Not to victimize VW. They have always been out front with best gas mileage for as long as I can remember.

But, I think I made the point how companies can pay millions upon millions of dollars US for commercial time for the Super Bowl, where millionaires play on fields owned by billionaires, oblivious to people dying in the frigid reality of abandonment.  But, hey, the jobs are more important then anything else.  Work hard, keep warm.


I thought the dog was great.  A real sport actually.  VW treated the dog exceptionally well.  And the dog is quite the character.  He seems to enjoy his life.  Quite the thinker.  Very loveable.  Nice.

The Paradox

A truck clears snow in Burgos, Ukraine. More than 120 people died in the country owing to the poor weather conditions. Photograph: Cesar Manso/AFP/Getty Images

...After more than 200 people (click title to entry - thank you) were killed in Arctic temperatures in eastern Europe, the pattern of snowfall moved west, dumping two metres (6.5ft) of snow in parts of Bosnia. On Sunday, the authorities used helicopters to evacuate sick people and deliver food to thousands cut off by the country's highest snowfall on record.

More than 100 remote Bosnian villages were cut off by the snowfall. A state of emergency was declared in the capital, Sarajevo, which has been under more than a metre of snow since Friday, with schools closed, trams stuck in snowdrifts and people trapped in cars. With roads closed and no public transport in much of Sarajevo, some neighbourhoods reported water shortages and residents struggled to reach the shops to buy food.

In neighbouring Serbia, about 70,000 people remained cut off from services. Rare snowfall on Croatia's Adriatic coast left three dead, and the army was called in to help clear snow...

Nothing to envy though.  Tornadoes and burgeoning Tropical Storms make life no less threatening.

No-snow winter would be first in history for region  (click here)

February 03, 2012 12:44 PM

Yael Ossowski

If the skies fail to yield any frozen precipitation in the next six to eight weeks, the greater Charlotte region could experience its first-ever winter without any snow.

This is a stark contrast to last year’s abnormally snowy season, which left children celebrating multiple school closings and parents fretting dangerous and icy road conditions.

According to the National Weather Service, the region has had at least a trace of snow every year since records began in 1878, producing an average of 5.7 inches of snowfall for the past 134 years.

Though the Charlotte region, which includes Gaston County, has always enjoyed modest amounts of snow, the chance of a snowless winter would make 2011-2012 a landmark season in metrological history. Since 2001, an average of 4.8 inches of snow has fallen in the region, peaking at the unusually high total of 14.5 inches during the winter of 2003-2004....

2011 was the third lowest ice volume since 1979.

Overview of Conditions
Arctic sea ice extent in December 2011 averaged 12.38 million square kilometers (4.78 million square miles). This is the third lowest December ice extent in the 1979 to 2011 satellite data record, 970,000 square kilometers (375,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average extent.

Ice extent was particularly low on the Atlantic side of the Arctic, most notably in the Barents and Kara seas. The eastern coast of Hudson Bay did not freeze entirely until late in the month: normally, Hudson Bay has completely frozen over by the beginning of December. In the Bering Sea, ice extent was slightly above average....

...The graph to the right shows daily Arctic sea ice extent as of January 3, 2011, along with the ice extents for the previous four years. 2011 is shown in light blue, 2010 is in pink, 2009 in dark blue, 2008 is in purple, and 2007, the year with the record low minimum, is dashed green. The gray area around the average line shows the two standard deviation range of the data. ...

I've noted the Arctic Oscillation repeatedly over the years on this blog. The winds are strong enough to reverse ocean currents and dilute ocean salinity.

...PASADENA, Calif. - A new NASA and University of Washington study allays concerns that melting Arctic sea ice could be increasing the amount of freshwater in the Arctic enough to have an impact on the global "ocean conveyor belt" that redistributes heat around our planet... 


...The team (click title to entry -thank you) attributes the redistribution to an eastward shift in the path of Russian runoff through the Arctic Ocean, which is tied to an increase in the strength of the Northern Hemisphere's west-to-east atmospheric circulation, known as the Arctic Oscillation. The resulting counterclockwise winds changed the direction of ocean circulation, diverting upper-ocean freshwater from Russian rivers away from the Arctic's Eurasian Basin, between Russia and Greenland, to the Beaufort Sea in the Canada Basin bordered by the United States and Canada. The stronger Arctic Oscillation is associated with two decades of reduced atmospheric pressure over the Russian side of the Arctic. Results of the NASA- and National Science Foundation-funded study are published Jan. 5 in the journal Nature….

