Thursday, August 25th, 2011
Stephan: This is part of the growing trend on the Right to control the media, which is resulting in the decay of our democracy. It began by only talking to Fox News and the like, but has now devolved into an open attempt to control what even citizens can record or photograph. Implicit in all this is their own assessment of themselves and their fear that they will be subjected to ridicule if the ignorant and racist things they say at public meetings are revealed through a video. Republican Representative Steve Chabot is just the latest in this growing group of rightwing politicians, and I used this because it shows this trend has now reached a stage where they are using the police to achieve their ends.
Hoping to prevent an embarrassing Youtube video from making the rounds, Republican Congressman Steve Chabot of Ohio ordered police to confiscate cameras from people attending a town hall meeting Monday night.
The result was two embarrassing Youtube videos that are sure to make the rounds.
The first video shows a police officer confiscating a video camera from a woman in the audience as television news videographers record the interaction.
The second video shows a police officer confiscating a man’s iPhone as it recorded, capturing the dialogue between the two.
The cop tells the man that he is not allowed to record the event ‘to protect the constituents.’
Meanwhile, televisions news crews were videotaping openly.
Outside the meeting, Chabot had signs placed stating that cameras were banned ‘for security purposes.’
The citizens were part of a group who had gathered outside the meeting to protest against Chabot, but the videos show they were not disrupting the meeting, even when the cop confiscated their cameras.
According to Think Progress:
Outside the town hall were multiple signs reading, ‘For Security Purposes, Cameras Are NOT Permitted.
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Thursday, August 25th, 2011
RACHEL TABACHNICK, - Talk to Action
Stephan: This is what Darbyism is evolving into, a kind of Christian fascism, known as Dominionism. I have been following this trend for over a decade and it becomes more and more alarming. It gets almost no coverage in the mainstream media as a topic, although its adherents, which include Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry, command enormous attention.
The New Apostolic Reformation can now be defined as a distinct movement with a unique ideology. The leaders of the movement, called apostles and prophets, claim that this is the most significant change in Protestantism since Martin Luther and the Reformation. The stated goal of the NAR is to eradicate denominations and form a unified church that will be victorious against evil in the end times. Like many American fundamentalists, the apostles teach that the events of the end times are imminent, but unlike fundamentalists, the apostles see this as a time of great victory for the church.
Instead of escaping the earth (in the Rapture)* prior to the turmoil of the end times, they teach that believers will defeat evil by taking dominion, or control, over all sectors of society and government, resulting in mass conversions to their brand of Charismatic evangelicalism and a Christian utopia or ‘Kingdom’ on earth. The end times narrative of the apostles is similar to that of the Latter Rain movement of the late 1940s and 1950s.
The Transformations movies, Transformation organizations worldwide, and the Seven Mountains campaign are promotional tools to market their methodology for taking Christian dominion over: arts; business; education; […]
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Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
IAN SAMPLE, Science Correspondent - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: For those of us who live in a world created several billion years ago -- as opposed to that universe created 6,000 years ago when men and dinosaurs were dropped from the sky by God -- this new insight into the nature of early human life will be fascinating.
Early humans cooked up their first hot meals more than 1.9m years ago, long before our ancient ancestors left Africa to colonise the world, scientists claim.
Researchers at Harvard University traced the origins of cooking back through the human family tree after studying tooth sizes and the feeding behaviour of monkeys, apes and modern humans.
They concluded that cooking was commonplace among Homo erectus, our flat-faced, thick-browed forebears, and probably originated early in that species’ reign, if not before in more primitive humans. ‘This is part of an emerging body of science that shows cooking itself is important for our biology; that is, we are biologically adapted for cooking food,’ said Chris Organ, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard.
The advent of cooking was one of the most crucial episodes in the human story, allowing our ancestors to broaden their diet and extract more calories from their food. Because it softened food, it also spelled an end to the days of endless chewing. There has been disagreement among experts on the issue. Some of the most convincing evidence for human use of fire is more recent, dating to around 400,000 years ago, though older claims exist, including the remnants of a campfire in Israel […]
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Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
DONNA JONES, - Los Angeles Times
Stephan: Here is the latest on the marijuana trend. It used to be people just tried to score some weed, whatever kind they could find. Now smokers want a particular kind, and could you make sure it was grown organically please. This is the surreal reality of marijuana usage in this country.
WATSONVILLE, CA — Want to buy organic carrots? No problem. Organic strawberries? Widely available. Organic honey? Try your local grocery store. But organic medical marijuana? Doesn’t exist - at least not in an official sense.
Organic crops and products are certified by private agencies through the U.S. Department of Agriculture - a program developed after decades of advocacy by organic farmers and their allies. Pot - medicinal or otherwise - need not apply.
‘What the USDA doesn’t recognize as a legal crop, we can’t certify because we’re certifying to their standards,’ said Jane Wade, development specialist at Santa Cruz-based California Certified Organic Farmers, the largest organic certification agency in the country. ‘That leaves medical marijuana out in the cold.’
It also puzzles consumers interested in making sure they’re not ingesting pesticides or other toxins along with their chosen pain reliever.
Wade, who gets calls about organic marijuana certification ‘a few times a month,’ said people are frustrated by her response.
‘They ask, ‘Why can’t you fix this?” she said.
Wade said California Certified Organic Farmers worked for nearly three decades to get the USDA program in place. She suggested the medical marijuana community can take action as well.
‘The path is already trodden,’ Wade said. ‘As long […]
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Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
, - International Business Times
Stephan: Here is a new development in our understanding of how the currents of the world ocean work. And once again it supports the reality of climate change.
An international team of researchers has confirmed the presence of a newly discovered deep-ocean circulation system off Iceland that could significantly influence the ocean’s response to climate change.
The North Icelandic Jet contributes to a key component of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, also known as the ‘great ocean conveyor belt,
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