When people attend Sea World there are absolutely beautiful wild creatures from the sea in tanks and on/in performance stages.
How do they do it?
Why do they do it?
Is it cruel?
A killer whale, an Orca, when pushing her trainer to the surface and into the air is performing a natural behavior. Baby Orca's are born into water and does not know which end of their watery world is the surface. Like any mammal that swims out of a uterus and takes that first breath expelling amniotic fluid from it's lungs an Orca needs to do the same thing. So female adults after giving birth push their young to the surface to take their first breath. It is that 'behavior' that is completely natural and harnessed for entertainment to a crowd that dearly loves them.
Animals do silly things that most humans don't understand and don't care to. In the case of those animals at Sea World they are ambassadors to the sea and in loving them we love our world and want to protect it from harm. No different than animals in zoos. It teaches us compassion beyond the world of humans and that is a good thing. Humans are powerful and our populations out number most species of animals so it is important to have a place for ourselves and leave the natural world to animals.
In training a dog, which is a domestic pet, we use compassionate means to achieve compliance. We start puppies in confined quarters with frequent escapes to the backyard to training them to releave themselves outside of the house. They are welcome family members.
As puppies grow into adults they nearly become human. Seeking pleasure in being with their human families. Some breed of dogs are better than others for pets. Laborador Retrievers are among the best family dogs. They are loyal and intelligent. They are also retrievers.
Why then are some breeds of dogs not good pets? Some are abused but for the most part we know some breeds are aggressive in nature. Many times that natural instinct can be over come as in German Shepards and they make loyal pets. In the case of Pit Bulls their instincts are too strong and they frequently find themselves unable to be good pets. In shelters around the country when Shepards, Chow Chows, Dobermans and Pit Bulls are brought in they are eventually destroyed if their owners are not forthcoming because it is risky to place them with new owners.
I have always owned one of those breeds. I lost my last dog after nine years and he was a Chow Chow. He was playful and enjoyable but he was also a one family dog and no one could get near me if I didn't want them to. He was a great dog. We loved him. He never bit anyone but then he was never encouraged to either. Before Rusty, I had a beautiful Kimbertal Kennel Doberman. She weighted 86 pounds was solid muscle, 31 inches at the shoulder. Gretal was a great dog. She loved our family and we loved her. Intelligent and loyal and without a doubt protective. When company came she would 'station' herself at a vantage point and watch what was going on but never let our family out of her sight. She cared little for attention except from us. She was an excellant watch dog and had a presence people respected. She never bit anyone but then again she was never encouraged to. She died when she was eleven and half years old.
As some breeds of dogs are the best for pets so wild animals brought into captivity do not make for good companions. By companions I mean getting close to an animal that maybe a stranger although reassured by a handler there is nothing to be afraid of. It has never been my experience that an animal was ever anything NOT to be concerned about. For as much as we understand animal behavior there is a side to them that is still instinctual and unpredictable.
I have observed many interactions between animals and humans over the years and it seems no matter the benign relationship there is always a domestic side and a wild side.
A few years back I watched a champion racehorse walk through a covered walkway from the stables to the saddling area. He was a three year old ready to run and was being lead by his trainer when for no apparent reason he reared and knocked the hat off his trainer's head leaving behind a small gash in his scalp. The thoroughbred went on to make a good showing that day and his trainer went on to get stitches. Everyone states 'he was just feeling his oats,' but to me it was more than that. That horse did not want to be at the end of that lead rope and he angry he was. He was a three year old stallion our of a box stall and he wanted more than running that day and race or no race he had other things on his mind. He wanted to be free and running without a saddle or a jockey. His wild side kicked in and needed to be satisfied.
What does a trainer do with a mulit-million dollar syndicated stallion that wants nothing more than to be a mustang?
Well, first you make him do his job and earn his keep by putting him on the track and letting his jockey know he has a lot of horse under him. Then eventually the stallion gets padded from head to hoof and shipped back home to be turned loose in a large paddock with belly deep grass that has been gone over with a fine toothed comb to be sure there is no sticks or unexpected items or holes to cause injury and he gets turned loose to work out his kincks.
The other day I heard Gloria Allred say something that bothered me and I realized people who are compassion and love animals project themselves into their furry friends a little too much and I had to state my point of view.
The monkey issue. I have heard 'this interpretation' and 'that interpretation' and I really don't think I have heard what I believe is the honest interpretion. I probably hadn't heard it because people who should know, either don't or don't want the bad side of exotic animals known to the public.
The Little Chimp that is still a beloved family member got to be too much for the household for whatever reason and he was placed in a facility with other chimps. Chimp behavior is interesting in that they are a bit heirarchical. Not as much as gorillas but from the standpoint of survival. Chimps live in large groups sometimes but smaller groups of males are found independant of females. Those bachelor groups are survivalists and will harass females to 'obtain' them. If you get this picture what you begin to realize is that if 'getting females' is that difficult any other male in the group is either a threat or knows his place.
Chimps are strong and very powerful. Pure muscle. They can swing from trees and travel across tree canopies for miles without walking so it's easy to imagine the strength of a chimp.
I believe in the case of the Davis Family when they entered a 'pen' of chimps to visit Moe on his 39th birthday they entered a 'heirarchy' they didn't understand. The other chimps were younger and Moe was no threat to their social order. The Davis family came bringing food and making noise. Confusing human behavior for chimps not a part of that social order. When the two young males were excluded from that activity they resorted to primitive instincts in understanding behavior of humans unfamiliar and 'crude' in their activities. They became the bachelor chimps protecting each other from others.
Nothing happened in that situation until Mrs. Davis made eye contact with the other two chimps and within seconds they were upon them primarily attacking a large male human they were determined to kill. They used their very powerful hands and feet and teeth to rip at Mr. Davis's body. He is lucky to be alive.
The entire situation was handled poorly buy Keepers that didn't understand how 'instincts' can manifest. Moe should have been removed from the cage and placed in a smaller room where a family might be able to safely spend time doing 'silly' things that they love to do. A place removed from danger where other intelligent animals get confused by actions of unfamiliar humans while reverting to natural instincts when afraid.
Of course the chimps had to be destroyed. Of course all the 'clashes' with animals that occur tragic. But what is more tragic is that people actually project so much of their humanitarian side into these creatures that all the natural instincts of these beautiful animals are DISREGARDED and people are in danger and are maimed for life or worse.
For as much as people would like to continue to believe there are 'good' animals and 'bad' animals as there are humans of the same quality I think that is being generous of spirit and less cautious than we need to be. When all these instances are examined there is usually something that can be done. Rarely is there a 'surprise' injury or death due to an attack by an animal that could not have been handled differently and prevented.
That prevention, regardless the trustworthiness of the wild animal which seems domesticated, is what this brief essay is all about. We need to be prudent when with animals but not fearful of animals. No more foolish mistakes and fool hearty belief in humanizing animals that never lose their instincts.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Animals never loose their instincts - Admire from a distance. Zoos are heathy environments where people meet animals (Click On Title)
Man Mauled By Chimps Prepares For More Surgery
Chimps Attack Man At Animal Sanctuary
LOS ANGELES -- A West Covina man attacked by two chimpanzees in March was released Tuesday from the hospital.
