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Month: August 2008 Page 1 of 2

Bush quietly seeks to make war powers permanent by declaring indefinite state of war

By

On August 31, 2008

In George Bush Family

From: The Raw Story

As the nation focuses on Sen. John McCain’s choice of running mate, President Bush has quietly moved to expand the reach of presidential power by ensuring that America remains in a state of permanent war.

Buried in a recent proposal by the Administration is a sentence that has received scant attention — and was buried itself in the very newspaper that exposed it Saturday. It is an affirmation that the United States remains at war with al Qaeda, the Taliban and “associated organizations.”

Part of a proposal for Guantanamo Bay legal detainees, the provision before Congress seeks to “acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us and who are dedicated to the slaughter of Americans.”

The New York Times‘ page 8 placement of the article in its Saturday edition…

It was under the guise of war that President Bush claimed a legal mandate for his warrantless wiretapping program, giving the National Security Agency power to intercept calls Americans made abroad. More of this program has emerged in recent years, and it includes the surveillance of Americans’ information and exchanges online.

“War powers” have also given President Bush cover to hold Americans without habeas corpus — detainment without explanation or charge.

Read Entire Article

Michael Franti in Alaska: LOVE to the HATEFUL!

By

On August 31, 2008

In Alaska, Forgiving/Grudgless/No Hate, Michael Franti

Power to the peaceful,
Love to the peaceful.

That’s the easy part.

Power to the peaceful;
Love to the peaceful.

Now here’s the hard part:

Power to the peaceful;
Love to the hateful!

__________

This album is dedicated to the great state of Alaska,
its people and its natural abundance.
May they work together forever.

– Michael Franti

Transcribed by Jeff Fenske from:

Michael Franti and Spearhead : Live : Alaska
Bomb the World

Recorded Live on
June 2 & 3, 2005
At The Beartooth
Anchorage, Alaska

Ron Paul: ‘There’s no difference’ between McCain and Obama [CNN American Morning 08/28/2008]

By

On August 30, 2008

In Barack Obama, John McCain, Ron Paul

From: Raw Story

Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has declined to endorse either John McCain or Barack Obama, and he told CNN’s Kiran Chetry on Thursday that he sees “no difference” between them because both espouse foreign policies that only create more threats to our national interests.

Chetry asked Paul, “Do you think it’s a valid argument … that a John McCain administration would be a four-year extension of the Bush administration?”

“Sure, but I think that’s what’s going to happen with Obama, too,” Paul replied. “There’s no difference.”

“Their foreign policies are identical,” Paul explained. “They want more troops in Afghanistan. They want to send more support to Georgia to protect the oil line there. Neither one says bring home the troops from Iraq from the bases — you know the bases are going to stay there, the embassy as big as the Vatican, that’s going to remain. So their foreign policies are exactly the same. They’re both very, very aggressive with Iran. So I would say there’s no difference.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqMhBEYGrXU]

“How would you handle these global threats, then, if it’s not to send our troops there and make sure that we’re protected?” Chetry asked.

“We create the threats!” Paul replied emphatically. “Why are we on the borders of Russia provoking the Russians? I mean, the Georgians initiated the military attack against these enclaves where there were mostly Russians. … It’s the fact that we’re over there that we create these crises.”

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Chuck Baldwin: John McCain Pro Life? What a Joke

By

On August 26, 2008

In Chuck Baldwin, John McCain, Ron Paul

Anyone who jokes about bombing Iran can’t be pro-life.

Children and adults are still a life, y’all. It’s not just about unborn babies—who also get bombed—abortion from above.

And Iranians are just as precious to God as are Americans. So they should be just as precious to us.

– Jeff

______________________

From: News with Views

Once again, “pro-life” Christians are doing back flips to try and justify their compromise of the life issue by trying to convince everyone (including themselves) that John McCain is truly pro-life. However, these same people know in their hearts that John McCain shares no fidelity to the life issue in any significant or meaningful way. Like many in the Republican Party, McCain’s commitment to life is about as deep as a mud puddle.

