable if it weren't so pathetically damaging to America's future.

The Wedge Document represents the strategy of the Discovery Institute, a think tank that advocates intelligent design and its "Teach the Controversy" campaign, which aims to teach creationist beliefs in public high school science courses. The Discovery Institute put forth its planned public relations, public opinion, media, and political lobbying campaigns in the Wedge Document, which states that the aim of this creationist campaign is to drive a "wedge" into popular discussions about the origin of life by manufacturing a false controversy that does not actually exist within the scientific community. The Wedge Document states the Institute's manifesto is to "defeat evolution" and "replace it with Christian and theistic convictions" to "affirm the reality of God."

In a public school, to have any patience at all with creationist/intelligent design notions is to do a severe disservice to your students. Those ideas in no way qualify as a theory, in any science, by any scientist anywhere. I hope various leaders on the School Board will thank the private company, the Discovery Institute, for doing such a good job in their advertising campaign! Their duping campaign has worked on them!

Holy Crap!

6,000 soldiers claim persecution by "Christian" evangelicals

This is so frightening...

"They are proselytizing not on behalf of the Constitution of the United States and the national security interests of our country but rather on behalf of some sort of fanatical view of end times. And they are using our army to affect that."
-- Ambassador Joe Wilson

And follow the link to read on, it gets better, I mean worse.

Links from the article:

• The Christian Right and the Rise of American Fascism
• Theocracy Watch: The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party - a public information project of the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy
  at Cornell University
• ideological insanity behind Erik Prince and Blackwater Inc.
• Military Religious Freedom Foundation
  

Heaven help us!

-Harry

Impeach Bush and Cheney NOW!

Oh my God! I just finished watching Frontline on PBS; it was recorded so I am guessing it was from last night. The program went into serious detail about how the Bush administration, lead by Cheney and their lawyers, have been secretly and overtly amassing presidential power in unprecedented ways. Of course, we all know this now and have known it for some time. However, hearing the interviews from administration insiders that have been part of and witness to this sacking of the U.S. Constitution and the integrity of our country in general really puts into perspective.

I am now completely amazed that we, as the good people of this country, are not actively seeking the impeachment of both President Bush and Vice President Cheney. I cannot believe we have let these atrocities go on for so long. They duped us all so hard. We must hold our elected officials responsible for letting this happen. Someone needs to take responsibility for what is becoming the beginning of the fall of America and I feel we need to oust the P. and the V.P. now. It is absurd that we have let them get away with everything that they have.

Something I did not know was that one, if not the key player in all of the administration's screwing around is Cheney's lawyer, David Addington. He's been with Cheney for years. He's the man behind Cheney and the legal counsel selling the big grabs for presidential power. He has recently been promoted to Cheney's chief of staff, replacing Scooter Libby.

It's all truly unbelievable. I never thought this could happen to the America where I grew up. I am convinced... Impeach Bush and Cheney now! It is our only hope.

• Introduction to PBS' Frontline story, Cheney's Law
• Watch the whole program online.

Friedman++

I was excited to learn the other day that the New York Times has finally let us read Thomas Friedman's foreign affairs columns freely. The St. Pete Times regularly has most of his articles, but it is real nice to have archival access to them.

He had a good one the other day the Times entitled, "Don't Fret: Just charge the Iraq war to our kids" where Friedman argues the necessity for paying for the wars you are fighting. He goes on about how much damage we are really doing to ourselves and future generations by avoiding new taxes and considering tax breaks during war time. It worth a read (as are most of his articles) when you can. I can post a link to it now:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/opinion/07friedman.html?n=Top/Opinion/Editorials%20and%20Op-Ed/Op-Ed/Columnists/Thomas%20L%20Friedman

There happened to be another good editorial piece in the St. Pete Times just above Friedman's the other day by Paul Krugman, another NY Times journalist. This one was interesting in that Krugman argues that despite many conservatives recently shunning President Bush, stating he is not what conservatism is all about, that Bush is in fact the epitome of traditional conservatism, much like Reagan. In addition to Reagan, Krugman also compares Bush's true conservatism to Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon. Again, it's worth the read if you have a moment:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/opinion/08krugman.html?n=Top/Opinion/Editorials%20and%20Op-Ed/Op-Ed/Columnists/Paul%20Krugman
(yea NY Times!)


