"An Inconvenient Truth" Trailer Reviewed - Brilliant!

Mount Kilimanjaro 100 years ago (observe massive snowcap)








Mount Kilimanjaro today (no snowcap whatsoever). Image Credit: Groupthink








With trailers and reviews like this, who needs to see the movie? Apologies to all of those who find a tongue in cheek a little hard to swallow.

The following should be read loudly with a dramatic, theatric oratory style - sitting on a stool with just the right amount of backlighting.

This from Groupthink via Pajamas Media -

Open Letter to President Gore
By Prof Peter Kurgman, PhD^3 - 5/23/2006, 7:00 pm

Your Excellency:

I am frightened. Very frightened.

Because I have seen the trailer for your classic film, An Inconvenient Truth.

Your cinematic skills taught me that the future is one of "hundreds of millions of refugees," fires, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, nuclear disasters, and terrifying PowerPoint slides - all occurring within seven seconds.

You see, unlike you and me, most people do not know that ten of the hottest years ever were within the last fourteen years. Yes, that simple fact is too abstract for the masses of weak minds to understand - which is why I am glad that you mentioned it. But perhaps you should have illustrated that point by mentioning how the wettest ten hours all day happened to be in the last twelve hours? Or perhaps you should have used some simple sports analogy; e.g.., Baby Ruth's (or whatever her name was) most home runs were in her third, fifth, and sixth or whatever seasons. What were the odds of that happening?

And yet I am concerned. Along with you, President Gore, I weep for our planet and how it has been raped. Just dragged in the bushes and raped! Repeatedly raped. In every orifice and in every way, in and out, in and out, in and out, raped, raped, raped and raped. With open sores in contact with putrid bodily fluids, and with violent screams of suffering and impending death, our planet, our lovely lovely planet, is now covered with hideous scars and is permanently disfigured, with its internal organs mutilated beyond any hope of recovery. Mr. President, I understand that, and I thank you for illustrating it so well.

But back to the trailer. Thank you for mentioning that the hottest year ever was 2005. Dammit, why don't more people listen to you? We both know, that without the interference of humans, there would be no hottest year. All years would be equal. Just as all people would be equal without the right-wing religious zealots who stole your presidency. Yes, my President, you too were raped - just like Earth itself. And that is why you can empathize with the planet. Basically, you and Earth are feminine beings whose dignity has been violated. And believe me, I can sympathize with that.

But back to the trailer. At the 41st second, you speak truth to power: "The scientific consensus is that we are causing global warming." But, with all due respect, Mr. President, you forgot to mention the logical solution. Perhaps this is because you feel guilty about having children? Well, for the rest of us, there should be and must be mandatory human extinction to save the planet. No more breeding. Ever. Humans will never be able to foul this beautiful planet again.

But back to the trailer. The before-and-after pictures of Patagonia and Kilimanjaro with and without snow cover are startling. And deathly frightening. I, for one, have never seen any patch of land covered with snow - and then without snow! The juxtaposition of these landscapes made me violently ill, as I am sure it also made you violently ill. I vomited my cauliflower-and-tofu, Mr. President - and since your diet is just like mine, I know what a mess it must have been when you saw those pictures, because, with all due respect, Mr. President, your appetite looks much larger than mine.

But back to the trailer. You say that "temperature increases are occurring all over the world". I verified this phenomenon just today, in fact, when the temperature rose an astounding ten degrees between breakfast and lunch! And yes, I too would describe that as "the biggest crisis in the history of this country", just as you do in your movie!But the money quote is when you point at a white shape and state that "if this were to go, sea levels world-wide would go up twenty feet". And then, just like that, Florida, Shanghai, and Calcutta all change colors! And the "World Trade Center Memorial would be under water!" And then you show people in New Orleans and then an ice avalanche, and by then, I was completely petrified by amazement, fear, disgust, and loathing.

