Clipmarks | tabsey's Comments

'Toxic waste' behind Somali piracy

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:05:48 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Won't read about this in too many mainstream rags.

Somali pirates have accused European firms of dumping toxic waste off the Somali coast and are demanding an $8m ransom for the return of a Ukranian ship they captured, saying the money will go towards cleaning up the waste.

The ransom demand is a means of "reacting to the toxic waste that has been continually dumped on the shores of our country for nearly 20 years", Januna Ali Jama, a spokesman for the pirates, based in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, said.

"The Somali coastline has been destroyed, and we believe this money is nothing compared to the devastation that we have seen on the seas."

The pirates are holding the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and military hardware, off Somalia's northern coast.

According to the International Maritime Bureau, 61 attacks by pirates have been reported since the start of the year.

Dumping allegations

Tags: pollution

Jews Protect Palestinians in Harvest of Hate

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:15:19 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: It is always good to find examples of Godliness and humanity beneath the global hurricane of violent hatred, vicious condemnation, shrill hysteria and poisonous anger.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

In the shade of the trees where they have been picking olives all morning, in this wadi, south-east of Nablus, a Palestinian farmer, Jamal Otman Koarik, and two of his daughters share a lunch of home-baked bread, zatar, oil, courgettes and salad with three visitors. It's a bucolic scene that could have happened any time in the past century. But what makes it notable in 2008 is that the guests who have been helping Mr Koarik pick the olives are Israeli Jews: a rabbi, an anthropologist and a youth worker, Hellela Siew.

Asked why he and his volunteers make this often risky mission each year, the US-born rabbi says "if we really believe" the Biblical text that all human beings are made in God's image, "we have got to put our money where our mouth is and be here in an active way to defend human rights". And he also cites the "dialogue of the olive groves" in which Israelis and Palestinians who "have to live and die here together" have "no choice but to communicate"

Tags: palestine-israel

Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis'

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:33:55 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc
clipper's remarks: It's only money, could be worse, we could lose our planet.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study.

The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide

"It's not only greater but it's also continuous, it's been happening every year, year after year," he told BBC News.

"So whereas Wall Street by various calculations has to date lost, within the financial sector, $1-$1.5 trillion, the reality is that at today's rate we are losing natural capital at least between $2-$5 trillion every year."

The greatest cost to western nations would initially come through losing a natural absorber of the most important greenhouse gas.

A number of nations, businesses and global organisations are beginning to direct funds into forest conservation, and there are signs of a trade in natural ecosystems developing, analogous to the carbon trade,

Bill Maher's Religulous

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:18:12 GMT

clipped by: keith0718

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

Of course, Maher never pauses to consider what heading in the direction of an irreligious society might mean. If you apply Maher’s logic, one could note that Stalin, Mao, and Hitler were far and away the most murderous tyrants in history and their societies were correspondingly totalitarian and hostile to religion. Nor does he contemplate or address in any meaningful way the societal good religion is responsible for, as anyone who has ever had need of a hospital can testify to.

Oral sex

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 04:08:41 GMT

clipped by: dakotayii
clipper's remarks: "Well," Grandpa said, "She goes to bed in her bedroom, and I go to bed in my bedroom ... And she yells, 'Fuck You!!!!!' and I holler back, 'Fuck You too.' "

Clip Source: losangeles.craigslist.org

A young fellow was about to be married and was asking his grandfather about sex. He asked how often you should have it.

His grandfather told him that when you first get married, you want it all the time ...and maybe do it several times a day.

Later on, sex tapers off and you have it once a week or so.

Then as you get older, you have sex maybe once a month. When you get really old, you are lucky to have it once a year..... maybe on your anniversary.

The young fellow then asked his grandfather, "Well how about you and Grandma now?"

His grandfather replied, "Oh, we just have oral sex now."

"What's oral sex?" the young fellow asked.

Tags: jokes

McCain Campaign Sends Out Fake Absentee Ballots

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:33:16 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks: FLORIDA, IOWA, NORTH CAROLINA, OHIO, OREGON, MINNESOTA, MISSOURI, PENNSYLVANIA, VIRGINIA, WISCONSIN

Clip Source: www.ickypeople.com

The McCain campaign and the Republican Party continue to prove they are not interested in doing what is best for the country. Instead they are increasing their tactics to actually try and prevent American citizens from voting this November.

