Clipmarks | zizzy's clips

H.R. 5994: Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2008

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 11:16:02 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks: What you can do to help protect net neutrality. Support this bill. Contact your congressperson and tell them to vote yes on this bill.

Clip Source: www.govtrack.us

Bill Status

Introduced:May 8, 2008Sponsor:Rep. John Conyers [D-MI]Status:IntroducedGo to Bill Status Page

Introduced in House: This is the original text of the bill as it was written by its sponsor and submitted to the House for consideration.

To amend the Clayton Act with respect to competitive and nondiscriminatory access to the Internet.

`DISCRIMINATION BY BROADBAND NETWORK PROVIDERS

`Sec. 28. (a) It shall be unlawful for any broadband network provider--

(1) to fail to provide its broadband network services on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms

(3)(A) to block, to impair, to discriminate against, or to interfere with the ability of any person to use a broadband network service to access, to use, to send, to receive, or to offer lawful content, applications or services

`(B) to impose an additional charge to avoid any conduct that is prohibited by this subsection;

Virginia Churches Fight Over Church Property

Sun, 25 May 2008 07:29:06 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks:

Keep your eye on this one. What's at stake here is the ability of schismatic congregations (or dioceses) to walk away from their denominations and keep their property, in contravention of canon law. That's no small concern, particularly in high-rent districts like Northern Virginia. If the ruling goes against the denominations, we could see Akinola and his creepy buddies breaking up churches all over the place.

I think the law here should be clear: civil courts don't get involved in ecclesial disputes. The schismatics should live with the consequences of their actions.

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=10500

I find this interesting because of the schism between liberal and conservative Episcopalians over the acceptance of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. That is what led to the split and now they are fighting over property. Peter Jasper Akinola is the Anglican Primate of the Church of Nigeria.

Clip Source: www.streetprophets.com

The post-Civil War splintering of Methodist and Presbyterian churches in 1867 prompted the Virginia law, which allows congregations to keep their property when seceding from a church or "religious society" that's dividing.

This spring, however, the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA), two of the largest U.S. mainline Protestant denominations, say the law is unconstitutional.

On Friday, a judge in Fairfax County, Va., ruled that the UMC, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the Worldwide Church of God may participate in oral arguments May 28 to assess the law's constitutionality.

The amicus curiae brief is a sign of how closely Protestants are following the multimillion-dollar battle between the Episcopal Church and 11 conservative congregations that left to join a branch of the Anglical Church of Nigeria.

The Family: The Hidden Christian Fundamentalist Power in the U.S.

Sat, 24 May 2008 11:16:46 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks: A journalist's penetrating look at the untold story of christian fundamentalism's most elite organization, a self-described invisible network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful

They are the Family—fundamentalism's avant-garde, waging spiritual war in the halls of American power and around the globe. They consider themselves the new chosen—congressmen, generals, and foreign dictators who meet in confidential cells, to pray and plan for a "leadership led by God," to be won not by force but through "quiet diplomacy." Their base is a leafy estate overlooking the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, and Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have reported from inside its walls.

Clip Source: harpercollins.com

The Family is about the other half of American fundamentalist power—not its angry masses, but its sophisticated elites. Sharlet follows the story back to Abraham Vereide, an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the far right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a "family" that thrives to this day. In public, they host Prayer Breakfasts; in private, they preach a gospel of "biblical capitalism," military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao as leadership models, the Family's current leader, Doug Coe, declares, "We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."

Pat Buchanan 1971 memo: Use Abortion to Split Catholics, Social Liberals

Sat, 24 May 2008 06:37:24 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks:

The Nixon White House didn’t enact all of these recommendations, but it would be hard to find a more succinct and unapologetic blueprint for Republican success in the conservative era. “Positive polarization” helped the Republicans win one election after another—and insured that American politics would be an ugly, unredeemed business for decades to come.

A strategy that has been very effective, using the citizens of the country as pawns in their power game. Pretending to care about abortion, taxes and welfare - when they could actually care less. As with race, those issues elicit highly emotional responses and well reasoned arguments will not work because of anti-intellectualism fostered by an elite. And the game is still open and the pawns are still playing. Imagine that.

Clip Source: www.streetprophets.com

Drawn up with an acute understanding of the fragilities and fault lines in “the Old Roosevelt Coalition,” it recommended that the White House “exacerbate the ideological division” between the Old and New Left by praising Democrats who supported any of Nixon’s policies; highlight “the elitism and quasi-anti-Americanism of the National Democratic Party”; nominate for the Supreme Court a Southern strict constructionist who would divide Democrats regionally; use abortion and parochial-school aid to deepen the split between Catholics and social liberals; elicit white working-class support with tax relief and denunciations of welfare

We should do what is within our power to have a black nominated for Number Two, at least at the Democratic National Convention.” Such gambits, he added, could “cut the Democratic Party and country in half; my view is that we would have far the larger half.”