Mr. President, I am a very busy professor, swamped with responsibilities and burdens, and my hectic schedule leaves no time to see your movie. But that will not stop me from incessantly demanding that everyone I know (least of all my students!) see it several times. And I will make certain that they know why we are in such peril (humans, capitalism, Zionism), and what solutions are needed (human extinction, scientific socialism, and the destruction of the Zionist Entity).

Mr. President, your credibility is at a zenith, and your sharp and humane prescriptions for our planet must not be ignored. Our choice is simple: Listen to you, or suffer. And as much as I think we deserve the latter, we owe it to ourselves to follow the former.

Respectfully Yours, Professor Peter Alan Kurgman, PhD, PhD, PhD
Link Here>>

Maxine suggests a remedy to combat CO2 with Fear, Itch, Fear, Itch-Don't Plants Give Off Oxygen? post.

Additional Reference:
Global Warming Is Less Alarming, Scientists Say
NON-PROFIT, Non-Math on "Global Warming"

Moral Relativism - Political Parties Gone Wild

When is it a good idea for a society to continue to give a group of people confidence for their ideas and point of view? In this case - NEVER.

Excerpts from Reuters -

Dutch pedophiles to launch political party
Reuters - 1 hour, 35 minutes ago

AMSTERDAM - Dutch pedophiles are launching a political party to push for a cut in the legal age for sexual relations to 12 from 16 and the legalization of child pornography and sex with animals.

The Charity, Freedom and Diversity (NVD) party said on its Web site it would be officially registered Wednesday, proclaiming: "We are going to shake The Hague awake!"

The party said it wanted to cut the legal age for sexual relations to 12 and eventually scrap the limit altogether.
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"We want to make pedophilia the subject of discussion," he said, adding that the subject had been a taboo since the 1996 Marc Dutroux child abuse scandal in neighboring Belgium. "We have been hushed up. The only way is through parliament."

The Netherlands already has liberal policies on soft drugs, prostitution, and gay marriage, but the NVD is unlikely to win much support, the AD quoted experts as saying.

"They make out as if they want more rights for children. But their position that children should be allowed sexual contact from age 12 is of course just in their own interest," anti-pedophile campaigner Ireen van Engelen told the daily.
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The party also said everybody should be allowed to go naked in public.

The party's program also includes ideas for other areas of public policy including legalizing all soft and hard drugs and free train travel for all.
Read All>>

Okay, free train travel for all - Now that's the ticket.

Sandtrap Play At It's Best

A golfer plays an iron shot out of the rough on a roadside desert golf track in Walvis Bay, Namibia, May 16, 2006. The nine-hole course dubbed the 'West Side Club' has no greens or tees, water or grass. Stinging sand and gusts of wind whistle through a lone row of palm trees on the edge of the forbidding Namib desert. Photo Credit: Stringer/Files/Reuters

Ahhh, yes! The siren song of addictive, compulsive behavior. We at MAXINE know it well; however, given my recent sandtrap play ... it looks like quadruple-bogey golf to me.

Keep your head down, as you take the shot - have the club land just about an inch or so behind the ball, remember to swing all of the way through the shot, if you look up to see the shot ... you will be looking at a bad shot, accuracy over distance!

Excerpts from Reuters via Yahoo! News -

Golf fanatics tackle Namibia's barren dunes
By Gordon Bell – REUTERS, Mon May 29, 2006

WALVIS BAY, Namibia - Elen Gubeb's tattered sandals and torn jeans don't match his pricey new Mizuno glove, but dress is not important at this home-made golf track on Namibia's desert coast, an unlikely golf hotspot.

The 20-year-old part-time caddy practices with a classic swing as the first of a group of eight players tees off from a small rocky mound nearby.
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"I don't work, I just play golf everyday," says Gubeb, one of thousands of youths unable to find permanent work in the poor southern African nation.
The Namib, the world's oldest living desert, and the barren Skeleton Coast limit employment options in the former German colony that for decades was under the control of neighboring South Africa.
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"Sometimes I imagine myself as Ernie Els or Tiger Woods, I use my imagination and love it," he adds in faltering English, clutching his Nike shirt.

