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Yet again, more scientific evidence supporting the irrefutable fact of the theory of natural selection.
Big-brained Animals Evolve Faster
ScienceDaily (Aug. 15, 2008) — Ever since Darwin, evolutionary biologists have wondered why some lineages have diversified more than others. A classical explanation is that a higher rate of diversification reflects increased ecological opportunities that led to a rapid adaptive radiation of a clade.
A textbook example is Darwin finches from Galapagos, whose ancestor colonized a competitors-free archipelago and rapidly radiated in 13 species, each one adapted to use the food resources in a different way. This and other examples have led some to think that the progenitors of the major evolutionary radiations are those that happened to be in the right place and at the right time to take advantage of ecological opportunities.
However, is it possible that biological diversification not only depends on the properties of the environment an ancestral species finds itself in, but also on the features of the species itself? Now a study supports this possibility, suggesting that possessing a large brain might have facilitated the evolutionary diversification of some avian lineages.
More at:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080814210006.htm
Rush slammed after blaming Elizabeth Edwards for affair.
Add this to the litany of shocking and offensive things to have emerged from right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh’s mouth:
“It just seems to me that [John] Edwards might be attracted to a woman whose mouth did something other than talk.”
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Limbaugh_Edwards_affair_because_wife_wouldnt_0814.html
=========================================================
The $400 million dollar scumbag stumbles again with his brainless brand of BS.
I’m sure there will be supporters, but they are in the same class as phelps and his. If this is all the reich wingers have, then it’s no wonder there is a dearth of leadership material in their party.
Hannity, $100 million, didn’t go as far as Rush. He said it was awful Edwards had an affair but it’s okay that McCain had one since he spent time in prison. Is there a prison boyfriend in Hannity’s past that he doesn’t want us to know about?
Tonight is the final game of the 2008 National Baseball Congress, NBC tournament, here at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. The Santa Barbara Foresters with no losses play the Seattle Studs with one loss. Since this tournament is “double elimination,” tonight’s game might turn into a double header.
Unfortunately, this year’s attendance at the NBC has been dismal. Why … it’s hard to say. I could give my reasons. But so could others and they might be different.
I do believe the City of Wichita, the new owners of the Wingnuts and the NBC must step up and do more for the 60 something teams that voluntarily travel to Wichita for the tournament.
Last year, I visited with a coach of one of the teams at the Saturday morning hot cakes and sausage breakfast. He asked a lot of questions about Wichita. He said he was president of a small technical company on the West Coast. AND he finally admitted to also being the Mayor of his prominent West Coast city.
My point is, some of the visitors to the NBC are influential back home and looking at what Wichita is or is not doing here in River City.
Morning J M Walker!
Still shaving in the dark or did a porcupine attack your face? :D
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Serial-Killers-are-as-American-as-Apple-Pie-32916.shtml
Why do we make serial killers into celebrities?
“The answers to those questions are deeply colored by the psychosocial needs of both author and audience,” Schmid says, “and often tell us more about those needs than about the subject in question.”
Schmid points out that despite the fact that USA produces 85 percent of the world’s serial killers, Americans consistently represent them as “other” than themselves — as loathsome, monstrous, utterly alien creatures. Nonetheless, at the same time they are treated as icons, celebrity performers and fetish figures.
“We can hardly deny it,” Schmid says. “We collect their nail clippings, photos and dirty clothes. We watch their trials and listen to their victims on the morning news. We compete
online for serial-killer board games and action figures; gobble up endless hours of cable programming and films featuring their lives and deeds, and read hundreds of best-selling books about one serial killer after another, even though we know the outcome before we open them. We do it all because we are compelled to resist the idea that these characters, so familiar, so endemic to America, are at all like the rest of us.”
By emphasizing their “creepiness,” he adds, we can deny that they share many of our values and obsessions and, except for the fact that they act out the worst of them, frequently live unremarkable lives among us. “Even when our serial killers appear remarkably ordinary, the ’serial killer industry’ reassures us that they are not.”
“In part because the old dividing line between fame and notoriety has become increasingly blurred, so that celebrity is defined more than ever by whatever it takes to grab a jaded public’s attention, no matter how appalling the attention-grabbing actions are,” Schmid says. “There’s also a natural human tendency to be perversely fascinated by extreme deviant and criminal behavior, precisely because it’s so different from our humdrum everyday lives. Moreover, with serial killers, that fascination is intensified by the fact that serial killers appear to be so ordinary when they are arrested–think of how bland, even boring, killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer and David Berkowitz turned out to be. It’s this combination of normal appearance and extreme actions that drives the public fascination with serial killers, turning them into household names.”
Despite American’s denial that serial killers are often quite ordinary, Schmid says their fantasies and compulsions represent values embedded in American culture, values that permeate institutions and entertainments: the utter and often brutal supremacy of the white patriarchal system; misogyny; deep ambiguity and anxiety about the body, sex and sexual orientation; a relish for violence; fear of powerlessness and loss of control, and obsession with celebrity.
“One way that true-crime narratives deny the similarities between them and us,” says Schmid, “is through the popular image of the so-called ‘mask of sanity.’ It is a device that turns the killer’s apparent ordinariness into the most compelling sign of evil by depicting it as a façade hiding the ‘truth’ of the serial killer’s identity.
“This is not enough to undermine and demonize their apparent normality, however. One of the more recent innovations in true crime narratives is the search for, and presentation of signs of deviance in the killer’s childhood, however spurious”.
“The consumer of true crime takes great comfort in the deterministic logic that binds these children to their evil fate from their very earliest days,” Schmid says. “It distances our ‘good families’ from these products of ‘bad families,’ again allowing us to deny that we or society at large is implicated in their behavior.”
Every time that natural selection has occured it has been observed (as in the finches) within an existing species. For example, natural selection has often been observed in bacteria. Because of their rapid generation times, bacteria ought to be the easiest organisms in which to observe the origin of species through natural selection. Yet as British bacteriologist Alan H. Linton wrote in 2001: “Throughout 150 years of the science of bacteriology, there is no evidence that one species of bacteria has changed into another.” Faced with this lack of evidence for a key element of Darwin’s theory, some defenders of the theory–even in the prestigious NAS–have taken to exaggerating the finch data. Although this does not refute the theory, it hardly inspires confidence in it. As Berkeley law professor and Darwin critic Phillip E. Johnson wrote in 1999: “When our leading scientists have to resort to the sort of distortion that would land a stock promoter in jail, you know they are in trouble.” (
New book: “Green Gone Wild — Elevating Nature Above Human Rights”
For those considering the green revolution and wondering about its future, it may be too late. One prominent authority believes green has gone, gone wild. M. David Stirling, vice president of the highly regarded Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento has just published a book titled “Green Gone Wild — Elevating Nature Above Human Rights.” In it he catalogs the unrestrained steps by hardcore environmentalists from Rachel Carson to present day power and property grabbers who operate through the implementation and enforcement of the Endangered Species Act.
