Screw Miners We Need Coal
Bush has put the production of coal above the safety of coal miners. As is sadly demonstrated in the two recent mining disasters. They even went so far as to remove Clinton era safety regulations and then had the audacity to claim that resource production and “other priorities” took precedence. These budget cuts come at a time when coal prices have gone up 30% and led to huge profits for the coal industry. Sound like any other resource industry you know. /*hint OIL! hint*/ Once again the government has favored the big cooperation over the little guy to disastrous results. Is the death of miners and the death of soldiers worth our reliance on fossil fuels?
“These deaths, I believe, were entirely preventable, and we owe the families of these deceased and noble and great and brave men a hard look at what happened and why,” said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Ps., who chaired the hearing, noted that the budget for the Mine Safety and Health Administration has barely kept pace with inflation over the last decade, and that the agency has reduced its staff by 183 positions.
Pope + Money = Holy Bling Bling
So if you want to read the word of god, its going to cost you.
For the first time all papal documents, including encyclicals, will be governed by copyright invested in the official Vatican publishing house, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
The edict covers Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, which is to be issued this week amid huge international interest. The edict is retroactive, covering not only the writings of the present pontiff — as Pope and as cardinal — but also those of his predecessors over the past 50 years. It therefore includes anything written by John Paul II, John Paul I, Paul VI and John XXIII.
The decision was denounced yesterday for treating the Pope’s words as “saleable merchandise” and endangering the Church’s mission to “spread the Christian message”.
A Milanese publishing house that had issued an anthology containing 30 lines from Pope Benedict’s speech to the conclave that elected him and an extract from his enthronement speech is reported to have been sent a bill for €15,000 (£10,000). This was made up of 15 per cent of the cover price of each copy sold plus “legal expenses” of €3,500.
Vittorio Messori, who has co-authored works with Pope Benedict and John Paul II, said that he was “perplexed and alarmed . . . This is wholly negative and absolutely disastrous for the Vatican’s image.” A pope’s words should be available to all free of charge, he said, and to “cash in in this way surrounds the clergy with the odour of money”.
Publishers will have to negotiate a levy of between 3 per cent and 5 per cent of the cover price of any book or publication “containing the Pope’s words”. Those who infringe the copyright face legal action and a higher levy of 15 per cent.
Iran: “We Have The Oil, Go Fuck Yourself” America: “OK”
Iran may be trying to get nuclear weapons. In the process potentially starting a new war with Israel, fun times. America on the other hand isn’t going to do all that much because Iran controls a large amount of the worlds oil, and with prices already high, they don’t want to spark another oil crisis.
The Power Of The Internet
So it seems the kids that beat up the homeless people in south Florida were identified in this thread….odd how this is happening now and days.
Hey Coalition Of The Willing You Pay For This Mess
Bush is cutting the reconstruction funds for Iraq. After wasting 20 billion in reconstruction money with little to show for it Bush is going to “cut and run.” The worst part is that Bush now wants the coalition of the willing suckers to pick up the bill. Even though Bush promised to make the infrastructure the “best in the region” and has said in recent speeches that “On the economic side, we will continue reconstruction efforts and help Iraq’s new government implement difficult reforms that are necessary to build a modern economy and a better life.” So we went to war on false intelligence, and now that we have bombed the country into the ground, we are not even going to try and rebuild it? Guess the national debt is just getting a bit too large for Bush and Co to handle. Or maybe, just maybe, we never cared that much, and it was all lies.
Cape Cod Is Nice
Cape Cod is a wonderful place to take pictures even when the weather is really nasty, I have been taking a lot of pictures. Here are some recent ones from myself and my friend Tess. (click for larger version)
Random Pics
Don’t ask…
Reach Out And Grab Some Comet Dust
I love NASA. When they get something right they get it really right. There latest success is the Stardust spacecraft. It traveled more than 3 BILLION miles to collect dust from a comet. Using its gel covered collector plate it trapped particles moving at more than 13,000 mph. All this, and it safely brought back all that good stuff back to the earth safely. All for about 212 million dollars. A steal really when you consider that is less than a dollar a person if we all chipped in. About the cost of a pack of gum for every person in America. I think we can afford it. These particles are amazing because they are made of the pristine material that the solar system was formed from. These little chunks of stuff are older than the sun. Just think about that for a minute, we as humans are able to build something than can fly 3 billion miles, catch some super sonic dust, that is older than the sun, and bring it back for only 200 million dollars. Amazing! See what we can accomplish when we put our big brains to something other than blowing ourselves up and polluting the earth. Read more here.
