Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
BRENDA NORRELL, - The Narcosphere
Stephan: The rise of racism in the Theocratic Right has received very little attention, even as it intrudes itself into the most fundamental aspects of our culture. I consider these attitudes to be another of the defining hallmarks of this movement. Here is the latest in the trend.
This is not just happening in Arizona, as benighted as that state has become. I listened to the South Carolina Republican debate tonight and it would not have surprised me if both the speakers and the audience had been dressed in hoods and bed sheets. As someone who marched and got arrested in the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s I thought we were mostly past the worst aspects of the racist South. But South Carolina showed me that at least with the White Theocratic Right it is alive and well to this day.
It is time for those who want a compassionate life-affirming America to stand up and be counted.
Thanks to Deborah Admiral.
TUCSON — Outrage was the response to the news that Tucson schools has banned books, including ‘Rethinking Columbus,’ with an essay by award-winning Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko, who lives in Tucson, and works by Buffy Sainte Marie, Winona LaDuke, Leonard Peltier and Rigoberta Menchu.
The decision to ban Chicano and Native American books follows the 4 to 1 vote on Tuesday by the Tucson Unified School District board to succumb to the State of Arizona, and forbid Mexican American Studies, rather than fight the state decision.
Students said the banned books were seized from their classrooms and out of their hands, after Tucson schools banned Mexican American Studies, including a book of photos of Mexico. Crying, students said it was like Nazi Germany, and they were unable to sleep since it happened.
The banned book, ‘Rethinking Columbus,’ includes work by many Native Americans, as Debbie Reese reports, the book includes:
Suzan Shown Harjo’s ‘We Have No Reason to Celebrate’
Buffy Sainte-Marie’s ‘My Country, ‘Tis of Thy People You’re Dying’
Joseph Bruchac’s ‘A Friend of the Indians’
Cornel Pewewardy’s ‘A Barbie-Doll Pocahontas’
N. Scott Momaday’s ‘The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee’
Michael Dorris’s ‘Why I’m Not Thankful for Thanksgiving’
Leslie Marmon’s ‘Ceremony’
Wendy Rose’s ‘Three […]
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Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
, - Agence France-Presse (France)
Stephan: We are destroying the ecosystems upon which we depend even as we keep telling ourselves we not doing anything, it is all natural cycles. This kind of militant stupidity has become the hallmark of the Theocratic Right, and it must be overcome if we are to survive.
Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous systems of sea fish, with serious consequences for their survival, according to new research.
Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes’ ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators, the research found.
The Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies said it had been testing the performance of baby coral fish in sea water containing higher levels of dissolved CO2 for several years.
‘And it is now pretty clear that they sustain significant disruption to their central nervous system, which is likely to impair their chances of survival,
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Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
NEELA BANERJEE, - Los Angeles Times
Stephan: When I was a schoolboy and we were studying how the world transformed itself from the high empires of the classical world of Rome and Byzantium to the squalor of the dark ages I kept asking myself, 'how could people be that stupid, that self-destructive?' Now, when it is occurring again, I understand the process better.
WASHINGTON — A flash point has emerged in American science education that echoes the battle over evolution, as scientists and educators report mounting resistance to the study of man-made climate change in middle and high schools.
Although scientific evidence increasingly shows that fossil fuel consumption has caused the climate to change rapidly, the issue has grown so politicized that skepticism of the broad scientific consensus has seeped into classrooms.
Texas and Louisiana have introduced education standards that require educators to teach climate change denial as a valid scientific position. South Dakota and Utah passed resolutions denying climate change. Tennessee and Oklahoma also have introduced legislation to give climate change skeptics a place in the classroom.
In May, a school board in Los Alamitos, Calif., passed a measure, later rescinded, identifying climate science as a controversial topic that required special instructional oversight.
‘Any time we have a meeting of 100 teachers, if you ask whether they’re running into pushback on teaching climate change, 50 will raise their hands,’ said Frank Niepold, climate education coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who meets with hundreds of teachers annually. ‘We ask questions about how sizable it is, and they tell us it is [sizable] and pretty […]
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Monday, January 16th, 2012
Stephan: A while back I ran a piece on Fukushima published in a major peer-reviewed journal, authored by specialists, that claimed radiation from the crisis in Fukushim had been responsible for 14,000 death in the U.S..
However I was sent this and after reading it, I think the case it makes is strong enough that it needs to be published. At this point I am not sure where accuracy lies.
It is hard to believe a paper as flawed is it is claimed this one was got through the review process. I review for several journals and I know how hard I work to make sure what is said can be validated, and that the experiment was conducted in such a way that its conclusions can be relied upon. Yet, it appears the system may have failed in this case.
Only the future is going to settle this, but my commitment through SR is to get you the best and most accurate information I can. So we will have to wait for a final resolution. Whichever way it comes out though it will not change my views on nuclear power. One still has to deal with what has happened in and to Japan. Investing in nuclear power is as mistake.
Josh Bloom is a scholar at the American Council On Science and Health.
Thanks to John Alexander, PhD.
I’ve seen some bad studies in my day, and also some irresponsible headlines. But last week, a couple of antinuclear activists managed to do a superb job at both. The title itself was a giveaway: An Unexpected Mortality Increase in the United States Follows Arrival of the Radioactive Plume from Fukushima: Is There a Correlation?
Drs. Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman, writing in the International Journal of Health Services, proposed that there were 14,000 ‘excess
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Monday, January 16th, 2012
Stephan: The idea that America was founded as a 'Christian' nation is a pernicious myth that sustains the Theocratic Right but is without merit. To the list of Founders given here one should also add Benjamin Franklin, and George Mason. That is to say virtually all of the 'big names' amongst the Founders would have found the nonsense peddled by the Right an offensive and inaccurate representation of their views.
Rob Boston is senior policy analyst at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
To hear the Religious Right tell it, men like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were 18th-century versions of Jerry Falwell in powdered wigs and stockings. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Unlike many of today’s candidates, the founders didn’t find it necessary to constantly wear religion on their sleeves. They considered faith a private affair. Contrast them to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (who says he wouldn’t vote for an atheist for president because non-believers lack the proper moral grounding to guide the American ship of state), Texas Gov. Rick Perry (who hosted a prayer rally and issued an infamous ad accusing President Barack Obama of waging a ‘war on religion
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