Alec Williams, director of golf at the country club in the capital city Windhoek, said interest in golf was growing fast among Nambia's youth.
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Namibia, with just two million people, has been thrust into the spotlight with the surprise arrival of Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to have their first baby in the remote west coast region.
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There are only four grass courses in Namibia -- a country slightly smaller than France and Germany combined -- although almost all other reasonably-sized towns have "courses" made of a mixture of sand and oil.
The West Side Club has neither grass nor oil but the frustrations of the game are as brutally real as on any golf course.
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The course's nine holes range from 110 meters (yards) on the par 3s to about 350 meters for a par 5, although the distances, after many years, remain an educated guess.
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"I know it's a rich man's game, but we just want to try," explains Gubeb over the din of laughter as a 17-year-old novice burrows the Hippo driver into the sand, gently toppling the ball from the tee.
Read All>>

Fear, Itch, Fear, Itch-Don't Plants Give Off Oxygen?

Poison Ivy - Rhus radicans Image Credit: Science U

On the one hand we have Al Gore creating fear at the movies and on the other, the MSM machine creating itch in news stories about poison ivy - fear & itch ... all based on the theory of global warming. Honestly, don't growing plants give off oxygen and counteract the effects of carbon dioxide?

What are we complaining about - wear jeans and a long sleeve shirt when walking in the forest. This could be the answer to all of our problems, growing faster and bigger poison ivy for oxygen.

So, what do you think is happening over at Mount Merapi, Indonesia? Any CO2 there?

This from the AP via Yahoo! News -

Study: global warming boosts poison ivy
Associated Press - Mon May 29, 5:21 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Another reason to worry about global warming: more and itchier poison ivy. The noxious vine grows faster and bigger as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise, researchers report Monday.

And a CO2-driven vine also produces more of its rash-causing chemical, urushiol, conclude experiments conducted in a forest at Duke University where scientists increased carbon-dioxide levels to those expected in 2050 [estimated].

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas — a chemical that traps heat similar to the way a greenhouse does — that's considered a major contributor to global warming. Greenhouse gases have been steadily increasing in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution.

Poison ivy is common in woods around the country, making it a bane of hikers, campers, fighters of forest fires, even backyard gardeners. Its itchy, sometimes blistering rash is one of the most widely reported ailments to poison-control centers, with more than 350,000 reported cases a year.

Compared to poison ivy grown in usual atmospheric conditions, those exposed to the extra-high carbon dioxide grew about three times larger — and produced more allergenic form of urushiol, scientists from Duke and Harvard University reported.

Their study appears in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The fertilization effect of rising CO2 on poison ivy ... and the shift toward a more allergenic form of urushiol have important implications for the future health of both humans and forests," the study concludes.
Link Here>>

"Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific 'Ring of Fire', an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin. It has 76 volcanos, the largest number of any nation." (HT: IRWAN FIRDAUS, Associated Press Writer)

There has to be alot of CO2 production around this part of the Globe! Let's put in a greenhouse.

Don't ya' just love the instructive way these AP guys write? Man, I do.

UPDATE - Excerpts from Al Gore's statements made in England's Hay Festival:

This from BBC News -

Gore in Hay climate change plea
Former US vice-president Al Gore owned up to failing to get his climate change message across as a politician when he appeared at the Hay Festival. By BBC News Writer

In his first UK speech on the subject, Mr Gore promised to devote himself to the task of warning people about the impending "planetary emergency".

He appealed to the audience to act to halt the growing crisis.

"I will own up to shortcomings in my ability to communicate," said Mr Gore.
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Mr Gore was the key note speaker of the 19th Hay Festival on the mid-Wales border.
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But Mr Gore, fresh from an appearance at the Cannes film festival, delivered a starker message that the world was now facing a "danger which could bring the end of civilisation."
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He was asked by a member of the Hay Festival audience to run for president again.