The latest illegal, and let me emphasis that, illegal tactic, is mailing out applications for absentee ballots to registered Democrat voters at least 10 states. The ballots the McCain campaign are mailing out in every state contain at least one error meant to disqualify the voter when the application is submitted. The McCain camp say they have sent out over 1 million applications in Ohio alone.

Voters in the following states should be on the lookout for the phony ballots sent by McCain: Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The phony ballots could show up anywhere, so please let your friends and family, especially older members, know to throw the ballots in the garbage.

It's Called Hubris

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:13:50 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — George W. Bush began his presidency with the worst terrorist attack on American soil and he is ending it with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. In between, he confronted a hurricane that nearly wiped New Orleans off the map as his administration showed ineptitude in its response.

Now, as he spends his last months in office trying to avert a global economic collapse, Mr. Bush has been telling people privately that it’s a good thing he’s in charge.

Mr. Bush has always been confident of himself, even when the American public was not, and that has not changed. Just as he is convinced he did the right thing in Iraq, he is convinced he is doing the right thing on the economy — despite job approval ratings at historic lows and a presidential campaign in which both candidates have used him as kind of a battering ram.

WWIII?

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:19:07 GMT

clipped by: JackieDel

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

October 12, 2008

Warning signs of an Israeli strike on Iran

David Owen

David Owen was foreign secretary from 1977 to 1979

Some key decision makers in Israel fear that unless they attack Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities in the next few months, while George W Bush is still president, there will not be another period when they can rely on the United States as being anywhere near as supportive in the aftermath of a unilateral attack.

In the past 40 years there have been few occasions when I have been more concerned about a specific conflict escalating to involve, economically, the whole world. We are watching a disinformation exercise involving a number of intelligence services. Reality is becoming ever harder to disentangle.

Tags: usa, foreign policy, war, israel, iran

Palin and Her Followers are frightening

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:29:15 GMT

clipped by: oscarrob
clipper's remarks: I think that says that you abused your power, if I read correctly.

This kind of parsing of words is disingenuous in the extreme. It is also either arrogant or stupid to suggest someone read the report knowing they will find Finding Number One. It is hard to believe that John McCain can be trusted with anything if he is suggesting that we should trust Sarah Palin.

Someone who abuses her power by using it to further her personal ends in the context of her sister’s nasty divorce, and sees nothing wrong with it, frightens me. Its like the Mafia, don’t cross a family member, your livelihood and your reputation could be in danger. But then, this is what frightened me about the Bush/Cheney Texas Mafia, so I guess I’m just a weenie.

Clip Source: aplagueonbothyourhouses.typepad.com

Had Bill Clinton violated and ethics law no matter how obscure or parsed words about it there would be impeachment proceedings. Ooops, he did and there were. Yet the reaction of the same people who supported impeachment of Clinton say about Palin and her husband “I would have done the same,” or “She didn’t do anything,” or some other excuse. And what does Palin do? According to MSNBC:

“After the results of the investigation were released, Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, was asked by a reporter if she abused her power as governor. She replied, "No, and if you read the report you'll see that there was nothing unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member. You gotta read the report, sir.”

technically what you say is true, but if somebody really reads the report as you suggest they will find “Finding Number One” on page 8 which says “I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.”

Tags: palin, politics, ethics, alaska, mccain, obama, clinton

Why polls are underestimating Obama's chances

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:23:43 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Ezra Klein posts correspondence with Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels about why current polls are underestimating the support Obama will receive in the election.

Clip Source: www.prospect.org

First, there is a fairly strong tendency for late shifts in preferences to favor the incumbent party when the economy is strong and the out-party when the economy is weak; that makes Sen. Obama's position stronger than it looks in current polls.

Second,

given the pattern of new registrations and the apparent strength of the two campaigns' voter mobilization efforts, Sen. Obama seems more likely to benefit than to lose support from unexpected turnout.