New Yorker essay by George Packer:

Obama Adopted as Honorary Member of Crow Tribe

Thu, 22 May 2008 03:54:55 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks:

He is the very first candidate who has taken an interest in American Indian issues and visited an Indian Reservation for a campaign rally.

Incredible! And yet another reason to vote for Obama.

Watch flash presentation of the rally at the official site of the Crow Tribe Apsaalooke Nation website www.crowtribe.com

Clip Source: www.theunapologeticmexican.org

Clip Source: www.crowtribe.com

A historical event occurred in Indian Country!

On May, 19 2008, Senator Barack Obama a Democratic presidential candidate visited and campaigned in the Crow Reservation. He is the very first candidate who has taken an interest in American Indian issues and visited an Indian Reservation for a campaign rally. Senator Barack Obama was immediately "adopted" into the Crow Nation by Hartford "Sonny" and Mary Black Eagle. He was given a Crow name by Hartford "Sonny" Black Eagle. His name pronounced in Crow is Awe Kooda bilaxpak Kuuxshish, which means "one who helps people throughout the land." Barack's Clan is of the Whistling Water and child of the Newly Made Lodge. He was also presented with several gifts from the wives of the Executive Officials. The gifts included a beaded medallion for his wife and miniature beaded buckskin cradle boards and purses for his two daughters.

The Return of the Chastity Belt

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:46:22 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks:
"It [this measure] doesn't prevent customers asking for oral sex or masturbation for instance"

Estu Fanani is in charge of a local women’s rights NGO, “LBH APIK”.

The decision by Batu officials is a very bad one. It reduces the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace to only one part of the female body - the vagina. If the Batu authorities really want to protect their female therapists, why don’t they ask massage parlours to install video cameras or create open spaces? Then they would have evidence in order to be able to punish the men rather than the women. This decision is very hypocritical. It doesn’t prevent customers asking for oral sex or masturbation for instance. And what if these women have to go to the bathroom urgently? It could be dangerous for their health."

Clip Source: observers.france24.com

Photo: AFP (we didn't manage to find an amateur image of the trouser padlock)

A belt with lock and key is the newest accessory in some Indonesian massage parlours. But it’s not out of choice that the masseuses don these chastity belts.

Drummed up by the local authorities of Batu, a tourist resort to the east of Java, this stern measure was hoped to prevent prostitution and keep up local appearances. Despite strong criticism from Meutia Fardia Hatta Swasono, minister for women’s rights, the new measure could even be on its way to the capital. Indeed, according to the Jakarta post, the city’s tourism agency is now thinking of following’s in Batu’s footsteps.

A safe sex certificate displayed at a karaoke lounge in Jakarta attesting that its employees have no sexually transmitted infections. Photo: Dyssia Hayat.

First Lady of the United States

Tue, 20 May 2008 05:36:44 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks: Let it be, let it be, let it be ...

Clip Source: culturekitchen.com

Quoted: The Foo Fighters

Sat, 17 May 2008 04:37:04 GMT

clipped by: zizzy

Clip Source: www.racialicious.com

As taken from the Foo Fighters tour rider:

I guess they mean business.

Other items:

10 Books That Screwed Up The World

Sat, 17 May 2008 03:20:41 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks: I agree with most of this list, the rest I have no opinion because I haven't read the books. My curiosity has been piqued enough to read them and found out. Read the article to learn beyond the summaries why these books (and by extension, their authors) are considered to be so harmful.

Clip Source: listverse.com

Malleus Maleficarum

Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, 1486

On the list because: It inflamed witch hunts across Europe

Coming of Age in Samoa

Margaret Mead, 1928

turned out to be a creation of her own sexual confusions and aspirations

The Prince

Niccolò Machiavelli, 1532

the inspiration for a long list of tyrannies (Stalin had it on his nightstand)

Mein Kampf

Adolf Hitler, 1925

helped spread Hitler’s genocidal anti-Semitism

The Pivot of Civilization

Margaret Sanger, 1922

preaches eugenics

Democracy and Education

John Dewey, 1916

convinced the world that education is not about facts

Baby and Childcare

Benjamin Spock, 1946

caused deaths through bad advice

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Unknown

a propaganda book designed to incite racial hatred

The Manifesto of the Communist Party

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1848

could win the award for the most malicious book ever written

Darwin’s Black Box

Michael Behe, 1996

fuels fundamentalist attacks on Science

NRA Finds Huckabee's Obama Joke Not Funny

Sat, 17 May 2008 01:11:46 GMT

clipped by: zizzy

Clip Source: blog.washingtonpost.com

Mike Huckabee's joke at the National Rifle Association convention Friday was a dud

Appearing in front of about 6,000 gun rights activists, Huckabee's speech was interrupted by a loud noise. The former Arkansas governor said, "That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he -- he dove for the floor."

The comment was immediately noted on news websites and by bloggers who found the crack about Obama getting shot at inappropriate. Obama's campaign had no comment, as it was engaged in a heated back-and-forth with both President Bush and Sen. John McCain -- the presumptive Republican nominee -- over Obama's fitness to be commander

in chief

Huckabee provided most of the humor in the 2008 Republican primaries, cracking jokes during several of the debates. He won the Iowa caucuses but failed to reach far beyond the evangelical community in states after that.