But Mr Gore replied: "I honestly believe that the role I can most usefully play is to try to change the minds of the American people...about what this crisis is about."
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In a passionate speech, Mr Gore said: "We face a challenge in the conversation of democracy that we must be up to in order to save the climate balance on which our civilisation depends."
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He said he believed scientists who said that there may be 10 years remaining to avoid "crossing the point of no return".

"Then does that change you? It should, it's happening on our watch," said the former vice-president.

He said he was "carbon neutral" himself and he tried to offset any plane flight or car journey by "purchasing verifiable reductions in CO2 elsewhere".
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Hey Al, how does one make a Volcano "carbon neutral"? I suggest it would be about as possible as finding out the truth as to how "carbon neutral" you really are through "purchasing verifiable reductions in CO2 elsewhere".

A Current Kind Of Memory On Memorial Day

U.S. soldiers stand in a formation during a Memorial Day ceremony held at the Bagram U.S. military base, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, May 28, 2006. Photo Credit: AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd

Being a veteran of the Viet Nam Era, my past memories of Memorial Day are of the "honoring of the dead" type where the living and surviving members of the conflict rarely had a role and, in many cases, were vilified.

This era is different. I was watching a two hour Memorial Day special from the Discovery Channel that featured Long Beach's Jesse James of Monster Garage fame as he went to Iraq to visit with our troops, and something he said struck a note. What he said had an element of getting outside of ones own thinking that extends to include a greater community of Americans ... "If these people really believe in what they are doing, then I have to believe in [the value] what they are doing."

During the Viet Nam era, things were different, in that many of us who served were drafted and placed into service without really knowing what we believed in ... let alone believing in the mission of "what we were doing". Further, at home, there existed a disconnect between the mission of military effort and the greater community of Americans.

Today, I pray for all of those in our armed forces who have committed themselves and gave the ultimate sacrifice for all of us to live in freedom - but further - I will pray for the survivors of the fallen as well as all of those who have committed themselves to stand-up and serve in the armed forces so that we (and others throughout the world) may continue to live in freedom.

Excerpts from The Christian Science Monitor -

With war on, Americans have troops in mind
By Brad Knickerbocker, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor - Fri May 26, 4:00 AM ET

Americans will still fire up their barbecues, watch parades, and go camping this weekend. But for the first time in a generation, Memorial Days are coming during prolonged armed conflict. That has strengthened ties between civilians and soldiers, bringing a marked change in the way people will observe the holiday this year.

Politicians of all persuasions are pushing for better veterans' services, including healthcare for the living and survivors' benefits for those who've lost loved ones. Many states are now providing free tuition at public colleges and universities for the children of those killed in war zones.

Since terrorists attacked the United States in 2001, communities around the country have begun to bring back traditional Memorial Day ceremonies - many of them featuring Iraq war vets.

It's part of growing public interest in military affairs, historians say. And this time, unlike in the Vietnam era, declining support for the war has not eroded backing for the troops, say many of those taking part in Memorial Day ceremonies.
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Part of this post-Vietnam urge to separate the warrior from the war has to do with the portrait of the typical soldier today. Unlike his or her father, who probably would have gone to Vietnam right out of school, today's GI is more likely to be older, to be married, and to have children. Especially among those in National Guard or Reserve units, he or she is likely to have strong work and community connections.

More family men and women in the war zone also means more dependents to care for in the wake of combat casualties. The 2,404 men and 55 women killed in Iraq have left an estimated 1,700 children without their parent.
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"Memorial Day is about thanking those who are there and honoring those who didn't come back," says Rick Marsh, president of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers' Association. "So we're sending them a little bit of Vermont, a little thank-you."
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Rita Payne, who runs Roman Catholic programs at Fort Campbell, sees a growing reverence for Memorial Day.

"There is a more deepening of faith, of spirituality and just prayerfulness," she says. "People take it upon themselves to do something positive, and prayer seems to be our greatest weapon right now."
Read All>>

#6 Sam Hornish Jr. wins the 90th Indianapolis 500!