He chronicles the half-century worldwide influence of Carson’s rage against the use of the mosquito-killing DDT as costing tens of millions of lives. Uncontrolled mosquito populations, especially in developing countries, have spread killer malarial plagues year after year since DDT was banned in 1972.In what Stirling calls a display of classic hypocrisy, Carson’s erroneous fear-mongering that DDT was causing human sickness and deaths led her radical followers to find ways to eliminate or curtail humans’ activities they viewed as endangering an ever-expanding number of lesser species.
He believes that today’s greenies are on a rampage to confiscate millions of acres of private property they declare as habitat for an assortment of rats, snakes, crickets, birds, salamanders and other wildlife and plants. Like many of the other 1,350 species that have been tucked under the ESA’s protective canopy, polar bear numbers are increasing as the animal thrives. Stirling foresees that tying the polar bear’s listing to global warming can lead to highly restrictive regulation of any human activity viewed as contributing to that alleged phenomenon.
Stirling’s book recalls the poorly researched science and knee-jerk reaction of authorities to declare a significant portion of the Northwest’s old-growth forests as protected habitat for the northern spotted owl. Timber operations throughout the area closed down, causing immeasurable economic and personal distress to logging families and communities, making the forests more vulnerable to wildfires.
Stirling’s conclusion is that nature-loving green zealots hiding behind the ESA are exclusionists at heart. That means they are anti-human. They believe the earth is overpopulated, and restrictions on human enterprise such as the pursuit of happiness should be curtailed, whatever it takes. They have found a way to discourage and limit human enterprise with the ESA’s onerous and expensive regulations.
He offers 15 ways to modify the ESA to allow it to actually protect plants and animals that may be in danger without eliminating human activity and commerce. For farmers and others with property at stake these suggestions alone make the book worth the price.
Speaking of serial killers, I recently learned this from a guard at El Dorado. Dennis Rader is locked in his cell 23 hours a day, and by law is allowed out of his cell 1 hour a day for exercise. His hour is at 2AM…and he rarely bothers.
Quite the glamorous life he has now…he had his moment in the spotlight, and now will fade from view in solitary.
Rader is in Solitary??? Not in Gen. Pop??? Hmmmm…. Is that normal for Life Without Parole???
“When our leading scientists have to resort to the sort of distortion that would land a stock promoter in jail, you know they are in trouble.”
Sounds a lot like some alarmists here…
HLP’s screed appears without source, but can easily be found on about a billion worthless websites. This alone is enough to discredit it.
But HLP does ask a damned good question, Maggot. Why do species breed true for so many generations?
It is almost as if the form of a species is dictated from outside the chromosome. You’re aware that gene transplants have been done among species. The section of a chromosome which produced a wing in a bird can be transplanted to a reptile. The reptile still produces a leg. I read that in “New Scientist,” though given the dry sense of humor of scientists, they just might be pulling a reporter’s leg. I did read the passage over and over, however.
I take the scientific view as strenuously as anyone here, but as a person who sits in the mud for hours and watches bugs, I simply don’t believe design occurs at random, no more than a house gets built.
I don’t believe in creationism either. What I think is there are processes going on we don’t know about. Remember the old “organizing principle” which was once used to explain how organisms became more complex?
The only view that works for me is that existence itself is somehow “alive” and intelligent, that everything is somehow connected to everything else, that the tiny pieces of silica sparkling in your hand may just be galaxies far, far away.
And check your own life. Just how great a part did “ration” play in it, Maggotpunk?
“He chronicles the half-century worldwide influence of Carson’s rage against the use of the mosquito-killing DDT as costing tens of millions of lives. Uncontrolled mosquito populations, especially in developing countries, have spread killer malarial plagues year after year since DDT was banned in 1972″– HLP cut and paste
DDT is still in use for vector control. 1,000 tons are used annually. China exports the product. Have you ever heard of resistance HLP? — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT
Conclusion: A blunderbuss aimed by ideology.
Historic Wichita Fire Department Promotion
Date: August 14, 2008
Contact: Communications Team
Phone: (316) 268-4351
First Woman to Serve as Battalion Chief Officer
The Wichita Fire Department has promoted Elizabeth C. (Tammy) Snow, from Fire Captain to Battalion Fire Chief. The promotion makes her the first woman to serve as a Chief Officer and the highest ranking woman in the history of the department.
“Snow is an outstanding fire officer who performed extremely well in the department selection process,” Wichita Fire Chief Ronald D. Blackwell said. “She will serve the community and the department at a very high level in her new leadership position.”
The promotion is effective August 23, 2008. Snow is a 20 year veteran and has served as a Fire Captain, Fire Lieutenant and Firefighter at various fire stations across Wichita.
The promotion is one of nine others announced today. Billy J. Wenzel was promoted from Safety Officer to Chief Safety/Training Officer. Jeffrey L. Luper was promoted from Firefighter to Fire Investigator. Kelly R. Ross was promoted from Lieutenant to Fire Training Officer. Warren B. Koehn, Jeffrey B. Towes, and Douglas W. Winter were all promoted from Lieutenant to Fire Captain. Lance R. Diffenbaugh, Kris J. Coffman and Colby S. Roberson were also promoted from Firefighter to Fire Lieutenant.
Battalion Chief Snow and Fire Chief Blackwell will be available for interviews at 11 am, Friday August 15th at Fire Station #1 (Murdock & Main). Photos of all of the firefighters who were promoted are available upon request.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506E5D71139F935A15754C0A96E958260&fta=y
Ideas & Trends: Southern Curse; Why America’s Murder Rate Is So High
By FOX BUTTERFIELD
Published: July 26, 1998
MURDER in the United States has been dropping dramatically for years, to the lowest level since the modern crime wave began in the 1960’s. But this encouraging decline has masked a fundamental fact — that there is no such thing as an American murder rate.
In fact, there are sharp regional differences in homicide, with the South having by far the highest murder rate, almost double that of the Northeast, a divergence that has persisted for as long as records have been kept, starting in the 19th century. The former slaveholding states of the old Confederacy all rank in the top 20 states for murder, led by Louisiana, with a rate of 17.5 murders per 100,000 people in 1996. The 10 states with the lowest homicide rates are in New England and the northern Midwest, with South Dakota’s the lowest at 1.2 murders per 100,000 people.
