Stephan: These are the views of a Theocratic Rightist woman. I know that very few of my friends and, I suspect, not many of my readers look at what is put up on Rightwing sites. I read these sites regularly though to understand the Theocratic Rightists' point of view. As you can see it is a parallel universe.
The full-frontal assault on marriage continues unabated, as lawless federal judges across the land overturn the will of the people of sovereign states, in writing law from the bench imposing same-sex ‘marriage” where it has been firmly rejected. The latest bad rulings are from Pennsylvania and Oregon, where federal judges this week nullified voter-approved protection of marriage. In Oregon, the decision was made by an openly homosexual Obama appointee. No one is pointing out the fact that the sodomite judge should have recused himself due to his clear conflict of interests, but of course, judicial ethics are so passé in our brave new world.
I’m still waiting for the states to stand up to these rogue, activist federal judges and tell them, ‘Okay, you’ve made your ruling, now enforce it-if you can.” But courage is in very short supply today, especially when it comes to opposing the militant homosexualists. The true ‘homophobia” is seen in people who, out of fear of the reaction of vicious homosexual activists, are too cowardly to stand up and tell the truth about the perversity of homosexuality and the dangers to all our freedoms from the radical homosexual movement.
Riding the dark wave of head-spinning ‘success” of […]
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JOHN J. PIPPIN, - Independent Science News/Truthout
Stephan: This article may seem esoteric or inside baseball. It is all of that, which is why it won't get much attention. Pay attention to it, however, because it makes a profoundly important point that challenges our entire medical testing model.
The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades-and it simply didn’t work in humans.” This statement was made by Richard Klausner, M.D., former director of the National Cancer Institute, to the Los Angeles Times (Cimons 1998). It is a statement that applies equally to many other common diseases. A decade ago, researchers reported on the existence of 195 published methods that prevented or delayed the development of type 2 diabetes in mice (Roep et al 2004). Yet none of these ‘breakthroughs” ever translated to human medicine.
What prevents successes in mice from becoming human cures and treatments? The reason is largely a simple one, as we showed when we recently analyzed the reputed contributions of mouse experiments to human type 2 diabetes research (Chandrasekera and Pippin 2013).
Type 2 diabetes (diabetes mellitus) is the fastest-growing disease in the United States, currently affecting approximately 26 million Americans, and estimated to quadruple in prevalence to affect one-third of Americans by 2050 (CDC 2011a). Type 2 diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States (CDC 2011b). It is a complex and multifactorial disease, characterized by many […]
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Alabama is one of at least six coastal states, including Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas, and 18 , - Businessweek
Stephan: It is becoming unequivocally clear by objective measurement that the policies of the Corporatist Theocratic Right are failures and produce markedly inferior social outcomes. Here is a follow on to the North Carolina story, this one in Alabama. To continue to pursue a course of action that is hurtful and unhealthful is a form of mental illness. And yet in Red value states it is rampant.
Click through to see the map of climate change's effect on Alabama.
Alabama is one of at least six coastal states, including Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas, and 18 nationwide that haven’t adopted plans to cut carbon emissions or taken other steps to combat the effects of climate change, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Other states have acted after natural disasters made rising water impossible to ignore. Last year, New York and New Jersey started programs to buy waterfront property damaged by Hurricane Sandy to serve as a ‘coastal buffer zone” against floods. Rick Scott, Florida’s GOP governor, who’s avoided talking about climate change, says his state has spent $130 million on coastal flood protection. In 2012, Louisiana’s legislature approved a Coastal Master Plan, a set of infrastructure projects to gird the state, devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, against storms.
None of these states formally cited global warming as the reason for the plans. Harrison hopes Alabama will follow their lead. Climate change skeptics could hold fast to their beliefs and still approve money to fortify the state against extreme weather no matter the cause. Policymakers need to ‘realize that this is a potential threat,” he says.
It’s unclear how Alabama can best protect itself from rising water, because the state […]
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Stephan: This is for real, and not a satire. It is further proof of my point that when theology and ideology combine, as has happened with the Theocratic Right, willful ignorance is inevitable and passionately pursued. This is how far the Right, captured as it is by carbon energy, is willing to go.
The notoriously anti-science House Science Committee has hit a new low, voting on Thursday to approve a spending bill amendment that ‘would prohibit defense spending on climate change research and the social cost of carbon analysis.” Translated: The Pentagon is being ordered to ignore climate science.
Specifically, the amendment, which was introduced by Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., forbids the Department of Defense from in any way utilizing the findings and recommendations of the National Climate Assessment or the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fifth assessment on climate change, two landmark, comprehensive reports reflecting the work of hundreds of the world’s top climate scientists and experts – or, as McKinley referred to it, ‘ideology.” In so doing, it renders all that knowledge and understanding effectively irrelevant to national defense.
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This is a problem, because understanding and preparing for climate change is an important thing the Department of Defense needs to be able to do, in order to, you know, defend us. Their words: ‘DOD expects climate change to challenge its ability to fulfill its mission in the future.” Natural disaster response, increased conflict tied to drought and food and water security and other ‘non-traditional” security challenges are all things the military’s […]
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PAUL KRUGMAN, Nobel Laureate - Op-Ed Columnist - The New York Times
Stephan: Austerity economics is a failure. It was flawed, it is flawed, it will be flawed because it is based on a false premise. And it has caused extraordinary misery.As a result we may see a sharp turn to populous Rightists and nationalists.
A century ago, Europe tore itself apart in what was, for a time, known as the Great War – four years of death and destruction on an unprecedented scale. Later, of course, the conflict was renamed World War I – because a quarter-century later Europe did it all over again.
But that was a long time ago. It’s hard to imagine war in today’s Europe, which has coalesced around democratic values and even taken its first steps toward political union. Indeed, as I write this, elections are being held all across Europe, not to choose national governments, but to select members of the European Parliament. To be sure, the Parliament has very limited powers, but its mere existence is a triumph for the European idea.
But here’s the thing: An alarmingly high fraction of the vote is expected to go to right-wing extremists hostile to the very values that made the election possible. Put it this way: Some of the biggest winners in Europe’s election will probably be people taking Vladimir Putin’s side in the Ukraine crisis.
The truth is that the European project – peace guaranteed by democracy and prosperity – is in deep trouble; the Continent still has peace, but it’s […]
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