Dare I remind everyone that the “pro-life” GOP controlled the entire federal government from 2000 to 2006 and nothing was done to overturn Roe v. Wade or end legal abortion-on-demand? When George W. Bush took the oath of office in January of 2001, over one million innocent unborn babies were being murdered in the wombs of their mothers every year via legal abortions in this country. And when George W. Bush leaves office in January of 2009, over one million innocent unborn babies would still be murdered in the wombs of their mothers every year via legal abortions in this country. Eight years of a “pro-life” President and six years of the “pro-life” GOP in charge of the entire federal government and not one unborn baby’s life has been saved. Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land, and abortion-on-demand is still legal in America.

Had John McCain and his fellow Republicans truly wanted to end legal abortion, they could have passed Congressman Ron Paul’s Sanctity of Life Act. Year after year, Dr. Paul introduced this bill, and year after year, it sat and collected dust in the document room on Capitol Hill.

What would Congressman Paul’s bill do? It would do two things: 1) It would define life as beginning at conception and, thus, declare the personhood of every pre-born child. 2) Under Article. III. Section. 2. of the U.S. Constitution, it would remove abortion from the jurisdiction of the Court. In practical terms, Dr. Paul’s bill would overturn Roe v. Wade and end legal abortion-on-demand. So, where was John McCain? Why did he not support Ron Paul’s bill and introduce a companion bill in the U.S. Senate?

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Cayenne Pepper’s Benefits

By

On August 26, 2008

In Health

From: Earth Clinic

Cayenne Pepper is an herb made from the dried pods of chili peppers. Besides being a very popular spice in cooking, cayenne has also been used medicinally for thousands of years. High in Vitamins A, C, B complex, calcium and potassium, cayenne is a wonderful healing aid for the digestive system since it acts as a catalyst and increases the effectiveness of other foods and herbs when used with them. It is also very healing for the heart and circulatory system. Studies have shown that Cayenne can rebuild the tissue in the stomach and the peristaltic action in the intestines.

Cayenne is traditionally used by herbalists to cure stomach aches, cramping, gas, varicose veins, allergies, and constipation. One of the most amazing healing properties of cayenne is that it has been used successfully time and time again to relieve heart attack:

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Study: Dogs Empathize with People

By

On August 26, 2008

In Animals

From: Telegraph

Evidence that dogs may be able to read the mind of their owners comes today with a study that shows that dogs can “catch” human yawns.

Scientists have known for decades that yawns are infectious among people, so much so that simply reading or thinking about them can trigger a chain reaction of gaping mouths in what they call “contagious yawning”.

Yawns can spread in a similar way among chimpanzees and macaques too, though not among people with autism, and is thought to be linked with empathy and the ability to read the thoughts of another individual.

Now the first ever study to report that human yawns induce yawning in dogs is published today in the journal Biology Letters by a team led by Dr Atsushi Senju of Birkbeck College, University of London.

They presented 29 dogs with yawning humans and also with a control movement, where people just opened their mouths.

Even though a wide variety of breed was represented, such as Dobermans, Yorkshire Terriers, Dachshund, Spaniels, Labradors and more besides, they found that 21 of the dogs yawned in response, showing that “dogs possess the capacity for a rudimentary form of empathy.”

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Amy Goodman: Don’t Cage Dissent

By

On August 26, 2008

In Freedom

From: TruthDig

The bulwark against tyranny is dissent. Open opposition, the right to challenge those in power, is a mainstay of any healthy democracy. The Democratic and Republican conventions will test the commitment of the two dominant U.S. political parties to the cherished tradition of dissent. Things are not looking good.

Denver’s CBS4 News just reported that the city is planning on jailing arrested Democratic convention protesters at a warehouse with barbed-wire-topped cages and signs warning of the threat of stun gun use. Meanwhile, a federal judge has ruled that a designated protest area is legal, despite claims that protesters will be too far from the Democratic delegates to be heard.

The full spectrum of police and military will also be on hand at the Democratic convention in Denver, many of these units coordinated by a “fusion center.” These centers are springing up around the country as an outgrowth of the post-9/11 national-security system. Erin Rosa of the online Colorado Independent recently published a report on the Denver fusion center, which will be sharing information with the U.S. Secret Service, the FBI and the U.S. Northern Command. The center is set up to gather and distribute “intelligence” about “suspicious activities,” which, Rosa points out, “can include taking pictures or taking notes. The definition is very broad.”

