Moving
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Think Bush Can Handle Terrorists? Think Again.
This is one of those articles that scares you when you read it.
Bureaucracy impedes bomb-detection work
As the British terror plot was unfolding, the Bush administration quietly tried to take away $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new explosives detection technology. Congressional leaders rejected the idea, the latest in a series of Homeland Security Department steps that have left lawmakers and some of the department's own experts questioning the commitment to create better anti-terror technologies...
...The administration also was slow to start testing a new liquid explosives detector that the Japanese government provided to the United States earlier this year.
The British plot to blow up as many as 10 American airlines on trans-Atlantic flights would have involved liquid explosives.
It Seems Laws Do Not Apply to Kentucky Governor
ABC News: Judge Rules Ky. Gov. Can't Be Prosecuted
A judge ruled Friday that Gov. Ernie Fletcher, under fire for a hiring scandal, is protected by executive immunity and cannot be prosecuted while in office.
Special Judge David E. Melcher essentially stayed the case until Fletcher's term expires, or unless he is removed through impeachment by the legislature.
Fletcher, Kentucky's first Republican governor in three decades, was indicted in May on charges alleging his administration rewarded political supporters with protected state jobs. He has accused the Democratic attorney general of conducting a politically motivated investigation in the case.
Why The Hope Line Wants To Keep Its Records Private
They give many good reasons. The policy of the Government refusing to fund any charity that refuses to turn over it's records is complete crap. I'm way to tired to check this right now but wasn't that policy set up in the Patriot Act? And am I the only one that finds the name "Patriot Act" sadly ironic?
Concerned About Privacy
The reason we are concerned is because if this data were in the hands of the federal government, there would be the temptation to create a blacklist of repeat callers to potentially eliminate applicants from applying for life insurance, high risk jobs, such as air traffic controller, pilot and other jobs. If a person was considered high risk this may prevent someone who went through a troubled period in their life but dealt with it, then became healthy and now wishes to advance themselves may find it impossible to get the needed clearance due to having called the suicide hotline a few times a number of years ago. At the very least the perception of the calling public will be affected in the negative by the simple fact the federal government has access to the data even if they never use it or intend to use it.
Hope Line Gets 2 week Extension!
The Hope Line has been given 2 more weeks to raise the money.
::Save 1.800.SUICIDE - National Suicide Prevention Hotline::
1-800-SUICIDE Gets 2 Week Extension - Thank You For Your Support!
TO ALL THOSE WHO SUPPORTED US A BIG THANK YOU!
The outpouring of support and donations was the largest we have ever received in our history in a single day. We received over 100 donations and the day is not done. We made our target of 10k to keep the line live for two more weeks. We received calls of support from people who credit the Hopeline with helping them through their most difficult times and now they wanted to help us in ours. We also received the most media coverage in our 8 year history. So many more people will learn of our service as a result of this campaign.
There is much work to be done to get our organization into a secure sustainable position but our all volunteer Board is dedicated to helping us to get there, and with the support of people like you this grassroots network of community based crisis centers can be even better and stronger than before. From all of us at the Kristin Brooks Hope Center and the members of the National Hopeline Network, we thank you for your continued support, faith in us to be stewards of the nation's suicide hotline network and belief in our mission to offer help and hope from unconditional and confidential crisis centers.
Best always,
Reese Butler, President and Founder
KBHC Board of Directors
Friday, August 11, 2006
What Do Other Bloggers Have To Say About The Hope Line?
Less than 8 hours left - Donate Now
Here's a few clips from other blogs about the Hope Line funding crises. Click the links to read more from each blog. Also don't forget to Digg the donation link I posted earlier.
blog.myspace.com/save1800suicide
WASHINGTON, Aug. 11, 1-800-SUICIDE, the nation's best known, private and confidential suicide prevention hotline network, will be shut off at midnight tonight unless action is taken. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA), a division of HHS, has decided to end all funding for KBHC while continuing to owe them $266,000 from over 2 years ago. Instead of sending the funds that were already allocated, SAMHSA has gone on to create their own competing crisis hotline -- which gives them access to callers' private information through phone records. 1-800-SUICIDE does not disclose its phone records to the federal government.
Suicide Hotline Company v. THE FEDS
We're going to take a side step from all the world turmoil to talk about a very serious story right here at home. It's important. The subject is saving lives through a suicide hotline.
