Westboro Baptist Church Plans 29 Anti-Gay/Jewish/Military Protests in San Diego (Links)
California: America’s first failed state? The state that was once held up as the epitome of the boundless opportunities of America has collapsed. Westboro Baptist Church planning 29 anti-gay/Jewish/military protests in San Diego The Kansas-based church known for its anti-gay, anti-Semitic and anti-military protests is planning four days of demonstrations at 29 locations in San Diego County next week. Happy birthday, War in Afghanistan (photos) Violence in Afghanistan has reached its most intense of the eight-year-old war despite record levels of U.S. and NATO troops being sent to fight the Taliban. War: Bipartisanship Republicans can get behind Up until now President Obama has been unable to round up any Republican backing for his major initiatives. Finally, though, it appears that the GOP will come to his rescue—because he doesn’t have enough backing within his own party. Earth feels ‘massive relief’ that Obama is in office “What’s really remarkable is that in all my years studying national reputation, I have never seen any country experience such a dramatic change in its standing as we see for the United States for 2009.” Census Bureau: U.S. lost ground on every major economic measurement under Bush Thursday’s annual Census Bureau report on income, poverty and access to health care-the Bureau’s principal report card on the well-being of average Americans-closes the books on the economic record of George W. Bush. They tortured a man they knew to be innocent We now know that torturing a human being to get proof that he deserved to be tortured was not just a theoretical fear of mine. It happened. Bob Dole: now or never on health care If the reform proves popular, then the GOP will forever be tarred as the party that refused to help more people get health insurance or to tackle healthcare costs. Dick Cheney’s daughter to bring another ‘innocent child’ into her ‘lesbianic home’ The right-wing base loves Dick and Liz, but it dislikes the way Mary Cheney is gay and having children with her life partner. Texas gov. Perry acts to derail wrongful execution hearing Texas Gov. Rick Perry has shaken up a state commission looking into whether a man was wrongly executed in 2004. Life without parole for minors: cruel and unusual? The United States Supreme court will soon weigh in, and the question will be an early test of whether Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a former prosecutor, will align herself with the court’s tough-on-crime conservatives or join with its liberals to strike down prison policies perceived as going too far. Raines: Safire’s ‘rigid’ GOP loyalty contrasted with his openness to new information Bill Safire’s “rigid loyalty to the Republican Party stood in contrast to his intellectual habits, which were liberal in the old-fashioned sense of being comprehensive and open to new information,” writes Howell Raines. Glenn Beck uses Vaporub to get the “tears” flowing Now we see how Glenn Beck gets himself properly weepy for the cameras: a little Vicks Vaporub. He also can’t explain what he meant by ‘white culture’ Er, well, oh, er… Bill Gates has fifty thousand million dollars It’s that time of the year again when Forbes publishes their annual list of the 400 richest Americans, and the rest of us look at the billions they own, dream away for a minute or two, and then get back to reality, remembering we’ve forgotten to pay our cell phone bill.
Obama Wins I’m-Not-George-W.-Bush Prize
President Obama, the liberal media announced this morning, has won the Nobel Peace Prize®.
The third sitting president to receive the award, Obama is honored by the bestowal and, frankly, a little relieved. “I am honored by the bestowal and, frankly, a little relieved. Maybe now people will forget that I couldn’t bring the 2016 Olympics to the United States,” the president probably said. “Also, it’s great to get the recognition because I was worried that I wasn’t really doing anything. Clearly, that can’t be true. They don’t just give these things out for political reasons to show predecessors just how much the international community didn’t like them.” (more…)
Poll: 73% of Doctors Across all Disciplines Support Public Health Care Option
May the bogeymen of Socialism be damned. According to a comprehensive new study,
A large majority of doctors say there should be a public option…nearly three-quarters of physicians supported some form of a public option, either alone or in combination with private insurance options.
Additionally, 63 percent of doctors say they favor giving patients a choice that would include both public and private insurance, the same position held by U.S. President Barack Obama and many Democrats. Another 10 percent of doctors say they favor a public option only; they’d like to see a single-payer health care system—something that many of Obama’s Republican opponents have billed as equivalent to Marxist Socialism.
