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“If a man has an apartment stacked to the ceiling with newspapers we call him crazy. If a woman has a trailer house full of cats we call her nuts. But when people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the entire nation, we put them on the cover of Fortune magazine and pretend that they are role models.”
-– B. Lester
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 | The News: Those Uninvited Guests at Your Barbecue |
With most samples of several common store-bought meats testing positive for antibiotic-resistant "superbugs," factory farming practices must change.
By Jill Richardson
Planning a Memorial Day barbecue? When you buy meat for that festive meal, watch out for some uninvited guests. An alarming amount of American meat harbors not just pathogens, but “superbugs” — antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
For now, you’d better cook your meat well enough to kill the germs (165F is the magic temperature), but there might be hope for safer alternatives in the future. Consumer advocates and lawmakers are trying to push changes that make these superbugs a thing of the past. That’s never been so important because industrialized agriculture delivers efficiency, productivity, and profit at the expense of food safety.
Our modern-day factory farm system has for too long served up meat that too frequently comes with a side of with pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli. Packing animals into cages and pens and feeding them the cheapest possible diets results in fast growth and tidy profits. But it also sets up sanitary conditions worse than a medieval city. With so many immune-depressed animals packed tightly together (along with their waste), these “farms” are a boon for bacteria.
That’s bad enough because food poisoning can kill you. But the news is even worse because many of the pathogens found in meat aren’t just bugs — they’re superbugs. If they infect you, antibiotics won’t help. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Thursday, May 16 @ 23:09:14 EDT (23 reads)
(Read More... | 6229 bytes more | Comments? | The News | Score: 0)
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| The News: The American Tragedy That Time Forgot |
 by Ray Lemire, streamingoldies.com
Death Comes To Mississippi
The Jackson State Murders
May 14-15, 1970
It was one of the most colossal blunders in Mississippi law enforcement history. Two young men killed, twelve more wounded. A farce of an investigation and trial following the tragedy. All in the name of squashing people's rights to be free and equal citizens of this country.
Since its establishment as a teacher's college in the late 1800s, Jackson State had been subject to racism. The school moved from its original location because it was too close to an all-white area, and established a new campus in an entirely black neighborhood. Lynch Street, named for Mississippi's first black congressman, bisected the new campus and linked west Jackson, a white suburb, to the downtown area.
In the early 1960s, a Masonic Temple just down the block from the university on Lynch Street was the headquarters for the Mississippi civil rights movement. Despite the proximity of the headquarters to the school, JSU students participated little in demonstrations and protests. A state school, Jackson could not afford to alienate the all-white board of education.
In the Spring of 1970, campus communities across this country were characterized by a chorus of protests and demonstrations. The issues were the escalation of the war in Vietnam and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia; the ecology; racism and repression; and the inclusion of the experiences of women and minorities in the educational system. No institution of higher education was left untouched by confrontations and continuous calls for change. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Tuesday, May 14 @ 20:25:39 EDT (35 reads)
(Read More... | 11457 bytes more | Comments? | The News | Score: 5)
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| Opinion: It is Time to Stop Our Killing to Stop the Killing |
 United for Peace & Justice Action Alert
It has been one month since the Boston Marathon bombing. United for Peace and Justice is deeply saddened by the attack and hope that the families and victims are finding some healing and peace. UFPJ stands in solidarity with them and all victims of political violence and war around the world. UFPJ strongly condemns this act of terrorism. We call for an end to the use of violence, terrorism and war as a means to resolve conflicts. As our nation struggles to make sense of this horrible attack on innocent people, UFPJ believes we must take a step back and ask questions and reflect not only about the alleged bombers’ actions but also about our own.
Many questions remain unanswered, but a few things are clear. For the past twelve years the U.S. government has conducted military operations in Muslim countries displacing millions of people, and maiming and killing thousands. Many of the victims have been women and children. This has led many to believe that the U.S. has declared war on the religion of Islam. Today the U.S. military is possibly gearing up for an attack on another predominately Muslim county Syria.
