Darwin Day - Feb. 12th - Be There!!!

The calendar boasts plenty of religious holidays, but how many scientific holidays can you name? One of the red-letter days is coming up on Monday, when more than 850 events around the globe will mark Darwin Day, the 198th anniversary of the evolutionary theorist's birth. You can hear about Charles Darwin and the revolution he sparked from hundreds of church pulpits this weekend, as part of a program called Evolution Sunday.

• More of the above article ...
  
• Lots MORE about the day ... it appears to be evolving!!

Native Voices

From Native Voices

A reading of poetry and from short stories by the authors at the Amerind Foundation in Dragoon, AZ.

It struck me as I watched these Native people tell their stories. A true cultural dialog happens when we exchange our stories.

I grew up next door to the Onondaga Nation in Central New York ... at the center of the Iroquois Confederacy. Some four or five hundred years ago the Jesuits came down from Canada with the fur trappers and traders. I have had a painting of the scene in my head most of my life. The scene is a Jesuit priest standing among the seated Onondagas, telling his Jesuit stories while the Onondagas respectfully listened.

Today, at the Amerind, I saw a similar scene. This time the Native people were standing while the whites respectfully sat and listened to the Native stories.

I can only apologize for it having taken so long to yield the floor. We would all be so much better off if it had happened a long time ago.

From Native Voices

I had the good fortune to be there and take some pictures that the Foundation may (or may not) use in their monthly newsletter.

Dumb people in the news

Exotic dancers' 'stigma' too much for charity

CBC News, Canada

The Breast Cancer Society of Canada has rejected the offer of thousands of dollars from a fundraising group of exotic dancers in Vancouver.

Exotic Dancers for Cancer holds an annual charity event in memory of a former dancer who lost her life to the disease.

more ...

Just another of today's absurdities.

I would think if one were running a charity one would be accepting donations from all kinds of people. I don't know that The Breast Cancer Society of Canada should be in the business of [picking and choosing on some unwritten moral grounds. Are the dancers breaking the law by being exotic dancers? No laws broken, then whats the problem?

Does the Society raise too much money already?

Just the News

Its Saturday morning and today's news isn't any better than yesterday's news. It might even be incrementally worse. It's hard to tell sometimes.

My hope is that there is a bright future ahead but my fear is that we've seen the high point and it's downhill from here.

On one hand, I've been watching an ecological disaster since Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" in the 1960s. The culmination of that death watch is Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" and the latest pronouncement by the scientific community by way of the UN's IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) that its a 90% certainty that man has tied the nose around his own neck and now tap dancing blind folded on the edge of a cliff.

On the other hand, I've watched the Bush administration lie, cheat and misrepresent reality in international affairs, in domestic policy, and in energy policy.

More damage has been done in the last 6 years than I can remember seeing .. or even reading about .. since the Second World War.

Steven Hawking is a pretty bright guy. He seems to think the only hope for man-kind is to hit the bricks and find another planet ... and start all over again. I wonder if he isn't right. I wonder if we've gone too far and this planet is headed for the scrap heap.

My consolation is that, by the time all this sh!# really hits the fan, I'll be dead.

Keep a happy thought.

What Would Puff Daddy Say?

Something prompted me to look for video clips of the old Dick Cavett Show. I found a bunch on YouTube. I'd forgotten how intelligent TV talk shows could be.

I wonder what a serious interview with someone like Puff Daddy ... or P. Diddy ... would sound like.

I wonder if somewhere along the way we lost our collective intellectual horse power.

Treasures of the Amerind

Almost finished!!


Click image for sample images from
the book, "Treasures of the Amerind".

The only things missing are:

• Captions for about 12 pictures and
  
• Re-write of the Introduction

Neither of those things are in my hands ... so, I can say I'm finished with the book.

As soon I get the captions and the intro re-write we can publish. Then the book goes on sale exclusively through the Gift Shop at the Amerind Foundation in Dragoon, Arizona.

Here's a quick preview. Actually, there's much more to it but, this gives the idea:

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Global Warming

It doesn't matter which side of the issue you're on; it's vitally important that you understand the questions and answers from both sides before you make up your mind and voice your opinion. To that end, here's a site I found that might be useful. Granted, it leans very heavily toward the side that sees Global Warming and Climate Change (and man's role there in) as vitally important issues and that we should start doing something about it ... like, NOW. However, it does outline all the important questions on both sides of the issues and provides the scientific rebuttal to the questions raised by the skeptics.

Get you Global Warming Questions Answered ... HERE

Missing the Point

I've been watching this whole Pelosi BS over the use of Air Force transportation and, as the truth of the matter comes out, it gets more and more ridiculous.

Lacking any ability to sort truth from fiction or to prioritize in the face of their bumbling domestic and international incompetence, the "all-hat-no-cattle" Republican cowboys once again try to distract from their ineptitude by manufacturing lightweight controversy - elevating what might normally be interesting to the level of important while ignoring the truly important (like war, an economy that serves only a few, the absence of equitable health care in the richest nation on the planet ... actual issues ...)

What's the problem, guys ... annoyed that Pelosi isn't honoring the long standing and highly revered Republican tradition ... of having lobbyists pay for their transportation?

It seems to go right along with so many other things:

• Weapons of mass destruction ... that weren't there.
  
• Ties to al Qaeda that didn't exist.
  
• The absence of ethics and honesty from the top on down to Swift Boaters to Delay to Abramoff and to "Scooter" Libby.

This list is seemingly endless.

How is it that a significant segment of the population can watch all of this go buy without seeing the corruption is beyond me.