St. James Davis (pictured before attack, left), who was visiting Moe -- a chimp who used to live with Davis and his wife -- at Animal Haven Ranch when two other chimps attacked, returned home Tuesday afternoon.
Davis, 62, underwent a series of surgeries since the attack. In June, doctors took him out of an induced coma and removed his breathing tube to speed his recovery.
"He's come a long way in what I consider to be a very short time," wife LaDonna Davis said Tuesday. "In reality, when this first happened, I thought this would take a lot longer than six months. He has a long way to go.
...........................................................
USDA probes tiger attack
Family spokeswoman retells account of girl'sdeadly photo shoot
By Ron Knox and John Hacker
Globe Staff Writers
8/20/05
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched a formal investigation into possible wrongdoing after a tiger killed a girl Thursday at a Kansas animal sanctuary.The investigation, launched just hours after the incident occurred, will examine whether Doug Billingsly, the director of the Lost Creek Animal Sanctuary, providedadequate protection during a photo shoot where a tiger killed 17-year-old Haley Hilderbrand.
Chimps Attack Man At Animal Sanctuary
LOS ANGELES -- A West Covina man attacked by two chimpanzees in March was released Tuesday from the hospital.
St. James Davis (pictured before attack, left), who was visiting Moe -- a chimp who used to live with Davis and his wife -- at Animal Haven Ranch when two other chimps attacked, returned home Tuesday afternoon.
Davis, 62, underwent a series of surgeries since the attack. In June, doctors took him out of an induced coma and removed his breathing tube to speed his recovery.
"He's come a long way in what I consider to be a very short time," wife LaDonna Davis said Tuesday. "In reality, when this first happened, I thought this would take a lot longer than six months. He has a long way to go.
...........................................................
USDA probes tiger attack
Family spokeswoman retells account of girl'sdeadly photo shoot
By Ron Knox and John Hacker
Globe Staff Writers
8/20/05
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched a formal investigation into possible wrongdoing after a tiger killed a girl Thursday at a Kansas animal sanctuary.The investigation, launched just hours after the incident occurred, will examine whether Doug Billingsly, the director of the Lost Creek Animal Sanctuary, providedadequate protection during a photo shoot where a tiger killed 17-year-old Haley Hilderbrand.
Hungry Like A Wolf by Duran Duran
Dark in the city, night is a wire
Steam in the subway, earth is a fire
Do-do do do, do do do, do do do, do do do, do do
Woman you want me, give me a sign
And catch my breathing even closer behind
Do-do do do, do do do, do do do, do do do, do do
In touch with the ground
I’m on the hunt I’m after you
Smell like I sound, I’m lost in a crowd
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Straddle the line, in discord and rhyme
I’m on the hunt I’m after you
Mouth is alive with juices like wine
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Stalked in the forest, too close to hide
I’ll be upon you by the moonlight side
Do-do do do, do do do, do do do, do do do, do do
High blood drumming ony our skin it’s so tight
You feel my heart, I’m just a moment behind
Do-do do do, do do do, do do do, do do do, do do
In touch with the ground
I’m on the hunt I’m after you
Scent and a sound, I’m lost and I’m found
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Strut on a line, it’s discord and rhyme
I howl and I whine I’m after you
Mouth is alive all running inside
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Hungry like the wolf
Hungry like the wolf
Hungry like the wolf
Burning the ground I break from the crowd
I’m on the hunt I’m after you
I smell like I sound,
I’m lost and I’m found
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Strut on a line, it’s discord and rhyme
I’m on the hunt I’m after you
Mouth is alive with juices like wine
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Burning the ground I break from the crowd
I’m on the hunt I’m after you
Scent and a sound, I’m lost and I’m found
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Strut on a line, it’s discord and rhyme
I howl and I whine I’m after you
Mouth is alive all running inside
And I’m hungry like the wolf...
Steam in the subway, earth is a fire
Do-do do do, do do do, do do do, do do do, do do
Woman you want me, give me a sign
And catch my breathing even closer behind
Do-do do do, do do do, do do do, do do do, do do
In touch with the ground
I’m on the hunt I’m after you
Smell like I sound, I’m lost in a crowd
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Straddle the line, in discord and rhyme
I’m on the hunt I’m after you
Mouth is alive with juices like wine
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Stalked in the forest, too close to hide
I’ll be upon you by the moonlight side
Do-do do do, do do do, do do do, do do do, do do
High blood drumming ony our skin it’s so tight
You feel my heart, I’m just a moment behind
Do-do do do, do do do, do do do, do do do, do do
In touch with the ground
I’m on the hunt I’m after you
Scent and a sound, I’m lost and I’m found
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Strut on a line, it’s discord and rhyme
I howl and I whine I’m after you
Mouth is alive all running inside
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Hungry like the wolf
Hungry like the wolf
Hungry like the wolf
Burning the ground I break from the crowd
I’m on the hunt I’m after you
I smell like I sound,
I’m lost and I’m found
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Strut on a line, it’s discord and rhyme
I’m on the hunt I’m after you
Mouth is alive with juices like wine
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Burning the ground I break from the crowd
I’m on the hunt I’m after you
Scent and a sound, I’m lost and I’m found
And I’m hungry like the wolf
Strut on a line, it’s discord and rhyme
I howl and I whine I’m after you
Mouth is alive all running inside
And I’m hungry like the wolf...
Friday, August 19, 2005
July 23, 2005. Zajecar, Serbia. The doors to an Imperial Roman Palace from the III and IV centuries were opened to view the mosaics. These mosaics are normally protected by sand as can be seen in this picture. The sand is swept away for viewing and archeological investigation. This floor was the Hall of the Throne.
NA-Smithsoni NEG#171509 Photos by Michael Williamson 8/17/05 : Mr. Sternberg unethically used his credentials and professional journal to promote 'intelligent design' without scientific proof provoking political debate. Portrait of Richard Von Sternberg (taken at the Smithsonian Castle) who's engaged in a battle with the Smithsonian over Intelligent design theory. He published an essay questioning evolution.
Morning Papers - It's Origins
Rooster "Crowing"
"Okeydoke"
History
1791 African American astronomer and mathematician Benjamin Banneker sends a copy of his first almanac to Thomas Jefferson to disprove Jefferson's belief that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites.
1848, the New York Herald reported the discovery of gold in California.
1883, Coco Chanel, real name Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel (1883-1971), French fashion designer and one of the leaders of haute couture (high fashion), whose name was synonymous with elegance and chic. She was born in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire. In 1914 Chanel opened a millinery shop in Paris. By the mid-1920s she had launched the classic Chanel look, consisting of a casual but extremely well-cut wool jersey suit with straight, collarless cardigan jacket and short, full-cut skirt, worn with art deco costume jewelry and a sailor hat over short hair. Her Chanel No. 5, one of several perfumes she created, became world famous. Chanel designed nothing during World War II and its aftermath, but she successfully revived the understated Chanel look in 1954. The American musical Coco (1969) by Alan Jay Lerner and André Previn is based on her life.