If you've ever known anyone in the throws of deep depression, especially someone who is suicidal, you know that reaching out for help is not easy. Depression brings with it a lot of shame, especially when you're in the throws of the deepest, blackest heart of the illness. Just ask Mike Wallace if you don't think depression is real. It is and affects people of every age bracket and socioeconomic level, but those often most in need are teens. I'm no expert on mental health, but there seems to be something rotten at SAMSHA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, aka The Feds, at least for this post, especially where the Kristin Brooks Hope Center is concerned.
Pop and Politics Talk Back: save 1-800-SUICIDE
1-800-SUICIDE, a suicide prevention hotline which two millions teenagers have called over the last eight years, among which many were part of the LGBT community, is in danger of losing its funding from the government as the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), a federal agency, plans to operate its own suicide prevention hotline. Why? Because the government wants access to confidential information about those in crisis, information which 1-800-SUICIDE refuses to turn over. As a result, the government refuses to provide the hotline program with funding.
Daily Kos: Save 1-800-SUICIDE from the Bush Administration
Imagine a troubled gay teenager contemplating suicide, dialing a suicide prevention line, and getting James Dobson on the other end. It could happen. Via a government agency, it looks like the Bush administration could trying to starve a suicide prevention line of funding in order to make that happen. Or it might just be payback.
American Oblivion: Help Save the Suicide Prevention Hotline
I've already made my donation... It wasn't huge, but every bit helps (and it's tax-deductable). Here's the situation:
LETTER FROM 1-800-SUICIDE FOUNDER REESE BUTLER:
On April 7th 1998 at 5:30 in the morning the police knocked on my door in Vallejo, California to tell me that my wife Kristin Brooks had died by suicide in the hospital she was being treated at.
a thin white rope called hope: A Little Request
As you may be aware from visiting this page, my oldest brother committed suicide 6 years ago Sunday (July 30). On Monday, I read that 1800SUICIDE is in danger of losing federal funding and being shut down due to George W. Bush's cuts.
No matter how you may lean politically, please take a moment to visit www.save1800SUICIDE.org and send an email to the government letting them know that if they can support and fund a war halfway around the world in a place most of us will never see, they can certainly support and fund a war happening here at home.
educatingeric: help out.
please be a good person and help out. our current administration is trying to get rid of a SUICIDE hotline in exchange for a government run hotline that involves "faith based" intervention, NON-private phone lines (more spying), and less lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender help. So click the thing, write the letter and feel alright about your day. http://www.save1800suicide.org/
Bloggy Bayou - Suicide
Please help. The 1-800-suicide hotline is in trouble. Our wonderful government wants to kill it, and instead roll it into some other goverment program so it ca collect information on all the callers. So much for confidentiality. And we all know what happened to FEMA when they decided to roll that up into one of their problems.
Please. Write, blog, bitch, whatever will help, and call and yell long and loud!
MotherJones.com | MoJo Blog - Social Issues and Political Commentary: Bush Administration Goes After Suicide Hotline
Score one more for "compassionate" conservatism. 1-800-SUICIDE, a suicide-prevention hotline that over 2 million teenagers have called over the past three years, is now having its funding cut by the Bush administration. The hotline is being folded into the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Protection Agency (SAMHSA), a federal agency which "would have direct access to confidential data on individuals in crisis."
DownWithTyranny!: WHY IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE 1-800-SUICIDE HOTLINE?
I thought conservatives extol community-based initiatives and abhor Big Government. Yet, despite a government funded evaluation stating the benefits of 1-800-SUICIDE hotline and the fact that almost 2 million callers have reached help and hope over the last 8 years, the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), a division of Health & Human Services, has decided to create their own government controlled system where they would have direct access to confidential data on individuals in crisis.
AlterNet: Blogs: PEEK: Government to take over suicide hotline?
You're well aware by now that your privacy is terribly compromised by the empty suits in the Bush administration.
In the name of combatting terrorism the government is willing to go to any length, listen in on any conversation, for you, its charges.
So now that the government seems prepared to take over the 1-800-SUICIDE hotline by starving it of already allocated money, well, I'm not feeling confident.