They are dying in the USA, too. But, they are children begging for medicine.

Begging at a Faith, Family and Forum meeting doesn't even make an impression for the need of reform in the health care system in the USA.  Santorum is pathetic.  He is completely removed from compassion.  He treats a child's plea as an adult question at a financial forum.


By the way, the pundits have it wrong.  Santorum is not seeking Vice Presidential status, when the made what appeared to be accolades to Romney he was actually answering the demand by Gingrich to leave the race.  Do you actually think Santorum would tell Republican Social Conservatives to move to the back of the bus to throw in with Romney?  They are the only ones that vote for him.

Time for a commercial break.

The people don't have basic clothes such as gloves to even try to protect themselves.

The hands of a homeless man are seen as he rests inside an overcrowded shelter set up by the city hall in Bucharest as temperatures plunge to minus 16 degrees Celsius.

...A state of emergency (click title to entry - thank you) has been declared in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, which is buried in more than 3 feet of snow. Several water shortages have been reported, and many people are trapped in their cars, Britain's The Guardian newspaper reported. Helicopters were dispatched to evacuate the sick in parts of Bosnia that are cut off by the country's highest snowfall on record.

In Bulgaria, 15 people have been found dead at the side of the road or in unheated houses. Deaths have also been reported in France and Poland, and record snowfalls in Italy, Algeria and several Mediterranean islands.

In England, more than 60 car accidents have been reported in the North Yorkshire region due to about 6 inches of snow. The Met office issued nine warnings after snow began to turn into ice across U.K. roadways, the BBC reports.

There is no conscience in this.  When are the wealthiest going to realize their responsibility in the pain and death of the poor due to their own disastrous decisions?  This impoverishment is not due to anything within their control and now they are paying with their lives.

The CONTENT of the Arctic Ocean has been based in fresh water.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008


One of Canada's (click here) five remaining Arctic ice shelves - the 4,500-year-old, 50-sq.-km. Markham Ice Shelf - has broken completely away from Ellesmere Island and drifted into the Arctic Ocean, the most dramatic sign yet of how rising temperatures and retreating sea ice are creating "irreversible" changes to the country's polar frontier....

Year old ice has salt content.  Older ice does not.  The older the ice the more it is composed of FRESH WATER.  


When the older ice melts it is entering the ocean circulation of the North Atlantic and dilutes the warmer waters.


There is a very good chance with the loss of older ice, the Thermohaline Current is beginning to be effected.


The Markham Ice Shelf above is nothing but fresh water and as it melts it dilutes the ocean currents, effects circulation and assists sea level rise.


Growth of Ice (click title to entry - thank you)


...The ions of the salts in sea water cannot enter the crystal structure despite its open nature. One might expect all salt to be rejected, therefore, leading to a sea ice cover composed of pure ice. Such is not the case, however. If you suck on a piece of first-year sea ice it will taste distinctly salty. The water from young sea ice may have a salinity of about 10 parts per thousand, dropping to 1-3 (parts per thousand) in old ice....

The Arctic Ocean has been replaced with ONE YEAR OLD ICE.

Maps show the relative age of Arctic Sea Ice at the end of February 2009 and over time.  Thin, first-year ice is the predominant type covering the Arctic Ocean this winter.  Credit:  Chuck Fowler and Jim Maslanik, University of Colorado and NSIDC.

Time for a commercial break.

This is from a 2003 study. The governments of the world knew this was coming.

The Arctic Ocean 1979

…The result has direct connections to NASA-funded studies conducted last year that found perennial, or year-round, sea ice in the Arctic is declining at a rate of nine percent per decade and that in 2002 summer sea ice was at record low levels. Early results indicate this persisted in 2003.

Researchers have suspected loss of Arctic sea ice may be caused by changing atmospheric pressure patterns over the Arctic that move sea ice around, and by warming Arctic temperatures that result from greenhouse gas buildup in the atmosphere….

It is an inconvenient truth it has happened when the global economy crashed.  One has to ask if it was sincerely wise to bailout the banks so much as investing it the people.  The problem is that austerity with lack of job growth is tragic to the human condition.  The governments are not doing their job in protecting their people and their sovereignty. 

Arctic Ocean 2003

The Thermohaline Circulation

The Global Conveyor Belt


This is a general depiction of the overall circulation.  It is not detailed.