Sam Hornish, racing for Team Penske, takes the traditional "sip" of milk for winning the 90th running of the Indianapolis 500 open-wheel auto race. Image Credit: IndyCar.com

Andretti's fill out the podium!

A star is born in nineteen year old Marco Andretti leading after turn four of the last lap and getting beat in the second closest finish (0.0635 sec.) in Indianapolis 500 history. Rookie of the year honors go to Marco Andretti, long may he run!

Michael Andretti finishes third on strategy having a slow car all day. Fuel consumption management played a big role with both Hornish and Michael's run in the final stint to the end.

For Team Penske, this marks the 14th win with 10 different drivers.

A serious race with a serious finish. 200 Laps - Session Time: 3h 17m 16s

"Technology Smiling" - A Collage

This Mona Lisa, on exhibition in Beijing, is made of computer parts, and titled "Technology Smiling." Photo Credit: AP/EyePress

Mona Lisa Made From Computer Parts

(HT: Boing Boing)

Lance Armstrong Paces The Indy 500

Lance Armstrong, The Chevrolet Corvette pace car, and the 2006 starting field for Sunday's Indianapolis 500 with bicycles. Image Credit: Dana Garrett

An American legend leads out the Indianapolis 500, an American institution. The world's toughest competitor and the world's most watched sporting event ... a match made in heven.

Now, Lady and Gentleman, start your bicycles!

This from IndyCar.Com -

Steady pace
Seven-time Tour winner Armstrong prepares to drive Indy 500 Pace Car
By Dave Lewandowski - indycar.com, Saturday, May 27, 2006

Lance Armstrong received his first bicycle at about the same age (7) as many IndyCar Series driver started racing go-karts. He wasn’t concerned that it was brown with yellow wheels. It had two wheels and he rode all across Plano, Texas.

Similarly, in his first competition, he wore a pink jacket on loan from his mother to combat the chilly morning New Mexico air. And when his hair fell out because of radiation treatments for cancer a decade ago, appearance didn’t concern Armstrong.

The seven-time Tour de France winner who will drive the Pace Car in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” fronted the field of 33 drivers who will compete May 28 – proud of his accomplishments in his grueling sport and proud of the foundation he started to aid cancer research and help those afflicted live strong. He might have retired from competitive cycling, but Armstrong is on another mission.

Each of the drivers straddled a sleek Trex bicycle bearing the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Wing & Wheel and 90th Indianapolis 500 event logos for a formal photograph on the frontstretch of the historic oval. Next, the bikes, bearing the signature of the driver, will auctioned with the proceeds benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

A brief question and answer session with Armstrong, 34, who will drive the 2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Pace Car.


Q. Your name will now not only be connected to the Tour but connected to the Indy 500. That’s two very different world-class sporting events. How’s it feel to add another medal to the chest?

A. All I can say is that when we got the phone call to ask if I was interested in driving the Pace Car at Indy, it was a very short conversation. It was like: “Are you kidding? Of course.” It is a huge honor and something that I am very excited to do.”


Q. There are a lot of big names associated with the Indianapolis 500. Even Colin Powell was a Pace Car driver. What’s it like to be in that kind of company?

A. It is arguably one of the most famous sporting events in the world, and every year there can only be one guy to drive the Pace Car. For me to be selected and asked to come, it is a huge honor. To have the role and to come a year after a great man like Colin Powell is a big honor.


Q. What else do you think your positive thoughts will be besides being nervous?

A. It will be a rush driving around with 250,000 people there. In the opening laps is probably when they are the loudest they could be screaming for their favorite driver. You try to take all of that in. It will have been almost a year since I have heard that as a sportsman. It will be neat to get a little of that back.


Q. Talk about driving it (Corvette Z06) over. What are your initial impressions of the car?

A. It is always interesting the first time you get in a car. Obviously, the speed and the handling of it is different, and the different details of it. I mean, having the speedometer in the front windshield was something that I’ve never experienced before, and that took some getting used to. The power was there, and every red light was a temptation.