Save Hope
Originally posted at 1:36 P.M. 8/11/06
The Hope Line is still set to be shut down at midnight and I just don't know what else I can do. I've donated all I can afford to, I've submitted it to Digg twice and to Punknews.org. I've emailed this story to the Google Blog, the Gates Foundation, and many other blogs trying to get the word out and draw donations. Congress is in recess or I'd be on the phone calling my representatives right now. I've wrote to SAMHSA and received no reply and have told friends and family. What more can I do in less than 9 short hours? I've become more passionate about this cause then any other in my life. I've lost sleep and have been glued to the computer every waking hour. Please donate and please tell as many people as you can. There is only about 10 hours left. As I've said before It would be a very said day for America if someone contemplating suicide called this number and no one answered.
Donate Now!
SAMHSA Trying To Erode Hope Line Support
Before the Hope Line even received the shut down notice SAMHSA (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration) has been circulating a memo around the health community urging them to switch their support to the government hotline due to the Hope Line's impending shut down. This was being spread around before the Hope Line themselves learned of the shut down order. I guess this is just how the Government does business these days.
The Memo with Hope Line Preface (PDF)
There’s no precedent for the federal government owning a crisis hotline.
So why won't they fund the Hope Line? Why do they insist on starting their own at far more expense rather than funding an organization that has already proven it's value?
Crisis Hotlines
Crisis Hotlines
There’s no precedent for the federal government owning a crisis hotline. The following is a list and summary about each hotline that receives support from the federal government yet are not owned or controlled by the federal government.
National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-SAFE was started in 1996 and is funded entirely by congress, specifically by the VAWA (Violence Against Women Act). It is owned by the Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV) which has been a leader in the effort to end abuse of women. TCFV is one of the largest domestic violence coalitions in the nation, with more than 100 staff and over 469 members. Membership is composed of domestic violence programs, supportive organizations and individuals. TCFV is a nonprofit organization with a blended funding base of private and public support.
National AIDS hotline 1-800-342-AIDS is funded by the CDC yet is owned and operated by the American Social Health Association. ASHA is a trusted, non- governmental resource that has advocated on behalf of patients to help improve public health outcomes since 1914.
1-800-4-A-CHILD The Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline is dedicated to the prevention of child abuse. Serving the United States, Canada, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Guam, the hotline is staffed 24 hours daily with professional crisis counselors who utilize a database of thousands of resources.. Since its 1982 inception, more than 2 million calls have been received from children in the midst of abuse, troubled parents, individuals concerned that abuse is occurring, and others requesting child abuse information.
Family Violence Prevention Fund/Health Resource Center: 1-800-313-1310. For more than two decades, the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) has worked to end violence against women and children around the world. Instrumental in developing the landmark Violence Against Women Act passed by Congress in 1994, the FVPF has continued to break new ground by reaching new audiences including men and youth, promoting leadership within communities to ensure that violence prevention efforts become self-sustaining, and transforming the way health care providers, police, judges, employers and others address violence.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving {MADD) 1-800-418-6233: a nonprofit, grassroots organization, MADD relies on individual contributions, corporate sponsorships and government grants for funding. Support of the organization includes both monetary and in-kind donations from volunteer, corporations, foundations, federal and state government and individuals. Revenue is also generated through memberships, special events, victim impact panels, licenses and the sale of MADD promotional materials.
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) 1-800-THE LOST - NCMEC was established in 1984 as a private, nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization to provide services nationwide for families and professionals in the prevention of abducted, endangered, and sexually exploited children. Pursuant to its mission and its congressional mandates.
(see 42 U.S.C. §§ 5771 et seq.; 42 .- U.S.C. § 11606; 22 C.F .R. § 94.6).
National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC) 1-800-394-2255 The National Center for Victims of Crime is the nation's leading resource and advocacy organization for crime victims. Since 1985, they have worked with more than 10,000 grassroots organizations and criminal justice agencies serving millions of crime victims.
National Fraud Information Hotline 1-800-876-7060 The National Consumers League is a private, nonprofit advocacy group representing consumers on marketplace and workplace issues. They are the nation's oldest consumer organization.
National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) 1-800-879-6682. The National Organization for Victim Assistance is a private, non-profit, 501 (c)(3) organization of victim and witness assistance programs and practitioners, criminal justice agencies and professionals, mental health professionals, researchers, former victims and survivors, and others committed to the recognition and implementation of victim rights and services. Founded in 1975, NOVA is the oldest national group of its kind in the worldwide victims movement. NOVA's mission is to promote rights and services for victims of crime and crisis everywhere.
National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) 1-888-693-2874. The Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR) receives grant funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, to provide management performance, policy research, technical training, and activity analysis activities for NW3C.