As we mourn the loss of U.S. lives we must ask ourselves what the loss of Muslim lives means to us? Should we expect Syrians, Yeminis, Pakistanis, Iraqis, Afghans and others to accept loss of life in their countries as a result of attacks that are ostensibly to keep our country safe? Do we believe that these military operations can continue and there will be no repercussions for the “collateral damage” of their loved ones’ deaths? ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, May 13 @ 21:20:47 EDT (35 reads)
(Read More... | 6628 bytes more | Comments? | Opinion | Score: 0)
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| Politics: Death is Preferable to Life at Obama’s Guantanamo |
 By Marjorie Cohn
More than 100 of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo are starving themselves to death. Twenty-three of them are being force-fed. “They strap you to a chair, tie up your wrists, your legs, your forehead and tightly around the waist,” Fayiz Al-Kandari told his lawyer, Lt. Col. Barry Wingard. Al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti held at Guantanamo for 11 years, has never been charged with a crime. “The tube makes his eyes water excessively and blood begins to trickle from the nose. Once the tube passes his throat the gag reflex kicks in. Warm liquid is poured into the body for 45 minutes to two hours. He feels like his body is going to convulse and often vomits,” Wingard added.
The United Nations Human Rights Council concluded that force-feeding amounts to torture. The American Medical Association says that force-feeding violates medical ethics. “Every competent patient has the right to refuse medical intervention, including life-sustaining interventions,” AMA President Jeremy Lazarus wrote to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Yet President Barack Obama continues the tortuous Bush policy of force-feeding hunger strikers.
Although a few days after his first inauguration, Obama promised to shutter Guantanamo, it remains open. “I continue to believe that we’ve got to close Guantanamo,” Obama declared in his April 30 press conference. But, he added, “Congress determined that they would not let us close it.” Obama signed a bill that Congress passed which erected barriers to closure. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, May 11 @ 22:48:25 EDT (47 reads)
(Read More... | 7021 bytes more | Comments? | Politics | Score: 5)
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| Space: After Chelyabinsk: European Experts Assess Asteroid Options |
 From: European Space Agency
In February, a speeding asteroid slammed into our atmosphere and exploded high over Russia’s Ural region, injuring hundreds and causing millions of euros of damage. What should we do if we have a similar – or even bigger – strike in the future?
Of the more than 600 000 known asteroids in our Solar System, almost 10 000 are classified as near-Earth objects, or NEOs, because their orbits bring them relatively close to Earth’s path.
Dramatic proof that any of these can strike Earth came on 15 February, when an unknown object thought to be 17–20 m in diameter arrived at 66 000 km/h and exploded high above Chelyabinsk, Russia, with 20–30 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
The resulting shock wave caused widespread damage and injuries, making it the largest known natural object to have entered the atmosphere since the 1908 Tunguska event, which destroyed a remote forest area of Siberia.
ESA watching out for Earth
“It’s important that we become aware of the current and future position of NEOs, develop estimates on the likelihood of impacts and assess the possible consequences,” says Detlef Koschny, Head of NEO activities in the Agency’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Programme Office. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Wednesday, May 08 @ 21:29:37 EDT (77 reads)
(Read More... | 3696 bytes more | Comments? | Space | Score: 0)
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| History/Culture: You Are The Hope |
 By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, globalresearch.ca
If there is hope, dear readers, you are it.
You are motivated to find truth.
You can think outside the box. You can see through propaganda.
You are the remnant with the common sense that once was a common American virtue. You come to this site, because you get explanations that are not agenda-driven, that are not BS, that are not right-wing or left-wing, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. You get explanations based on my lifetime of unique education and experience. Some of you are young enough to be equipped with the energy and courage to organize whatever resistance there may be to the Gestapo State that is descending on the United States of America.
Until the George W. Bush Regime, I never thought that it could happen here. I could not imagine law professors and Department of Justice (sic) officials writing legal memos justifying, in the name of a hyped “war on terror,” the termination of civil rights for United States Citizens. We were the land of the free. The Constitution was our bedrock. Yet, the Constitution and Bill of Rights were easily taken away from the inattentive American people.
