A Silly and FALSE E-mail
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The email pasted below is being frantically forwarded around to all lists in the country! Maybe you’ve even been the one forwarding it on to ‘your list!’ I couldn’t resist my own reaction. IN GOD WE TRUST was put on the money in 1861. Before that, of course, we were a Godless people. Oh wait, wasn’t that when we were being being inspired to have a revolution, writing a new constitution and many other events that we claim are motivated by our love and trust in God? God can be in our lives without being on our “filthy lucre,” our “root of all evil.” Or does it mean that if we have IN GOD WE TRUST on our money it is blessed and we will prosper instead of being filthy and evil? Do we really need to prove to God that He is in our lives by putting it on our money like a designer label? I actually don’t think God cares whether the phrase is on our money or not. I think He cares more whether we are being kind to each other, being compassionate to those who are suffering, refraining from judgment of our neighbors, serving those who are in need. I don’t think He will, but He might say at those Pearly Gates (that incidentally won’t have a IN GOD WE TRUST digital marquee scrolling overhead), “I care what’s in your heart, not what’s on your money.” Sheesh. REFUSE NEW COINS
This simple action will make a strong statement. Please help do this.. Refuse to accept these when they are handed to you. I received one from the Post Office as change and I asked for a dollar bill instead.
The lady just smiled and said ‘way to go’ , so she had read this e -mail.
Please help out…our world is in enough trouble without this too!!!!!
U..S.Government to Release New Dollar Coins
You guessed it ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ IS GONE!!! If ever there was a reason to boycott something, THIS IS IT!!!! DO NOT ACCEPT THE NEW DOLLAR COINS AS CHANGE Together we can force them out of circulation… Please send to all on your mailing list!!!
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Profound Thought from Chinese Poetry
This is a quote from the translator of a book of Chinese poetry who explains that the views of the poets are molded by the three basic Chinese philosophies: Lao Tzu (Taoism), Buddhism and Confucius. In aspiring to the larger vision of things, relying on Nature as the model for process, he says:
To Lao Tzu the problem of solving the ills of human life was to do nothing, to be carried along by the mighty current of the cosmos. The way, he said, to clear the world of its dirt and muddy aspect was identically the way one cleared a bucket of muddy water. Agitation, an attempt to be rid of the impurities merely prolonged their evil influence and presence. The thing to do was to do nothing. The sediment would settle to the bottom, the water would clear itself. So with man and his world. With a wise passivity the eternal Way would exert itself.
Beautiful.
Stealthy No More
Photo by Robert Gates (omni@ntelos.net), thanks to OVEC.org
The coal industry got their “going away” gift today as the Bush Administration gave final approval to the last minute regulation change that will allow mountaintop debris to be deposited in streams and valleys. Obama and Congress are the last hope for saving our environment by reversing these regulations. PLEASE write or call your Congressmen!
Again I refer you to the following websites for more information on what mountaintop removal mining really is and the impact it has on the environment:
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
One more photo of valley fill, from OVEC.org:
Joe Barnett of Artie, W.Va. lives below this White Oak Creek valley fill. During the July 2001 floods, the sediment pond below the valley fill filled with mud, and raging runoff waters dug a channel into the pond’s dam. During heavy rains in 1997, a boy and a woman on their way to church drowned in a similar flash flood from this valley fill. Photo by Robert Gates (omni@ntelos.net)
Bush’s Stealth Attack – Mountaintop Removal Mining
The Bush Administration, as it limps along in lame duck mode, has quietly begun proceedings to soften all kinds of environmental, wildlife and conservation regulations. Issues such as mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia, the public’s ability to provide input on national forest decisions and the de-listing of the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List are on the administration’s attack list. Completely irrelevant in the foreign affairs arena, sinking to lower job approval percentages every day with the American public and ineffective with Congress, Bush and his administration are now isolated and can do the only thing left — modify departmental regulations.