1-800-SUICIDE To Be Shut Off TONIGHT
I put this story on Digg. Please go digg it to help spread the word and be sure to make a donation.
"The Hope Line, 1-800-SUICIDE, will be shut off tonight at midnight (Eastern) unless they can raise enough money to pay their phone bill. Please donate because it would be a sad day in American history if people considering suicide called out for help and received no answer."
read more | digg story
Bob Ney's Replacement Ruled Eligible
Ironically enough she was cleared by the same man that she ran for governor with that caused all this controversy. Ya that's not too cool, is it? Welcome to
WTOV9.com - News - Attorney General Says Padgett Can Run For Congress
A top official said Ohio Sen. Joy Padgett is eligible to run in the November election for the 18th congressional district seat. Padgett, of Coshocton, is U.S. Rep. Bob Ney's top choice to replace him on the ballot in the wake of his decision to drop out of the race. Attorney General Jim Petro said Thursday that Padgett is not prohibited from seeking Ney's place under the state's "Sore Loser" law. Padgett said she is permitted to run for several reasons. "I ran for state office in the spring and this is a federal office," she said. "Secondly, this is a vacancy due to the resignation of a candidate. Thirdly, I ran as lieutenant governor on the ticket - it's part of a package deal."
Thursday, August 10, 2006
They Got Caught, What Will They Do Next?
It's been pretty well proven now that we've been torturing prisoners even though it’s illegal to do so. Now the President has drafted an amendment to the War Crimes Act that would save political appointees from any legal backlash. This is just another example of this administrations disregard for the law.
Retroactive War Crime Protection Proposed - Forbes.com
The Bush administration drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively protect policymakers from possible criminal charges for authorizing any humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.
GOP.com Photoshops a Hitler Moustache on Howard Dean
The site below provides before and after screenshots.
Mehlman Photoshops Hitler Mustache on Howard Dean | Democrats.com
Two Men Arrested For Funding Terrorism Less Than 60 Miles From My Home
It seems that two men were arrested in Marietta, Ohio Tuesday for allegedly funneling money to Hezbollah. I used to work in Marietta.
ABC News: Ohio Pair Said to Launder Money for Hezbollah
The two men, Ali Houssaiky and Osama Abulhassan, of Dearborn, Michigan, were apprehended on Tuesday in Marietta, Ohio, during a traffic stop and found carrying $11,000 in cash, 12 cell phones, airline passenger lists and information on airport security, a spokesman for the Washington County prosecutor's office said.
Poll shows 30% of Americans unsure of 9/11 year.
"SOME 30% of Americans cannot say in what year the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington took place, according to a poll published in the Washington Post newspaper."
read more | digg story
1-800-SUICIDE Has Less Than 48 Hours Left
It's 2:36 in the morning so this is gonna be a real short post.
I couldn't sleep so I decided to check my email and read the news. I'm not really sure how but I came across the http://www.save1800suicide.org/ site and noticed a countdown on the top of the page. It seems they've received a shut off notice from their phone provider. As I mentioned above it's after 2 am so I'll have more tomorrow. For now you can check out this old story on the subject.
9:17 P.M. Update:
Here are a few links to stories about 1-800-SUICIDE.
- http://www.punknews.org/article/19102
- http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/7/27/161938/015
- http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/39606
- http://www.republicoft.com/2006/07/27/save-1800suicide/
- http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/18/technology/circ...
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
A Party By The War Divided
Once again Joe Lieberman is hearing the phrase "Sore Loserman" only this time the yells are coming from his own party. After losing the Connecticut primary Lieberman has gone ahead with his previously announced plans to run an independent. This seems to me to just be yet another example of a man trying to cling to his power. His independent run can only succeed in dividing Democratic voters on Election Day, allowing a Republican to coast through to office. In the coming weeks I expect I suspect he will continue running a smear campaign against Lamont before finally backing out before the election. This is just my speculation but I think that itsa pretty safe bet that if he does proceed with his independent campaign then his political career with the Democratic part will be finished.
Hopefully this primary will turn out to pivotal point for the Democratic Party. Yesterday the people of Connecticut spoke and they said We are sick of war. One of the big complaints about the party is that they wont take a clear position. The people have broke the ice a taken the first few dance steps but now its time that the party takes the lead. I believe we would have a much better chance for taking back the House and making some gains in the Senate if several prominent party members like Hillary Clinton should finally join the rest of the party and admit the war in Iraq was a mistake. People need to be reminded about the WMDs that havent been found and about how Osama Bin Laden, the one that actually attacked us, has yet to be caught. They need to be reminded of Abu Ghraib and about their phone calls not being private anymore. This needs to be an election of outrage and action, not placation.