"We want the world and we want it NOW." - Jim Morrison (playing in my head right now)

Mind the money

Published in the St. Pete Times 9.26.2007:

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., warned, "They're going to spend half a trillion this time" in regard to Republican attacks on Hillary Clinton's new health care plan. I would say that spending to fix America's health care tragedy is better than spending to start wars in other countries, to give tax breaks to contractors in the military-industrial racket, and to offer incentives to lobbyists' firms.

Legislators need to stop giving the American dream away to these robber barons and return dignity to the common man through improved living wages, health care and education. Now, how about spending half a trillion on education?

Global Dimming

Global dimming mediates (dampens) the relationship between CO2 and global warming...

Hi. I was watching PBS and thought you’d like to know some of these thoughts…

This is very inconvenient. We like warring for oil and paying Islamic Princes. These activities drive our economic engine on the blood of our young poor. Sure, give another no-bid contract to Halliburton, its good for the economy, after all! Conservatives like to create a “wedge” or a “controversy” in issues where there is no controversy. They tried to do create a false controversy about evolution and they try to create a false controversy about global warming. Watch out: germ theory is next! After all, it’s just a “theory.”

Yet, many people will die due to global warming. All of Florida will be underwater in the next century. Our poor great grand-children!

However, global dimming mediates (dampens) the relationship between CO2 and global warming. So if we put tons of sulfur into the upper atmosphere, we’ll save Florida and the last of the ice caps, but we’ll create more draught over Africa due to global dimming’s effect on evaporation (much less evaporation).

It is the photons that due the evaporating, so if we dim out a lot of photons, it will get very humid but not rain. Icky-stick. Global dimming has increased pretty dramatically since the 50’s.
Now if you don’t think a degree or three rise in temps in 100 years is bad, you should see what effect that really has on land, people, drought, fires, and famine. Scientists predict that continued global warming on the order of 2.5°-10.4°F over the next 100 years (as projected in the IPCC's Third Assessment Report) is likely to result in a rise in sea level between 3.5 and 34.6 in. (9-88 cm), leading to more coastal erosion and flooding; severe stress on forests, alpine regions, and natural ecosystems; greater threats to human health as mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects and rodents spread diseases over larger geographical regions; and the disruption of agriculture resulting in famine.

See PBS.org on global dimming.

Anyone for wind, solar, and ethanol at pump (made from Florida sugarcane, of course)?

Nuclear power needed

I find it ironic that merely days after Japan’s nuclear power plant radiation leak and subsequent cover-up, some are considering nuclear power as an option in Florida. Not only is the industry riddled with human error and cover-ups, but also nuclear plants are vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

Furthermore, the nuclear waste is also vulnerable to terrorist attacks which must be hauled out on trains to Yucca Mountain (where it pollutes that environment for eternity). Wind, solar, and sugarcane-to-ethanol fuel are more rational energy alternatives that can be Florida’s future economic engines.

Leave Religion Out/Devastation and Dead Ends

Crazy religiosity is the cause for most of the evils in the world. From political debates to theocratic states, creeping religiosity seems to substitute for rational critical thinking.

Many Americans supported George Bush because even if he wasn’t a brilliant and complex thinker, his morals seemed to show that he wouldn’t be committing adultery with an intern. Sadly, using “good Christian morals” as a proxy for more well-rounded, critical introspection has resulted in still more political corruption.

Although Americans may be wising-up to the consequences of simplistic, value-based thinking, entire countries have made the mistake of rule by religion. The theocracies of the Middle East are rampant with Islamic terrorists and suicide killings in the name of Allah. Ironically, these same countries thrived in their Golden Age during the west’s stagnantly religious Middle Ages.

The reason Arab countries flourished during their Golden Age was because there was a large latitude for religious freedom, once the conquered territory succumbed to Arab rule. In fact, the modern scientific method was developed during the Islamic Golden Age, where experimentation distinguished the empirical truth between competing theories. Religion was kept out of the scientists’ labs.

Today, modern Arabs long for the Golden Age. Islamic terrorists suffer from the entitlement of these glory days to the point of blowing people up in spite. It is ironic that the one thing that would move the Middle East toward success – secular governance – is so remote.