Q. Whether you’re going wheel to wheel for 500 miles in an IndyCar or going wheel to wheel in 12 stages of the Tour de France, there are certain components of an athlete that make them successful. What do you think those are?

A. I think when comparing cycling to other events like the Indy 500, sometimes in motorsports people don’t consider them to be athletes, but they are extremely fit. I know a lot of drivers that spend a lot of time on the bike and a lot of time in the gym, and I can tell you they are athletes.


Q. This is not only a great opportunity for you but for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Talk about how pleased you are to get additional exposure for your worldwide foundation.

A. You know, all of these opportunities are great for us. They are great for me as an athlete. They are great for me as a philanthropist; they’re great for the Foundation. It is just another opportunity to say, “Hey America, or to the world that cancer should be a national priority, a global priority.” It (cancer) is something that I think we’ve grown accustomed to and used to, and that has to change in this country. This is another chance for me to stand up as a cancer survivor and say: “I’m here; I won seven Tours. I’m driving the Pace Car at Indy, and oh, by the way, this country has to do more for the fight on cancer.”
Link Here>>

Waxing Bubba ... It's Really A Trend

"I'm asked to lie on my stomach while she administers the first phase of my treatment - a salt scrub." Image Credit: Photos.com

The grooming of Man begins at a very early age and continues throughout one's life. First, we are asked to comb our hair by Mom, floss our teeth by Auntie, wear cologne by Grammie ... when does it all end? - NEVER

Society is moving in with trends that are adding layers (or taking them off) to this whole process of "Male Grooming". You begin to know you are in trouble when a mainstream media business publication has a whole article about being "Metrosexual" and new ... almost required if you view yourself as socially acceptable ... trends in male grooming.

Excerpts from BusinessWeek (of all publications) -

Metrosexuals: A Well-Groomed Market?
A new generation of men thinks it's okay to spend money on personal grooming products and the companies that make them are happy to oblige
By Vivian Manning-Schaffel – BusinessWeek, Branding - MAY 24, 2006

Since the advent of metrosexuality, companies have realized that they have a new market to capitalize on — men who spend their money on grooming and appearance supplies. Walk through the aisles of any US drugstore, and you'll notice an abundance of male-targeted personal grooming products, such as anti-aging eye-creams, shower gels and formula facial cleansers, slowly monopolizing the shelves.

With so many brands clamoring for their slice of the pie, metrosexuals have out and out become their own market segment. And as sales figures roll in, there is clear evidence that the metrosexual market is indeed quite viable.

"With men becoming more involved with their grooming habits and the explosive growth in the men's segment (dollar volume +49% in 2005), we saw a huge opportunity to introduce the male consumer to a new proposition in skincare," says Carol J. Hamilton, president of the L'Oréal Paris division of L'Oréal USA, Inc., whose Men's Expert line was among the first to hit the mass market a few years ago.

According to L'Oréal Paris' 2005 annual report, men's skincare — with its 11% growth in sales — was L'Oréal Paris' fastest growing sector. And it's not just a US-based trend. There are numbers that quantify this as a global trend. The same report states only 4% of European men used a skincare product in 1990, compared to a whopping 20% in 2003.
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The numbers do not lie. Younger men are clearly more interested in taking care of themselves than their fathers or even their older brothers. But is it because metrosexuality has become more widely accepted by the masses or simply because of their generation's habits?

Edina Sultanik-Silver, owner of BrandPimps and Media Whores, a New York-based men's fashion public relations company, thinks metrosexual tendencies are a sign of the times.