It’s Personal
Experts note, in addition, that much of the disparity in murder rates between the South and other sections of the country stems from a difference in the character of Southern homicide. In the South, many murders are of a personal and traditional nature: a barroom brawl, a quarrel between acquaintances or a fight between lovers. Elsewhere, homicides usually begin with another crime, like a robbery gone bad, and typically involve strangers.
Most important, the experts say, the high Southern murder rate is a key factor behind America’s disproportionately high homicide rate compared with other democratic, industrialized nations. In 1996, the last year for which data are available, the United States murder rate was 7.4 per 100,000 people. The next closest country was Finland, at 3.2 per 100,000 people, with France at 1.1, Japan at 0.6 and Britain at 0.5.
While the United States has much more murder than comparable countries, it does not necessarily have much more crime. England has a higher rate of burglary. France has a higher rate of auto theft. The Netherlands and Australia have about the same total crime rate.
”The whole American scandalously high homicide rates are Southern in origin,” says Roger Lane, a professor of history at Haverford College and author of ”Murder in America: A History” (Ohio State University Press, 1997). Until the 1960’s, Professor Lane said, America’s big cities actually had murder rates lower than the national average, since the national rate had been skewed upward by Southern homicides.
The question of why murder is so prevalent in the South has fascinated observers as far back as Alexis de Tocqueville, who in the early 1830’s recorded a remark by a young lawyer he encountered in Alabama. ”There is no one here but carries arms under his clothes,” the lawyer said. ”At the slightest quarrel, knife or pistol comes to hand. These things happen continually; it is a semi-barbarous state of society.”
A study of 19th century judicial records completed in 1980 by Michael Hindus, a lawyer, found that from 1800 to 1860 the murder rate in South Carolina, an overwhelmingly rural, agrarian area, was four times higher than that of Massachusetts, then the most urban, industrial state. More than a century later, the difference persists in almost the same magnitude. In 1996, the murder rate in South Carolina was 9 per 100,000 people, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation; in Massachusetts it was 2.6 per 100,000 people.
High Southern homicide rates challenge a central theory of criminology, which predicts more murder in densely populated urban areas where crowding and poverty break down traditional social ties and values.
Southern homicide was typically rural, and over the years many theories have been advanced to explain it. Frederick Law Olmsted, who traveled through the South in the 1850’s and wrote about it in ”Journeys and Explorations in the Cotton Kingdom,” pointed to the persistence of frontier conditions in the region. Southern plantation agriculture, characterized by widely scattered settlements and a lack of roads and schools, left the region a frontier until after the Civil War, helping to breed lawlessness.
‘Primal Honor’
Contemporary historians have suggested other sources of Southern bellicosity. David Hackett Fischer, a professor of history at Brandeis University, says a critical factor was the heavy settlement of the South by immigrants referred to today as Scotch Irish — people from the north of Britain, the lowlands of Scotland and the north of Ireland.
These settlers, whom Benjamin Franklin described as ”white savages,” brought with them a culture based on centuries of fighting between the kings of England and Scotland over the borderlands they inhabited. They had a penchant for family feuds, a love of whisky and a warrior ethic that demanded vengeance, Professor Fischer said.
The mother of Andrew Jackson, herself an immigrant from the north of Ireland, advised her boy: ”Andrew, never tell a lie, nor take what is not your own, nor sue anybody for slander, assault and battery. Always settle them cases yourself.” He did, becoming a famous pistol dueler.
Thank you again Ms. Inks.
Dick Cheney can do it all!
“Russians were told over breakfast yesterday what really happened in Georgia: the conflict in South Ossetia was part of a plot by Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, to stop Barack Obama being elected president of the United States.”
Bush has told his soulmate “stop bullying!”. Meanwhile the bully says Poland risks nuclear attack for the missle shield agreement.
NEW YORK (CNN) — “This is for America. This is for NATO. This is for Bush.”
These were the phrases that the president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvilli, told me were on Russian bombs falling before, during and after the numerous cease-fires that have come and gone since the Georgian-Russian conflict began.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/14/beck.georgia/index.html
They aren’t bombing Georgia, they are bombing us.
Did one of the bombs say “This is for John Mccain”?
Bush taking them to task for using cluster bombs! Hmm, who else has recently used cluster bombs on civilians? As far as “Nations don’t invade nations in the 21st century, see U.S. invades Iraq, or Israel invades (fill in the blank).
Russia: U.S. Missiles in Poland Won’t Go Unpunished
Whoops, forgot to add this part…
“Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent,” Interfax quoted Nogovitsyn as saying.
Bush will have a full scale crisis going before electiona.
Bush has made refugees (in Iraq)out of nearly as many people as reside in Georgia. Where’s their humanitarian aid?
If you are into robotic technology, or physical sciences of any kind you will be impressed by this.
Make sure and watch all of the videos from the menu on the left side of the screen.
http://www.bostondynamics.com/content/sec.php?section=BigDog
I’d hate to see the code behind the algorithm for walking. Outstanding job they did though.
I am trying not to be dense, but why is GW being blamed for Russia’s attack on Georgia? I am honestly asking–I missed some connection somewhere. I am not surprised, but am lost on this one. Any info?
Sol
I can’t decide if I’m more impressed by the ability to walk on ice or the jump across the rug on the floor.
Absolutely amazing.
Also…how could they read what is written on falling bombs? That sounds a little implausible…
Russian convoy moves deeper inside Georgia: witness
By James Kilner
IGOETI, Georgia (Reuters) – A Russian military convoy advanced to within 55 km (30 miles) of Tbilisi on Friday, from the Russian-occupied town of Gori inside Georgia proper, a Reuters witness said.
The incursion marked the closest troops have come to the Georgian capital, and coincided with a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to push a French-brokered peace plan to end the Russia-Georgia conflict.
The convoy of 10 armored personnel carriers (APC), mounted by soldiers, was initially shadowed by three low-flying Russian combat helicopters as it pulled slowly past Georgian police and then army checkpoints without stopping.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSLF7284720080815
Raptor file the GW Russian story with the one that Capn gave us about Rush’s sister who says he is gay and has always been gay and was in college at the age of 14.
Dems have a hidden den of truth tellers that sit and spin all day. When they regurgitate the left libs post it on this blog as fact.
It’s guite a system.