Third, the possibility that undecided white voters may, in the end, be unable to bring themselves to vote for Sen. Obama on racial grounds makes his position somewhat more precarious than it would otherwise be. It is very difficult to estimate the importance of the racial factor (that is, the extent to which racial antipathy is not already reflected in current polls), but my guess is that this is less important than the other two factors, both of which seem likely to work in Sen. Obama's favor.

Tags: ezra klein, barack obama, john mccain, larry bartels, survey, poll, polls, elections

Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:14:15 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: The students with the motivation to improve themselves are usually too poor to stay at school, those who can stay have to cope with peer pressure and the children of the rich aim to be celebrities. The overall outcome of the deliberate neglect of education will be to decimate the middle class.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.

The study suggests that while many girls have exceptional talent in math — the talent to become top math researchers, scientists and engineers — they are rarely identified in the United States. A major reason, according to the study, is that American culture does not highly value talent in math, and so discourages girls — and boys, for that matter — from excelling in the field. The study will be published Friday in Notices of the American Mathematical Society.

“We’re living in a culture that is telling girls you can’t do math — that’s telling everybody that only Asians and nerds do math,” said the study’s lead author, Janet E. Mertz,

For social reasons they’re not even trying.”

Tags: education

Breaking News!!!

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:37:47 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Oh, really?

Clip Source: img374.imageshack.us

Our most precious resource SAVE IT

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:55:40 GMT

clipped by: Iwtliywtm

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

In food crisis, Cuba limits sales so all can eat

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:26:17 GMT

clipped by: Lexica
clipper's remarks: It would seem obvious: better to have everybody be a little bit hungry than to have some people well-fed while others are starving.

When it comes to food policy, there's a lot we could learn from Cuba.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Cuba is limiting how much basic fruits and vegetables people can buy at farmers' markets, irritating some customers but ensuring there's enough — barely — to go around.

The lines are long and some foods are scarce, but because the government has maintained and even increased rations in some areas, Cubans who initially worried about getting enough to eat now seem confident they won't go hungry despite the destruction of 30 percent of the island's crops by hurricanes Gustav and Ike last month.

"Of the little there is, there is some for everyone," 65-year-old Mercedes Grimau said as queued up behind more than 50 people to buy lettuce, limited to two pounds per person.

The government is delivering all items distributed each month on the universal ration that provides Cubans with up to two weeks of food — including eggs, beans, rice and potatoes — at very low cost. In some hard-hit provinces, extra food has been added.

top challenge is to increase local production of fruits and vegetables

Tags: food, produce, culture, community, altruism, policy, government, rationing, cuba, disasters

Bush Denounces 'Dungeon' of Cuba

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 07:52:25 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: You'd think Bush was speaking of his own dictatorial reign, eh? "Our great nation that believes in human rights and human dignity, blah, blah, blah..." Hahahaha! What a joke! Tell that to the people of Iraq or Afghanistan or the people wasting away in Gitmo! I'd bet Castro's popularity ratings are higher than yours!

Bush, why don't you just STFU? Fix your own country, who is "being repressed by a handful of elites" first, before trying to impose your twisted version of "freedom", on everyone else!

Lift the embargo. The age of the red scare is dead and gone. It's the red, white and blue scare, most of the world is concerned about these days...SIR!

Clip Source: rawstory.com

Bush denounces 'dungeon' of Cuba

Calling Cuba a "dungeon" off US shores, US President George W. Bush said Friday that the US economic embargo would remain in place until Havana fully embraces democratic reforms.

"It's so sad that right off the shores of our great nation that believes in human rights and human dignity exists this dungeon. But someday Cuba will be free," Bush told an audience of Cuban-Americans.

Bush has said the US embargo in place since 1962 must only be lifted after Cuba allows unfettered freedom of speech, frees political prisoners, and holds free and fair elections.

"Until then we won't change, because our message is to the Cuban people, you're being repressed by a handful of elites that are holding back your great potential," he said Friday.

the Castro people are only interested in themselves and their power, and not to the benefit and welfare of the Cuban people," said the US president.

Cuba

urged Washington

to open private lines of credit for food import

And Bush

rejected.