1909 Howard Swanson is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will become a
classical composer who will study in the United States and
Paris, France, and will write music for orchestra, solo voice,
piano, and chamber ensembles.
1934, a plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler.
1934 Roberto Clemente is born in Puerto Rico. He will win the Gold
Glove award TWELVE consecutive years and play in twelve All-Star
games. He will be the National League's Most Valuable Player
(MVP) in 1966, the MVP in the 1971 World Series, win four separate
National League batting titles, post a .317 career batting average,
and play eighteen seasons, amassing 3,000 hits and hammering 240
home runs. He will join the ancestors at the age of 38, on a
mercy mission to deliver relief supplies to the victims of a
Nicaraguan earthquake. Tragically, his plane, carrying food,
clothing and medical supplies, will crash moments after takeoff
from San Juan, Puerto Rico on December 31, 1972.
1935 Rafer Johnson is born in Hillsboro, Texas. He will become an
Olympic athlete, winning a gold medal in the decathlon in the
1960 Summer Games in Rome and lighting the torch in the 1984
Games in Los Angeles.
1941 Matt Snell is born. He will become a professional football player
(running back for the New York Jets). He will be one of the key
players in the Jets victory in Super Bowl III over the Baltimore
Colts.
1942 about 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering about 50-percent casualties.
1953 Royalist forces acting on behalf of Reza Shah Pahlavi, with the aid of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, overthrow Iranian premier Mohammad Mossadegh.
1954 James E. Wilkins becomes the first African American to attend a U.S.
presidential cabinet meeting. He is Assistant Secretary of Labor
and attends because the Secretary and Under-Secretary are away.
1960 a tribunal in Moscow convicted American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage.
1963 James Meredith becomes the first African American to graduate from
the University of Mississippi.
1964 South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games because of its
apartheid policies.
1970 Malcolm-Jamal Warner is born. He will become an child actor and will
star on the "The Cosby Show" as Theodore "Theo" Huxtable. He will
also star as "Here and Now's" Alexander James and "Malcolm and Eddie's"
Malcolm.
1973 Georgios Papadopoulos, leader of the Greek ruling junta since a 1967 coup, abolishes the monarchy and declares Greece a presidential republic. Papadopolous is overthrown later in the year.
1974, U.S. Ambassador Rodger P. Davies was fatally wounded by a bullet that penetrated the American embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus.
1976 Vice Admiral Samuel L. Gravely Jr. assumes command of the U.S. Third
Fleet.
1977 Steven Biko, one of the most influential black student leaders in South
Africa, is arrested in Port Elizabeth on charges of fomenting unrest
among blacks in the city through his writings. Biko will join the
ancestors in police detention less than a month later, as a result of
a beating by the police.
1977 Comedian Groucho Marx, the best known of the Marx Brothers, dies in Los Angeles, California.
1980, 301 people aboard a Saudi Arabian L-1011 died as the jetliner made a fiery emergency landing at the Riyadh airport.
1981 Football running back, Herschel Walker, of the University of Georgia,
takes out an insurance policy with Lloyd's of London. The All-American
is insured for one million dollars.
1987 Earl Campbell, the 'Tyler Rose', announces his retirement from
professional football. Campbell, the 1977 Heisman Trophy winner,
played eight seasons in the National Football League -- and was a star
for the Houston Oilers.
1991 Communist hard-liners attempt a coup in the Soviet Union, putting Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev under house arrest and declaring a state of emergency. The coup fails two days later.
2003 A suicide bomber destroys the United Nations compound in Baghdād, Iraq, killing 23 people including a high UN official.
Missing in Action
1968 COLLINS THEOTHIS ASBURY PARK NJ
1968 HOFFMAN TERRY ALAN DANVILLE IN REMAINS RETURNED BURIED 1994
1969 BOHLIG JAMES RICHARD CROCKETT CA
1969 FLANIGAN JOHN N. WINTER HAVEN FL REMAINS RETURNED 1989 ID'D 06/26/97
1969 MORRISSEY RICHARD THOMAS UNIONDALE NY CACCF/CRASH/AIRCREW/10 YRS USMC/QUANG TIN VMFA 115 MAG 13 WITH RICHARD BOHLIG REFNO 1483
1969 SMITH ROBERT N. TRUCKSVILLE PA
1972 BEHNFELDT ROGER ERNEST DEFIANCE OH REMAINS RETURNED 09/24/87
1972 SHINGAKI TAMOTSU MAUI HI 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
Haaretz
IDF digs trench to keep Palestinians out of Gush Katif
By Nir Hasson and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents
Israel Defense Forces on Friday began digging eight-meter-deep trenches around the evacuated Gush Katif settlements in the Gaza Strip in a bid to prevent Palestinians from reaching the settlement bloc prior to its complete evacuation.
The evacuation forces will renew operations on Sunday as activity was halted for the Sabbath.
Defense officials said that the evacuation of the remaining Gaza settlements will be completed by next Tuesday, but IDF forces will remain in the Strip for several weeks to complete the removal of outposts and the demolition of the settlements.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/614836.html
German Jewish leader asks Pope to open Vatican archives
By Reuters
A German Jewish leader touched a sore spot in relations with Catholics on Friday when he urged Pope Benedict to open up all the Vatican's archives dealing with World War Two and the Holocaust.
Welcoming him on a historic visit to a synagogue in Cologne, Abraham Lehrer told the German-born pontiff he had a special responsibility to open files that critics say would show how much Pope Pius XII knew about the Nazi slaughter of Jews.
Jewish groups accuse Pius of turning a deaf ear to the Holocaust. The Vatican says he worked behind the scenes to save them and refrained from condemning the Nazis openly for fear of sparking reprisals across Europe.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/614877.html
Worshippers find pig's head in yard outside Jaffa mosque
By Roni Singer, Haaretz Correspondent
Worshippers found a pig's head Friday in the yard outside the Hassan Bek mosque, between Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Mosque employees alerted the police, and officers launched an investigation.
The pig's head was wrapped in a keffiyeh with the word Mohammed written on it.
Investigators will check whether the incident is linked to other attempts to sabotage the mosque. Rocks have been hurled at the mosque recently, and windows have been broken.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/614894.html
Israel seeks annual UN Holocaust memorial day
By Reuters
UNITED NATIONS - Israel is urging the United Nations to establish an annual international holocaust memorial day, a top Israeli diplomat said on Thursday.
An Israeli draft resolution, which it hopes will be adopted by the 191-member General Assembly during its 60th session opening next month, proposes Jan. 27 as a day to commemorate holocaust victims, marking the day in 1945 when Russian troops liberated Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp.