Raptor,
The Georgians started this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBZXTZkOd_w&feature=related
“Before you dismiss that possibility, consider the role of one Randy Scheunemann, for four years a paid lobbyist for the Georgian government who ended his official lobbying connection only in March, months after he became Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser.
Previously, Scheunemann was best known as one of the neoconservatives who engineered the war in Iraq when he was a director of the Project for a New American Century. It was Scheunemann who, after working on the McCain 2000 presidential campaign, headed the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which championed the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
There are telltale signs that he played a similar role in the recent Georgia flare-up. How else to explain the folly of his close friend and former employer, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in ordering an invasion of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, an invasion that clearly was expected to produce a Russian counterreaction? It is inconceivable that Saakashvili would have triggered this dangerous escalation without some assurance from influential Americans he trusted, like Scheunemann, that the United States would have his back. Scheunemann long guided McCain in these matters, even before he was officially running foreign policy for McCain’s presidential campaign.”
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080812_georgia_war_a_neocon_election_ploy/
“It’s guite a system.” — ok
Yes it is, we must follow the high road, and you can tell any lie you like, like the ones posted today on this blog. Quite a system indeed. But I agree. Those who claim to stand for right and justice can not support their positions with lies.
Heck,
Sure is. They need to get some noise supression on BigDog.
That RiSE is freakin amazing. How the hell is it holding on?
Russia Lashes Out on Missile Deal
By THOM SHANKER and NICHOLAS KULISH
Published: August 15, 2008
WASHINGTON — The United States and Poland reached a long-stalled deal on Thursday to place an American missile defense base on Polish territory, in the strongest reaction so far to Russia’s military operation in Georgia.
Skip to next paragraph
Related
Bush Aides Say Russia Actions in Georgia Jeopardize Ties (August 15, 2008)
Times Topics: Poland
Times Topics: Missiles and Missile Defense SystemsRussia reacted angrily, saying that the move would worsen relations with the United States that have already been strained severely in the week since Russian troops entered separatist enclaves in Georgia, a close American ally. At a news conference on Friday, a senior Russian defense official, Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, suggested that Poland was making itself a target by agreeing to serve as host for the anti-missile system. Such an action “cannot go unpunished,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/world/europe/16poland.html?hp
“Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in ordering an invasion of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, an invasion that clearly was expected to produce a Russian counterreaction?” — Sol
We’ll never really know what happened. The moral here is wimps should not wage war. What a mess. Will we have to have the cold war all over again, and this time, will it be the Russians who break us, if we’re not already?
As we continue to show our impotence in dealing with Georgia and Russia (a conflict we should never have been involved in) mark these words; watch Iran.
I suppose now I will have to start digging my bomb shelter….damit! I hate using shovels!!!
Viewpoint: Living with Iraq’s violence
An Iraqi member of staff at the BBC Baghdad bureau reflects on the daily toll the violence is taking on the people of his country. For security reasons, the author’s name is not being published.
Violent death in Iraq is an everyday event. In Baghdad people put up signs on the street to announce deaths. I am always surprised to read one which says that someone died of natural causes.
“We have become the firewood in a war which has no logic and victims of warriors who lack honour and nobility. Warriors we read about in history books at least had honour.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7561611.stm
Sol
“That RiSE is freakin amazing. How the hell is it holding on?”
It looks like it has retractable “cat claws” in those foot pads.
#
lindainks55
Posted August 15, 2008 at 10:37 am | Permalink
Viewpoint: Living with Iraq’s violence
An Iraqi member of staff at the BBC Baghdad bureau reflects on the daily toll the violence is taking on the people of his country. For security reasons, the author’s name is not being published.
Violent death in Iraq is an everyday event. In Baghdad people put up signs on the street to announce deaths. I am always surprised to read one which says that someone died of natural causes.
“We have become the firewood in a war which has no logic and victims of warriors who lack honour and nobility. Warriors we read about in history books at least had honour.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7561611.stm
————————————-
Well, let’s see…
8.27 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.) U.S.A.
5.14 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.) Iraq
source: CIA World Fact Book
It appears there is a greater problem in the United States with deaths per day than Iraq!
Perhaps we should all wring our hands and cry “whoa is me,”; “the world is coming to an end!”
I don’t understand how any deaths in America (or anywhere else!) justify, explain or are even relevant to deaths from bush’s war of choice. I do see how NOT starting an unnecessary war could have prevented deaths. What are your numbers supposed to mean? Would the numbers you posted have changed if there wasn’t war? Have they changed because there is war? What’s the correlation?
It wasn’t long ago bush was visiting (agitating) in Georgia.
Looks like a few folks in Texas have it all together regarding shool safety.
http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/834022.html
snip
To deter and protect against school shootings, trustees have altered district policy to allow employees to carry concealed weapons if they have a state permit and permission from the administration. The 110-student district lies 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth on the eastern end of Wilbarger County, near the Oklahoma border.
snip
The district’s lone campus sits 500 feet from heavily trafficked U.S. 287, which could make it a target, Thweatt said.
Other security measures are in place, including one-way access to enter the school, state-of-the-art surveillance cameras and electric locks on doors. But after the Virginia Tech massacre and the Amish school shooting in Pennsylvania, Thweatt felt he had to take further action, he said.
“When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that’s when all of these shootings started,” Thweatt said. “Why would you put it out there that a group of people can’t defend themselves? That’s like saying ’sic ’em’ to a dog.”
Ordo Ab Chao.
The American response to the Russian invasion of Georgia seems a little weak-kneed to me. Didn’t Georgia support us in Iraq? In fact, didn’t they furnish the third largest military force right after England?
Our ally Georgia gets attacked and all this administration can offer is mealy-mouthed plattitudes. There was a time when the response would have been much different…back before Bush gutted our military with years of a needless war.
XXX
What would XXX do? Send in the Marines or just nuke Moscow and go have a beer?
Georgia attacked Russia, that’s fact.
Are we to go in and help them dig out of this mess and start WW3? Apparently yes, Bushco won’t shut their frigging mouths, egging it on, so don’t lose heart. We’ll be there soon.
Hell, let’s just nuke the world. Let’s do it now.
Sownds intellejunt to me.
“Georgia attacked Russia, that’s fact. ” — pleefer.
I wasn’t aware Georgia crossed their own border into Russia.
Pleefer
“Georgia attacked Russia, that’s fact”
I think you need to check your facts there pardner.
“Well, let’s see…
8.27 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.) U.S.A.
5.14 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.) Iraq
source: CIA World Fact Book” — regular
And here’s why:
Iraq
0-14 years: 39.2% (male 5,613,420/female 5,438,770)
15-64 years: 57.9% (male 8,270,573/female 8,057,423)
65 years and over: 3% (male 396,751/female 444,244) (2008 est.)