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Cindy Sheehan Bugged in Denver

By

On August 26, 2008

In Freedom

From: OpEdNews

Cindy Sheehan returned to her Denver hotel room today to find the door unlocked and ajar. She walked in to discover a man working on her phone, screw driver in hand.

Read Entire Article

On ‘Coast to Coast AM’ Tonight: Tom Horn

By

On August 26, 2008

In Freedom

The Tom Horn segment should be very interesting.

From: Coast to Coast AM with George Noory Schedule

Hosted by

George Noory

Guest(s)

Tom Horn, Loren Coleman

Tuesday, August 26

Researcher Tom Horn will discuss ultra-terrestrials, worm holes, and transhumanism, as well as how new technology could open portals to other dimensions.

First Hour: Loren Coleman has an update on the Bigfoot hoax.

[…]

Coast to Coast AM is live nightly from 10pm to 2am Pacific.

Wal-Mart Is an Economic Disease

By

On August 26, 2008

In America's Getting Jacked!

From: Executive Intelligence Review

The Wal-Mart department store chain, which employs 1.3 million people at 4,700 stores worldwide, and in 2002 became the largest corporation in the world, is levelling economies of the U.S., industrial nations, and the Third World.

Wal-Mart is a driving force behind the decadent Imperial Roman model of the United States. Unable any longer to reproduce its own population’s existence through its own physical economy, the United States has, for the past two decades, used an over-valued dollar to suck in physical goods from around the globe for its survival. Wal-Mart is both the public face and working sinews of that policy. It brings in cheap pants from Bangladesh, cheap shirts from China, cheap food from Mexico, etc. Workers who produce these things are paid next to nothing.

Not since the days of the British East India Company as the cornerstone of the British imperial system, has one single corporate entity been responsible for so much misery. At the core of its policy, Wal-Mart demands of its suppliers that they sell goods to Wal-Mart at such a low price, that they can only do so by outsourcing their work to low-wage factories overseas. This causes the exodus of millions of production jobs from the United States and the setting up of slave-labor concentration camps around the globe. Wal-Mart’s policy includes crushing living standards in America, forbidding its workers from unionizing, bringing in workers illegally from abroad, and bankrupting tens of thousands of stores and outlets on Main Street, ripping apart communities and their tax bases.

Read Entire Article

Why Do People Lie? Fear, Lack of Love & Greed

By

On August 26, 2008

In Lying, Psychology

From:geocities.com/changes1611, Why Do We Lie?

There are probably as many alleged “reasons” as there are people. But in the simplest of terms, they all fall into one or more of three groups: fear, greed and hate.

1. Fear (of being rejected, and fear of losing something [greed]):

“One other point to make, in identifying who may be an individual who lies, is a simple characterization of the perpetrator. Kashy and DePaulo, in a 1996 study, attempted to diagram the “liar”. It was found that those who tended to lie more were individuals who were more concerned with self-presentation and were more sociable. …

2. Fear of conflict:

“Behavioral scientist Wendy Gamble, associate professor at the University of Arizona’s School of Family and Consumer Sciences, has studied lying among school children, finding that children show a surprisingly sophisticated understanding of lying as a communication and relationship tool. “Children are very savvy in using deceit to preserve and maintain relationships. They learn that this behavior helps avoid conflict.” …

4. Fear (of being unpopular):

What makes charismatic liars so effective is that they believe their own lies.
“They are not acting,” says Ford. “People with a strong sense of personal identity have difficulty being good actors. Good actors can pretend. They can change their identity.”
The truly charismatic liars are more believable because they actually feel they are telling the truth.

As well, we are more inclined to believe what physically attractive, famous and powerful people tell us, whether it’s true or not, he explains. Ford places this behaviour in the “transference” category. “When we think people have a certain authority over us or that they are better than us, they remind us of our parents so we accept anything they say without question,” he says.

And lying, as an acceptable, even admirable, social skill, is gaining popularity, explains Ford.
Politicians who walk away unscathed from their lies and continue to be adored by their public reinforce the message it’s okay to lie under certain circumstances. Who can forget the words of the world’s most charming prevaricator, former U.S. president Bill Clinton: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

Ford is convinced there are a number of forces conspiring to turn us into liars. He blames the media, particularly television, for spreading the word that lying is not only useful but fun….

