When pigs fly they shade the earth slowing global warming

From 1993 until 2003 923 scientific journal articles were published on various aspects of global warming impact, process, pace, sources, etc.  100% of them confirmed global warming is real, it is here, it's getting hotter, it's killing stuff already and we are speeding it along.  These 923 articles are all based on scientific studies and data gathered from around the globe, by scientist from dozens of nations and governments, and from dozens of scientific fields related to our problem.  All the articles are written by people educated in the subject they write of, all the articles were peer reviewed, meaning you submit the article, and months if not years go by while others try to find something wrong with it which tosses it out.  100% agreed on the general trend.  Some differ on specifics but all agree it's real, it is now. Yet the deniers claim thousands of scientist object.

The myth has grown, and a deniers speakers industry has developed pretending the 923 papers were cherry picked, that in fact there were over 11,000 scientific papers and most showed no global warming.  After much hounding the deniers promoting this relented there were 43 papers which objected.  So, the scientist looked into it.  None of these papers were written by scientist working in the field they have a degree in, in fact most were not scientist at all but economist, hired writers who did no original research, and a smattering of TV weathermen, none as in zero were in peer reviewed journals.  100% of these 43 were in advertising vehicle commercial, local, or trade magazines, "oil drillers weekly"or some such things which will publish anything submitted for free if it reads well.

Still, we hear it is a debate, the ignorant news media think so, the GOP thinks so, but there is no debate among the people doing this research and writing these papers, they are all convinced by their observations and confident in their projections.  There is no debate in the Pentagon or the CIA, both say it will cause more failed states, migrations, wars.  Amazingly, because of this years storms fires and heat, the polls show the public is inching back, a few are giving up on the myth that high school drop outs, business majors and factory owners know more about what is happening than people who have studied it for years.  Hey, when pigs fly........

Vegan diet at 10 days, improvements already

10 days ago the wife and I decided to become (nearly) vegans.  The first actual change appears to be her blood pressure.  Her numbers move around but have been most often in the high 130's over mid 90's.  After 5 days they fell and have remained almost constant at 120 over 84, excellent numbers.

I stated (nearly) vegan, we still eat a few ounces of fish twice a week, and she uses eggs in some baking, and I dribble milk in my coffee, but that's about it.  If we are invited over for a dinner we won't turn down a small serving of meat, and we will still serve meat for special occasions.  

The poor people of the world eat vegan because they have to, hundreds of millions in India and parts of Asia eat vegan due to social/religious beliefs.  Contrary to knee jerk reaction it is not a potential health risk, a vitamin B-12 supplement is the only possible additional requirement.  I think we are eating better than ever, the delicious dishes from India, Japan, Mexico, Lebanon, Israel and Italy without meats number in the hundreds and are fantastic in taste and appearance, I believe we have better tasting meals now than we ever had in the past.  In fact I am sure of it, walk into a good produce section and look at all the fruit and vegi's, we are eating all of it, everything, and lots of it, except parsnips and coconut.  Some of these are expensive, but without the meat, so far it seems our costs are the same.  And if the wife can go off some of her many meds eventually, the cost will be less with our high co-pays.

The main reason we did this was to see if we could head off her on and off trouble with ulcerated colitis and my growing awareness of my muscle tremors, the blood pressure change is the first visible result, and a wonderful surprise to my wife.  This is a great cult.  

Birthday of Anna Politkovskaya

Journalist, Russian, made famous reporting the Chechnya war, of the crimes, rapes, selling of corpses to relatives, she attacked Vladimir Putin often, the military, the police, the judicial.  For this she was arrested many times, almost every time she published she was questioned, she was beaten, poisoned but lived through it and finally shot 3 times in the chest and once in the head in her apartment building as the elevator opened.
If I had 10% of her bravery, I could be a man.

Our democracy and it's reaction to Civil Disobedience

Mr. Tim Christopher wrote this letter from prison.  If you don't know him, google, or go to bidder70.org.