Photo courtesy Vivian Stockman/www.ohvec.org, Oct. 19, 2003; flyover courtesy SouthWings.org
This is the first of a multi-post series addressing these issues. I hope to raise your awareness of the issues as well as invite you to learn more and then SPEAK OUT, write a letter to the editor, join or contribute to an advocacy group, call your congressmen regarding the administration’s actions and methods, just do something!
Mountaintop removal mining has become a critical battleground for both environmental and fish and wildlife advocates as they desperately fight the coal industry which has the blessing and regulatory backing of the Bush Administration. The stated opposition to this mining procedure by both presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, has motivated the current administration to rush through and lock in pro-industry regulation modifications.
Here is the case brief on mountaintop removal from EarthJustice:
Mountaintop removal is one of the most environmentally destructive activities in the country. The Army Corps of Engineers has issued permits for four mines that will dump millions of tons of rock and debris into nearby streams and valleys, burying them forever. The permits were issued without the required environmental studies and impact statements. On March 23, 2007, a federal judge agreed and rescinded the permits.
That was in 2007. In 2008 the Bush Administration, along with energy and coal industry groups, is appealing earlier court rulings with hopes of reversal which will allow mining companies to proceed. The Administration’s motto seems to be that they never found an environmental or conservation rule yet that they can’t or at least won’t try to at least soften if not do away with completely. The New York Times editorial on Oct. 20, 2008 gives more information and part of the disturbing history of the Administration regarding mountaintop mining, and the latest proposal that has come from the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining.
Do you think this is only an Appalachian problem? Do you think that because you live far away from West Virginia and the other Appalachian states threatened by this devastating form of mining that it doesn’t involve you and therefore you don’t need to be involved? Go to ilovemountains.org and type in your zip code. You’ll be surprised. I live in Utah, a coal producing state in its own right, but when I saw my own connections to mountaintop removal coal I determined to do something, anything.
The effects of this mining process are multiple, negative and permanent. To physically remove the tops of the mountains destroys habitat, forest, natural drainage. Filling the valleys pollutes water, kills streams, destroys communities. Processing creates air and water pollution. All of these combine and destroy in a matter of months a mountain system that took natural systems hundreds of millions of years to create. I refuse to accept that “we need the coal, we need the energy from the coal.” There MUST be a better way. This process, from a human perspective, destroys permanently. The mountains will never be the same; the streams and valleys will never be the same; this is their end. It is more than rape, it is murder.
From Stopmountaintopremoval.org
Please learn more about this issue and speak out to your congressmen, to advocacy groups, to your power company, to anyone because this last photo is what these mountains, valleys and streams are supposed to look like.
Originally printed in the Appalachian Voice, June 2005, photo by Kent Kessinger
Here are some useful links for more information:
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
Photos: iLoveMountains.org
So Far Behind!
I still haven’t finished my film reviews from Toronto International Film Festival! Pretty sad when I let myself get distracted by Sarah Palin. Good Grief!
Back to films:
Maman est Chez Le Coiffeur – French
The sadly tender story of three children left to deal with their mother’s leaving the family. I’m not sure how believable it is to think that a mother, seemingly satisfied with living life at home with her children, when she learns her husband’s secrets she reacts by leaving husband and children to develop her own career. The kids are delightful — the oldest daughter with the beginnings of adolescent curiosities, a middle son who stays busy building a go cart/mini car with a lawnmower engine and the youngest boy with special needs. The husband tries to take over, the cause of the marriage meltdown is never addressed, and they all seem to bumble through, hoping that she will just appear again as if she’d never gone away. Most of the film follows the oldest daughter as she is working through her mother’s absence, telling the neighbors that “Mama is at the hairdresser’s” as well as adjusting to her father’s presence even though she knows, without understanding, at least part of his story. Set in the suburban ’60s, there is a poignancy throughout for innocence lost.
