Clipmarks | Certainty Clips

Bush Has Been a Destructive President

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:49:28 GMT

clipped by: oscarrob
clipper's remarks: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I honestly believe that, as Biden said, you shouldn't question Bush's motives. The results, however have been destructive. Not only the policies but the attitude of superiority and entitlement that Bush brought has spilled over into so much of our lives that the destruction he has wrought will be felt for a very long time.

Clip Source: www.boston.com

Eight years ago, the United States had a budget surplus, peace and prosperity reigned, and America was universally respected. True, Bill Clinton had besmirched the office of the presidency

But that pales in comparison to what Bush has done to the country.

"I will seize the opportunity to achieve big goals," Bush told Bob Woodward back in 2001. But now, in his fourth book on the Bush presidency, "The War Within," Woodward concludes that in the last eight years Bush has "displayed impatience, bravado, and unsettling personal certainty about his decisions. The result has too often been impulsiveness and carelessness, and, perhaps most troubling, a delayed reaction to realities and advice that run counter to his gut. . . . By his own ambitious goals of 2001, Bush has fallen short."

When you think of Bush and his team, it's hard to believe so much harm could be done to so many by so few.

Tags: bush, politics, presidency

Religion: why do people believe in God?

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:41:46 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Religion: why do people believe in God?

For all of us, life is full of uncertainties and difficulties, and it ends in death. Every religion claims to overcome death, to provide certainty, and reward us for being good. So great is our fear of life and death that most of us allow hope to override our intellect.

A sense of justice leads us to choose standards, and in doing so we condemn ourselves to living this life in terms of the next. If you set standards which you can easily reach, you limit the amount of self-inflicted pain you will suffer, but if you acquire, say, a Calvinist conscience you set yourself impossible standards, and berate yourself for your constant failure to live up to them.

No religion accepts us as the person we know ourselves to be. Rather, we are told that we are inadequate, unsatisfactory and helpless. We fear that this is so, and to give us hope we, like Ella, construct a fantasy about how we are superior to those who do not share our views.

Tags: religion, god, belief

They Only Want To Do What's Good For Us ... ?

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 21:54:24 GMT

clipped by: gmentgen
clipper's remarks: Thoreau had it right:
"If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good," he wrote, "I should run for my life."

Clip Source: www.chicagotribune.com

The case against a federal bailout

What they prescribe is for the federal government to buy $700 billion worth of lousy assets from banks and other lenders, exposing taxpayers to a potentially crushing liability. This plan would nationalize the money-losing part of the financial sector, to the benefit of capitalists who have made spectacularly bad decisions—fostering more bad decisions in the future.

It would add to the liabilities of a government that is already living way beyond its means.

Nor is there any guarantee the plan would work.

If banks really need to get rid of this junk paper, they could have unloaded it before now.

Paulson and Bernanke say, and probably believe, that their program is for the good of us all. But remember what Thoreau thought of their 19th Century counterparts. "If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good," he wrote, "I should run for my life."

Tags: bailout

Your brain and Einstein's brain

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:35:50 GMT

clipped by: kazz67

Clip Source: www.dissidentvoice.org

The paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould was once asked a silly question about the biological difference between Einstein’s brain and the rest of our brains. His answer, however, is relevant now. He said: “I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.”

Stop Paulson's Plunder

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:25:55 GMT

clipped by: boniface

Clip Source: www.democrats.com

George Bush wants taxpayers to give Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson a $700 billion blank check - $2,333 for every man, woman, and child - to bail out Wall Street for its reckless speculation and greed. That's on top of $1.1 trillion for Bush's other recent bailouts, including A.I.G., Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Bear Stearns.

The Paulson Plan is a total outrage with no restrictions, no accountability, and no repair of the underlying problem of foreclosures on fraudulent mortgages. Each of Bush's previous bailouts was sold as a cure for the financial crisis, but each had little effect. The Paulson Plan achieves only one goal with certainty: stealing from the middle class to protect the rich.

Congress must reject Paulson's Plunder and enact a plan with these progressive principles from the Backbone Campaign:

The people who caused the problem or profited most should pay for it

Re-regulate to prevent this from happening again

Church apologises to Charles Darwin over theory of evolution

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:34:21 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: But Dr Brown says everyone makes mistakes, the church included.

"When a big new idea emerges that changes the way people look at the world, it's easy to feel that every old idea, every certainty, is under attack and then to do battle against the new insights,'' he writes.

Clip Source: www.news.com.au

THE Church of England will make an official apology to naturalist Charles Darwin for criticising his famous theory of evolution

Coming 126 years after his death, the church's apology will focus on how wrong it was for senior bishops in the past to misunderstand and attack Darwin's theory about man being descended from apes.

"Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth (in 1809), the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still,'' the article says, according to extracts printed by The Mail on Sunday newspaper.

But the apology by Dr Brown, who is the director of mission and public affairs of the Archbishops' Council, has been dismissed as "pointless'' by Darwin's great great grandson Andrew Darwin.

Senior church officials will post the apology in the form of an article written by the Reverend Dr Malcolm Brown on the church's website tomorrow.

Tags: evolution, religion

The second enlightenment project

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:29:00 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: just discovered and exploring

Clip Source: www.2enlightenment.com

The following table suggests an evolution of key principles of how society has been organized in the Industrial Age and how we expect these principles to morph as society becomes more complex, integrated and constantly changing. These undergird the basis for the idea of a need for a Second Enlightenment.

Independent

(Either/Or)

Interdependent

(And/Both) Systemic

Self-interest

Help
Each Other Succeed

Concomitant

Good Linear
Thinking Connective
Thinking Synthesis
& Generation Static
Structures Modules,
Webs and Networks Dynamic
Adaptability Reductionism
Holism Connective
Analysis Standard
Education and Accountability Unlearning,
Uplearning and Non-Linear Transformative
Learning

Meaning
from Materialism
Meaning from Creativity/Spiritualism Balance
of Values Competition
Collaboration Generative
Development Prediction
and Certainty Anticipation
and Ambiguity Parallel

Strategic and

Ecological

Planning

Tags: second enlightenment

GOP strategy: ditch issues, stir up anger at "them"

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:49:06 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: It's how you get "working class voters to vote against their own interests." It was also the strategy of Nixon/Agnew and patrician (but feigned folkster) GW Bush. And now, Sarah Palin takes the job.

Clip Source: sage

Obama challenges America to ask questions and assume personal responsibility. Palin, much like McCain, preaches certainty. And while Obama speaks to "the angels of our better selves," Palin uses sarcasm and anger at "them" - the "elites" and others who have abandoned "us" and threatened "our" way of life.

On more than a dozen occasions McCain used another rhetorical device, i.e., repeating a punch line for emphasis, as in "my friends, that is the truth, the truth." There, in a nutshell, was the difference: a reflective intellect asking challenging questions versus glib and condescending certainty.

it was George W. Bush

the grandson of patrician wealth

broadened that base once again by posing as the common man, complete with an affected drawl

the GOP would have difficulty winning their case on the merits. To get working class voters to vote against their interests, they needed, as they have in the past, to change the debate.

This is what Palin has helped them to do.

Tags: republican, politics, mccain, palin

End Times A-Coming?

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:03:19 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: A recurring argument lodged by theists against atheists is their inabilitiy to understand how non-believers can exist in a world of no god-given purpose. Theists seem incapable of comprehending the simple (to me at least) idea that each of us fashions our own purpose and meaning in life. This article touches on that aspect of thought.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Why the fascination with the end of the world?

The world will end. That much is a certainty. But it may not be soon. And in all probability it will not come to a shuddering, fiery, boiling, cataclysmic end on Wednesday this week.

That is when the Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss/French border has its first full beam.

FAILED PREDICTIONS

Jehovah's Witnesses have predicted end several times, but have stopped

Millerites predicted end of world for 22 October 1844 - day known to followers as Great Disappointment

Edgar C Whisenant wrote 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988 - followed up with predictions for 1989, 1993, and 1994

Hal Lindsey in 1970's The Late, Great Planet Earth linked end of world to the EU

"It is deeply appealing at a psychological level because the idea of meaninglessness is deeply threatening. Human societies have always tried to create some kind of framework of meaning to give history and our own personal lives some kind of significance."

Tags: endtimes, religion, eschatology

Why the fascination with the end of the world?

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:48:37 GMT

clipped by: lifecyce1898

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The world will end. That much is a certainty. But it may not be soon. And in all probability it will not come to a shuddering, fiery, boiling, cataclysmic end on Wednesday this week.

Jehovah's Witnesses have predicted end several times, but have stopped

Millerites predicted end of world for 22 October 1844 - day known to followers as Great Disappointment

Edgar C Whisenant wrote 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988 - followed up with predictions for 1989, 1993, and 1994

Argentinian goalie Carlos Roa gave up football in anticipation of end of world in 2000

Hal Lindsey in 1970's The Late, Great Planet Earth linked end of world to the EU

The concept of the world ending is key to mainstream Christianity

And these end times beliefs seem easily to find their way into popular culture. The Left Behind series of novels have sold millions and cinema-goers have happily trooped in to see three instalments of the Omen.