Open Letter From Micheal Moore About the Lieberman Primary
Micheal had some strong words to say about about good old turncoat Joe losing his primary. I'll have my thoughts on his decision to run as an independent as well as my former (they re-drew the map a few years ago) representative Bob Ney's decision to not seek reelection up as soon as I have some spare time.
Friends,
Let the resounding defeat of Senator Joe Lieberman send a cold shiver down the spine of every Democrat who supported the invasion of Iraq and who continues to support, in any way, this senseless, immoral, unwinnable war. Make no mistake about it: We, the majority of Americans, want this war ended -- and we will actively work to defeat each and every one of you who does not support an immediate end to this war.
Nearly every Democrat set to run for president in 2008 is responsible for this war. They voted for it or they supported it. That single, stupid decision has cost us 2,592 American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives. Lieberman and Company made a colossal mistake -- and we are going to make sure they pay for that mistake. Payback time started last night.
I realize that there are those like Kerry and Edwards who have now changed their position and are strongly anti-war. Perhaps that switch will be enough for some to support them. For others, like me -- while I'm glad they've seen the light -- their massive error in judgment is, sadly, proof that they are not fit for the job. They sided with Bush, and for that, they may never enter the promised land.
To Hillary, our first best hope for a woman to become president, I cannot for the life of me figure out why you continue to support Bush and his war. I'm sure someone has advised you that a woman can't be elected unless she proves she can kick ass just as crazy as any man. I'm here to tell you that you will never make it through the Democratic primaries unless you start now by strongly opposing the war. It is your only hope. You and Joe have been Bush's biggest Democratic supporters of the war. Last night's voter revolt took place just a few miles from your home in Chappaqua. Did you hear the noise? Can you read the writing on the wall?
To every Democratic Senator and Congressman who continues to back Bush's War, allow me to inform you that your days in elective office are now numbered. Myself and tens of millions of citizens are going to work hard to actively remove you from any position of power.
If you don't believe us, give Joe a call.
Yours,
Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
P.S. Republicans -- sorry to leave you out of this letter. It's just that our side has a little housecleaning to do. We'll take care of you this November.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Conservative Book Club
A Conservative website recently put together this list of "harmful books of the 19th and 20th centuries" There are a few that I agree on but the rest are just crap. Predictably the Communist Manifesto ranked first and I'd like to ask everyone (mainly in America) when a Communist has ever harmed you? I could go on and on with my own opinions but instead I'll just post the list and let you form your own.
HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE - Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries
Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries Posted May 31, 2005
HUMAN EVENTS asked a panel of 15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders to help us compile a list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Each panelist nominated a number of titles and then voted on a ballot including all books nominated. A title received a score of 10 points for being listed No. 1 by one of our panelists, 9 points for being listed No. 2, etc. Appropriately, The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, earned the highest aggregate score and the No. 1 listing.
1. The Communist Manifesto
Authors: Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels
Publication date: 1848
Score: 74
Summary: Marx and Engels, born in Germany in 1818 and 1820, respectively, were the intellectual godfathers of communism. Engels was the original limousine leftist: A wealthy textile heir, he financed Marx for much of his life. In 1848, the two co-authored The Communist Manifesto as a platform for a group they belonged to called the Communist League. The Manifesto envisions history as a class struggle between oppressed workers and oppressive owners, calling for a workers’ revolution so property, family and nation-states can be abolished and a proletarian Utopia established. The Evil Empire of the Soviet Union put the Manifesto into practice.
2. Mein Kampf
Author: Adolf Hitler
Publication date: 1925-26
Score: 41
Summary: Mein Kampf (My Struggle) was initially published in two parts in 1925 and 1926 after Hitler was imprisoned for leading Nazi Brown Shirts in the so-called “Beer Hall Putsch” that tried to overthrow the Bavarian government. Here Hitler explained his racist, anti-Semitic vision for Germany, laying out a Nazi program pointing directly to World War II and the Holocaust. He envisioned the mass murder of Jews, and a war against France to precede a war against Russia to carve out “lebensraum” (“living room”) for Germans in Eastern Europe. The book was originally ignored. But not after Hitler rose to power. According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, there were 10 million copies in circulation by 1945.