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Palin
I have been waiting to find out the results of the the eight Republican four Democrat ethics legislative investigation by Stephen Branchflower and now it’s out. The news over the weekend is the Governor Palin abused the power of her office but that since, as Governor, she has the power to fire her Public Safety Commissioner, she didn’t do anything legally that she can be indicted for by firing Commissioner Walt Monegan. Palin has expressed relief, claiming that the report exonerates her. If she means, “Whew, I’m glad I won’t end up in jail over this,” yes, I suppose it does but we’ll see. It seems to me that there were actually three options:1) Not Guilty, 2) Guilty and legally accountable and 3) Guilty but only Ethically Accountable. The investigation found her guilty of abusing her power but she did nothing illegal.
Now it’s up to the Alaskans.
Link to Anchorage Daily News.
Alaskans and Sarah Palin
Have you been wondering what Alaskans think of their governor, Sarah Palin? They, after all, will get her back if Obama wins in November.
Here’s a link to find out: http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/ and be sure to watch the videos!
Sarah Palin, Animal Lover
Oh, is that what you meant?!
Don’t let anyone tell you Sarah Palin doesn’t “love” animals.
Photo by the Anchorage Daily News
Cabbagetown Percussion Ladies
Street music in Cabbagetown (Toronto)!
Just So You Know….
Here’s another “blogthing.com” especially for this campaign climate. My results for the incredibly simplified quiz are listed here but I’ll bet you have already figured out my conservative/liberal leanings. For newcomers, however, now you can see straightaway whether reading anything here will satisfy your ideological desires. Since it seems more and more to be the case that people only read what they agree with, blogs for example, maybe every magazine, newspaper or blog should have “Liberal” or “Conservative” as part of their title just to save us time — the “Screaming Liberal New York Times,” for example, or the “Coldly Conservative Wall Street Journal.”
Anyway, all sarcasm aside, take the little 2-minute quiz, just click on the link (How Liberal or Conservative are You?) at the bottom of the box — and be HONEST for heaven’s sake!
Laelyn’s Political Profile: |
 Overall: 30% Conservative, 70% Liberal Social Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal Personal Responsibility: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Fiscal Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Defense and Crime: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal |
Wolves Back on the List!
Have you heard the latest on the delisting of the gray wolves? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for the well-being of fish and wildlife had removed the wolf from the Endangered Species List (ESL) in March. That action resulted in the immediate killing of wolves in Wyoming and Montana, a subsequent response of outrage from environmentalists and wildlife advocates, and a temporary court order against the decision. Now the same agency that removed wolves from the ESL is asking the court to vacate their decision so they can study the issue more deeply. One may ask why they didn’t think of that sooner???
Jim Robbins of the New York Times wrote in his article, “The reconsideration of the listing was not related to a recently announced decline in the wolf population in the Rockies. Wildlife officials counted 1,455 animals this summer, down from 1,545 a year ago. It was the first drop in more than 10 years, and officials said they were not sure why.”
by National Geographic Photographer Joel Sartore
Previous posts & other gray wolf links:
Gotcha?
The Couric interview with Palin and McCain has provided some great insights into these two people, one of which could possibly be the leader of the free world and the other just a “heartbeat” away.
Here is Howard Kurtz (WaPo) talking about one interesting interchange between Couric and John McCain.
Sarah Palin isn’t the only one scrambling for answers. What is the difference between “talking with a voter” and “in a conversation with a group of people and talking back and forth”? Did anyone see the exchange being argued here? I’m sure there was a camera somewhere that caught the moment when Palin was either “talking with a voter” or “talking back and forth.” Send me the link, please!
A personal note to John McCain: I think you’d better talk to Sarah about her watching Obama. It is obvious to us that she is, after making some of the most unbelievably dumb campaign statements we’ve ever heard, watching Obama to get his take on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border issue. Why else would she have agreed with what he has said and contradicted you? Two last points: 1) Do you realize that people don’t particularly care for your jokes about about your age? We know how old you are. 2) Your condescentious manner is not working; not toward Obama during the debate and not with Katie Couric during your Monday interview. Lastly, John, it was NOT “gotcha journalism”, unless that is what you call it when she says something that contradicts something you have said and someone notices.
What is it Really? Separation of Church and State, or Separation of Church and Taxes.