The study was conducted by Dr. Salomeh Keyhani and Dr. Alex Federman, both internists and researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, by mail and by phone, of 2,130 doctors. They surveyed them from June right up to early September. (via NPR)
Pastor Urges His Flock to Bring Guns to Church (Links)
An Incoherent Truth On health care, the conservative Democrats can’t extract major concessions on the shape of health care reform without dooming the whole project. What’s Cost Got to Do With It? Costs have skewed the debate on health care much like they have the debate on climate change—as if business-as-usual on either of them will be magically cost-free. Bush Officials: Where Are They Now? A guide to who’s cashing in. A Day of Reckoning for Bush’s ‘Torture’ Lawyers Eric Holder must decide whether to pursue Bush administration lawyers and one sitting federal judge who set the legal stage for officially sanctioned torture and other degrading practices that violated fundamental principles of international law. Barack Obama is More Likely Than Bush to Get Things Right We have a fox in the Oval Office, and he has replaced a hedgehog. U.S. Guns Fuel Canada And Mexico Crimes, UK Gun Crime Remains Rare Guns smuggled from the US arm criminals in Canada and Mexico, contributing to a higher murder rate in Canada and more intense drug crime conflict near the Mexican border, according to a study. Gun Flow South is a Crisis for Two Nations A report says the U.S. failure to curb smuggling has strengthened drug cartels. Pastor Urges His Flock to Bring Guns to Church In Louisville, Kentucky, Ken Pagano’s congregation is a sign that American gun culture is thriving despite, or perhaps because of, President Obama. Winning the Ultimate Battle: How Humans Could End War Optimists called the first world war “the war to end all wars.” She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It As the Republicans’ lone charismatic performer, Sarah Palin has come to represent a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances. Robert McNamara in Context Should the Vietnam-era secretary of defense be remembered as a public servant, hawk, technocrat, hero, or all of the above? Assassination: A Brief History Governments can bomb faceless troops of enemy conscripts with impunity, but are questioned closely about bombing photographable individuals. Numbers numb; identity humanizes. That’s the general rule. Does Religion Have a Monopoly on ‘Enchantment’? Weber linked rationalisation with ‘the disenchantment of the world,’ but is it fair to equate the lack of religion to an absence of magic and mystery? The Bachmann Comic So how is the new comic book about our favorite House GOP backbencher, Michele Bachmann (R-MN)?
Breaking: Obama Not a “Fan” of God on Facebook
An O&B reader tipped us off to a news item that will no doubt dominate the airwaves for weeks, if not years, to come; it’s likely to even surpass the recent Michael Jackson Corpse-stravaganza in newsworthiness. Yes, something dreadful this way comes, and we’re proud to be the website to unleash it. So shocking is this development that it will surely result in the collapse of America’s moral center, leading to the paralysis of our folksy extremities. But such a revelation is necessary, even if it crushes this country’s spirit and buries the American Dream under a mound of rubble and cloud of asbestos, never to be resurrected by so many diligent Christian heroes. (more…)
Biodiversity and the True Significance of the Human Species (Links)
Lessons From the Reverse Engineering of Nature The importance of biodiversity and the true significance of the human species. Most Damaged Ecosystems Recover in Decades Nearly 75 percent of damaged ecosystems fully or partially recover within decades. Obama team calls a timeout on logging in roadless areas Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says no new activity can begin in roadless areas of national forests without his permission. What Are Zoos For? Behind the rusting gates of Wroclaw Zoo, ivy is claiming the walls of the ramshackle gothic administration building. Recipe for a Resurrection Bringing extinct species back to life is no longer considered science fiction. Why Coral Reefs Around The World Are Collapsing An explosion of knowledge in the last few is helping to explain why coral reefs around the world are collapsing and what it will take for them to survive mounting threats. Toxin Is Accelerating Demise of Prehistoric Chinese Sturgeon A chemical applied to ship hulls is robbing Chinese sturgeon of their eyes and causing other deformities. How to clean up a lake? Man-made floating islands may be the answer. The Luxury City vs. the Middle Class The sustainable city of the future will rest on the revival of traditional institutions that have faded in many of today’s cities. Deer Heaven Humans invented suburbia, but it is deer who may be its most enthusiastic residents. Where’s the Environment Section on Google News? Visit Google News’s home page and you’ll see lots of important stories: elections in India, armed conflict in Pakistan, and the US debate over torture, to name just a few. Is Unesco Damaging the World’s Treasures? Is the “gold standard” project harming the very places it seeks to protect? You Are Here The world’s eco-disasters up close. Why Health Warnings Can Be Bad Researchers warned potential participants that electrodes would be strapped to their temples, and could cause serious headaches. Despite this, 34 students came forward. Recycling Mysteries: #5 Plastics If you’re trying to be more eco-conscious, you might wonder about what to do with yogurt cups, hummus tubs or cottage cheese containers. The Human Influence Index A measure of direct human influence on terrestrial ecosystems using the best available data sets on human settlement (population density, built-up areas), access (roads, railroads, navigable rivers, coastline), landscape transformation (land use/land cover) and electric power infrastructure (nighttime lights). The Human Footprint Index The percentage of relative human influence in each terrestrial biome. percentage the relative human influence in each terrestrial biome.