More than 30 European countries support Israel's plan, British Deputy Ambassador Adam Thomson said in a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Assembly President Jean Ping made public on Thursday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/614572.html
The Middle East Times
Spanish witnesses say helicopter was attacked
AFP
August 17, 2005
SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS: International peacekeepers are seen near the wreckage of the Spanish helicopter which crashed on August 16 in the western province of Herat, Afghanistan. It is still unclear whether the crash that killed all 17 Spanish soldiers on board was the result of an accident or an insurgent attack.
(REUTERS)
MADRID -- The crash of two Spanish military helicopters in Afghanistan killing 17 soldiers and injuring five was more likely caused by gusting winds than a rebel attack, Spanish Defense Minister Jose Bono said Wednesday.
But eyewitnesses quoted in the press said the aircraft had been attacked, and the Afghan defense minister said the two aircraft probably had collided - a hypothesis that Bono rejected as "absolutely impossible."
The two aircraft were over different valleys at the time of the crash, he said.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050817-014229-7355r
Hundreds of abandoned animals at risk as Gaza settlements evacuate
Amelia Thomas
Middle East Times
August 18, 2005
TEL AVIV -- In the midst of the uproar surrounding the ongoing disengagement of Israeli settlements from Gaza and the West Bank, one group of residents has been largely forgotten. They don't have loud voices, they can't wave banners; yet their fate hangs in the balance even more than the settlers who are currently being pulled from their homes. These are the domestic animals that roam the settlements, mostly hundreds of cats either abandoned by their owners, or strays living on the streets.
Israel's Cat Welfare Society is currently engaged in a desperate struggle to save these animals, fearing that once disengagement is complete, they will die from starvation and lack of available drinking water in the empty residential areas.
Indeed, says the society, on first inspection of the largely emptied West Bank settlements of Ganim and Kadim, Northern Samaria, many cats had already succumbed to the fierce summer temperatures. In the last week prior to the start of the disengagement, however, volunteers in Ganim and Kadim have worked tirelessly to trap, vaccinate and remove to animal shelters more than 140 cats from these two settlements alone.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050818-072414-5950r
The Arab News
Police Lied in Menezes Case
Mushtak Parker, Arab News
LONDON, 19 August 2005 — Scotland Yard was yesterday accused of lying and a cover-up and trying to delay an independent police inquiry into the tragic fatal shooting by anti-terror police of 27-year-old Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes on a tube train at Stockwell station on the day after the failed 7/21 bomb attacks in London.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=68672&d=19&m=8&y=2005
Accidental Anarchists. They sure don't seem to believe in world order.
Bush’s ‘A’ to ‘Z’ of Why America Went to Iraq
Sarah Whalen, sawhalen@xula.com.edu
Would you vote for an anarchist? Oops! If you’re British or American, you very likely did. Yes, real anarchists — people who advocate overthrowing existing, organized government and replacing it with “freedom”, now run America, the UK, and much of the Western and westernized world.
You surely didn’t intend to “vote Anarchist.” Why put into government someone who doesn’t believe in government? But we in the West did just that. Bush and Blair may be accidental anarchists. It’s hard to believe the Iraq debacle was deliberately their own idea. And Bush and Blair are picky anarchists. General anarchists want to destroy all forms of government in “freedom’s” name, whereas Bush and Blair only want to destroy Middle Eastern governments in “freedom’s” name. One state at a time.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=68691&d=19&m=8&y=2005
The Washington Times
Roberts Resisted Women's Rights
1982-86 Memos Detail Skepticism
By Amy Goldstein, R. Jeffrey Smith and Jo Becker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 19, 2005; Page A01
Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. consistently opposed legal and legislative attempts to strengthen women's rights during his years as a legal adviser in the Reagan White House, disparaging what he called "the purported gender gap" and, at one point, questioning "whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good."
In internal memos, Roberts urged President Ronald Reagan to refrain from embracing any form of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment pending in Congress; he concluded that some state initiatives to curb workplace discrimination against women relied on legal tools that were "highly objectionable"; and he said that a controversial legal theory then in vogue -- of directing employers to pay women the same as men for jobs of "comparable worth" -- was "staggeringly pernicious" and "anti-capitalist.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081802041.html
Jury Awards Widow $253.4M in Vioxx Trial
By KRISTEN HAYS and THERESA AGOVINO
The Associated Press
Friday, August 19, 2005; 3:05 PM
ANGLETON, Texas -- A Texas jury found pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. liable for the death of a man who took the once-popular painkiller Vioxx.
Jurors awarded Robert Ernst's widow, Carol, $253.4 million in damages, which is a combination of his lost pay as a Wal-Mart produce manager, mental anguish, loss of companionship and punitive damages.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/19/AR2005081900256.html
Here is another incompetent. Iraq is not a matter of being 'against' or 'with' anything. It is about the legitimacy of a war. Invading a sovereign country is not a matter of a popular vote. Cheney is completely incompetent. He knows only how to bludgeon the public into submission to satisfy a personal wealth agenda.
Cheney vs. the Peaceniks
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, August 19, 2005; 12:18 PM
With President Bush kicking back at his ranch, the task of nipping a nascent antiwar movement in the bud fell to Vice President Cheney yesterday, and he went at it with his typical gusto.
To the extent that Cindy Sheehan and other supporters of an Iraqi pullout aim to start a national conversation about American options in Iraq, Cheney made it very clear that as far as he's concerned, that conversation only extends this far: Are you with us or are you against us?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html
U.S. Marine, Afghan Soldier Die in Clash
By AMIR SHAH
The Associated Press
Friday, August 19, 2005; 2:04 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Militants clashed with coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan, killing a U.S. Marine and an Afghan government soldier, as violence flared ahead of the nation's key legislative elections, the U.S. military said Friday.
The clash, in which four Afghan soldiers were wounded, occurred near Asadabad in the volatile eastern province of Kunar _ the site last month of the heaviest coalition losses since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom, which ousted the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/19/AR2005081900464.html
Doctor: Coretta Scott King Had Big Stroke
By DANIEL YEE
The Associated Press
Friday, August 19, 2005; 12:57 AM
ATLANTA -- Coretta Scott King suffered a minor heart attack and a major stroke that impaired her ability to speak and affected her right side, but she is "completely aware," a doctor said Thursday.
King's daughter said the family expected a full recovery.
Isaac Newton Farris, left, speaks to media, flanked by the Rev. Jesse Jackson outside Piedmont Hospital, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2005 in Atlanta. Farris, a nephew of Coretta Scott King, told reporters the hospitalized 78-year-old widow of Martin Luther King Jr. is expected to recover, though he didn't say whether she suffered a stroke, as family friends said. (AP Photo/Gregory Smith) (Gregory Smith - AP)
Dr. Charles Wickliffe, a cardiologist at Piedmont Hospital, where the 78-year-old widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. had been hospitalized for two days, said a blood clot had moved from King's heart and lodged in an artery in the left side of her brain.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801402.html
D.C. Matriarch Killed at Home By Stray Bullet
Shots Also Fired Nearby Hours Earlier, Injuring 1
By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 19, 2005; Page B01
Dorine Fostion was watching television in her Southeast Washington apartment at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday when someone started shooting outside.