5. Fear (Self-protection, Fear of Truth):

“Each of us in our way selectively chooses what we wish to say,” says psychologist Charles Ford, author of Lies! Lies!! Lies!!!, “or we choose not to provide the whole truth.”

“Lying to protect yourself is the most common sort of lie, psychologists agree. Another common lie is self-deception. You convince yourself that red traffic light was still yellow to protect yourself from feeling like a lawbreaker. …

6. “Social lies, or white lies, are so common most people wouldn’t even call them lies. The intent is not to deceive, but to respect the other person’s sensitivity.”

This is a lie we tell ourselves for any one or all of various reasons.

One reason is that often we are afraid to tell the truth because we fear losing something. We don’t know how to be both absolutely truthful and how to demonstrate love at the same time. We fear that if we tell the absolute truth we shall hurt or end the social relationship. This lying is not out of love or sensitivity, but out of selfishness. We do this with family, close friends, employers and coworkers, or in any relationship where we feel we have something to lose by telling the truth.

Another reason is that we don’t really care but we still wish to avoid an unpleasant or dangerous situation. … We claim sensitivity, but the fact is that we are too insensitive and contemptible of others to be able to tell the truth.

In some cases, we may know from previous experience that the person really doesn’t want the truth. They are practicing self-deception and do not want to be disturbed in their fantasy. For us to lie to them makes us an enabler of their self-deception in the same way that we can enable alcoholics or drug abusers. The fact that others choose to lie to themselves does not require that we participate in their lying. We make a choice to participate or not, depending upon our own fears or insensitivity. We choose to participate in their lying because we fear losing something or because we don’t really care enough to hold up the truth. Again it comes down to fear or insensitivity. Insensitivity is a lack of love, or in other words, hate.

“Open rebuke is better than secret love.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” (Pro. 27:5-6).

Read Entire Article, 35 points in all

______________________

From: Helium, Why People Lie

…it boils down to fear, and often results in that very thing they feared, NOT gaining acceptance, friends, and ending up lonely.

Read Entire Article

Related:

All of My Lying Posts at ToBeFree

All of My Lying Posts at OneCanHappen, including the remedy and final result

Biden Is Obama’s Dick Cheney — “the single most important Congressional backer of the Bush administration’s decision to invade” Iraq

By

On August 26, 2008

In Barack Obama, Joe Biden, War

From: Foreign Policy in Focus, Biden, Iraq, and Obama’s Betrayal, by Stephen Zunes

Incipient Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s selection of Joseph Biden as his running mate constitutes a stunning betrayal of the anti-war constituency who made possible his hard-fought victory in the Democratic primaries and caucuses.

The veteran Delaware senator has been one the leading congressional supporters of U.S. militarization of the Middle East and Eastern Europe, of strict economic sanctions against Cuba, and of Israeli occupation policies.

Most significantly, however, Biden, who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the lead-up to the Iraq War during the latter half of 2002, was perhaps the single most important congressional backer of the Bush administration’s decision to invade that oil-rich country. …

It is difficult to over-estimate the critical role Biden played in making the tragedy of the Iraq war possible. More than two months prior to the 2002 war resolution even being introduced, in what was widely interpreted as the first sign that Congress would endorse a U.S. invasion of Iraq, Biden declared on August 4 that the United States was probably going to war. In his powerful position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he orchestrated a propaganda show designed to sell the war to skeptical colleagues and the America public by ensuring that dissenting voices would not get a fair hearing.

As Scott Ritter, the former chief UN weapons inspector, noted at the time, “For Sen. Biden’s Iraq hearings to be anything more than a political sham used to invoke a modern-day Gulf of Tonkin resolution-equivalent for Iraq, his committee will need to ask hard questions – and demand hard facts – concerning the real nature of the weapons threat posed by Iraq.”

It soon became apparent that Biden had no intention of doing so. Biden refused to even allow Ritter himself – who knew more about Iraq’s WMD capabilities than anyone and would have testified that Iraq had achieved at least qualitative disarmament – to testify.

Read Entire Article

Related:

Devvy Kidd — Joseph Biden: Liar, Cheat, Traitor — NWO Globalist

My Dream: The Name of the Antichrist Revealed?