The Constitution did not protect native inhabitants and slaves who were not considered part of the American population, but the universal suppression in the US of non-whites’ rights produced in the end the civil rights movement that brought moral awareness of the wrongs and successfully hitched its cause to the founding documents of the country. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, May 06 @ 20:53:01 EDT (103 reads)
(Read More... | 12537 bytes more | Comments? | History/Culture | Score: 0)
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| The News: The Koch Brothers' Dangerous Plan |
 From: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders,
bernie@bernie.org
Earlier this year, it was announced that the Tribune Company was exploring the possible sale of some of its major newspapers including The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Hoy, amongst others.
More recently, it has been rumored that one of the strongest potential buyers is Koch Industries, owned by the billionaire Koch brothers.
As you no doubt know, Charles and David Koch are right-wing extremists who already exercise enormous economic and political power in our country. As a family worth some $50 billion dollars they have reportedly spent at least $400 million attempting to influence the 2012 national elections. They have also established and funded dozens of organizations that actively support the privatization of Social Security, massive cuts in programs for working families, attacks on workers' rights, more tax breaks for billionaires and large corporations and other causes benefitting the rich and powerful. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Friday, May 03 @ 20:18:50 EDT (81 reads)
(Read More... | 2732 bytes more | Comments? | The News | Score: 0)
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| The News: Flying Over an Act of Monumental Stupidity |
The great victims of this sequester will be our children, the unemployed, the poor and the elderly — all groups with feeble lobbies or no lobbies at all.
By Donald Kaul
I knew that Congress would come to its senses eventually, that it would realize that the ham-handed budget cuts ordered by the so-called “sequester” weren’t going to work, that some government functions were too important to be cut.
And I was right, kind of.
Last week it restored funds to the Federal Aviation Administration. There had been big lines and flight delays at airports around the country, you see, and we can’t have that.
Congresspersons have to get back to their districts every Friday so they can beg for money and corporate executives have to get to their appointments on time so they’ll have the money to pay off the beggars. It’s called politics.
The way things were going at airports, however, was beyond inconvenient; it was a national crisis. Why, it was probably harming the war effort. I don’t know which war— terror, drugs, Afghanistan — pick one.
So, in a heart-warming example of bipartisanship, Republicans and Democrats joined hands to get the FAA back up to strength and the Republic was saved. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Wednesday, May 01 @ 21:53:55 EDT (105 reads)
(Read More... | 5258 bytes more | Comments? | The News | Score: 5)
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| History/Culture: The History and Traditions of Beltane/May Day |
 by Sherlyn Meinz aka Blue1moon
AlienLove Editor
Beltane is considered one of the most important of the ancient holidays. It’s history goes back further than records exist. It is a time for renewal, regrowth and fertility - for the land, livestock, wild animals, and humankind. It welcomes summer, the awakening of the earth and personal growth. The holiday begins at sundown on April 30th and continues through sundown on May first. However, due to calendar changes over the centuries, in years past, it was actually celebrated several days later allowing for more plants to be in bloom. Celebrations of this holiday are held as late as May 5th.
The holiday has many names: Beltaine, Beltane, May Eve, May Day, Walpurgis Night, Roodmass, to name a few. Many try to stay up all night on Beltane Eve to welcome the dawn with singing and dancing. It is also said that if you sit under a tree, you may be lucky enough to hear or see the Queen of the Faeries as she rides her white horse.
The horse’s bells ring as she rides through the night. Legend has that if you hide your face, the Faery Queen will pass you by, but if you look upon her she may choose you to accompany her to Faeryland. This is a time when the ‘veil’ between worlds is at it’s thinnest, as it is at Samhain (Halloween). It is considered to be the time when Faeries return full of mischief and delight, and rowan branches were often placed over doorways and windows for protection.