Is the California Constitution Too Easy to Amend? (Links)
Is the California Constitution Too Easy to Amend? Even if there is no clearly right answer, there still may be some pretty clearly wrong answers. The California system falls into the latter category. The Age of Disorganization The era of U.S. hegemony could be followed by a period of chaotic “nonpolarity” instead. What’s a Liberal Justice Now? When talking about the Supreme Court, Barack Obama has resisted the familiar ideological categories that have defined our judicial battles for the past several decades. Cheney Prepares the Twinkie Defense Why, after spending eight years as both the most powerful and most reclusive vice president in White House history, has Dick Cheney suddenly fallen in love with the media? After the Gold Rush Make no mistake, the neoliberal era is over—but at what cost? How To Become an Accidental Conservative Jan Fleischhauer describes his childhood in a typical West German liberal family, with parents who wouldn’t let him eat oranges because they were grown in countries ruled by dictators, and his coming out as a late conservative. Iran May Not Want The Bomb And other unexpected truths. The Media’s Lost Generation How do you get ahead in an industry that can’t see its own future? Newspaper Runs Obama Assassination Ad A Pennsylvania newspaper published an advertisement on Thursday calling for the assassination of President Obama. Wikipedia to Church of Scientology: You’re Banned! The Web’s stuggle with Scientology has been well-documented. 5 Terrifying Bastardizations of the Wikipedia Model The fact that Wikipedia lets anybody edit just isn’t enough for some people. Facebook User Drops $70.50 Lawsuit In short, if you get a virus from clicking a link on Facebook, they’re not responsible…even if you lose $70 worth of friends.
‘Angel’ and ‘Devil’ Parts of the Brain Battle for Supremacy (Links)
Obama Returns of Science to Endangered Species Act Interior Secretary Ken Salazar rescinded eleventh-hour Bush administration changes to Endangered Species Act regulations that allowed federal agencies to decide for themselves if their own projects—such as roads and dams—would threaten imperiled species. Fish and Wildlife Salamander Study Could Limit L.A. Sprawl If the Tehachapi slender salamander, which lives north of L.A., becomes a protected species, urban growth could be limited. Southern California Beetle Destroying Oaks A beetle that was first detected in California in 2004 has now attacked 67 percent of the oak trees in an area 30 miles east of San Diego. Why Invasive Plants Take Over New research shows that two key causes of plant invasion—escape from natural enemies, and increases in plant resources—act in concert. Stimulus Reinvigorates Underfinanced Superfund Program The Superfund program, established nearly 30 years ago to clean up the nation’s most contaminated industrial sites, has been underfinanced since a tax expired in 1995. Turtle Deformed After Being Trapped in a Six-Pack Plastic Ring A snapping turtle affectionately named Mae West suffered deformities from being trapped within a plastic ring. Fire an Overlooked Contributor to Climate Change Intentional deforestation fires alone contribute up to one-fifth of the human-caused increase in emissions of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that increases global temperature. ‘Angel’ and ‘Devil’ Parts of the Brain Battle for Supremacy People have “angel” and “devil” parts of the brain that are in constant battle over their self control a study has shown. Nuclear Tests Help to ID Fake Whisky Radioactive material is helping scientists to fight the multimillion pound trade in counterfeit antique malt whisky. Palm Oil Not a Healthy Substitute for Trans Fats Both trans fatty acids and saturated fatty acids are associated with elevated heart disease risk factors. No Natives Allowed Over the last century, the conservation movement has created some beautiful parks–and millions of refugees.
99 Days of Obama
On April 29, Barack Obama turns 100. Presidents sure do grow up fast. In many ways, the first 100 days are the most important time in a president’s career, perhaps due to the lopsided attention and arbitrary, question-begging importance bestowed upon them.