U.S.A.
0-14 years: 20.1% (male 31,257,108/female 29,889,645)
15-64 years: 67.1% (male 101,825,901/female 102,161,823)
65 years and over: 12.7% (male 16,263,255/female 22,426,914) (2008 est.)
Source: CIA fact book.
beber
Posted August 15, 2008 at 12:04 pm | Permalink
“Georgia attacked Russia, that’s fact. ” — pleefer.
I wasn’t aware Georgia crossed their own border into Russia.
—–
They didn’t, beber, it’s just Pleefer. While it appears that Georgia certainly miscalculated in atempting to militarily reign in it’s breadaway province of S. Ossetia, and some could argue provoked the Russian invasion, Georgia did not invade Russia. Further, it appears Georgia relied on US coming to his aid, when frankly we cannot be there whether we were bogged in Iraq or not (look at a map, people!).
Whatever sparked the conflict, it is Russian columns in Georgia, not the other way around.
Pleefer’s just one of our resident tinfoil hats. Treat him accordingly.
Press Release
DOHERTY: NEW SCIENTIFIC DATA JUSTIFIES REPEALING GLOBAL WARMING RESPONSE ACT
By bguhl – August 14, 2008 – 1:48pm
Release Date: Aug 14 2008
DOHERTY: NEW SCIENTIFIC DATA JUSTIFIES REPEALING GLOBAL WARMING RESPONSE ACT
http://www.politickernj.com/bguhl/22291/doherty-new-scientific-data-justifies-repealing-global-warming-response-act
URGES STATE TO HOLD OFF ON DAMAGING NEW REGULATIONS AS CLIMATE CHANGE THEORIES CLASH
“Responding to various new scientific reports questioning the concept of global warming, Assemblyman Michael Doherty today called on Governor Corzine to hold off on proposing any new regulations associated with the state’s Global Warming Response Act and urged the Legislature to repeal that act when it returns to legislative business after Labor Day.
“There are many credible members of the scientific community who have questioned the theory of global warming, and now we have some scientists actually suggesting the earth’s temperatures may be entering a period of dramatic cooling,” said Doherty, R-Warren and Hunterdon. “With this growing level of scientific uncertainty, it makes no sense to enact a new set of economically damaging regulations prompted by the global warming hysteria of recent years.”
Whatever genius.
Heckler
Posted August 15, 2008 at 11:51 am | Permalink
XXX
What would XXX do? Send in the Marines or just nuke Moscow and go have a beer?
_________________________________________________
Heck, you missed my point. Because BushCo has burnt out our military, the only choice we have is to sit back and grumble. There was a time before Bush where the Russians wouldn’t have dared thumb their noses at us.
And just to set the record straight, I have more of a problem with drinking the Beer than with using the nukes.
And right here in our very own Land of Oz we will also be recognized as a state being led by Lemmings, otherwise know as AGW fanatics, thanks to our own wicked witch the brainless Kathleen Sebelius and her pet on a leash Bremby.
“There are many credible members of the scientific community who have questioned the theory of global warming”
No, there aren’t.
Boxlock
Posted August 15, 2008 at 12:51 pm | Permalink
And right here in our very own Land of Oz we will also be recognized as a state being led by Lemmings
__________________________________________________
You’re too late. It’s already happened. We’re now known as one of the most stupifyingly conservative states in the country.
#
XXX
Posted August 15, 2008 at 1:08 pm | Permalink
Boxlock
Posted August 15, 2008 at 12:51 pm | Permalink
And right here in our very own Land of Oz we will also be recognized as a state being led by Lemmings
__________________________________________________
You’re too late. It’s already happened. We’re now known as one of the most stupifyingly conservative states in the country.
—————————
Move to Vermont your largeness. You can hold hands with the same sex, smoke pot and talk about the good old hippie times while strumming on your harpsichord.
(chortles)
Regular
Posted August 15, 2008 at 1:11 pm | Permalink
(chortles)
Good old Regular. Continuing proof that there’s life after brain-death.
Oh, by the way…
You don’t “strum” a harpsichord.
(snickers)
If you are in Denver during the DNC and you deviate from the UnConstitutional “free speech zones”, you will be put into this. And the crooked and pathetic prosecutors there, much like here or maybe in El Dorado, will be glad to help destroy your 1st Amendment by putting you away for speaking your mind.
http://cbs4denver.com/denver2008/denver.protesters.arrested.2.793930.html
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts-
The success of the Bush Regime’s propaganda, lies, and deception with gullible and inattentive Americans since 9/11 has made it difficult for intelligent, aware people to be optimistic about the future of the United States. For almost 8 years the US media has served as Ministry of Propaganda for a war criminal regime. Americans incapable of thinking for themselves, reading between the lines, or accessing foreign media on the Internet have been brainwashed.
We don’t know what the death toll would be in Iran if Darth Cheney and the neocons succeed in their plot with Israel to bomb Iran, perhaps with nuclear weapons.
As the Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, said, it is easy to deceive a people. You just tell them they have been attacked and wave the flag.
It certainly worked with Americans.
The gullibility and unconcern of the American people has had many victims. There are 1.25 million dead Iraqis. There are 4 million displaced Iraqis. No one knows how many are maimed and orphaned.
Iraq is in ruins, its infrastructure destroyed by American bombs, missiles, and helicopter gunships.
We do not know the death toll in Afghanistan, but even the American puppet regime protests the repeated killings of women and children by US and NATO troops.
We don’t know what the death toll would be in Iran if Darth Cheney and the neocons succeed in their plot with Israel to bomb Iran, perhaps with nuclear weapons.
What we do know is that all this murder and destruction has no justification and is evil. It is the work of evil men who have no qualms about lying and deceiving in order to kill innocent people to achieve their undeclared agenda.
That such evil people have control over the United States government and media damns the American public for eternity.
America will never recover from the shame and dishonor heaped upon her by the neoconned Bush Regime.
The success of the neocon propaganda has been so great that the opposition party has not lifted a finger to rein in the Bush Regime’s criminal actions. Even Obama, who promises “change” is too intimidated by the neocon’s success in brainwashing the American population to do what his supporters hoped he would do and lead us out of the shame in which the neoconned Bush Regime has imprisoned us.
This about sums up the pessimistic state in which I existed prior to the go-ahead given by the Bush Regime to its puppet in Georgia to ethnically cleanse South Ossetia of Russians in order to defuse the separatist movement. The American media, aka, the Ministry of Lies and Deceit, again accommodated the criminal Bush Regime and proclaimed “Russian invasion” to cover up the ethnic cleansing of Russians in South Ossetia by the Georgian military assault.