Even Though The Whole World Is Going To Shit, Lets Worry About The Gays
With pollution at an all time high, poverty, political corruption, wars, illness, and a whole bunch of assholes running the country its good to know that the main topic of concern for a lot of religious people in this country is “the gays.”
CHRISTIAN groups have launched a furious campaign against Hollywood, claiming the Golden Globe Awards promote films with gay or “leftist” themes to serve a political agenda.
The criticism was made after Brokeback Mountain, a film about the forbidden love between gay Wyoming cowboys that stars Australian Heath Ledger, won four awards on Tuesday.
Other winners included Philip Seymour Hoffman, named Best Actor for his portrayal of the homosexual writer Truman Capote; and Felicity Huffman, the Desperate Housewives star who played a transsexual with a gay prostitute son in Transamerica.
I just don’t get it. God said love thy neighbor, Jesus loved everyone and hung out with lepers and whores, judge not lest ye be judged, etc etc. On paper the Christian religion seems to be one of love and acceptance. Do these crazies worship a different god than the rest of the Christians? I just don’t know. But what is for sure is that this is NOT NOT NOT a “Christian country.”
This nation was founded by a bunch of deists, and has freedom FROM religion as one of its tenant’s. I don’t care what god you worship, America is a place where “all men are created equal” that means gay cowboys get the same rights as anyone else, and frankly your religious views don’t mean a hill of beans.
We cant have it both ways. Everyone gets the same rights, or no one does. If you want women to be able to vote, and blacks to be able to have the same rights as whites, and land owners and non land owners both be able to vote, and the right to worship any religion you want, then gay people have to have the same rights as you. Homosexuality spans all races, genders, social classes, and religions. There are not just white gays, or black gays, or rich or poor gays. Worship anything you want, but don’t confuse your religious views with the principles this country was founded on.
Download this video here. (wmv)
While Larry thinks its not ok to show gay cowboys, he continues to show movies like Hostel, which are basicly horror porn…so graphic and horrible sexualy charged violence it ok, the tragic love story of two people is not.
California Dropping Mad Solar Money!
This is great, California is going to be dropping some serious money on solar programs 3 BILLION!! dollars. Once you get past the idea that we spend about 6 billion A MONTH in Iraq, you will notice that this is a lot of money for a solar program.
Lighting up the solar industry, a California agency on Thursday approved $2.9 billion in solar incentives to encourage consumers to switch to sun power, creating the largest solar-incentive program in the United States.
The money will be used for rebates for solar Photovoltaic, solar water heating, and solar heating and cooling systems over 10 years, with 10 percent of the money slated for low-income customers and affordable-housing projects.
With 2005 being the hottest year on record worldwide, its about time someone (anyone) start doing something to get us off our oil addiction.
The year 2005 has been the hottest year on record for the planet, hotter than 1998, 2002, 2004, and 2003. More importantly, perhaps, this has been the autumn when the planet has shown more clearly than before just what that extra heat means. Consider just a few of the findings published in the major scientific journals during the last three months:
—Arctic sea ice is melting fast. There was 20 percent less of it than normal this summer, and as Dr. Mark Serreze, one of the researchers from Colorado’s National Snow and Ice Data Center, told reporters, “the feeling is we are reaching a tipping point or threshold beyond which sea ice will not recover.” That is particularly bad news because it creates a potent feedback effect: instead of blinding white ice that bounces sunlight back into space, there is now open blue water that soaks up the sun’s heat, amplifying the melting process.
—In the tundra of Siberia, other researchers report that permafrost has begun to melt rapidly, and, as it does, formerly frozen methane—which, like the more prevalent carbon dioxide, acts as a heat-trapping “greenhouse gas”—is escaping into the atmosphere. In some places last winter, the methane bubbled up so steadily that puddles of standing water couldn’t freeze even in the depths of the Russian winter.
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