It is not too grave to say that the fate of the world is bleak. Let us all learn the lesson now about the evil wrought by crazy religiosity overwhelming critical thinking.

Re: "Video Seethes With Unexplained Anger"

"Video Seethes With Unexplained Anger"
(http://www.sptimes.com/2007/04/19/Worldandnation/Video_seethes_with_un.shtml)


When I think about how Cho slaughtered all those bright, young people in cold blood, it occurs to me that Cho had some factors in common with the Columbine shooters: First, it is clear he was a loner. Second, he had a deep resentment against the "popular" or "rich" kids.

When Cho talks about being spit on and forced to eat garbage, I don't think he means that metaphorically. I think Cho was bullied in school. The Columbine shooters were bullied in school. They had asked the administration to intervene and were refused any help.

What does the “aggressive victim” mentality mean to our society? Sure Cho was crazy. Sure he is fully to blame. Cho didn't take personal responsibility for his own happiness; instead he chose to blame others.

Even so, I’d be willing to bet some snobby “popular” middle-school kids did bully Cho terribly. And the teachers did not protect him or stand up for what is right. These episodes are rampant. A nationwide K-12 policy should put the burden on teachers and school administrators to enforce zero-tolerance on bullying, power plays, flaunty cliques, and even "loners."

In recent years, victims of bullies are now suing bullies, teachers, and the school. It also appears that victims of bullies are now going on shooting sprees.

Allowing aloneness does not teach kids how to get along in society. Science is revealing the incredible power of social support in preventing disease, depression, stress, and even heart attacks and cancer. Teachers, bullying occurs during unstructured time: When you see a loner kid, consistently help him or her connect. You may just be preventing the next massacre.

Baby Boomers Growing Older, but Will They Grow Up?

There's been a lot of press lately about baby boomers hitting retirement age and growing older. There's always a lot of press about whatever baby boomers are going through because there's just so many of them. Still, one wonders what this kind of national attention and societal mindset has done to the boomer psychology and the non-boomers who love them.

Millions of people have grown older and retired and it wasn't news. Millions of people before the boomers learned to face the end of their careers, possible ill health, and grandparenthood with quiet aplomb. Instead of following the modest and noble example of the greatest generation before them, the boomer psychology tends toward self-centered narcissism, as is encouraged by national news on boomers.

Not only did the boomer generation pioneer thinking for oneself and protesting war, they also relaxed social norms that protect children being born into intact families. Not only did boomers assert their right to self-expression and discovery, they also pursued careers and self-interest at the expense of their latch-key children and soaring divorce rates.

And now that boomers are entering retirement and grandparenthood, many are not letting go of their careers and are not making time to develop real relationships with their grandchildren on a regular basis. They would rather play golf and fight aging “every step of the way.”

Boomers, as Pulitzer Prize winning author Anna Quindlen quotes, “No one ever said on his deathbed, ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office.’” I would extend that to say, “No one on his deathbed has ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time on myself trying to look or be younger.’”

Boomers, it’s all about friends and family. We non-boomers miss you, but we have given up trying to change you. We’ll be waiting here for you now and on your deathbed. The rest is up to you.

Written by a Gen-Xer, whatever that means.

Residents want a playground near (St. Pete Times)

Amy's in the paper again! This one is from the Neighborhood Times section, November 12, 2006. Check it out: Residents want a playground near - Archives: St. Petersburg Times

The Pedophiles' War on Our Children's Safety

The New York Times four-month investigation of pedophiles online reveals revolting and dangerous conversations about molesting children. In sum, today’s online pedophiles believe that society misunderstands them and that children really want to have sex with adults. Online pedophiles are leading a social movement towards the acceptance of sex with children. These chat groups also share information on how to gain access to children and how to further their mission in having sex with children, in propagating child pornography, and in gaining social acceptance of this criminal behavior.

NAMBLA, or the North American Man-boy Love Association, declares that they are fighting oppression against sexual relationships between adults and children. Last year, Robert Hamer, the undercover FBI agent who arrested some NAMBLA members, said before he retired that this was the most personally challenging assignment in his 26-year career: “These are ministers, special-education teachers, a dentist, professional people. They're your next-door neighbor, your kid's coach."