Obama Surrounding Himself with Hawks — War Machine Continues as Ron Paul Predicted — All War All the Time

Bob Chapman believes that Biden is Obama’s Illuminati handler:

“Biden will be his handler just as Cheney was, and continues to be, [Bush’s] handler. In fact, that’s why Biden, a fervent and hardened Illuminist, was chosen as VP.”

John Prine: Hello in There

By

On August 26, 2008

In Music Videos

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSufO2FlpAQ]

So if you’re walking down the street sometime
And spot some hollow ancient eyes,
Please don’t just pass ’em by and stare
As if you didn’t care, say, “Hello in there, hello.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nd6fgL-jv0]Red Rocks, 6 June 2008

Read More

HeartQuotes: Journey

By

On August 25, 2008

In HeartQuotes

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

– Lao Tzu

Click for Italian Alps Version

Skousen: The New Cold War — Russia Testing the Limits and Finding No Resistance

By

On August 23, 2008

In Bomb Bomb America?, Joel Skousen, Russia

World Affairs Brief, August 22, 2008. Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.

Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief.

THE NEW COLD WAR: RUSSIA TESTING THE LIMITS AND FINDING NO RESISTANCE

The US under the globalist Bush regime has been all too eager to threaten and invade nations that can’t hit back. Now, faced with a defiant Russia occupying Georgia, the US is all talk and no action. After years of dealing with the Soviets in the cold war, the West should have learned one core lesson: the Russians only respect force–not words, not treaties, not agreements, only power. It was the same with Hitler–the West aided and abetted his aggression by monetary investments in his armaments industry and purposely keeping their own military forces weak so they had every excuse not to confront Hitler militarily when they could. Only when Hitler was too strong to stop, did the West declare war, with all its disastrous results (for innocent parties on both sides). It is happening all over again, and for the same globalist purposes–to force the world into new and more restrictive globalist legal structures, antithetical to liberty and national sovereignty. This week, I’ll explain more in detail how the current crisis will eventually lead to a larger war.

Read More

Broccoli Reverses Diabetes Damage?

By

On August 23, 2008

In Health

From: Mercola.com

Eating broccoli could reverse the damage that diabetes inflicts on heart blood vessels. The key is most likely a compound in the vegetable called sulforaphane.

Sulforaphane encourages production of enzymes that protect the blood vessels, and reduces the number of molecules that cause cell damage — known as Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) — by up to 73 percent.

People with diabetes are up to five times more likely to develop cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes — both of which are linked to damaged blood vessels.

Read Article with Mercola’s Comments

The Power of Conformity (From Candid Camera)

By

On August 23, 2008

In Fun–or–AMAZING Stuff!, Lying, Psychology

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC7zoI5yBVY]

Candid Camera was a popular television program in the US in the 1960s.

The program used the classic methodology of naturalistic experiments in social psychology as the source of its humorous scenarios.

The resulting programs were not only entertaining, but also potentially instructive.

For example, how independent is the average person when confronted with the all-powerful “consensus of the group?”

Not very.

Creating a consensus quickly is the goal of every “shock and awe” propagandist.

That’s why it’s often true that “a lie makes it half way around the world before the truth gets its pants on.”

Professional liars have their stories worked out well in advance and then pump them out hard and fast long before thoughtful, honest analysts have the chance to ask even the first question.

Once the consensus is pointing in one direction, it becomes very difficult to take, hold and promote a contrary point of view, even if that point of view is accurate and the consensus is completely false.

“Nuked Food” — The Dangers of Irradiated Food

By

On August 23, 2008

In Health

From: True Health

Nuked food is the common term for irradiated food – food which is exposed to high level radiation for the purpose of sterilizing it. This high level radiation penetrates the food which, as anyone who has paid attention in chemistry knows, raises the energy level of the atoms and molecules which the food is composed of. This results in myriad “free radicals” – atoms which have lost an outer electron due to having absorbed a shot of higher energy.

And instead of being chemically neutral, such an atom has now become strongly attractive. This will break and re-arrange many chemicals bonds in the atoms, molecules and chemical compounds of the cells of the food under radiation. So much so that the cellular processes of any micro-organisms in the food are disrupted, and the micro-organisms in the food are killed. …

The idea is that the radiation dissipates, and things return to normal. But we have come to know and understand that free radicals form stable compounds that are different from the original chemical compounds, and that the free radicals and the altered compounds are harmful to us in many, many ways – among them a trigger for heart diseases and cancer.