Only this time, the rest of the world didn’t buy it. The many years of lies–9/11, Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, al Qaeda connections, yellowcake, anthrax attack, Iranian nukes, “the United States doesn’t torture,” the bombings of weddings, funerals, and children’s soccer games, Abu Ghraib, renditions, Guantanamo, various fabricated “terrorist plots,” the determined assault on civil liberties–have taken their toll on American credibility. No one outside America any longer believes the US media or the US government.
The rest of the world reported the facts–an assault on Russian civilians by American and Israeli trained and equipped Georgian troops.
The Bush Regime, overcome by hubris, expected Russia to accept this act of American hegemony. But the Russians did not, and the Georgian military was sent fleeing for its life.
The neoconned Republican response to the Russian failure to follow the script and to be intimidated by the “unipower” was so imbecilic that it shattered the brainwashing to which Americans had succumbed.
McCain declared: “In the 21st century nations don’t invade other nations.” Imagine the laughs Jon Stewart will get out of this on the Daily Show. In the early years of the 21st century the United States has already invaded two countries and has been beating the drums for attacking a third. President Bush, the chief invader of the 21st century, echoed McCain’s claim that nations don’t invade other nations. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7556857.stm
This dissonant claim shocked even brainwashed Americans, as readers’ emails reveal. If in the 21st century countries don’t invade other countries, what is Bush doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and what are the naval armadas and propaganda arrayed against Iran about?
Have two of the worst warmongers of modern times–Bush and McCain–called off the US/Israeli attack on Iran? If McCain is elected president, is he going to pull US troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan as “nations don’t invade other nations,” or is President Bush going to beat him to it?
We all know the answer.
The two stooges are astonished that the Americans have taught hegemony to Russians, who were previously operating, naively perhaps, on the basis of good will.
Suddenly the Western Europeans have realized that being allied with the United States is like holding a tiger by the tail. No European country wants to be hurled into war with Russia. Germany, France, and Italy must be thanking God they blocked Georgia’s membership in NATO.
The Ukraine, where a sick nationalism has taken hold funded by the neocon National Endowment for Democracy, will be the next conflict between American pretensions and Russia. Russia is being taught by the neocons that freeing the constituent parts of its empire has not resulted in their independence but in their absorption into the American Empire.
Unless enough Americans can overcome their brainwashed state and the rigged Diebold voting machines, turn out the imbecilic Republicans and hold the neoconservatives accountable for their crimes against humanity, a crazed neocon US government will provoke nuclear war with Russia.
The neoconservatives represent the greatest danger ever faced by the United States and the world. Humanity has no greater enemy.
“This is for America. This is for NATO. This is for Bush.”
Was Slim Pickens on one of the bombs, relaying the messages prior to their detonation?
http://coloradoindependent.com/view/denver-rids-parks-of
Would appear that Denver is trying to “hide” the homeless from view for the DNC. How considerate…
I noticed today that trolls work of the National Weather Service–
“FOR A GRAPHICAL VERSION OF THIS INFORMATION…SEE OUR
WEBPAGE AT (LOWERCASE) HTTP://WEATHER.GOV/WICHITA/HWO/HWO.PHP
$$
SCHRECK”
Judge: ‘English-only’ policy didn’t create ‘hostile environment’
BY RON SYLVESTER, The Wichita Eagle
U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten ruled today against three three Hispanic families who had claimed a Catholic school policy discriminated against their children.
===========================================
From The Wichita Eagle
U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten ruled today against three three Hispanic families who had claimed a Catholic school policy discriminated against their children.
——
Excellent.
Heckler,
Good post. I was just about to post the same thing.
Now if only more schools would allow those with concealed carry permits to carry in the school. Would be a good start.
Not a bad idea Nathaniel.
It could even be allowed for administrators or principals to have a concealed carry permit. That way, all of the employees of the school could be carrying a gun to help prevent violence in the school.
When Russia had NATO on one front and the hostile Maoist Chinese at their back you can imagine how damn mad they got when the US put missiles in Turkey, their southern, heretofore unarmed front. That brought them to counter by putting missiles in Cuba, forcing Kennedy to remove the missle threat from Turkey, something kept quite at the time. By installing missiles in Poland and beefing up Georgia and Ukraine, seeking NATO membership for them thus bringing weaponry to her doorstep, Russia will make a strategic move to counter the neo-cons expanionist policies. Georgia was a tactical move, the strategic goals are not yet clear
George W.’s War
By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, June 20, 2008 4:20 PM PT
No one likes war. War is a horrific affair, bloody and expensive. Sending our men and women into battle to perhaps die or be maimed is an unconscionable thought.
————————————————–
Yet some wars need to be waged, and someone needs to lead. The citizenry and Congress are often ambivalent or largely opposed to any given war. It’s up to our leader to convince them. That’s why we call the leader “Commander in Chief.”
George W.’s war was no different. There was lots of resistance to it. Many in Congress were vehemently against the idea. The Commander in Chief had to lobby for legislative approval.
Along with supporters, George W. used the force of his convictions, the power of his title and every ounce of moral suasion he could muster to rally support. He had to assure Congress and the public that the war was morally justified, winnable and affordable. Congress eventually came around and voted overwhelmingly to wage war.
George W. then lobbied foreign governments for support. But in the end, only one European nation helped us. The rest of the world sat on its hands and watched.
After a few quick victories, things started to go bad. There were many dark days when all the news was discouraging. Casualties began to mount. It became obvious that our forces were too small. Congress began to drag its feet about funding the effort.
Many who had voted to support the war just a few years earlier were beginning to speak against it and accuse the Commander in Chief of misleading them. Many critics began to call him incompetent, an idiot and even a liar. Journalists joined the negative chorus with a vengeance.
As the war entered its fourth year, the public began to grow weary of the conflict and the casualties. George W.’s popularity plummeted. Yet through it all, he stood firm, supporting the troops and endorsing the struggle.
Without his unwavering support, the war would have surely ended, then and there, in overwhelming and total defeat.
At this darkest of times, he began to make some changes. More troops were added and trained. Some advisers were shuffled, and new generals installed.
Then, unexpectedly and gradually, things began to improve. Now it was the enemy that appeared to be growing weary of the lengthy conflict and losing support. Victories began to come, and hope returned.
Many critics in Congress and the press said the improvements were just George W.’s good luck. The progress, they said, would be temporary. He knew, however, that in warfare good fortune counts.