The pedophiles seem to be winning this war on our children’s safety. Most of us remain blissfully unaware that there even is a war. Yet this war is taking precious casualties: Last week in Tampa Bay, a 2 ½ year old girl died from being sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend.

What can we do? First, we can supervise our children ourselves. Second, we can enact and enforce tougher laws (such as life in prison for first offense) on the sexual predators of children. Third, we can make any discussion of pedophilia on the web illegal. We can recognize the web as a portal to catch pedophiles and designate more resources to catch predators online. Do not retreat from this war!

Letter...

A people may be judged, not merely on their economic vitality or their military conquests, but rather on how well they take care of the most vulnerable -- children, the sick, the elderly. We are all vulnerable, at least once.

Yet, child sexual predators in our neighborhoods and the traffickers of children into sex slavery all over the world perpetrate the most atrocious crimes one can imagine. Not only are approximately 60% of convicted child sexual predators out on probation, but also millions of children around the world are sold into sex slavery every year (see http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/rsorp94.htm and the Protection Project).

The sexual predators of children are extremely rampant. The "typical" child sex offender knows their victim and molests an average of 117 children (NIH, 1988). Approximately one out of every five children is sexually abused before age 18 and one in five children are sexually solicited while on the Internet.

What is being done to protect our precious, innocent children? Analyses show that 70 percent of those found guilty of a felony sex offense against a child did not serve jail time (Cheit, R., Ph.D.). Approximately 24% of all known child sexual predators are "missing" from the registry.

Florida, however, has swiftly enacted one of the toughest laws against child predators, the Jessica Lunsford Act, because her attacker was a known, registered sex offender. Now, people who would commit a sex crime against a child younger than 12 face a mandatory sentence of at least 25 years in prison and lifetime GPS tracking. Sadly, the law does not protect children 12-18 years old. What should the law be for an adult committing a sexual crime against a child? Should the punishment/deterrent be twenty-five years or life in prison? Can we be responsible for another child being molested?

The second almost unspeakable horror is the commercial sexual exploitation of millions of children around the world. 200,000 girls from Nepal have been kidnapped for sex slavery in India. The Thai government reports that 60,000 Thai children have been sold into prostitution. 10,000 children aged between six and 14 are enslaved in brothels in Sri Lanka. Cambodia, known as the Asian travel destination for pedophiles, has 20,000 child slaves in brothels. Interestingly, research has shown a correlation between peacekeepers and sex slavery, where young soldiers frequent brothels over-seas.

In recent years, the United States has led the way (ahead of the UN) in enacting the Trafficking Victim Protection Reauthorization Act. Under the act, the United States can use sanctions against nations on the "Special Watch List" who are not helping to end child sex slavery. However, the President did pardon Saudi Arabia and India from these sanctions. In some countries, it is a crime to sexually abuse children abroad, yet many countries do not have Child Sex Tourism (CST) laws.

America is the leader in committing $50 million to help rescue sex slaves around the world, yet many countries are not achieving convictions of the child traffickers and the criminals go unpunished. Still, arresting pimps is not very difficult: To remain in business, child sex slaves are advertised and easy to access. Rescuers and police officers posing as brothel clients can end the torture.

Here are some ways for you to help the children:

1. Contribute to UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org/) to end child sex slavery.
2. Write to your representatives
   (http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/representatives.aspx; http://www.flsenate.gov/Legislators/index.cfm?Mode=Find%20Your%20Legislators&Submenu=3&Tab=legislators; http://www.ccaflorida.org/updates/congressional_e-mail.htm) and to the United Nations (http://www.un.org/comments.html) to share your views on what punishments against child sex crimes should be.
3. Oprah offers a $100,000 reward to anyone giving a tip that leads to the arrest of a child sexual predator: http://www2.oprah.com/presents/2005/predator/predator_main.jhtml
4. John Walsh from America’s Most Wanted helps support new legislation: http://www.amw.com/features/feature_story_detail.cfm?id=464
5. Bill O’Reilly.com is committed to tough punishments.
6. Speak your mind to friends and family on this issue. Train your children to be as safe as possible.