3. Quotations from Chairman Mao
Author: Mao Zedong
Publication date: 1966
Score: 38
Summary: Mao, who died in 1976, was the leader of the Red Army in the fight for control of China against the anti-Communist forces of Chiang Kai-shek before, during and after World War II. Victorious, in 1949, he founded the People’s Republic of China, enslaving the world’s most populous nation in communism. In 1966, he published Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, otherwise known as The Little Red Book, as a tool in the “Cultural Revolution” he launched to push the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese society back in his ideological direction. Aided by compulsory distribution in China, billions were printed. Western leftists were enamored with its Marxist anti-Americanism. “It is the task of the people of the whole world to put an end to the aggression and oppression perpetrated by imperialism, and chiefly by U.S. imperialism,” wrote Mao.
4. The Kinsey Report
Author: Alfred Kinsey
Publication date: 1948
Score: 37
Summary: Alfred Kinsey was a zoologist at Indiana University who, in 1948, published a study called Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, commonly known as The Kinsey Report. Five years later, he published Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. The reports were designed to give a scientific gloss to the normalization of promiscuity and deviancy. “Kinsey’s initial report, released in 1948 . . . stunned the nation by saying that American men were so sexually wild that 95% of them could be accused of some kind of sexual offense under 1940s laws,” the Washington Times reported last year when a movie on Kinsey was released. “The report included reports of sexual activity by boys--even babies--and said that 37% of adult males had had at least one homosexual experience. . . . The 1953 book also included reports of sexual activity involving girls younger than age 4, and suggested that sex between adults and children could be beneficial.”
5. Democracy and Education
Author: John Dewey
Publication date: 1916
Score: 36
Summary: John Dewey, who lived from 1859 until 1952, was a “progressive” philosopher and leading advocate for secular humanism in American life, who taught at the University of Chicago and at Columbia. He signed the Humanist Manifesto and rejected traditional religion and moral absolutes. In Democracy and Education, in pompous and opaque prose, he disparaged schooling that focused on traditional character development and endowing children with hard knowledge, and encouraged the teaching of thinking “skills” instead. His views had great influence on the direction of American education--particularly in public schools--and helped nurture the Clinton generation.
6. Das Kapital
Author: Karl Marx
Publication date: 1867-1894
Score: 31
Summary: Marx died after publishing a first volume of this massive book, after which his benefactor Engels edited and published two additional volumes that Marx had drafted. Das Kapital forces the round peg of capitalism into the square hole of Marx’s materialistic theory of history, portraying capitalism as an ugly phase in the development of human society in which capitalists inevitably and amorally exploit labor by paying the cheapest possible wages to earn the greatest possible profits. Marx theorized that the inevitable eventual outcome would be global proletarian revolution. He could not have predicted 21st Century America: a free, affluent society based on capitalism and representative government that people the world over envy and seek to emulate.
7. The Feminine Mystique
Author: Betty Friedan
Publication date: 1963
Score: 30
Summary: In The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan, born in 1921, disparaged traditional stay-at-home motherhood as life in “a comfortable concentration camp”--a role that degraded women and denied them true fulfillment in life. She later became founding president of the National Organization for Women. Her original vocation, tellingly, was not stay-at-home motherhood but left-wing journalism. As David Horowitz wrote in a review for Salon.com of Betty Friedan and the Making of the Feminine Mystique by Daniel Horowitz (no relation to David): The author documents that “Friedan was from her college days, and until her mid-30s, a Stalinist Marxist, the political intimate of the leaders of America’s Cold War fifth column and for a time even the lover of a young Communist physicist working on atomic bomb projects in Berkeley’s radiation lab with J. Robert Oppenheimer.”
8. The Course of Positive Philosophy
Author: Auguste Comte
Publication date: 1830-1842
Score: 28
Summary: Comte, the product of a royalist Catholic family that survived the French Revolution, turned his back on his political and cultural heritage, announcing as a teenager, “I have naturally ceased to believe in God.” Later, in the six volumes of The Course of Positive Philosophy, he coined the term “sociology.” He did so while theorizing that the human mind had developed beyond “theology” (a belief that there is a God who governs the universe), through “metaphysics” (in this case defined as the French revolutionaries’ reliance on abstract assertions of “rights” without a God), to “positivism,” in which man alone, through scientific observation, could determine the way things ought to be.