Read Entire Article

An Asia-Pacific Union Similar to the European Union by 2020

By

On August 23, 2008

In Freedom

The globalists are trying to create European-type unions on every continent that will then be merged together into the prophesied one-world government.

From: The Australian

KEVIN Rudd wants to spearhead the creation of an Asia-Pacific Union similar to the European Union by 2020 and has appointed veteran diplomat Richard Woolcott – one of his mentors – as a special envoy to lobby regional leaders over the body.

The Prime Minister said last night that the union, adding India to the 21-member APEC grouping, would encompass a regional free-trade agreement and provide a crucial venue for co-operation on issues such as terrorism and long-term energy and resource security.

And he outlined his plans for his visits to Japan and Indonesia next week, saying he would explore greater defence co-operation between Australia, Japan and the US – an approach that had been championed by John Howard.

Speaking in Sydney last night to the Asia Society Australasia Centre, the Mandarin-speaking Mr Rudd said global power and influence was shifting towards the Asia-Pacific region and that Australia must drive the creation of a new global architecture for the Asia-Pacific century.

Read Entire Article

Goodbye Northwest Airlines — 1926 – 2008?

By

On August 21, 2008

In Music Videos

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqQ2TEQhoy8]

A tribute to the employees of Northwest Airlines. Many of the pictures are courtesy of Airliners.net, song sung by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli.

Olympian Lloy Ball: Now Disbelieves His “Anger is a Gift” Tattoo — “And to have the Devil on your arm does not bode well”

By

On August 20, 2008

In Forgiving/Grudgless/No Hate, People, People Cursing People

From: Washington Post, Lloy Ball, Tattoos and Capricious Youth

The U.S. men’s volleyball team has its share of characters, but media folks aren’t going there after this month’s events. I spent a few minutes with longtime setter Lloy Ball last week….

If you’ve followed the team’s history, you remember that Ball was previously depicted as the bad boy of indoor volleyball: the “Satan” nickname, the “Boo-yah!” screams after successful spikes, his fish face that he called “The Grouper,” the “Anger is a Gift” tattoo that came from Rage Against the Machine lyrics. An “in-your-face, tattooed Generation X’er,” one newspaper called him during the ’96 Games, and virtually every story had a similar theme.

[…]

And what about the ‘Anger is a Gift” thing?

Yeah, uh…capricious youth? Back in ’96 for some reason I thought I needed to be somewhat upset to play well. Luckily it only took me 12 years to figure out that that’s not true. And to have the devil on your arm does not bode well when you go to church with your mom on Christmas, I can tell you. But, you know, live and learn.

So you don’t play angry any more?

Not so much. I mean, it takes someone across the net saying REALLY bad things to me in a language I understand to get too upset.

Really? Does that go on?

Oh yeah, yeah. You’ll see it when we play Italy. You know, a lot of us just aren’t real fond of each other. We play against each other on the national teams but also in club ball a lot of times. I’ve had a REAL good couple of years in club ball, so I’m not real popular with some of em, and I’ve on occasion let them know that I’m a little better than they are sometimes, and they take offense at that and start yelling at me through the net. In Italian, most of ’em.

Read Entire Article

Related: Cyclist Mimicks His Devil Tattoo

Study: Does TV Encourage Infidelity?

By

On August 20, 2008

In America's Getting Jacked!, Media Bias Exposed

From: Ask Mars Venus

Recently, the Parents Television Council (PTC) accused broadcast networks of “cheating” on real relationships. PTC says their study, titled “Happily Never After: How Hollywood Favors Adultery and Promiscuity Over Marital Intimacy on Prime Time Broadcast TV,” found the following:

  • Sex between married couples is portrayed as “boring, burdensome, or nonexistent.”
  • Extramarital sex is depicted as positive.
  • Verbal references to nonmarital sex during prime time outnumber references to marital sex nearly 3 to 1. AND, scenes that implied sex between unmarried partners outnumbered similar scenes between married couples 4 to 1.