Apparently there is a loose coalition of churches that feel that because the government is not being run the way they think it should that they don’t have to obey the laws any longer. One church leader, Rev. Ron Johnson Jr. told his flock that voting for Obama would be the equivalent of “severe moral schizophrenia.” For more details, read “33 Pastors Flout Tax Law With Political Sermons.”
I’m not sure if they realize the full implications of getting their way, challenging the 1954 tax law that specifies that non-profit, tax-exempt organizations, which includes churches, may not “participate in, or intervene in . . . any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office.” Just think — now our churches will pay taxes on what we give them and we, the members of those righteous flocks, will lose the deduction for charitable donations to that church because, well, those churches will no longer be tax-exempt.
There is a positive side, however. ALL who work for one of these organizations, be it a church itself or an organization that is owned by the church (e.g. church-owned university) will be free to speak our political minds. No longer restricted by the “no political campaigning” restrictions imposed by the tax law, a dean at a church-owned university or a Bishop or someone like the above Rev. Johnson can now become politically involved and become an advocate for a political persuasion. Just think! We can begin having political lobbying by all sorts of religious organizations: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan, etc. You weren’t assuming, were you Rev. Johnson, that only evangelical Christians will take advantage of this newfound opportunity to speak openly? Are you positive, Rev. Johnson, that leaders of all churches agree with the 33 of you? Do you really believe that everyone has the same political opinion as you? Or do you think that perhaps there are just as many or more who think that Senator Obama is the answer to prayer for our nation?
I think most religions, Christian or not, teach their believers to help and support each other, have tolerance and compassion for all, leave the ninety and nine to search for the one. I personally believe that I am responsible for my actions, that I am should love others as myself, that my beliefs are my own and that I can be as conservative as I want in my own actions, my own personal standards, but that I do NOT have the right to impose my standards on anyone else. I also believe that goes for everyone else, too.
Bipartisanship
It appears that enough people have spoken out against the initial proposal by Sec. of Treasury Henry Paulson that the hammer crew got together yesterday and very nearly came to an agreement on modifications. Those modifications, to my economically untrained mind, seem to have been good ones — give some oversight to the bailout, phase it in, put caps on executive pay in some way, and in some basic ways get something in return.
If you read my earlier posts on this subject you know I strongly objected to it in the original form. I felt, as did many, that yes, the government was going to have to do something but that needed to have protections, oversight, and returns for taxpayer money. Essentially, they were going to throw our money at Wall Street and hope it solved the problem. Now it appears that intelligence has prevailed. Or perhaps it was just taxpayer outrage that prevailed.
The economic stimulus package ($167 Billion) gave many of us $300 or $600 checks earlier this year which we were instructed to immediately go spend. Now we were being told that $2,300 per person was going to go to this $700 Billion proposed bailout program. Granted, this was not money that came directly from our pockets, it was tax money we have already or will be paying, but nonetheless, when you put the two packages side by side and look at them very simply, that is depleting tax money by 867 Billion dollars. That is a mindboggling amount of money.
A package will be approved even though House Republicans felt empowered to balk due to John McCain’s arrival in his “straight talk express” to save the day. They, House and Senate Republicans, need to remember their role in dismantling regulations that prevented this kind of economic meltdown. McCain has been a long-time opponent to regulation, just this week changing his stated opinion. Deregulation combined with the war in Iraq (See Think Progress, Sept. 26) are major elements of our current but foreseen by many financial crisis.
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Chan Lowe
Sun-Sentinel Sep 19, 2008 |
It seems to me that Congress must pass something soon, if not today. It has been announced, everyone is expecting it and now many of the problems with the original are being worked out. It seems to be the best of a bad situation.
About Me
I love: my family, music, the world, geography, travel, reading, international film, my cats and gardening.
I dislike: contention, dishonesty, unkindness, arrogance and incivility.
I am: enjoying middle age, anxious about the state of the world, stressed about finances, joyful in my family and at peace with my God.
My nature is quiet, passionate; my hair is red (but turning); my eyes are hazel, often tired; my ears hear life, music; my senses feel warmth, comfort.