"It's a generational thing. I think that Gen Y and millennial guys view all the creams and grooming preparations out there as OK and perfectly natural for them to use, rather than girly," says Sultanik-Silver. "The guys in these generations get their bodies waxed, work out, style their hair, go to tanning salons, etc., more than their predecessors. Possibly because they were raised on MTV, the Internet and reality shows, every minute of their lives is a photo-op, they always want to look like they're ready for their 15 minutes of fame, and don't think there's anything feminine about that."
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"It (this trend) was mostly media driven, I believe," says Sultanik-Silver. "Everyone wants a piece of 'the next big thing.' Our popular culture is driven by image and consumerism right now. Word on the street was that men were interested in dressing up more, spending more on clothes, moisturizers, etc. Men's fashion and style were the hot buzz segment of the youth market and as a result, more brands began targeting young men as more retailers begin catering to them. To me, this signals the mainstreamization of metrosexualism," says Sultanik-Silver. "And it's going to continue to grow."
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"Despite tremendous growth rates over the past several years, the men's treatment segment is still in its infancy," surmises Hamilton. "Today, less than 20% of men use a facial moisturizer. However, another 25% of men today say that they are interested in trying skincare treatments, but have not yet made the leap. On the whole, most men have moved away from any stigma associated with using what could be considered a more female product, but they are still not sure what to do and how to do it."

Young or old, metrosexuals apparently are here to stay. Eventually, the term "metrosexual" might even become dated. Then, metrosexuals simply would be known as men who enjoy their right to groom and shop for clothes.
Read All>>

Brazilian wax? ... Anyone?

Indy 500 Goes Organic For 2006 - With UPDATE

Team Ethanol driver Jeff Simmons practices at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This year, Indy 500 racers will drive cars that run on an ethanol-blended fuel. Image Credit: MSNBC

"Gasoline Alley" will never be the same.

In a race from a place that exudes nothing but tradition, The Indianapolis 500, the open-wheel race cars will be running on "Cornfuel" (ethanol) this Memorial Day weekend for the first time in 95 years.

This change is now fueling speculation for a name change of the place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway where all of the cars for the race are prepared.

Should "Gasoline Alley" now become Ethanol Avenue? ... Corn-fed Court?

So!, are we going to now change the nickname of the place from "The Brickyard" to "The Cornpatch"?

Excerpts from MSNBC with contributions from AP -

Ethanol boosters hoping for Indy 500 win
Race cars to use ethanol blend for first time, boosting corn fuel’s profile
By Roland Jones - Business editor, MSNBC - Updated: 3:03 p.m. PT May 25, 2006

Speed will be of the essence for drivers racing around the oval at Sunday’s 90th running of the Indianapolis 500, but it won’t just be the drivers hoping to win big.

For the first time in the race’s 95-year history, cars in the Indy 500 will burn a fuel that is 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent methanol. It’s a fuel change that some in the ethanol industry hope will hasten the adoption of the alternative fuel among ordinary drivers.

Three big names in the ethanol industry are driving the fuel switch — ICM Inc., Broin Cos. and Fagen Inc. The companies, which engineer and build ethanol plants, have put up several million dollars as the prime sponsors of the No. 17 Team Ethanol Honda/Panoz/Firestone car to be driven by Jeff Simmons in the race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Simmons replaces Paul Dana, who died in a practice accident March 26.

The aim is to promote the power, fuel-efficiency and safety of ethanol in front of the estimated 300 million people who will view the race, said Tom Slunecka, executive director of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, which represents the three ethanol companies.
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The Indy Racing League said this year that its Indy Car series would switch from pure methanol — a fuel derived from natural gas that replaced gasoline in the 1970s because it is less likely to ignite — to the new 90-10 blend of methanol and corn-derived ethanol. In 2007, the league plans to switch permanently to 100 percent ethanol.
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“We could have put our name on the side of a car to promote ethanol, but instead we did it the hard way, so we arranged this fuel switch," said Slunecka. "It’s not marketing hype -- it’s true performance, and the IRL would never have agreed to this change if it lessened the performance of the vehicles in their races. We had to prove that these cars would perform just as well, and they’re already setting new records burning ethanol.”

Cars running on ethanol certainly pack a powerful punch. Pure ethanol — made from renewable plant sources like corn, wheat and sugarcane — has an octane rating of 113, compared with 107 for methanol and about 91 to 95 for gasoline. Several track records already have been set this season using the new fuel blend. In general the higher a fuel’s octane rating, the better the engine will perform.