If you’re looking for 100-days coverage, you’re in the wrong place. Maybe Maury Povich is covering it, along with CNN, Fox, and Time. We at Owl and Bear would like to remember Obama in his double digits. 100 represents pre-millennial, base-ten, pre-hope/change thinking and is therefore hogwash. 99 is a progressive base-eleven-in-intervals-of-nine thought system, which is very now.
Plus, who knows what tomorrow may bring? (more…)
Bob Talks Barack
In anticipation of his surprise new album Together Through Life (out April 21), smart-crazy (crazy-smart?) coot Bob Dylan talks to the TimesOnline. In the interview, he touches upon Barack Obama, U.S. Grant, and Civil War ghosts, among other things.
Well, a number of things [have struck me about Obama]. He’s got an interesting background. He’s like a fictional character, but he’s real. First off, his mother was a Kansas girl. Never lived in Kansas though, but with deep roots. You know, like Kansas bloody Kansas. John Brown the insurrectionist. Jesse James and Quantrill. Bushwhackers, Guerillas. Wizard of Oz Kansas. I think Barack has Jefferson Davis back there in his ancestry someplace. And then his father. An African intellectual. Bantu, Masai, Griot type heritage–cattle raiders, lion killers. I mean it’s just so incongruous that these two people would meet and fall in love. You kind of get past that though. And then you’re into his story. Like an odyssey except in reverse.
Exactly?
Is It Possible to Be a Conscientious Meat Eater? (Links)
To Meet Asian Food Demand, U.S. Turtles are Harvested to Extinction: Surging demand for turtle meat in southeast Asia has prompted a huge jump in American turtle harvesting, leading to concerns that populations of the reptiles could suffer permanent damage. Is It Possible to Be a Conscientious Meat Eater? You may have noticed an onslaught of articles recently on what is being coined as the ‘new meat movement.’ Will Europe Unite To Fight Alien Invaders? Europe’s borders have been breached by thousands of plants and animal species from other parts of the world: from the American mink to the New Zealand flatworm. How Carbon Trading Hurts the Poor: Note to the Obama administration: Nearly every environmental justice group in the United States and abroad opposes carbon trading.
Have We Been Overlooking Our Home-Grown Terrorists?
Is the strange domestic terrorism case from Maine a part of a larger trend of increasingly violent expressions coming from the American far right since Barack Obama’s election? Rachel Maddow weighed in on this recently:
Should this guy have been [caught] before he died? And, post-9/11, have we focused too much on stopping Bin Laden again at the expense of potentially stopping the next Timothy McVeigh?
The Maine incident is only the latest in a long string of cases of serious domestic terrorism emerging from the extremist Right since 9/11. others. (more…)
Economist: Reduce Government Intervention to Save Money on Global Warming Solutions
How can we stop climate change without burning greenbacks in the process? The Economist says limit government intervention.
[Barack Obama] is right to want to cut emissions. The alternative, allowing climate change to take its course, would be far more damaging to America and the world.
The economic impact of rising sea levels, reduced crop yields, fiercer storms and many other doleful consequences would be devastating…But fighting climate change will be costly. It will involve swapping cheap but dirty fuels for cleaner but dearer ones, as Congress intends, as well as building lots of expensive new power plants to replace older, more polluting ones.
H/T Andy
Leaky Nuclear Facility Stirs Debate
During the 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain famously expressed his party’s take on nuclear safety:
“You know, the other night in the debate with [Barack] Obama, I said his eloquence is admirable, but pay attention to his words. We talk about offshore drilling and he said he would quote, consider, offshore drilling. We talked about nuclear power, well it has to be safe, environment, blah, blah, blah.”
Industry lobbyists have been calling nuclear safe, efficient, effective for years, but the truth is that they’re happier with McCain’s stance. When we can get past the first point, maybe environmentalists will start to warm to new nuclear plants—but until then, it’s the same old thing. The latest leaks have been in Canada, but it’s no different here in the States:
The nuclear research facility at Chalk River, Ontario, has gone through a particularly bad patch. There have been three leaks at the facility since December.
On Wednesday, Michael Binder, who heads Canada’s nuclear regulatory agency, told a Parliamentary committee that he was surprised by the public and media interest in the leaks, which although small, included radioactive material.
[NYT]