Her daughter rushed in from the bedroom when she heard her mother cry out, struck in the side by a stray bullet. Fostion, 46, died an hour later at Washington Hospital Center, becoming the District's 118th homicide victim this year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801139.html
continued...
"Okeydoke"
History
1791 African American astronomer and mathematician Benjamin Banneker sends a copy of his first almanac to Thomas Jefferson to disprove Jefferson's belief that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites.
1848, the New York Herald reported the discovery of gold in California.
1883, Coco Chanel, real name Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel (1883-1971), French fashion designer and one of the leaders of haute couture (high fashion), whose name was synonymous with elegance and chic. She was born in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire. In 1914 Chanel opened a millinery shop in Paris. By the mid-1920s she had launched the classic Chanel look, consisting of a casual but extremely well-cut wool jersey suit with straight, collarless cardigan jacket and short, full-cut skirt, worn with art deco costume jewelry and a sailor hat over short hair. Her Chanel No. 5, one of several perfumes she created, became world famous. Chanel designed nothing during World War II and its aftermath, but she successfully revived the understated Chanel look in 1954. The American musical Coco (1969) by Alan Jay Lerner and André Previn is based on her life.
1909 Howard Swanson is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will become a
classical composer who will study in the United States and
Paris, France, and will write music for orchestra, solo voice,
piano, and chamber ensembles.
1934, a plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler.
1934 Roberto Clemente is born in Puerto Rico. He will win the Gold
Glove award TWELVE consecutive years and play in twelve All-Star
games. He will be the National League's Most Valuable Player
(MVP) in 1966, the MVP in the 1971 World Series, win four separate
National League batting titles, post a .317 career batting average,
and play eighteen seasons, amassing 3,000 hits and hammering 240
home runs. He will join the ancestors at the age of 38, on a
mercy mission to deliver relief supplies to the victims of a
Nicaraguan earthquake. Tragically, his plane, carrying food,
clothing and medical supplies, will crash moments after takeoff
from San Juan, Puerto Rico on December 31, 1972.
1935 Rafer Johnson is born in Hillsboro, Texas. He will become an
Olympic athlete, winning a gold medal in the decathlon in the
1960 Summer Games in Rome and lighting the torch in the 1984
Games in Los Angeles.
1941 Matt Snell is born. He will become a professional football player
(running back for the New York Jets). He will be one of the key
players in the Jets victory in Super Bowl III over the Baltimore
Colts.
1942 about 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering about 50-percent casualties.
1953 Royalist forces acting on behalf of Reza Shah Pahlavi, with the aid of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, overthrow Iranian premier Mohammad Mossadegh.
1954 James E. Wilkins becomes the first African American to attend a U.S.
presidential cabinet meeting. He is Assistant Secretary of Labor
and attends because the Secretary and Under-Secretary are away.
1960 a tribunal in Moscow convicted American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage.
1963 James Meredith becomes the first African American to graduate from
the University of Mississippi.
1964 South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games because of its
apartheid policies.
1970 Malcolm-Jamal Warner is born. He will become an child actor and will
star on the "The Cosby Show" as Theodore "Theo" Huxtable. He will
also star as "Here and Now's" Alexander James and "Malcolm and Eddie's"
Malcolm.
1973 Georgios Papadopoulos, leader of the Greek ruling junta since a 1967 coup, abolishes the monarchy and declares Greece a presidential republic. Papadopolous is overthrown later in the year.
1974, U.S. Ambassador Rodger P. Davies was fatally wounded by a bullet that penetrated the American embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus.
1976 Vice Admiral Samuel L. Gravely Jr. assumes command of the U.S. Third
Fleet.
1977 Steven Biko, one of the most influential black student leaders in South
Africa, is arrested in Port Elizabeth on charges of fomenting unrest
among blacks in the city through his writings. Biko will join the
ancestors in police detention less than a month later, as a result of
a beating by the police.
1977 Comedian Groucho Marx, the best known of the Marx Brothers, dies in Los Angeles, California.
1980, 301 people aboard a Saudi Arabian L-1011 died as the jetliner made a fiery emergency landing at the Riyadh airport.
1981 Football running back, Herschel Walker, of the University of Georgia,
takes out an insurance policy with Lloyd's of London. The All-American
is insured for one million dollars.
1987 Earl Campbell, the 'Tyler Rose', announces his retirement from
professional football. Campbell, the 1977 Heisman Trophy winner,
played eight seasons in the National Football League -- and was a star
for the Houston Oilers.
1991 Communist hard-liners attempt a coup in the Soviet Union, putting Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev under house arrest and declaring a state of emergency. The coup fails two days later.
2003 A suicide bomber destroys the United Nations compound in Baghdād, Iraq, killing 23 people including a high UN official.
Missing in Action
1968 COLLINS THEOTHIS ASBURY PARK NJ
1968 HOFFMAN TERRY ALAN DANVILLE IN REMAINS RETURNED BURIED 1994
1969 BOHLIG JAMES RICHARD CROCKETT CA
1969 FLANIGAN JOHN N. WINTER HAVEN FL REMAINS RETURNED 1989 ID'D 06/26/97
1969 MORRISSEY RICHARD THOMAS UNIONDALE NY CACCF/CRASH/AIRCREW/10 YRS USMC/QUANG TIN VMFA 115 MAG 13 WITH RICHARD BOHLIG REFNO 1483
1969 SMITH ROBERT N. TRUCKSVILLE PA
1972 BEHNFELDT ROGER ERNEST DEFIANCE OH REMAINS RETURNED 09/24/87
1972 SHINGAKI TAMOTSU MAUI HI 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
Haaretz
IDF digs trench to keep Palestinians out of Gush Katif
By Nir Hasson and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents
Israel Defense Forces on Friday began digging eight-meter-deep trenches around the evacuated Gush Katif settlements in the Gaza Strip in a bid to prevent Palestinians from reaching the settlement bloc prior to its complete evacuation.
The evacuation forces will renew operations on Sunday as activity was halted for the Sabbath.
Defense officials said that the evacuation of the remaining Gaza settlements will be completed by next Tuesday, but IDF forces will remain in the Strip for several weeks to complete the removal of outposts and the demolition of the settlements.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/614836.html
German Jewish leader asks Pope to open Vatican archives
By Reuters
A German Jewish leader touched a sore spot in relations with Catholics on Friday when he urged Pope Benedict to open up all the Vatican's archives dealing with World War Two and the Holocaust.
Welcoming him on a historic visit to a synagogue in Cologne, Abraham Lehrer told the German-born pontiff he had a special responsibility to open files that critics say would show how much Pope Pius XII knew about the Nazi slaughter of Jews.