9. Beyond Good and Evil
Author: Freidrich Nietzsche
Publication date: 1886
Score: 28
Summary: An oft-scribbled bit of college-campus graffiti says: “‘God is dead’--Nietzsche” followed by “‘Nietzsche is dead’--God.” Nietzsche’s profession that “God is dead” appeared in his 1882 book, The Gay Science, but under-girded the basic theme of Beyond Good and Evil, which was published four years later. Here Nietzsche argued that men are driven by an amoral “Will to Power,” and that superior men will sweep aside religiously inspired moral rules, which he deemed as artificial as any other moral rules, to craft whatever rules would help them dominate the world around them. “Life itself is essentially appropriation, injury, overpowering of the strange and weaker, suppression, severity, imposition of one’s own forms, incorporation and, at the least and mildest, exploitation,” he wrote. The Nazis loved Nietzsche.
10. General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
Author: John Maynard Keynes
Publication date: 1936
Score: 23
Summary: Keynes was a member of the British elite--educated at Eton and Cambridge--who as a liberal Cambridge economics professor wrote General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money in the midst of the Great Depression. The book is a recipe for ever-expanding government. When the business cycle threatens a contraction of industry, and thus of jobs, he argued, the government should run up deficits, borrowing and spending money to spur economic activity. FDR adopted the idea as U.S. policy, and the U.S. government now has a $2.6-trillion annual budget and an $8-trillion dollar debt.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Net Neutrality Pt. 2
I recently wrote my Congressman about net neutrality and recieved this reply.
Dear Mr. Potts:
Thank you for contacting me regarding H.R. 5252, the Communications, Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement (COPE) Act of 2006. I appreciate hearing from you on this issue.
As you know, Americans have undergone a profound transformation in the way we send, receive, and access information, both verbally and digitally. The COPE Act's main focus is to update our communications laws and create a national approval process for pay television services. I voted for the COPE Act because its provisions will increase competition, give consumers more choice, and help drive down cable rates. While I do not think this bill is perfect, I am supportive of increasing competition in the advanced communications industry.
Over the past decade, consumers have seen a steady price drop in long distance, wireless, and broadband services, as competition in those markets has blossomed. However, the same cannot be said for cable. Despite the undeniable innovation in the industry, the inherent lack of competition has yielded little in terms of pricing benefits for consumers. Through the regulatory mechanism included in the bill, for the first time on a national basis, non-traditional cable providers will be able to compete directly with companies which have traditionally offered cable services, sparking a new era of competition in the cable marketplace.
In areas that have already made cable competition possible, the results have been positive. In the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, where Verizon has entered the cable market to compete with Charter Communications, Verizon's reasonably priced 180 channels with high speed internet package, costing $43.95, led to Charter Communications dropping their rate for similar services from almost $70, to a competitive $50. I find the competition seen in the Dallas suburbs very encouraging considering cable rates have increased an average of 64% since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act according to testimony given at the Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on the COPE Act on March 30, 2006.
Although encouraging competition is one of the COPE Act's strongest assets, its provision allowing municipal involvement in advanced communications services will result in a much needed infusion of access to historically underserved areas. Title IV of the COPE Act allows municipalities to partner with private enterprise to offer an array of information services. Municipalities' capacity to offer these services to its citizens is a vital step in bridging the digital divide that continues to place those most in need at a disadvantage.
During floor debate on this issue, I supported an important amendment offered by Representatives Markey (D-MA), Boucher (D-VA), Eshoo (D-CA) and Inslee (D-WA). The "net neutrality" amendment, as it is known, would provide for meaningful and enforceable prohibitions on broadband network discrimination and ensure that the Internet remains a place open to innovation. I voted for the net neutrality amendment which, unfortunately, failed on a 152-269 vote. I believe the internet is an incredible engine for economic development and it should remain an open platform for innovation and progress. Please know that I will continue to support similar measures as the COPE Act moves through the legislative process.
The COPE Act passed the House, with my support, by a vote of 321-101. Again, this bill is not perfect, but I believe it is a good step towards encouraging lower cable prices for consumers. The COPE Act is now before the Senate for review. Please be assured that I will keep your concerns in mind should this bill or similar legislation come before me for a vote.
I hope this information has been helpful to you. Please do not hesitate to contact me again on this issue, or other matters of importance to you.
Sincerely,
Ted Strickland
Member of Congress
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