It takes dense salt water to make it work, not an ocean full of fresh water.


...In the Earth's polar (click title to entry - thank you) regions ocean water gets very cold, forming sea ice. As a consequence the surrounding seawater gets saltier, because when sea ice forms, the salt is left behind. As the seawater gets saltier, its density increases, and it starts to sink. Surface water is pulled in to replace the sinking water, which in turn eventually becomes cold and salty enough to sink. This initiates the deep-ocean currents driving the global conveyer belt....


This is the more detailed ocean circulation of the North Atlantic.


The Gulf Steam is a wind driven current and is warmer than most other currents in the Atlantic.  It originates off Africa.  


The North Atlantic Drift also known as the North Atlantic Current.  It is a warm water current driven by the ocean conveyor belt.  It is a considerable warming current to Europe.

\\

The unnecessary price for political austerity.

By Paul Krugman

New York Times

Last week the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, (click title to entry - thank you) a British think tank, released a startling chart comparing the current slump with past recessions and recoveries.

It turns out that by one important measure — changes in real GDP since the recession began — Britain is doing worse this time than it did during the Great Depression.

Four years into the Depression, British GDP had regained its previous peak; four years after the Great Recession began, Britain is nowhere close to regaining its lost ground.

Nor is Britain unique. Italy also is doing worse than it did in the 1930s — and with Spain clearly headed for a double-dip recession, that makes three of Europe’s big five economies members of the worse-than club.

Yes, there are some caveats and complications. But this nonetheless represents a stunning failure of policy.

And it’s a failure, in particular, of the austerity doctrine that has dominated elite policy discussion both in Europe and, to a large extent, in the United States for the past two years....

...The infuriating thing about this tragedy is that it was completely unnecessary. Half a century ago, any economist — or for that matter any undergraduate who had read Paul Samuelson’s textbook “Economics” — could have told you that austerity in the face of depression was a very bad idea.

But policymakers, pundits and, I’m sorry to say, many economists decided, largely for political reasons, to forget what they used to know. And millions of workers are paying the price for their willful amnesia.

Last count, there were 300 people found dead in the lastest freeze in Europe.

An elderly woman cleared a path through snow in the village of Medjurijecje, Montenegro.

...Eastern Europe was particularly hard hit. Ukraine’s Ministry of Emergencies reported that at least 131 people had died during a cold snap that has lasted more than a week in which night temperatures have dropped well below freezing. Hundreds have been treated for hypothermia or frostbite.

Many of the victims in Eastern Europe were homeless people. In Poland, the PAP news agency reported that Prime Minister Donald Tusk had asked local authorities to waive the ban on admitting inebriated people to homeless shelters after eight more people died, bringing the death toll from the storm to 53 in Poland....

Great cheek bones, I guess. It's Sunday Night. Any chance anorexia can be outlawed on the runway?

I do believe five hours of this is a career killer.  Could be wrong, but, over exposure.

LIGHTS - Ice [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]

My mouth is frozen so I can't even speak
What a disappointment, I had it perfectly
What I was going to bring up suddenly
Stood like a stone as you stood quietly
You're making it hard for me
All I can do is freeze


What I mean is, all I need is,
Just a little emotion
Cause all I see is you not feeling
And you're giving me nothing nice
I tried to do you right, why'd you have to go and turn to ice


I don't think you're knowing how hard this is for me
I'm not the type to say sorry constantly
So I swallowed my pride and I got on my knees
But still you just stood there as you stared at me
Your ego is getting old
How did you get so cold


What I mean is, all I need is,
Just a little emotion
Cause all I see is you not feeling
And you're giving me nothing nice
I tried to do you right, why'd you have to go and turn to ice


I'm looking at you looking at me, what can I do but say sorry
It's a little late but you know I just want you to be happy.
What I got to say to make you let me get away with it this time.
I know you're upset and that you're happy just to sit and hate me,
But I'll make a bet that you'll be better to forget about me,
Even better yet I'll let a little light melt the ice, ice baby!


My mouth is frozen so I can't even speak
I'm not the type to say sorry constantly


What I mean is all I need is
Just a little emotion
Cause all I see is you not feeling
And you're giving me nothing
What I mean is all I need is
Just a little emotion
Cause all I see is you not feeling
And you're giving me nothing nice
I tried to do you right, why'd you have to go
I tried to do you right, why'd you have to go and turn to ice 

Is everyone completely disconnected from the 'dynamics of the don?"