Jewish groups accuse Pius of turning a deaf ear to the Holocaust. The Vatican says he worked behind the scenes to save them and refrained from condemning the Nazis openly for fear of sparking reprisals across Europe.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/614877.html
Worshippers find pig's head in yard outside Jaffa mosque
By Roni Singer, Haaretz Correspondent
Worshippers found a pig's head Friday in the yard outside the Hassan Bek mosque, between Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Mosque employees alerted the police, and officers launched an investigation.
The pig's head was wrapped in a keffiyeh with the word Mohammed written on it.
Investigators will check whether the incident is linked to other attempts to sabotage the mosque. Rocks have been hurled at the mosque recently, and windows have been broken.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/614894.html
Israel seeks annual UN Holocaust memorial day
By Reuters
UNITED NATIONS - Israel is urging the United Nations to establish an annual international holocaust memorial day, a top Israeli diplomat said on Thursday.
An Israeli draft resolution, which it hopes will be adopted by the 191-member General Assembly during its 60th session opening next month, proposes Jan. 27 as a day to commemorate holocaust victims, marking the day in 1945 when Russian troops liberated Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp.
More than 30 European countries support Israel's plan, British Deputy Ambassador Adam Thomson said in a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Assembly President Jean Ping made public on Thursday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/614572.html
The Middle East Times
Spanish witnesses say helicopter was attacked
AFP
August 17, 2005
SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS: International peacekeepers are seen near the wreckage of the Spanish helicopter which crashed on August 16 in the western province of Herat, Afghanistan. It is still unclear whether the crash that killed all 17 Spanish soldiers on board was the result of an accident or an insurgent attack.
(REUTERS)
MADRID -- The crash of two Spanish military helicopters in Afghanistan killing 17 soldiers and injuring five was more likely caused by gusting winds than a rebel attack, Spanish Defense Minister Jose Bono said Wednesday.
But eyewitnesses quoted in the press said the aircraft had been attacked, and the Afghan defense minister said the two aircraft probably had collided - a hypothesis that Bono rejected as "absolutely impossible."
The two aircraft were over different valleys at the time of the crash, he said.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050817-014229-7355r
Hundreds of abandoned animals at risk as Gaza settlements evacuate
Amelia Thomas
Middle East Times
August 18, 2005
TEL AVIV -- In the midst of the uproar surrounding the ongoing disengagement of Israeli settlements from Gaza and the West Bank, one group of residents has been largely forgotten. They don't have loud voices, they can't wave banners; yet their fate hangs in the balance even more than the settlers who are currently being pulled from their homes. These are the domestic animals that roam the settlements, mostly hundreds of cats either abandoned by their owners, or strays living on the streets.
Israel's Cat Welfare Society is currently engaged in a desperate struggle to save these animals, fearing that once disengagement is complete, they will die from starvation and lack of available drinking water in the empty residential areas.
Indeed, says the society, on first inspection of the largely emptied West Bank settlements of Ganim and Kadim, Northern Samaria, many cats had already succumbed to the fierce summer temperatures. In the last week prior to the start of the disengagement, however, volunteers in Ganim and Kadim have worked tirelessly to trap, vaccinate and remove to animal shelters more than 140 cats from these two settlements alone.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050818-072414-5950r
The Arab News
Police Lied in Menezes Case
Mushtak Parker, Arab News
LONDON, 19 August 2005 — Scotland Yard was yesterday accused of lying and a cover-up and trying to delay an independent police inquiry into the tragic fatal shooting by anti-terror police of 27-year-old Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes on a tube train at Stockwell station on the day after the failed 7/21 bomb attacks in London.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=68672&d=19&m=8&y=2005
Accidental Anarchists. They sure don't seem to believe in world order.
Bush’s ‘A’ to ‘Z’ of Why America Went to Iraq
Sarah Whalen, sawhalen@xula.com.edu
Would you vote for an anarchist? Oops! If you’re British or American, you very likely did. Yes, real anarchists — people who advocate overthrowing existing, organized government and replacing it with “freedom”, now run America, the UK, and much of the Western and westernized world.
You surely didn’t intend to “vote Anarchist.” Why put into government someone who doesn’t believe in government? But we in the West did just that. Bush and Blair may be accidental anarchists. It’s hard to believe the Iraq debacle was deliberately their own idea. And Bush and Blair are picky anarchists. General anarchists want to destroy all forms of government in “freedom’s” name, whereas Bush and Blair only want to destroy Middle Eastern governments in “freedom’s” name. One state at a time.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=68691&d=19&m=8&y=2005
The Washington Times
Roberts Resisted Women's Rights
1982-86 Memos Detail Skepticism
By Amy Goldstein, R. Jeffrey Smith and Jo Becker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 19, 2005; Page A01
Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. consistently opposed legal and legislative attempts to strengthen women's rights during his years as a legal adviser in the Reagan White House, disparaging what he called "the purported gender gap" and, at one point, questioning "whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good."
In internal memos, Roberts urged President Ronald Reagan to refrain from embracing any form of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment pending in Congress; he concluded that some state initiatives to curb workplace discrimination against women relied on legal tools that were "highly objectionable"; and he said that a controversial legal theory then in vogue -- of directing employers to pay women the same as men for jobs of "comparable worth" -- was "staggeringly pernicious" and "anti-capitalist.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081802041.html
Jury Awards Widow $253.4M in Vioxx Trial
By KRISTEN HAYS and THERESA AGOVINO
The Associated Press
Friday, August 19, 2005; 3:05 PM
ANGLETON, Texas -- A Texas jury found pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. liable for the death of a man who took the once-popular painkiller Vioxx.
Jurors awarded Robert Ernst's widow, Carol, $253.4 million in damages, which is a combination of his lost pay as a Wal-Mart produce manager, mental anguish, loss of companionship and punitive damages.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/19/AR2005081900256.html
Here is another incompetent. Iraq is not a matter of being 'against' or 'with' anything. It is about the legitimacy of a war. Invading a sovereign country is not a matter of a popular vote. Cheney is completely incompetent. He knows only how to bludgeon the public into submission to satisfy a personal wealth agenda.
Cheney vs. the Peaceniks
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, August 19, 2005; 12:18 PM
With President Bush kicking back at his ranch, the task of nipping a nascent antiwar movement in the bud fell to Vice President Cheney yesterday, and he went at it with his typical gusto.
To the extent that Cindy Sheehan and other supporters of an Iraqi pullout aim to start a national conversation about American options in Iraq, Cheney made it very clear that as far as he's concerned, that conversation only extends this far: Are you with us or are you against us?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html
U.S. Marine, Afghan Soldier Die in Clash
By AMIR SHAH
The Associated Press
Friday, August 19, 2005; 2:04 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Militants clashed with coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan, killing a U.S. Marine and an Afghan government soldier, as violence flared ahead of the nation's key legislative elections, the U.S. military said Friday.