Then, in the unlikeliest of circumstances and perhaps the most historic example of military luck, the enemy blundered and was resoundingly defeated. After six long years of war, the Commander in Chief basked in a most hard-fought victory.
So on that historic day, Oct. 19, 1781, in a place called Yorktown, a satisfied George Washington sat upon his beautiful white horse and accepted the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, effectively ending the Revolutionary War.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=298857012289670
Are you or they trying to parallel George Washington with Dubya?
Seriously?
The wars are like night and day. Fighting in Iraq has zero, zilch, nada bearing on our freedom. No, that’s untrue, oil is the global currency and we need the biggest barrel.
We’re supposedly over there to help “spread democracy” in the Mid-East. What a beautiful way to foment even more hostilities between the 3 factions in Iraq…a mob-rule type government.
I guess my point is that George Washington was a statesman, George Dubya is just a piece of shit. People claim that he’s a failure, that’s not reality, he’s actually done exactly what he was told to do. He’s created enough chaos in this world that the only hope for peace now is through a benevolent and loving UN.
I can hardly wait to see the culmination of George Bushs’ 8 years of fearless leadership…WW3 baby!
A true Fair Tale!!!
The Little Red Hen called all of her Democrat neighbors together and said, ‘If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?’
‘Not I,’ said the cow.
‘Not I,’ said the duck.
‘Not I,’ said the pig.
‘Not I,’ said the goose.
‘Then I will do it by myself,’ said the little red hen, and so she did. The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.
‘Who will help me reap my wheat?’ asked the little red hen.
‘Not I,’ said the duck..
‘Out of my classification,’ said the pig.
‘I’d lose my seniority,’ said the cow.
‘I’d lose my unemployment compensation,’ said the goose.
‘Then I will do it by myself,’ said the little red hen, and so she did.
At last it came time to bake the bread.
‘Who will help me bake the bread?’ asked the little red hen.
‘That would be overtime for me,’ said the cow.
‘I’d lose my welfare benefits,’ said the duck.
‘I’m a dropout and never learned how,’ said the pig.
‘If I’m to be the only helper, that’s discrimination,’ said the goose.
‘Then I will do it by myself,’ said the little red hen.
She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, ‘No, I shall eat all five loaves.’
‘Excess profits!’ cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)
‘Capitalist leech!’ screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)
‘I demand equal rights!’ yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)
The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)
And they all painted ‘Unfair!’ picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.
Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, ‘You must not be so greedy.’
‘But I earned the bread,’ said the little red hen.
‘Exactly,’ said Barack the farmer. ‘That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.’
And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, ‘I am grateful, for now I truly understand.’
But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the ‘party’ and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled. ‘Fairness’ had been established.
Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared…so long as there was free bread that ‘the rich’ were paying for.
EPILOGUE
Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs.
Hillary got $8 million for hers.
That’s $20 million for the memories from two people, who for eight years, repeatedly testified, under oath, that they couldn’t remember anything.
IS THIS A GREAT BARNYARD OR WHAT?
——————
The libs idea of utopia. BJs favorite story of the ‘worker bees’.
“It could even be allowed for administrators or principals to have a concealed carry permit. That way, all of the employees of the school could be carrying a gun to help prevent violence in the school.”
Now that’s the f**king stupidest thing I’ve heard yet.
I prefer the Rainbow Fish myself.
And since when does someone who forces her employees to be in contact by cell phone constantly qualify as a “worker”? They work so that she may blog? How badly their labor is wasted.
Sounds more like you’re the queen bee there okobserver. Or at least you think you are. Fussed over, defended, your every need taken care of by the workers.
Why is that stupid?
Tee hee….yes its satire…but the points are excellent.
—————
Breast-Feeding Kills
THE PRO-LIFE CASE AGAINST BIRTH CONTROL, NURSING, AND EXERCISE.
By William Saletan
Posted Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008, at 1:27 PM ETSecretary Michael O. Leavitt
Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20201
Dear Secretary Leavitt:
I am writing to express my support for the draft proposed regulation, presently being circulated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which would protect the right of employees to refuse to facilitate any abortifacient chemical or activity. Under the draft proposal, the federal government will use its grant-making power to compel private employers to respect this right of refusal.
——————————————————————————–
In particular, I commend the language of the draft, which would define abortion as “any of the various procedures—including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action—that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.” This definition protects the right of employees to withhold oral contraception, which could prevent implantation of an already-conceived embryo.
My concern, Mr. Secretary, is that the proposal does not go far enough. As you know, the risk that oral contraception will prevent implantation of an embryo is purely theoretical. There is no documented case of such a tragedy, since we have no way to verify conception inside a woman’s body prior to implantation without causing the embryo’s death. Even theoretically, the risk is vanishingly small, since the primary effect of oral contraception is to prevent ovulation, and the secondary effect is to prevent fertilization.
To classify oral contraception as abortifacient, one would have to posit a scenario in which the drug fails to block ovulation, then fails to block fertilization, and yet somehow, having proved impotent at every other task, manages to prevent implantation.It is a tribute to the president’s courage that despite this profound implausibility and total absence of documentation, he is protecting the right of employees to refuse to facilitate any such risk, no matter how small.
Based on this generous standard, I hope you will agree that employees deserve protection when they decline to facilitate additional activities that pose an equal or greater risk to the embryo. Specifically, I call to your attention the problem of breast-feeding.
Is breast-feeding an abortion method?
Thousands of people working at hospitals, lactation centers, maternity-product retailers, drug stores, and supermarkets are presently required by their employers to participate in breast-feeding, either by teaching it or by providing products that facilitate it. Those who refuse can be terminated at will. They endure this discrimination despite clear scientific evidence that breast-feeding poses the same abortifacient risk as oral contraception.Breast-feeding, like oral contraception, alters a woman’s hormonal balance, thereby suppressingovulation, fertilization, and, theoretically, implantation. These results were documented in a 1992 research paper, “Relative Contributions of Anovulation and Luteal Phase Defect to the Reduced Pregnancy Rate of Breastfeeding Women.”
The authors concluded: “The abnormal endocrine profile of the first luteal phase offers effective protection to women who ovulate during lactational amenorrhea within the first 6 months after delivery.” In other words, breast-feeding prevents pregnancy despite ovulation.Note that the authors described this effect as “protection” despite the fact that they worked for a Catholic university. This illustrates the urgent need for specific regulatory language with regard to breast-feeding.