May Day is also acknowledged as the world’s first ‘workers’ holiday. Red (the color of fire) is associated with both holidays. In the celebration of the International holiday of May Day, red (flags) represent the splash of blood as organized workers lost their lives while fighting for basic rights. Traditional Beltane colors are red, white and green. Red is thought to have represented a woman’s menses; white either mother’s milk or a man’s semen; and green - growth and abundance. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Tuesday, April 30 @ 00:06:13 EDT (91 reads)
(Read More... | 22937 bytes more | Comments? | History/Culture | Score: 0)
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| Politics: The Pot Prohibition Runs Its Course |
Now that most Americans support the legalization of marijuana, some Republicans back the right of states to stop banning it.
By Emily Schwartz Greco and William A. Collins
Half a year ago, Colorado and Washington voters approved ballot measures to make marijuana legal in their states.
But ending the pot prohibition can’t happen overnight, even after electoral wins like that. Just ask Gil Kerlikowske, the nation’s “drug czar.”
“Neither a state nor the executive branch can nullify a statute passed by Congress,” Kerlikowske declared in a mid-April appearance at the National Press Club. That makes it sound pretty improbable that Colorado and Washington voters will see the change they supported at the ballot box anytime soon, doesn’t it?
Well, believe it or not, help could be on the way — thanks to a conservative California Republican. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Friday, April 26 @ 21:20:31 EDT (90 reads)
(Read More... | 5732 bytes more | Comments? | Politics | Score: 0)
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| The News: The Price of Our Fertilizer Addiction |
Compared to the lifetime of grieving ahead for the people of West, Texas, a few years of reduced crop yields is a small price to pay for converting from "conventional" to organic farming.
By Jill Richardson
My heart aches for the people of West, Texas, the tiny town where a fertilizer plant recently blew up. Many of the folks who perished in the blast were heroic volunteer firefighters who ran into danger instead of away from it.
With 14 dead and 200 injured, and a nearby nursing home, school, and apartment complex either badly damaged or destroyed, West’s brave citizens have hard work ahead.
As a nation, we must prevent a disaster like this from happening again. For starters, we can make fertilizer plants safer and locate them away from schools and nursing homes from now on.
This tragedy is even more painful because the factory was making a product — nitrogen fertilizer — that perhaps should not be used at all....
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Posted by Blue1moon on Wednesday, April 24 @ 22:18:51 EDT (100 reads)
(Read More... | 5879 bytes more | Comments? | The News | Score: 0)
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| The News: Who's investigating the FBI investigators?: |
Something's Rotten in Boston
by: Dave Lindorff
I’m not a conspiracy-minded person, but something definitely stinks about this whole Boston Marathon bombing story.
From what we’re reading about the case, the FBI had for at least two and possibly as many as five years been investigating Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old older brother killed during a shootout between police and the two brothers, Tamerlan and 19-year-old Dzhokhar. They had interviewed Tamerlan in his home, warned him they were watching what he ate, what he looked at on his computer, etc. They knew he had gone to Russia, Dagestan and Chechnya.
Then there’s the money thing. We’re told that Tamerlan had dropped out of community college because of money problems, right? Community college? That costs almost nothing to attend. That’s the whole point of community colleges: everyone can afford them. And he was reportedly only going part-time! But then, the two brothers are driving around in a Mercedes and wearing fancy clothes?
We’re talking about two brothers, both in school, with a father who was ill and living in Dagestan, who had worked as a curbside mechanic while in the US, and a mother who had a home beauty salon business, and these lads somehow were stylish dressers and drove around in an expensive car -- expensive to buy even used, and terribly expensive to maintain, too.
Where did all that money come from? ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, April 22 @ 22:31:14 EDT (108 reads)
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| Environment: ExxonMobil’s Mayflower Mess |
Tar sands crude is both more toxic and much harder to clean than ordinary oil.
By Michael Brune
Several weeks after ExxonMobil’s Pegasus pipeline gushed at least 500,000 gallons of tar sands crude and water into the Arkansas community of Mayflower, many of the evacuated families still can’t return to their homes.