OK, yeah, we admit it. Married sex on TV is ho-hum. Two people who love each other having a cozy, adoring lovefest aren’t why most viewers tune into the daytime and nighttime dramas. But why? Would it make us uncomfortable to watch two characters actually celebrate their union? Or are we drawn to the more salacious entertainment because, like the shoot ‘em ups and mythological masterpieces on the big screen, they’re not anything we’ll ever get close to in our real lives?

The PTC is saying that they aren’t suggesting we go back to the Leave It to Beaver days, but they do believe the TV networks have gone overboard in an effort to shock audiences.

Here are some more intriguing stats from the study:

  • ABC had the most references to marital sex but they were mostly negative. Their references to nonmarital sex were almost universally positive. (Grey’s Anatomy,anyone?)
  • NBC had as many depictions of adults having sex with minors (good grief) as there were scenes that implied or depicted sex between married couples.
  • In 24.5 hours of programming, Fox only had one reference to marital sex, but they had 18 references to nonmarital sex and five references to adultery.
  • Sexual behaviors previously off-limits to broadcast TV now get regular mentions. References to incest, prostitution, partner swapping, pedophilia, threesomes, bestiality, and necrophilia combined outnumbered references to sex in marriage on NBC by a ratio of 27 to 1.

Read Entire Article

Give your brain a tea break

By

On August 20, 2008

In Health

From: AsiaOne

Scientists in Singapore have read the tea leaves, and found that a cuppa of the brew is good for the brain.

The four-year study adds to the literature on tea’s long-touted virtues. Moreover, any type of tea will do just fine.

The main finding is that tea slows down brain-cell degeneration and thus keeps the mind sharp into old age, said Professor Ng Tze Pin from the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) psychological medicine department.

It was found that catechins, a natural compound in tea, protect brain cells from damaging protein build-up over the years, maintaining the brain’s cognitive capability.

Moreover, the caffeine in tea, unlike that in coffee, contains the natural protein theanine, which counters the normal side effects of caffeine such as raised blood pressure, headaches and tiredness.

Brain-cell degeneration, caused by a combination of loss of nerve cells, predisposed genes, small strokes and increased levels of harmful protein build-up, often leads to dementia.

Read Entire Article

HeartQuotes: In Your Own Skin

By

On August 20, 2008

In HeartQuotes

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself,
instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”

– Judy Garland

Click for Red Rocks Version

HeartQuotes: Love

By

On August 20, 2008

In HeartQuotes

“In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities.”

– Janos Arany

Click for St. Mary Lake Version

Chuck Baldwin: Hooray for Jerry Corsi — “whose commitment to truth outweighs his desire for popularity”

By

On August 20, 2008

In Barack Obama, Chuck Baldwin

From: News with Views

Dr. Jerome Corsi is probably the most controversial man in America these days. His blockbuster new book, The Obama Nation, is currently the New York Times Number One Bestseller, and media talking heads are having a hissy fit. They are incensed that there is someone of Corsi’s intelligence and credentials who is willing to tell the truth about the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee, Barack Obama.

You see, the national media have elevated Obama to a position beyond sainthood: they view him as the fourth member of the Godhead. He can do no wrong. He is America’s–no, check that, he is the world’s–savior. How dare Dr. Corsi spoil the sacrosanct candidacy–and the media’s universal anointing–of Obama?

The fact is, however, Jerry Corsi is a rare breed these days: he is an honest and objective journalist whose commitment to truth outweighs his desire for popularity. I will go even further: Jerry Corsi is what the rest of the national media should be, but aren’t.

Benjamin Franklin and the other Founding Fathers believed that the First Amendment protection of the freedom of the press was necessary, because they assumed the press would serve as an independent, unbiased, and truthful check and balance to the propensities of government toward subterfuge and duplicity. And for many years, this goal was more or less fulfilled. No more.

For the most part, the national media today are nothing more than lap dogs for both major parties, but especially for the Democratic Party.

[…]

I just wish that Jerry had time to write an exposé on John McCain, because no one else among America’s national journalists has the intention (much less the integrity) of doing it, and McCain is certainly equally deserving.

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China flaying animals alive: Investigation reveals images so graphic, nightmares rampant among probe team

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On August 20, 2008

In Animals, China, Torture

From: WorldNetDaily

Editor’s Note: The descriptions and video of China’s fur industry in this story will be disturbing to  some readers.

