Monthly Archives: May 2009

Cuba Open to Additional Direct Talks with U.S.

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NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON — Cuba has notified the United States that it is willing to resume talks on migration issues and to negotiate direct postal services between the countries, a senior American official said on Sunday.

Cuba also agreed to cooperate with the United States on counterterrorism, drug interdiction and disaster relief efforts.

The decisions, conveyed Saturday in diplomatic notes, represent another step in the unlocking of relations between Cuba and the United States under the Obama administration, after a half-century of chilly ties and an economic embargo that many in the hemisphere, and in Europe, say has outlived its usefulness. Cuba Open to Additional Direct Talks with U.S. – NYTimes.com

Fundie Nuts Murder Another Doctor In Jesus’ Name

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Abortion Doctor Shot to Death in Church – NYTimes.com

George Tiller, a Wichita doctor who was one of the few doctors in the nation to perform late-term abortions, was shot to death on Sunday as he attended church, city officials in Wichita said. …

Tempting to blame it on Kansas, but that’s insulting to the millions of sane people who live there. Don’t these idiot so-called Christians know that Jesus was a pacifist, and John the Divine was a schizophrenic (if he actually existed)?

Blueberry-gorging Cedar waxwings meet their match in an African Barbary Falcon

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The cedar waxwings are beautiful, if you’re not a farmer. They are a tiny, colorful, migratory bird with a voracious appetite for blueberries. To Stein, matriarch of Brooksville Ridge Blueberries, a 60-acre farm in Hernando County, their chipper chirping — “zee-zeet!” — is the sound of money being plucked from the bush.

Falcon gives marauders the blueberry blues

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Arcadia Miriam Moyer, 9/3/89 - 5/29/89

Arcadia Miriam Moyer, 3 September 1989 - 29 May 2009

Cadi is our granddaughter who died tragically on Friday. Say a prayer for her, if you’re into that sort of thing. Can’t hurt, might help. Say one for us too, while you’re at it.

Thanks.

Pentagon To Get CyberWarriors

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Pentagon Plans New Arm to Wage Wars in Cyberspace – NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon plans to create a new military command for cyberspace, administration officials said Thursday, stepping up preparations by the armed forces to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare.

The military command would complement a civilian effort to be announced by President Obama on Friday that would overhaul the way the United States safeguards its computer networks.

Mr. Obama, officials said, will announce the creation of a White House office — reporting to both the National Security Council and the National Economic Council — that will coordinate a multibillion-dollar effort to restrict access to government computers and protect systems that run the stock exchanges, clear global banking transactions and manage the air traffic control system. More…

Ag Secretary Takes Charge of National Forest Roadless Areas

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Ag Secretary Takes Charge of National Forest Roadless Areas

WASHINGTON, DC, May 28, 2009 (ENS) – Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack today signed an interim directive taking upon himself the decisions over proposed timber cutting or road construction projects in more than 47 million acres of roadless areas on national forests in 38 states.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule protecting these inventoried areas was established by President Bill Clinton in 2001 just eight days before the end of his administration.

But the Bush administration froze implementation of the rule and did not defend it against industry court challenges.

Protest Provokes Peruvian Prick’s Pique

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LIMA, Peru, May 26, 2009 (ENS) – After more than six weeks of protests by Peru’s Amazonian indigenous groups that have included blockades of major roads and waterways and the shutting down an oil pipeline pumping station, the Peruvian government has begun to crack down.

The protests, which have involved more than 10,000 men, many of them in war paint and armed with bows and arrows, are being coordinated by the Peruvian Rainforest Inter-Ethnic Development Association, AIDESEP, an umbrella group that represents most of the country’s approximately 50 Amazonian indigenous ethnicities.

Ashanika Indians protest in Atalaya, Peru (Photo © David Dudenhoefer)

AIDESEP’s leaders are demanding the repeal of nine legislative decrees
issued last year that they claim will facilitate the deforestation and privatization of their traditional lands and natural resources.

Amazonian Indigenous Protest Provokes Peruvian Government Reprisals

OMG!

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I just got an online petition from the Union of Concerned Scientists, via a friend. They want me to help convince the Senate that they should ratify the Nuclear Arms Nonproliferation Treaty.

I suppose petitions are better than nothing, but this one ends with a line that makes me question the entire UCS, at least when it comes to their understanding of syntax.  Taken literally, it would make you question their concept of reality as well.  Maybe it has something to do with quantum theory.

These steps will reduce the likelihood that more nations and terrorists will acquire nuclear weapons and make the world safer.

Pitiful!  Makes ya wonder who writ their theses, don’t it?

Anyway, if you want to sign — I did, and it’s not a bad idea — you can find it here.

BTW: If you really want to influence your senator, write a snail mail letter (I am). Then they know that you really care, as opposed to taking 90 seconds of your valuable time to do an online petition that anyone could have done in your name. You could even print out the scientists’ letter and mail it. It’s like the difference between an e-card and one from Hallmark. Really.