The Don is a 'wealth merchant' that doesn't care where the millions come from so long as it comes.  That is capitalism without a conscience.  Donald Trump has no conscience about his acquisition of attention or his focus of his own "Your Fired" I want to be a millionaire like The Don show.


Donald Trump is not a moral man and neither is Romney.  They love money and damned anything or anyone that gets in the way of it.  They two have a lot in common including their form of morality.  "Getting right with God" is a 'station' for Trump.  He demands being seen as a virtuous man and having a wife he is loyal to because it makes money.  Maybe Trump can get every Miss Universe participant to vote for Romney, but, that is a very small constituency.  He can do that because of his power within his own organization.  No different than what's her name he paraded around.  She was virtuous regardless of her overt distain of civil rights for the Gay Community because of her Anti-Abortion stance and therefore it rubbed off on him.


The reason why Trump backed Romney has nothing to do about winning the elections, it is because Romney is favored by the GOP as someone that can beat the President.  Trump stated he would consider an independent run if no one was nominated that can beat President Obama.  For Trump this is another victory along with his Birther victory.  Or so he says.  The process regarding the President's Long Form Birth Certificate started long before Trump entered the picture.


But, backing Romney gets Trump off the hook for giving up his "I want to be a Millionaire like Trump" show.  The Apprentice I think it is called.  The gamesmanship of the media surrounding the announcement by Trump was intentional.  By all rights, Trump should have backed Gingrick.  He didn't.  Trump had all the trappings of Palin and the extreme right that Gingrick carries as a mantel.  Trump wanted out of the mess for this year.  


The gamesmanship of the press was to draw everyone into the audience.  If Trump had everyone guessing it served two purposes, it increased his 'catch' for his annoucement and it vanquished the 'hang on' Palin crowd.  These people are vicious about their wealth, how they get it and how they keep it.  I mean, get for real.

Soledad O'Brien was right on the mark with her interview.

The Republican Party is NOT interested in repairing a safety net.  Where can Romney point to with his own party where repairing the social safety net for the poor.  It is quite the contrary.


So here again, and I would Soledad's to indepth knowledge and sensitivity of the poor and minorities in this country, there is nothing 'in the air' by Romney rhetoric.  


I mean this isn't even a 'gotcha' moment.  This is a statement about how he sees the world and he isn't even in touch with the trend of his own party.  The GOP has been draconian across the nation to their 'connectedness' to the poor.  I mean give me a break and this comment about the Middle Class is completely hideous.  The Middle Class is being burdened with more and more of the nation's own poverty in their national debt.  They are being attacked from every direction and THEIR safety net is being hacked away at and has been hacked away at for decades that resulted in the place the Middle Class finds themselves now.


Who is kidding who here?


Romney is the puppet with 'the face' for more deception by the GOP with millions upon millions infused by the Radical Rove.

There are actually Catholics that approve of The Affordable Care Act. This is the USA and not Rome.

ACTION CENTER (click here)

Catholics Support Access to Contraception under Affordable Care Act

The bishops have portrayed the Obama Administration’s decision to require most employers to cover contraception without copays as an all-out attack on Catholicism and conscience rights. In shouting this from the pulpit, they are threatening to drown out the voice of the majority of Catholics who believe that women should be able to access birth control using their company's health insurance. Take action!

It is all too obvious the Vatican orchestrated the response of the Bishops in the USA.  It was in unison and I am sure there are ambitions beyond their current position within the church.

Women are a soft target for power struggles.  That is just a fact.  

But, there is a problem greater than this manifestation of it regarding the exclusivity of health care of Catholic Churches.

** Nearly one in every five hospital beds (click here) in the United States is now under the control of a religious entity and 10 of the 20 largest health systems in the country are religiously-owned.


** The Catholic healthcare system is the largest private non-profit provider of healthcare in the nation.  In fact, 70% of religiously affiliated hospitals identify as Catholic.  As of 2005, there were 60 Catholic healthcare systems, totaling 13% of all community hospitals.


**A huge surge in hospital sales and mergers during the 1990s has made the Catholic 
healthcare system more influential.  


   - Under the Religious and Ethical Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, 
Catholic hospitals will not provide contraception, sterilization, most infertility 
treatments, condom distribution for AIDS prevention, or abortion services.  Directive goes so far as to say no medical care can be provided to a woman with an extrauterine pregnancy that could be construed as abortion.