The newest controversy over exports from China has caused nightmares for researchers documenting the abuse inflicted on animals bred and raised in tiny cages and then skinned alive for their fur.

WND has reported multiple times on problems with exports from China, with poison found in pajamas, consumers warned against using ginger, an alert about the dangers from China’s pickled vegetables and even the dangers from honey and fireworks.

Now comes word from an extended investigation into the fur trade that China is estimated to produce approximately 85 percent of the world’s fur products – and it has virtually no regulations or rules for the treatment of the animals.

According to Mark Rissi, a spokesman for Swiss Animal Protection, which has documented abuse of animals raised for their fur as early as 1983, the China project has been going on for several years.

The organization’s report has been made available online, with dramatic images and descriptions that researchers found more than disturbing.

“As animals are considered objects in China, there is little or no awareness for the suffering of these sentient beings,” Rissi told WND from his European base of operations via e-mail. “The cruelty found was beyond our expectations, and it was hard to document without interfering. It caused nightmares to the team, especially in the editing room, because the scenes had to be replayed and replayed to be edited from six hours down to 20 minutes.”

Read Entire Article, Watch Horrific Video

Wishing Others Well: Tony Hawk’s The First 900

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On August 18, 2008

In People, Wishing Each Other Well!

I can’t find a video online that fully shows the degree of support Tony had from his fans and competitors during this first ever 900, but this shows us glimpses.

His competitors were slapping their skateboards on the ramp and actually laying their hands on him, hoping and praying that Tony would succeed!!!

When I saw Tony’s unedited attempts on TV, I was stunned, thinking this is how completely we should be supporting each other, wishing each other well in real life. And especially, this is how people who call themselves ‘Christians’ should be rooting each other on! Let’s do it!

No enemies — an example of what is to come!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=967fAzRRLnQ]

Related:

Travis Pastrana’s Appretiation of Colin McRae’s Heart to Give [1968-2007]

Nastia Liukin, WINNER, Wishing her fiercest competitor WELL: “I admire her with ALL of My HEART”

Olympics: American Christians protest over confiscated Bibles

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On August 18, 2008

In China

From: The Guardian

Four American Christians are staging a sit-in at a Chinese airport, which they refuse to leave until the authorities return 315 Bibles they were trying to bring into the country.

The group – from Vision Beyond Borders – spent the night sleeping on couches at Kunming airport in southern Yunnan Province after customs officials removed the Chinese language bibles from their luggage.

The bibles were printed in Indonesia, transferred to Thailand and transported to Kunming in duffel bags by the Wyoming-based group which distributes bibles around the world.

Pat Klein, one of the members of the group, told reporters that he was bringing the books into China because his contacts in the Chinese Christian community were unable to get hold of sufficient copies.

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Anchorage, Alaska: The Coldest Summer Ever?

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On August 16, 2008

In Alaska, Climate Change

From: Anchorage Daily News, Gloomy summer headed toward infamy — CHILLY: Anchorage could hit 65 degrees for fewest days on record,  July 24th, 2008

The coldest summer ever? You might be looking at it, weather folks say.

Right now the so-called summer of ’08 is on pace to produce the fewest days ever recorded in which the temperature in Anchorage managed to reach 65 degrees.

That unhappy record was set in 1970, when we only made it to the 65-degree mark, which many Alaskans consider a nice temperature, 16 days out of 365.

This year, however — with the summer more than half over — there have been only seven 65-degree days so far. …

In the Matanuska Valley on Wednesday snow dusted the Chugach. On the Kenai Peninsula, rain was raising Six-Mile River to flood levels and rafting trips had to be canceled. …

Unless we get 10 more days of 60-degree or warmer temperatures, we’re going to break the dismal 1971 record of only 46 such days, a possibility too awful to contemplate. …

• 70-degree days. So far this summer there have been two. Usually there are 15. Last year there were 21. In 2004 there were 49.

• 75-degree days. So far this summer there’ve been zero. Usually there are four. It may be hard to remember, but last year there were 21. In 2004 there were 23.

Read Entire Article with Chart

Related: Global Cooling: Alaskan Glaciers Grow For First Time In 250 Years

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