The clash, in which four Afghan soldiers were wounded, occurred near Asadabad in the volatile eastern province of Kunar _ the site last month of the heaviest coalition losses since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom, which ousted the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/19/AR2005081900464.html
Doctor: Coretta Scott King Had Big Stroke
By DANIEL YEE
The Associated Press
Friday, August 19, 2005; 12:57 AM
ATLANTA -- Coretta Scott King suffered a minor heart attack and a major stroke that impaired her ability to speak and affected her right side, but she is "completely aware," a doctor said Thursday.
King's daughter said the family expected a full recovery.
Isaac Newton Farris, left, speaks to media, flanked by the Rev. Jesse Jackson outside Piedmont Hospital, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2005 in Atlanta. Farris, a nephew of Coretta Scott King, told reporters the hospitalized 78-year-old widow of Martin Luther King Jr. is expected to recover, though he didn't say whether she suffered a stroke, as family friends said. (AP Photo/Gregory Smith) (Gregory Smith - AP)
Dr. Charles Wickliffe, a cardiologist at Piedmont Hospital, where the 78-year-old widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. had been hospitalized for two days, said a blood clot had moved from King's heart and lodged in an artery in the left side of her brain.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801402.html
D.C. Matriarch Killed at Home By Stray Bullet
Shots Also Fired Nearby Hours Earlier, Injuring 1
By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 19, 2005; Page B01
Dorine Fostion was watching television in her Southeast Washington apartment at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday when someone started shooting outside.
Her daughter rushed in from the bedroom when she heard her mother cry out, struck in the side by a stray bullet. Fostion, 46, died an hour later at Washington Hospital Center, becoming the District's 118th homicide victim this year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801139.html
continued...
Morning Papers - incomplete
The Washington Times
Since when does Michael Powell write for the Washington Post? Do they want to lose all credibility? They are on their way !
Intelligent Design is QUACKERY ! The Smithsonian is absolutely correct. Steinberg is "W"rong. Who did he vote for?
The below statement is false. He might not be convinced by intelligent design but the statement that science moves only forward on controversy is completely "W"rong and reminds me of scientists that accept money from oil companies to push back the issues of Global Warming. Mr. Steinberg inhibits science.
Science moves forward because there is always more not known and the knowledge accumulated is built on the shoulders of it's predecessors. The issue of evolution is well founded if in no other place but genetic assessments or Hox sequences. The idea that scientists get lazy when not challenged is hideous. A challenge like this wastes the precious time of scientific investigation. Scientific papers are years in the making and when a counter theory is thrown in the works without sound proof that only complicates research already being at work. There is no 'reference point' to disprove or prove against.
A 'theology' such as Intelligent Design when presented as a scientific basis is highly disruptive and unless scientists discard it as bogus others work cannot go forward. So to say every evolutionary biologist is stimulated by this theology is a grossly bad joke by a prestigious editor and journal.
Evolution is CHRONICALLY studied and that is completely evidenced by new discoveries all the time including those of hominids. The study is not in need of competition to go forward. It goes forward in the thirst for more knowledge and that is where it belongs, not in regression to languish in competition of theology. THAT could go on forever.
I find Mr. Steinberg minimally in violation of ethics and for those scientists who care to should proceed to put Intelligent Design on trial. I cannot help believe the Supreme Court will 'back' scientific theory as a legitimate documentary of science to lead to proven theory. Intelligent Design cannot meet those standards. I would not be afraid of putting it on trial if that is the passions of any scientist who cares to. Putting Intelligent Design on trail to challenge scientific standard is different than primary school teaching where 'liberal arts' rules all grade levels. THIS MY FRIENDS IS NOT CHILD'S PLAY !!
"I am not convinced by intelligent design but they have brought a lot of difficult questions to the fore," Sternberg said. "Science only moves forward on controversy."
These personal losses are the price for his activism without sound scientific reason.
Sternberg has seen stress piled upon stress in the past year. His marriage has dissolved, and he no longer comes into the Smithsonian. When the biological society issued a statement disavowing Meyer's article, Sternberg was advised not to attend. "I was told that feelings were running so high, they could not guarantee me that they could keep order," Sternberg said.
Again, below, there is NO SYSTEM. There is scientific theory. Scientific theory is NOT set, but proof has to exist for change to occur. The Null Hypothesis is the only measure one has to call a SYSTEM. It is a valid accounting for science. Anything else is theology and that is where Intelligent Design belongs. Mr. Steinberg regardless of his credentials is allowing his own personal agenda for creating waves to dictate good judgement.
A former professor of Sternberg's says the researcher has an intellectual penchant for going against the system. Sternberg does not deny it.
The statement below might be correct in that there maybe 'careerism' but there is definitely no 'herd mentality.' Those are political agendas and words. They don't belong anywhere near the argument of evolution. If Steinberg is unhappy with his ability to progress through a professional society then he needs to address the system through proper channels and not make a gigantic splash in an attempt to change a structural issue. If anything that will only make the structure more rigid out of safety measures for the science alone.
The science and the structure of professions is completely different subjects, one can be discussed without the other. If Mr. Steinberg wants to say the structure compromises the science then he needs to address that in good argument and THAT is what the clout of his position at the Smithsonian buys him. He's outrageous in his inappropriate approach to this subject. His poor judgement has made him irrelevant.
"I loathe careerism and the herd mentality," he said. "I really think that objective truth can be discovered and that popular opinion and consensus thinking does more to obscure than to reveal."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801680_3.html
Moscow Times
Chicken Farmers Sneeze at Bird Flu
By Conor Humphries
Staff Writer
Police stopping a car near a sign reading "Quarantine Bird Flu" in the flu-affected village of Oktyabrskoye on Thursday.
The domestic poultry industry is keeping its cool as a lethal strain of bird flu sweeps across the country toward European Russia.
Even as health officials scramble to contain the disease amid reports that it has crossed the Urals, market players say that Russia's centralized, highly regulated meat industry will be able to withstand the outbreak without any serious economic damage.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/19/003.html
Over 31,000 Corruption Cases Opened From January to June
The Moscow Times
Police opened more than 31,000 investigations into state corruption in the first six months of this year, and about 500 officials have been arrested and charged, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.
Nikolai Ovchinnikov, head of the Interior Ministry's organized crime and terrorism department, said the 31,000 figure was an 70 percent increase from the first half of last year -- a possible reflection of a Kremlin-orchestrated drive to crack down on corruption.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/19/015.html
Global Eye
Duck Soup
By Chris Floyd
Published: August 19, 2005
Now is the summer of discontent for President George W. Bush, a man beset on every side -- by a failing war and falling popularity, by scandal, suspicion and rising hostility, even in the red-state heartlands. With each passing day of his long vacation in the Texas wastes, his presidency is shrinking palpably before our eyes, his wildly inflated public image shrivelling like a punctured balloon.
The fountainhead of his trouble, of course, is the murderous quagmire he has created in Iraq. Some say he has no exit strategy, no way to escape the corrosive effects of this gargantuan disaster, which is draining his support and destroying the aura of the all-conquering "war leader" that he used to impose his radical right-wing agenda on the country. The tide has turned against him at last, some say; he's a lame duck crashing to the ground.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/19/120.html
continued ...