  - It is also difficult to obtain emergency contraception in Catholic hospitals – even for 
rape/sexual assault victims.


  - Medicare and Medicaid account for one-half of the funding to religiously affiliated 
hospitals. Religious hospitals also enjoy certain benefits like tax exempt status, lowcost financing through government bond programs, and in some areas, use of 
municipal buildings.


There is a question of monopoly of health care in the USA.  As religious INFRINGMENTS take over policy of larger segments of the populous of the USA and there are exclusivity of treatment in some areas of the country, there are implications upon sovereignty of the country itself.  This is the mistake the Catholic Church has made time and again.  Governments require sovereignty in order to function and while the Catholic Church's power in parts of the world might be viewed as benevolent, it is a fault within the church's priorities.  


Churches of a wide variety experience the health care system in the USA, but, that doesn't mean they can dictate the care of the patients according to their own rules.  It has nothing to do with religious freedom in the USA, it has to do with the health care people are seeking and its availability.


If the Catholic Church wants to provide care to the people of the USA they need to provide care to all the people without discrimination.  So, if a Baptist walks into a Catholic Hospital or Health Care System there needs to be services in place.  That applies to the Baptist that works for a Catholic Health Care System.  


The other dynamic is the problems with Health Care Systems and their exclusive rights to entire regions of a state.  There is less and less competition and options in areas of any state as mergers occurred.  So, it is very realistic for citizens across the country to be absorbed by a religious health care system that restricts their personal choices.  But it is not realistic to believe that a religious health care system has the right to dictate the religious content of their lives through dysfunctional policies for the American people which has a proud heritage of being a "Melting Pot."


The assertions by the Catholic Church the USA is dictating religious practice in the USA is nonsense.  In this case, it is protecting it and its diversity.

The Russian Renaissance

Joy Womack, a 17-year-old dancer who is to become the first American to graduate from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, takes part in a lesson at the academy buildings in Moscow.
Jennifer RankinReuters6:42 am CST, January 31, 2012


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian ballet stars (click title to entry - thank you) once defected to the West in search of artistic freedom. These days, western dancers are lured east by the iron discipline of a Russian ballet education.

Around 100 foreigners from all over the world are enrolled at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, formally known as the Moscow State Academy of Choreography. Founded by Empress Catherine the Great, the school produced Soviet legends Olga Lepeshinskaya and Maya Plisetskaya as well as contemporary stars such as Natalia Osipova and Nikolai Tsiskaridze....

Russia's objection to a UN Resolution is usually backed by reason and not emotion.

...Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (click title to entry - thank you) has criticized the text of a Western-backed United Nations Security Council resolution on the violence in Syria, saying there will be a "scandal" if it is put to a vote.


Lavrov says Russia wants two amendments to the resolution. He said the measure should treat anti- and pro-government forces more equally rather than appear to be taking sides in a civil war. And he said the resolution should close the door on any possibility of foreign intervention in the conflict....


I especially thought closing the door on a foreign intervention was interesting.  I mean you've got to be joking to believe China and Russia will consent to another occupation of powers.  I believe Russia still has a naval base in Syria.


Not only that, but, Israel and Iran are throwing stones at each other.  And that is another thing.  The USA and Israel have postponed military exercises because of the tensions with Iran and the Homuz mess.  Then to prove to Iran that Israel is the Top Gun it openly threatens an attack in the Spring.  Spring.  Hm. Like "Arab Spring."  Just playing with words.

Then there is the fact Russia has recognized two new nations of which no one else globally has recognized and there are bad feelings about any more riotous behaviors in the area.


And then there is that whole "Star Wars" incident, so there are many, many reasons why Russia and China vetoed any UN resolution about Syria. The two objections seemed reasonable actually.  


Russia was already involved in Civil Wars with Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia so probably know something about stabilizing the region when no one else does.  Russia had every right to step in with the Georgia disaster, too.  Georgia was killing people in ethnic violence.  The facts are on this blog.  The Russia peacekeepers ran into frank assassination of people in those areas.

China's (click here) Ambassador Li Baodong (front) votes during a UN Security Council meeting on an Arab-European draft resolution on Syria backing an Arab League plan which demands a regime change in the Middle East country, New York February 4, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]


It is interesting to see China and Russia stand together on this one.  They have that 2000 Friendship Pact, you know.