If I had ever doubted the power of words, Judge Benson made their importance all too clear at my sentencing last month. When he sentenced me to two years in prison plus three years probation, he admitted my offense "wasn't too bad." The problem, Judge Benson insisted, was my "continuing trail of statements" and my lack of regret. Apparently, all he really wanted was an apology, and for that, two years in prison could have been avoided. In fact, Judge Benson said that had it not been for the political statements I made in public, I would have avoided prosecution entirely. As is generally the case with civil disobedience, it was extremely important to the government that I come before the majesty of the court with my head bowed and express regret. So important, in fact, that an apology with proper genuflection is currently fair trade for a couple years in prison. Perhaps that's why most activist cases end in a plea bargain.

Since that seems like such a good deal, some people are asking why I wasn't willing to shut my mouth and take it. But perhaps we should be asking why the government is willing to make such a deal. The most recent plea bargain they offered me was for as little as 30 days in jail. (I'm writing this on my 28th day.) So if they wanted to lock me up for two years, why would they let me walk for an apology and keeping my mouth shut for a while? On the other hand, if they wanted to sweep this under the rug, why would they cause such a stir by locking me up? Why do my words make that much of a difference?

With all criminal cases, of which 85 percent end in a plea bargain, the government has a strong incentive to avoid a trial: In addition to cutting the expense of a trial, a plea bargain helps concentrate power in the hands of government officials.

The revolutionaries who founded this country were deeply distrustful of a concentration of power, so among other precautions, they established citizen juries as the most important part of our legal system and insisted upon constitutional right to a jury trial. To avoid this inconvenience, those seeking concentrated power free from revolutionaries have minimized the role of citizens in our legal system. They have accomplished this by restricting what juries can hear, what they can decide upon, and most importantly, by avoiding jury trials all together. It is now accepted as a basic fact of our criminal justice system that a defendant who exercises his or her right to a jury trial will be punished at sentencing for doing so. Transferring power from citizens to government happens when the role of citizens gets eliminated in the process.

With civil disobedience cases, however, the government puts an extra value on an apology. By its very nature, civil disobedience is an act whose message is that the government and its laws are not the sole voice of moral authority. It is a statement that we the citizens recognize a higher moral code to which the law is no longer aligned, and we invite our fellow citizens to recognize the difference. A government truly of the people, for the people, and by the people is not threatened by citizens issuing such a challenge. But government whose authority depends on an ignorant or apathetic citizenry is threatened by every act of open civil disobedience, no matter how small. To regain that tiny piece of authority, the government either has to respond to the activist’s demands, or get the activist to back down with a public statement of regret. Otherwise, those little challenges to the moral authority of government start to add up.

Over the last couple hundred years of quelling dissent, the government has learned a few things about maintaining power. Sometimes it seems that the government has learned more from our social movement history than we as activists have. Their willingness to let a direct action off with a slap on the wrist while handing out two years for political statements comes from their understanding of the power of an individual. They know that one person, or even a small group, cannot have enough of a direct impact on our corporate giants to really alter things in our economy. They know that a single person can't have a meaningful direct impact on our political system. But our modern government is dismantling the First Amendment because they understand the very same thing our founding fathers did when they wrote it: What one person can do is to plant the seeds of love and outrage in the hearts of a movement. And if those hearts are fertile ground, those seeds of love and outrage will grow into a revolution.

Well this sounds like a good idea, tell Obama to do it.

This land is their land.

The American Dream, climb to a better station in life through education, hard work and fair play, that dream has gone missing, it needs to be on a milk carton.  Among the the industrial nations of Europe and throw in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, the US is stuck next to Portugal now as the least likely place this dream can come true.   Also we are next to Portugal for the most disparity in wealth.  These two things are linked at the hip.  Give 95% of the money and assets to a couple million households and there is little chance the poor or middle class can move up, just staying level is a big success story now.  There are a couple of million uber-rich now who can if they wish finance a congressional or senate campaign, and do.   They own the best schools, the prime assets of this nation and the government.  This land is their land.

Anyone saying I don't vote  because it doesn't matter or there is no difference, is by setting it out voting for the GOP, lap dogs of the rich.

Some say the earth is not growing hotter,

some also said the earth was flat.

If a team of doctors said you need surgery or you will grow very ill,  would you instead listen to a business major or a factory owner who says no, just do the same stuff, the doctors don't know anything?