Since when does Michael Powell write for the Washington Post? Do they want to lose all credibility? They are on their way !
Intelligent Design is QUACKERY ! The Smithsonian is absolutely correct. Steinberg is "W"rong. Who did he vote for?
The below statement is false. He might not be convinced by intelligent design but the statement that science moves only forward on controversy is completely "W"rong and reminds me of scientists that accept money from oil companies to push back the issues of Global Warming. Mr. Steinberg inhibits science.
Science moves forward because there is always more not known and the knowledge accumulated is built on the shoulders of it's predecessors. The issue of evolution is well founded if in no other place but genetic assessments or Hox sequences. The idea that scientists get lazy when not challenged is hideous. A challenge like this wastes the precious time of scientific investigation. Scientific papers are years in the making and when a counter theory is thrown in the works without sound proof that only complicates research already being at work. There is no 'reference point' to disprove or prove against.
A 'theology' such as Intelligent Design when presented as a scientific basis is highly disruptive and unless scientists discard it as bogus others work cannot go forward. So to say every evolutionary biologist is stimulated by this theology is a grossly bad joke by a prestigious editor and journal.
Evolution is CHRONICALLY studied and that is completely evidenced by new discoveries all the time including those of hominids. The study is not in need of competition to go forward. It goes forward in the thirst for more knowledge and that is where it belongs, not in regression to languish in competition of theology. THAT could go on forever.
I find Mr. Steinberg minimally in violation of ethics and for those scientists who care to should proceed to put Intelligent Design on trial. I cannot help believe the Supreme Court will 'back' scientific theory as a legitimate documentary of science to lead to proven theory. Intelligent Design cannot meet those standards. I would not be afraid of putting it on trial if that is the passions of any scientist who cares to. Putting Intelligent Design on trail to challenge scientific standard is different than primary school teaching where 'liberal arts' rules all grade levels. THIS MY FRIENDS IS NOT CHILD'S PLAY !!
"I am not convinced by intelligent design but they have brought a lot of difficult questions to the fore," Sternberg said. "Science only moves forward on controversy."
These personal losses are the price for his activism without sound scientific reason.
Sternberg has seen stress piled upon stress in the past year. His marriage has dissolved, and he no longer comes into the Smithsonian. When the biological society issued a statement disavowing Meyer's article, Sternberg was advised not to attend. "I was told that feelings were running so high, they could not guarantee me that they could keep order," Sternberg said.
Again, below, there is NO SYSTEM. There is scientific theory. Scientific theory is NOT set, but proof has to exist for change to occur. The Null Hypothesis is the only measure one has to call a SYSTEM. It is a valid accounting for science. Anything else is theology and that is where Intelligent Design belongs. Mr. Steinberg regardless of his credentials is allowing his own personal agenda for creating waves to dictate good judgement.
A former professor of Sternberg's says the researcher has an intellectual penchant for going against the system. Sternberg does not deny it.
The statement below might be correct in that there maybe 'careerism' but there is definitely no 'herd mentality.' Those are political agendas and words. They don't belong anywhere near the argument of evolution. If Steinberg is unhappy with his ability to progress through a professional society then he needs to address the system through proper channels and not make a gigantic splash in an attempt to change a structural issue. If anything that will only make the structure more rigid out of safety measures for the science alone.
The science and the structure of professions is completely different subjects, one can be discussed without the other. If Mr. Steinberg wants to say the structure compromises the science then he needs to address that in good argument and THAT is what the clout of his position at the Smithsonian buys him. He's outrageous in his inappropriate approach to this subject. His poor judgement has made him irrelevant.
"I loathe careerism and the herd mentality," he said. "I really think that objective truth can be discovered and that popular opinion and consensus thinking does more to obscure than to reveal."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801680_3.html
Moscow Times
Chicken Farmers Sneeze at Bird Flu
By Conor Humphries
Staff Writer
Police stopping a car near a sign reading "Quarantine Bird Flu" in the flu-affected village of Oktyabrskoye on Thursday.
The domestic poultry industry is keeping its cool as a lethal strain of bird flu sweeps across the country toward European Russia.
Even as health officials scramble to contain the disease amid reports that it has crossed the Urals, market players say that Russia's centralized, highly regulated meat industry will be able to withstand the outbreak without any serious economic damage.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/19/003.html
Over 31,000 Corruption Cases Opened From January to June
The Moscow Times
Police opened more than 31,000 investigations into state corruption in the first six months of this year, and about 500 officials have been arrested and charged, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.
Nikolai Ovchinnikov, head of the Interior Ministry's organized crime and terrorism department, said the 31,000 figure was an 70 percent increase from the first half of last year -- a possible reflection of a Kremlin-orchestrated drive to crack down on corruption.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/19/015.html
Global Eye
Duck Soup
By Chris Floyd
Published: August 19, 2005
Now is the summer of discontent for President George W. Bush, a man beset on every side -- by a failing war and falling popularity, by scandal, suspicion and rising hostility, even in the red-state heartlands. With each passing day of his long vacation in the Texas wastes, his presidency is shrinking palpably before our eyes, his wildly inflated public image shrivelling like a punctured balloon.
The fountainhead of his trouble, of course, is the murderous quagmire he has created in Iraq. Some say he has no exit strategy, no way to escape the corrosive effects of this gargantuan disaster, which is draining his support and destroying the aura of the all-conquering "war leader" that he used to impose his radical right-wing agenda on the country. The tide has turned against him at last, some say; he's a lame duck crashing to the ground.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/19/120.html
continued ...
August 19, 2005. When does this stop? When does the USA military do what it is supposed to do and destroy al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan? When is the 'threat' to this civilization stop? The longer the USA is bogged down in Iraq the longer this hideous set of circumstances continues. The war is in Afghanistan. It was NEVER in Iraq until we were !! The children of Iraq are casualities that are not acceptable either.
Defendable Borders.
It is a promise by the USA to Isael.
That is why the issues of The West Bank are hugely different than that of Gaza.
Jordan knows today's attack is serious to the disengagement of the West Bank.
This map shows the type of missiles used against Israel by Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other extremist groups. The Katyusha Missiles have a longer range and are mobile on trucks. They were once called 'Hilter's Organ.' They are 'convenient' to close attack. At issue is the further disengagement of the West Bank. Bush wants Israelis out of Jerusalem to replace them with Christian Palestinians and will promise anything to achieve that end.
In my opinion, the PA and their leadership Abbas has a lot to prove before any of the West Bank disengagement can begin. As I have stated repeatedly, the settlements have protected Israel for nearly four decades. Hezbollah has to be reined in and disarmed. Hezbollah among the other extremists are throughout the area including Jordan, Lebanon and Syria's Sheba Farms. Israel has a lot on the line in regard to national security and sovereignty. The neighboring countries need to arrest and disarm their militants.
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