Sierra Club organizer Glen Hooks, who grew up about 20 miles southeast of this disaster site, recently attended a meeting for the displaced families at Mayflower High School. “I had to really stare down some ExxonMobil goons who told me to leave because it was a private meeting,” he said. “I politely explained that it was a meeting in a public building about a public subject with numerous public officials in attendance, and that I was planning to stay.”
During the Mayflower meeting, Hooks listened as an ExxonMobil executive apologized to the families and said that the focus was on safety and helping the homeowners. “The meeting then moved into a phase where ExxonMobil met with individual family members about their claims in a side room guarded by no fewer than six uniformed police officers.”
Here’s something that the Big Oil leader probably didn’t tell those homeowners: In 2010, it was fined $26,200 by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for failing to regularly inspect each point where the Pegasus line crosses under a navigable waterway.
This is a pipeline that crosses under the Mississippi River — just one of the places ExxonMobil failed to do inspections. It’s hard to say which is more shocking: that “safety first” ExxonMobil has been so cavalier about pipeline inspections or that it was fined such a pittance for its irresponsibility. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Thursday, April 18 @ 21:20:17 EDT (111 reads)
(Read More... | 4742 bytes more | Comments? | Environment | Score: 0)
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| Politics: Obama Approves Raising Permissible Levels of Nuclear Radiation in Drinking Water |
Civilian Cancer Deaths Expected to Skyrocket Following Radiological Incidents
By Helen Caldicott, Global Research
The White House has given final approval for dramatically raising permissible radioactive levels in drinking water and soil following “radiological incidents,” such as nuclear power-plant accidents and dirty bombs. The final version, slated for Federal Register publication as soon as today, is a win for the nuclear industry which seeks what its proponents call a “new normal” for radiation exposure among the U.S population, according Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
Issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, the radiation guides (called Protective Action Guides or PAGs) allow cleanup many times more lax than anything EPA has ever before accepted. These guides govern evacuations, shelter-in-place orders, food restrictions and other actions following a wide range of “radiological emergencies.” The Obama administration blocked a version of these PAGs from going into effect during its first days in office. The version given approval late last Friday is substantially similar to those proposed under Bush but duck some of the most controversial aspects:
In soil, the PAGs allow long-term public exposure to radiation in amounts as high as 2,000 millirems. This would, in effect, increase a longstanding 1 in 10,000 person cancer rate to a rate of 1 in 23 persons exposed over a 30-year period; ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Tuesday, April 16 @ 23:11:12 EDT (203 reads)
(Read More... | 4253 bytes more | Comments? | Politics | Score: 0)
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| Business/Economy: Supreme Court Hears Arguments Challenging Patents on Genes |
From: aclu.org
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case seeking to invalidate patents on two genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.
The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil LibertiesUnion and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) on behalf of researchers, genetic counselors, patients, breast cancer and women's health groups, and medical professional associations representing 150,000 geneticists, pathologists and laboratory professionals. The patents allow a Utah company, Myriad Genetics, to control access to the genes, thereby enabling them to limit others from doing research or diagnostic testing of the genes, which can be crucial for individuals making important medical decisions.
"Myriad did not invent the human genes at issue in this case, and they should not be allowed to patent them. The patent system was designed to encourage innovation, not stifle scientific research and the free exchange of ideas, which is what these patents do," said attorney Chris Hansen of the ACLU, who argued the case.
A federal district court invalidated all of the challenged patents in 2010. In 2012, a federal appeals court ruled for the second time that the patents on the genes were valid. Its 2-1 decision followed a Supreme Court order directing the appeals court to reconsider its initial decision in light of a related patent case decided by the Supreme Court last spring. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, April 15 @ 19:42:52 EDT (98 reads)
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| Thursday, April 11 | | · | Free speech for feminists only, please |
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| Monday, April 08 | | · | Chase Down Mega-Rich Tax Cheats & Recover the Offshore Trillion$ |
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