For you global warming skeptics out there...

Strong evidence for global warming exists in the diminishing ice packs of the planet's poles. This article describes a study of the Arctic Ice Sheet via satellite:

GREENBELT, MD. -- The vast expanses of ice floating in the Arctic Sea are shrinking in winter as well as summer, most likely a result of global warming, NASA scientists said today.

...

link: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/13/MNGR3L509T9.DTL&type=science

Plug in an url in The Wayback Machine and you may be able to look at past archived versions of the site. This can be a great research tool.

For instance, I checked through archives of the Nazi Bill White's site and found that only a few years back he stated that he had
"extensive involvement in street-level anti-racist activism". (Jan 18, 2001)

More, more, more! Luv those caimans.

Semi-intrigued by caiman talk: sometimes funny, sometimes just stupid.

Caimans? Bored now.

from Raw Story:
John Byrne
Published: Friday September 15, 2006

Exclusive: Republican shortlisted to be Bush's Vice President to lay out most explicit case for gay rights; Blasts Frist, GOP handling of Schiavo case

The former Missouri senator shortlisted to be then-Governor Bush's running mate in the 2000 presidential election -- said to have been second choice only to Vice President Cheney -- will come out vehemently against administration and Congressional Republican policy in a book to be published next week., according to an advance copy obtained by RAW STORY.

John Danforth, who retired in 1995 after four terms in the Senate, briefly served as Bush's ambassador to the United Nations but resigned after Condoleezza Rice was tapped to be Secretary of State. According to CNN, he was second on the list of Bush's potential vice presidential choices in 2000.

In Faith and Politics, to be released Tuesday, Danforth blasts the alignment of the Republican Party with the Christian right, lays out his most aggressive pro-gay stance to date and attacks the handling of the Terri Schiavo case.

Some people have asked me whether America is a Christian country. The answer must be no, for to call this a Christian country is to say that non-Christians are of some lesser order, not full fledged citizens of one nation." Danforth is himself an ordained Episcopal minister. Danforth calls the Terri Schiavo case -- where Congress intervened to attempt to keep a severely brain-damaged woman from being taken off life support -- "Big Brotherism."

"That the federal government could intervene in the Schiavo case was a threat to all the families that had seen their loved ones suffer through terminal illness," he writes.

It was a threat to people who were terrified that their own lives might someday be artificially extended in nightmarish circumstances. It was a threat to some of our most heartfelt values. It was Big Brotherism in the extreme, an exercise of the raw and awesome power of the federal government.

Originally posted on What This Town Needs

We have choices about how to approach problems in our community. We can look at a thing like crime or homelessness (problems not as synonymous as people think)and decide to place responsibility for it on those responsible. No one can tell you not to blame the guilty, if you want to take that upon yourself. But how do you determine, for instance, who is responsible with regard to homelessness? Many believe that the individual is responsible for their own circumstances, however difficult. I guess I believe that too, on some level. I've seen people be unreasonably decent as often as I've seen the opposite, and I can only chalk it up to free will. But if you spend much time working with homeless people trying to get off the streets, you find that many of them are stuck in catch-22s. For instance: the state has determined that they are unable to work due to a serious disability, but their monthly disbility income is less than $400 per month, and there is no subsidized housing available.

Or they have been clean from drugs for a year and a half, are attempting to regain custody of their children and right those they have wronged, and a felony drug charge keeps them from getting a job, getting into any apartment in town, or going to school.

Or they are so traumatized from war or abuse, and have been repeatedly retraumatized on the streets, that they have lost all sense of common reality and cannot recognize a single ally in their life. Maybe it seems like they need to just get over it. I have found it very hard to say that to someone who was raped by their parent as a child, or who has seen other humans blown apart in war. I just don't know what it is to live in the aftermath of something like that.

I can no longer approach human beings as either responsible or not. I have had the privilege to know many bad people. Bad people have changed me. I have known and cared about people who were meth dealers, sex offenders, child abusers, schizophrenics, junkies, and "homeless-by-choice".

Read more...

This story keeps dancing around in my mind, so it is time to write something about it.

A Fourth Avenue merchant's call to police Thursday did nothing to stop Jasun "Thor" Easley from standing on the sidewalk at rush hour with a sign encouraging passers-by to "smile if u masterbate."

Easley said he doesn't intend to hurt or offend anyone with his sign. Those who are offended don't have to read it, he said. If children walk by, he said he turns the sign over so it's not facing them.

Easley, 31, said he collects $15 to $20 a day by offering jokes - people have the choice of either "offensive" or "nonoffensive" jokes - to passing pedestrians in exchange for spare change.
"I try to make people laugh," he said. "I try to brighten up their day."

Read the rest of the story for details. I don't know the man in question myself but I did have a positive interaction with him recently, he told a good joke in exchange for my change. He is a skilled storyteller.

Why couldn't the folks who are disturbed by his sign invite him out for a meal and conversation? He is quoted as saying that he hopes to find a job so he can eventually rent an apartment, why not help make that happen?

........know where your spinach is from.



Spinach dumped

Popeye & spinach

Tonight, Saturday, September 16th and tomorrow, Sunday, September 17th at 8 p.m. there is a really innovative and interesting, updated adaptation of Chekhov's play "Three Sisters" occurring at the Midnight Sun.  Admission is $5.00.  Just three actors play all the roles, which makes for some amusing confusion, and there are some post-modern interjections of anachronistic video and still images, music and cultural allusions that are quite clever.  Don't miss it!

[From YouTube] This was our attempt at making a trailer for the 17th Annual Olympia Film Festival using 16mm film. We learned a lot making this project but had a lot of fun making it.

Here's another one.