Technically, the current HHS draft proposal would guarantee the right to withhold breast-feeding products or assistance, since it defines abortion as encompassing “any other action … that results in the termination of the life of a human being” prior to implantation. Catholic health providers, however, specifically endorse,promote, and facilitate breast-feeding despite its abortifacient risks. Employees of such providers who cannot in good conscience engage in these activities require specific protection from coercion by Catholic authorities.
In addition, millions of Americans in the food-service industry face the threat of discrimination if they decline to participate in the provision of caffeinated beverages to women of childbearing age. Earlier this year, the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology published a study showing that “an increasing dose of daily caffeine intake during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of miscarriage.” The evidence suggests that drinking 10 ounces of coffee per day could double the probability of miscarriage.
It is not sufficient to protect the right of food-service personnel to refuse caffeine to women who are visibly pregnant. Pregnancy is not externally visible until well into gestation. Nor is it sufficient to protect caffeine refusal to pregnant women only. The stated purpose of the draft proposed regulation is to protect human beings prior to implantation—in other words, prior to pregnancy. As mentioned above, there is no way to determine, prior to implantation, whether a woman is carrying a newly conceived human being. Therefore, to avoid the theoretical abortifacient risk, employees must be guaranteed the right to refuse caffeinated beverages to any woman who appears to be of childbearing age.Furthermore, millions of Americans presently work at gyms, swimming pools, parks, or other recreational facilities where they may be required to encourage or collaborate in exercise by women. Research published last year in a British journal of gynecology demonstrated that, as with caffeine, “exercise early in pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of miscarriage.”
Again, to avoid abortifacient risk in women who are not yet pregnant, the draft regulation must guarantee the right to withhold any collaboration in exercise by women of childbearing age.Thank you for your steadfast pro-life efforts and for expanding the definition of abortion to include any activity that results in the termination of human life prior to implantation. This expanded definition will save the lives of more and more unborn human beings as we advance from conscience protections to legal restrictions on abortion.
As research uncovers additional causes of miscarriage or preimplantation embryo loss, I look forward to further legislation against caffeine consumption, exercise, and other abortifacient activities among premenopausal women.
Sincerely,
William Saletan
“Yet as British bacteriologist Alan H. Linton wrote in 2001: “Throughout 150 years of the science of bacteriology, there is no evidence that one species of bacteria has changed into another.””
It’s been a busy day so I haven’t been able to respond. Bacteria have already evolved to different species, the numerous species which live today. But if you want a better example you can look to the recent evolutionary study on E-coli which I’ve mentioned before.
Richard Lenski did a 20 year study on E coli population and noticed the evolution from one single population of E coli to two separate species. E-coli, which normally doesn’t feed on citrate evolved into a population which adapted to use citrate as a food source. Lenski kept every stage of development frozen in a petri dish so the genetic makeup could be traced during the changes.
http://richarddawkins.net/article,2669,n,n
The notion that bacteria doesn’t evolve is just absurd. There are species of bacteria that live on an individual human that don’t appear anywhere else in the world. To argue that bacteria doesn’t evolve is like claiming viruses don’t evolve but every year people are still afflicted with cold viruses despite having developed an immunity to a prior cold virus. Viruses evolve, hence the reason we still have colds and the flu.
The explanation is found in Darwin’s original theory concerning genetic divergence. When two populations are separated, often by some geological barrier, the populations are no longer allowed to exchange their genetic material. As a result one mutation that appears in one population won’t appear in a different population. The population with the mutation will pass it on and with enough build up with develop into a species so distinct they won’t be able to reproduce with their previous offshoot. That’s why humans, although very similar genetically to the chimp, can’t reproduce with one.
I don’t see how it is stupid Mary Caruso. But, to each his own I suppose.
Now would you mind if I used this experience next time our social conservative types like Franklin consider me a mole from the democrats to sew discord among the republicans?
Is there a prison boyfriend in Hannity’s past that he doesn’t want us to know about?
Hmm, looks like Dig Doug Dumber is exposing his fantasies.
Good night; Good luck; God Bless —-
Whatever you conceive God to be!!
Blessings ALL!!
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500 USA
We respectfully ask our government to help stop the tens of thousands of preventable deaths that occur every day from hunger and poverty-related diseases.
Specifically, we ask our country to honor the agreement it made and signed at the 2002 Monterrey Conference and again at the 2002 Johannesburg Summit to make concrete efforts towards giving 0.7% of our national income in aid to poor countries.
The United Nations estimates that when all 22 countries that signed the agreement meet the 0.7% goal, the resulting $195 billion each year will be enough to effectively end hunger and extreme poverty in the world.
We commend the countries that have already reached the 0.7% goal: Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.
We also commend the countries that have set up a schedule to meet the 0.7% goal and encourage them in their efforts to reach it as soon as possible: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
We respectfully ask the six remaining countries to honor their agreement and set up a schedule to reach the 0.7% goal: Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States.
Thank you.
2006 International Aid Donated COUNTRY Aid as % of income How close to the
0.7% goal
Norway 0.95 Already reached goal
Sweden 0.93 Already reached goal
Luxembourg 0.90 Already reached goal
Denmark 0.81 Already reached goal
Netherlands 0.81 Already reached goal
Ireland 0.54 Scheduled for 2012
Austria 0.49 Scheduled for 2015
Belgium 0.43 Scheduled for 2010
Spain 0.41 Scheduled for 2012
Finland 0.40 Scheduled for 2010
France 0.39 Scheduled for 2012
Germany 0.37 Scheduled for 2014
Switzerland 0.37 No schedule yet
Un. Kingdom 0.36 Scheduled for 2013
Australia 0.30 No schedule yet
Canada 0.28 No schedule yet
New Zealand 0.27 No schedule yet
Italy 0.19 Scheduled for 2015
Portugal 0.19 Scheduled for 2015
Japan 0.17 No schedule yet
Greece 0.16 Scheduled for 2015
USA 0.16 No schedule yet
Source: OECD
Actually, the U.S. gives more Aid and assistance that the total of those countries combined.
This is a specific program Chas, with a specific U.N. agenda. It is a program that would be controlled by greedy World Bank operators and most of the money would never see the light of day.
It would be a permanent tax on the citizens of the United States, which imo is unconstitutional, as no citizen is allowed to say how the the money is spent or not spent.
It’s Obama’s Senate Bill. I should die on the vine.
Sure, James… .7% of national income from 22 countries…. and that is a tax on the U.S. how???
BTW, it isnt Obama’s Bill…. The two agreements were signed inm 2002…. Obama was still in Illinois then!!! LOL
Buy Levitra online at cheap and affordable prices.