David Edwards, - The Raw Story
Stephan: Although the competition is very stiff this is, perhaps, the most outrageously ignorant ideological public statement made by a senior politician in the United States in the last decade. And it was made by a corrupt Republican who was once House Majority Leader. The first response is to laugh at stupidity at this level, but I suggest something deeper and far more toxic is at work here, which is why I feature this report.
As democracy has been corrupted and particularly the Republican Party has been co-opted by the uber-rich, who play ignorant "values" voters like puppets, one of the symptoms of this jobbery is the decline in the quality, intelligence, and integrity of elected officials. Tom DeLay, a disgraced politician, and his statement that God wrote the Constitution is an iconic example of what I mean.
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas.
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) this week warned Americans to remember that God “wrote the Constitution” based on the Bible.
During an appearance on John Hagee Ministries’ Global Evangelism Television (GETV) network on Wednesday, host Matt Hagee asked the Texas Republican where the country had gone wrong.
“I think we got off the track when we allowed our government to become a secular government,” DeLay explained. “When we stopped realizing that God created this nation, that he wrote the Constitution, that it’s based on biblical principles.” (emphasis added)
“Governments like we have are very easy to destroy,” Hagee later noted.
DeLay recalled that he had closed the Capitol rotunda for three hours as Majority Leader so that members of the House and Senate could get “on our knees seeking the face of God and praying.”
“And I really feel now, Pastor Matt, the Lord has heard us, I see the Holy Spirit moving. And I pray every day for an awakening in this country,” he said, adding that […]
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Saturday, April 25th, 2015
Joe Wertz, - National Public Radio
Stephan: Another strange story of Red value state citizens voting against their own self-interest. I think this is one of the most fascinating trends going on in America today: Why do people vote for politicians they know will pass laws and create policies that will degrade the quality of their lives?
Why, for instance, would Oklahoma voters repeatedly vote in support of fracking knowing it creates earthquakes which may wreck their homes, experiencing this reality personally and weekly in some areas? Now that Oklahoma has more earthquakes than California it will be interesting to see how long voters continue to tolerate this madness. How far is a Theocratic Rightist voter prepared to go?
Sparks, Okla., in 2011. A series of shocks that year exceeding magnitude 5.0 caused millions of dollars in damage in the state.
Credit: Sue Ogrocki/AP)
A magnitude-3.0 earthquake is small, but most people can feel it. Historically, Oklahoma got less than two of those a year, but in 2013 it became two a week.
It’s only gotten more active since then — last year, the state had three times as many earthquakes as in the entire seismically active state of California.
This morning, the U.S. Geological Survey will issue its first comprehensive assessment of the hazard posed by earthquakes linked to oil and gas drilling. In the preliminary report, the survey details oil and gas-related quakes in eight states.
The earthquake surge is strongest in Oklahoma, where the state government has formally acknowledged the link for the first time earlier this week.
Dea Mandeville, city manager of Medford, Okla., says she has […]
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Saturday, April 25th, 2015
David Wethe, - Bloomberg Business
Stephan: Here is some very good news about the future of Fracking. Lots of these companies are going to go out of business. I think it is notable that this prediction is coming from a very conservative business journal.
A Fracking rig
Half of the 41 fracking companies operating in the U.S. will be dead or sold by year-end because of slashed spending by oil companies, an executive with Weatherford International Plc said.
There could be about 20 companies left that provide hydraulic fracturing services, Rob Fulks, pressure pumping marketing director at Weatherford, said in an interview Wednesday at the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston. Demand for fracking, a production method that along with horizontal drilling spurred a boom in U.S. oil and natural gas output, has declined as customers leave wells uncompleted because of low prices.
There were 61 fracking service providers in the U.S., the world’s largest market, at the start of last year. Consolidation among bigger players began with Halliburton Co. announcing plans to buy Baker Hughes Inc. in November for $34.6 billion and C&J Energy Services Ltd. buying the pressure-pumping business of Nabors Industries Ltd.
Weatherford, which operates the fifth-largest fracking operation in the U.S., has been forced to cut costs “dramatically” in response to customer demand, Fulks said. The company has been able to negotiate price […]
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Saturday, April 25th, 2015
James Joiner , - The Daily Beast
Stephan: Here is the latest on the spread of radiation in the world ocean arising from the Fukushima disaster. Not good, but not as bad as many feared. Of course the worse part is that thousands of tons of radioactive water continues to pour into the ocean.
The spread of radiation in the world ocean arising from the Fukushima disaster.
Credit: NOAA
This month, an alarming report said Fukushima radiation had hit American shores. The truth is, it’s only in trace amounts. The real problem is that it’s nobody’s job to check ever again.
Radioactive elements from Japan’s Fukushima disaster were found in the ocean on the U.S. Pacific coast last week. Alarmist fringe sites were quick to herald everything up to an alleged collapse of the Pacific fishery as the result of this four-year, trans-ocean trek.But Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist specializing in marine chemistry and geochemistry who has been tracking the radiation since the earthquake, says there isn’t much to worry about. At least for now.Buesseler, who earned his Ph.D. studying the fallout of the A-Bomb tests from the ’60s, is no stranger to digging through radioactive data.
“I really didn’t expect the U.S. to have a strong […]
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Saturday, April 25th, 2015
John Hall, - Daily Mail (U.K.)
Stephan: Here is the new World Happiness Index. Note neither the US nor the UK is a very happy nation. But the really important insight to be derived from this survey, in my view, is that the Scandinavian countries which make wellness a national priority score at the top of the list year after year.
Credit: Alex Lentail
Switzerland is the world’s happiest nation thanks to healthy GDP figures, strong social bonds and an increasing life expectancy, a new study of global wellbeing has revealed.
The list is dominated by European nations, particularly those in Scandinavia, and measures a country’s population by factors contributing to its citizens’ contentment, rather than wealth.
Britons are happier now than they were two years ago, the study found, but still ranks in at a relatively lowly 21st place. And despite often mocking its northern neighbour as an inferior nation, the United States is a full 10 places below Canada, ranking at 10th and fifth respectively.
Unsurprisingly the world’s least happy countries are places ravaged by war and extreme poverty – with Syria, Burundi and Togo taking their place at the bottom of the 158-nation strong list.
Celebration: Switzerland is the world’s happiest nation thanks to healthy GDP figures, strong social bonds and an increasing life expectancy, a new study of global wellbeing has revealed