Elle Degeneres Announces Plans to Marry Portia de Rossi

Fri, 16 May 2008 22:50:31 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks: Video of announcement onsite.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Ellen DeGeneres is putting the California Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage into action _ she and Portia de Rossi plan to wed, DeGeneres announced during a taping of her talk show

DeGeneres and the glamorous de Rossi have been a familiar couple at Hollywood events, including the Academy Award

In a 2005 interview with Allure magazine, the comedian said she hoped she and de Rossi are "together the rest of our lives."

"I never would have thought my life would have turned out this way," DeGeneres told the magazine. "To have money. Or to have a gorgeous girlfriend. I just feel so lucky with everything in my life right now."

News Alert:Schools need separate bathrooms for gay students

Fri, 16 May 2008 14:41:46 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks: The priceless response to Mr. Bayes video presentation at IdahoStatesman.com

I say go ahead, that would be great to have separate bathrooms for all homosexuals and gays, since Walt wants to bring back separate but equal I will gladly use the homosexual bathroom, provided at great expense by all universities, restaraunts, department stores, gas stations, yes millions of dollars worth of totally unnecessary bathrooms so that nobody will look at Mr. Bayes while he's urinating. I assure you the homosexual men will have much cleaner nicer and flowery smelling bathrooms, that are used one tenth as much as the hetrosexual bathrooms you so crave.

The Video: http://videos.idahostatesman.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=1839114

Clip Source: www.idahopress.com

TREASURE VALLEY — Homosexual and heterosexual students should have separate bathrooms and showers in Idaho schools, a Wilder Republican running for the Idaho House said Friday.

Bayes said that when he was 18 it would have been “an absolute catastrophe” for him to have showered with girls. But he said he wasn’t completely sure how the issue of homosexuals and heterosexuals using the same facilities in schools should be addressed.

“I don’t really have an answer for it, but we’re going to have to do something if there’s going to be a considerable number of our people who are going to go that way (homosexual),” Bayes said. “We’re going to (need) some kind of separation.”

Also on agenda

Wolves should be killed wherever they endanger livestock, game, pets or people. Bayes said he shot a wolf that was chasing his deer. “To me it was legal because the (Idaho) Constitutional says I have a right to protect my property,” Bayes said. He said officials decided not to prosecute him.

3 Enterprising Youths Recycle Corpse Head To Make Bong

Fri, 16 May 2008 14:25:10 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks:

Little is known about the graveyard. The Humble Bicentennial Museum could not confirm that it was reserved for black veterans, but Adkins said he observed "many, many headstones" for black soldiers killed during World War I and World War II.

Clip Source: www.chron.com

The Kingwood teenager's story of decapitating a corpse and using the head to smoke marijuana was so outlandish that at first Houston Police Department senior police officer Jim Adkins did not believe it.

Kevin Wade Jones Jr., 17, appeared almost indifferent as he relayed the bizarre description of his and two friends' activities at an Humble area graveyard

Jones claimed he and his friends used shovels to dig up the body and removed the corpse's head with a garden tool, Adkins said. Jones also revealed he and the other two boys took the severed head to the juvenile's home, where they used the skull as a "bong" to smoke marijuana, the officer said.

Little is known about the graveyard. The Humble Bicentennial Museum could not confirm that it was reserved for black veterans, but Adkins said he observed "many, many headstones" for black soldiers killed during World War I and World War II.

The three boys, all home-schooled

The State of Florida: Magic Trick Costs Teacher Job

Fri, 16 May 2008 14:09:16 GMT

clipped by: zizzy

Clip Source: www.tampabays10.com

Well, another Pasco County substitute teacher's job is on the line, but this time it's because of a magic trick.

The charge from the school district — Wizardry!

Substitute teacher Jim Piculas does a 30-second magic trick where a toothpick disappears then reappears.

But after performing it in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land O' Lakes, Piculas said his job did a disappearing act of its own.

"I get a call the middle of the day from the supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, 'Jim, we have a huge issue. You can't take any more assignments. You need to come in right away,'" he said.

When Piculas went in, he learned his little magic trick cast a spell that went much farther than he'd hoped.

"I said, 'Well Pat, can you explain this to me?' 'You've been accused of wizardry,' [he said]. Wizardry?" he asked.

After the magic trick, Rushe's principal requested Piculas be dismissed. Now, Piculas believes the incident may have bewitched his ability to get a job anywhere else.

iRobot and TASER Alliance: Promo Video

Fri, 16 May 2008 13:46:56 GMT

clipped by: zizzy

Clip Source: www.irobot.com

iRobot and TASER together have developed a working proof-of-concept model – iRobot® PackBot Explorer™ with TASER X26 device – to showcase the first robot of its kind with an on-board, integrated TASER payload

Clip Source: patriotboy.blogspot.com

[Video]