Drill Baby Drill?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:11:11 GMT

clipped by: trilogy01
clipper's remarks: Instead of oil drilling why don't we take all the money, time, and people power and put that into implementing the clean technologies that we already have. Getting off of oil completely with clean, renewable energy sources is the only way to help secure national security, achieve true energy independence, and stop polluting our environment.

Clip Source: mail.google.com

Ready to line our coasts with oil rigs that would pollute our waters, threaten dolphins and other marine wildlife and wreck coastal economies?

George Bush and Dick Cheney are making plans to do just that, and we’ve got less than two weeks to stop them!

As part of Defenders of Wildlife’s marine wildlife program and someone who has studied offshore drilling for more than three decades, I can tell you with absolute certainty that offshore drilling and sensitive coastal ecosystems are a dangerous combination.

Please urge the U.S. Minerals Management Service -- the federal agency accepting comments on the Administration’s plan -- to shelve the Bush/Cheney Administration’s latest offshore oil drilling scam.

Tags: oil drilling, energy independence, offshore oil, global warming, climate change, national security

God Ditches the GOP

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:06:54 GMT

clipped by: zasel
clipper's remarks: I could barely clip enough of this excellent, humourous and right-on column for our forum. I hope y'all will take the time to read the entire piece. It is well worth the effort.

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

This just in: Hurricane of delicious irony slams Republican National Convention, flooding the streets of Minneapolis/St. Paul with rivers of savage hypocrisy as levees of evangelical denial and sexual confusion overflow into the streets, leaving stunned party members scrambling in vain for shaky moral high ground.

Yes, the rumors are true. The cosmic votes have all been tallied, and I do believe we can now say, with some measure of happy certainty, that God appears to be just as sick-to-death of the Republican Party as the rest of us.

Let's imagine the hot 'n' febrile reaction if, say, an enormous storm had come thundering through Denver during DNC '08, if some gale force winds or bowel-shaking rainfall had shut the city down, prophetically timing itself just right to thwart the Democratic Party's biggest party and stop Barack Obama from making all sorts of stunning history as he delivered his record-breaking speech to a wary and Bush-ravaged nation.

Tags: elections, gop, mccain, obama, convention, campaign

GOP Appears to Be Abandoned By God

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:28:37 GMT

clipped by: klippety
clipper's remarks: Perhaps God is as sick as we are, of the Hypocrites in Charge of the GOP

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

God ditches the GOP

This just in: Even the Lord has abandoned the desperate, shameful Right

Meanwhile, clever looters smash windows of opportunity and steal valuable quips about underage sex and teen pregnancy, as everyone gets a very unsettling if not downright weird taste of warped pro-gun anti-choice elk-kabob conservative Alaskan family values. YouTube at 11.

Let us, in other words, imagine that "rains of Biblical proportions"

Mark Morford on the GOP, Palin

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:47:58 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: More of this great column:

To be sure, it's moments like these that make it difficult not to take some delight, not to sit back and feel the ironic righteousness melt over us like hot Cheez-Whiz over an Alaskan mooseburger. After all, Sarah Palin is anti-choice, pro-abstinence, anti sex-ed, religiously fundamentalist, a creationist, about as friendly to feminism and women's reproductive rights as John McCain is to his beloved "gooks."

But here's the saddest part of all: Governor Palin knew. She absolutely had to realize that her daughter's unfortunate condition would come to light when McCain offered her this bizarre gig. To which we can only say: Way to shove your own daughter under the wheels of the GOP Machine, Governor Palin. Ultimate sacrifice indeed.

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

This just in: Even the Lord has abandoned the desperate, shameful Right

Let us, in other words, imagine that "rains of Biblical proportions" had slammed the DNC to a halt

Sean O'Grady:Credit crunch: 'It's just the end of the beginning'

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:29:12 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

According to ING, the total value of assets written down by Planet Earth's big banks is $502bn. The total value of capital raised by the same: $351bn. That deficit, of $151bn could easily get much much bigger.

Well, there are two new looming threats to keep us awake at night. First, the certainty that what one might term the "normal" writedowns and losses associated with an economic downturn will add to the strains on banks' balance sheets just when they are at their weakest.

Which brings us to the second nightmare. Will the banks be able to raise the capital required for them to regain their strength as losses mount?

The team at Capital Economics calculates that £65bn more is needed in the way of fresh capital, that is if the banks are to carry on functioning at their current rates of lending and to sort out the remaining damage from the credit crunch.

if UK bank lending drops by just 5 per cent, that will easily be enough to tip the economy into recession.

So recession here we come.

Tags: economy, financial markets, i-losses, i-increase, i-forecast