...The unadopted draft "fully supports" the January 22 Arab League decision "to facilitate a Syrian-led political transition to a democratic, plural political system ... including through commencing a serious political dialogue between the Syrian government and the whole spectrum of the Syrian opposition."

The Arab League plan contains demands that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down to pave the way for a new national unity government and national elections in the Middle East country.

Russia and China have voiced their strong opposition to forced regime change in Syria.

Russia warned some countries against meddling in the internal affairs of Syria, saying that the international community should prevent a replay of the Libya model, in which NATO military action help topple the regime of Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi....

It would seem as though China also believes the unrest within the Middle East is worrisome and opt for dictatorships over democracy.  I suppose they have something in common with Glen Beck.

Libyan militia accused of torturing to death ambassador to France (click here)

One of Libya's many new militias has been accused of detaining and apparently torturing to death a former ambassador to France, the latest allegation of brutality to mar the victorious revolutionaries' reputation since the fall of Col Muammar Gaddafi....

It would seem as though there is still some blood lust in Libya after killing Gaddafi. That maybe a focus of China, but, I think the USA elections in November has some wondering what new Neocon will have a chance at destroying any control in the Middle East at all. I really think that has a lot to do with it. Seriously. I mean, another George Bush? That at least as far as Russia is concerned. Then there is always this 'exportation' of hostilities between Russia, China and the USA to other nations. Allowing an escalation of presence of the USA in the region is sincerely worrisome. It should be worrisome to Americans as well, at least the Libya resolution didn't allow for OCCUPATION.

So, what then about the violence in Syria?  

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) — Abu Hamza was in a crowd of thousands (click here) in the Syrian border town of Qusair, shouting for President Bashar Assad to leave power, when a sniper's bullet tore through his leg and shattered the bone into 18 pieces.

Another bullet pierced his back as he tried to crawl away. A friend rushed into the street to try to drag him away but was also hit in the shoulder. Abu Hamza lay in the street for two hours until it was dark. Finally a man ran out, pulled him to a safer area, then himself fell dead, shot in the head.

Friends smuggled Abu Hamza immediately across the border into Lebanon. Now nearly two months later he is recuperating in a clinic set up by Syrian exiles in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli....

Arm the resistance?  Sounds reasonable to me.  The roof top assassins of Libya were brought under control.  At least give the Syrians half a chance.  If Russia and China want to have both sides of the conflict recognized, I don't see any harm in actually making the conflict equal.

And if the Glen Beck's of the world want to cower in the corner regarding the end of a vicious dictator willing to pick off his own citizens then they don't understand democracy and human rights, nor do they care to. I thought cowering was out of the question in the USA, evidently not in some corners of the political realm.


It is worrisome that Lebanon will be receiving violence if Assad so decides he can export his anger and again transpose his authority elsewhere, so to secure the borders of Lebanon is not unreasonable.  


I am sure the protesters would like to be doing more than shouting at Assad anyway.  I think Russia is correct.  The major powers do not need to be involved so much as empowering the people now being assassinated to stop Assad.  Arming the resistance is a measure that can be reversed and controlled by any major military in the world.  It is a reasonable decision.  It stands with morality while controlling any escalation.


So, the USA needs to stop saying Russia and China are the 'bad guys' in all this.  I really don't believe they are.  The Syrians need their own 'equity' not surrender.


And in Myanmar, they may not see the movie about Suu Kyi, but, the politics is flourishing. Who needs a superstar in an unfair political advantage in a movie theater after all?

88 Gen backs reformers, Daw Suu Kyi (click here)

January 30 - February 5, 2012

LEADERS of the 88 Generation student movement say they want to work “hand-in-hand” with reformers across the political spectrum and also support the role of Daw Aung Suu Kyi.

Min Ko Naing, a prominent student leader who was released from prison on January 13 under an amnesty, said at a press conference in Yangon on January 21 that the group was mostly optimistic about the country’s political future.

“I want to clearly inform that we (88 generation students) would pull the rope (stand) on the side of reformers,” said Min Ko Naing.

“I am not as pessimistic to say that it the glass is half empty, while I don’t want to be over optimistic and say it is half full. We are more like fish that need water for our survival,” the veteran activist said.

“We will clearly support those who want to build justice, freedom and equality in the battle against those who want to destroy these three things,” he said....