The most common use of ethanol by American drivers is in E85 — a mixture of gasoline and ethanol with up to 85 percent ethanol by volume. E85, which is widely used in Brazil and Sweden, can be used in engines modified to accept higher concentrations of ethanol, which is corrosive and can damage ordinary engines.
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“This is also going to decrease the amount of fuel a car needs, so the weight of the cars will be reduced and they’ll be able to increase their speed,” he said. “From a safety perspective, if there’s an accident there’ll be less fuel to burn. And unlike methanol, which is difficult to see when it’s burning, ethanol gives off more color and smoke when it burns, so if there is an accident it will be much easier for people to see it."
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There are environmental advantages too. Ethanol burns more cleanly than gasoline or methanol, reducing emissions of carbon monoxide and particulate matter that can contribute to the greenhouse effect.

But not everyone is as excited about ethanol, which is doing little if anything to reduce fuel costs, currently above $3 a gallon in much of the nation.
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“[Ethanol] has some good features. It's less of a pollutant than gas, but the mileage is not as good and we have serious problems to work out," he said. "Ethanol is not pipeline-friendly, as it can be easily contaminated with water, and if we want to replace gasoline with it, we’d need to use 87 percent of our farmland, so it has practical limits. In the end I’d say ethanol has its niche, but it has lots of problems that politicians tend to gloss over."

Slunecka is more optimistic.

“There’s always going to be some question about this. After all, we produce 4.6 billion gallons annually, compared with the 130 billion gallons of gasoline Americans use each year,” said Slunecka. “But we have increased production by 20 percent annually for the last few years, so changes are coming about, and at a certain point Americans who want a better environment and want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil need to stand up; you need to stand up as a consumer and say you are making a difference.”
Read All>>

UPDATE - 5-26-2006, 7:00 PM PST:

This from USA TODAY -

Dana's memory continues on in ethanol crusade
By A.J. Perez, USA TODAY

INDIANAPOLIS — Paul Dana won't be remembered years from now for what he accomplished in his three IRL IndyCar Series starts before his death.

His legacy will be in what fuels the series he strove to compete in.

Through his efforts, Dana helped sway series officials enough on ethanol to fast-track the bio-friendly fuel's inclusion in the series.

"The best tribute to his legacy is to continue promoting ethanol through racing," David Vander Griend, president and CEO of ICM — one of the premier design/engineering firms for ethanol processing facilities in the world — said in a statement.

Ethanol, which is typically derived from corn in the USA, currently comprises 10% of the fuel blend for the IndyCar Series. Next year it will be 100%, ending the reign of methanol that has powered IndyCars for nearly four decades.

Dana, 32, was killed when his car — sponsored by an ethanol lobbying group, Ethanol Promotion & Information Council (EPIC) — ran into the back of Ed Carpenter's stalled Vision Racing entry during the final warm-up for the season-opening race March 26 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Jeff Simmons replaced Dana at Rahal Letterman Racing and also took Dana's role as an ethanol advocate.

"Having the ethanol consortium behind me is a cause that I can get behind," Simmons said. "It's something that everybody can believe in."
Read All>>

Respect For Stolen Data And Its Application

Copies of President Bush's and first lady Laura Bush's 2005 tax returns provided by the White House are shown in Washington Friday, April 14, 2006 . Image Credit: AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Stolen data and its use is becoming a real problem in our country.

We hear about stolen records from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the fear of the impending spread of "identity theft" of 26.5 million military veterans, on the one hand ... and then we hear about what our legislators actually plan to do about social security and the "feel good" problem of working illegal immigrants (felons) and their assimilation into our systems.

What in the HECK is happening with the standards in this country?

This from the Opinion section in the New York Post -

WHEN DATA THEFT IS OK
By Arnold Alhert

May 25, 2006 -- IS "data theft" a serious crime? Depends on who's doing the stealing.

The theft of personal data involving 26.5 million American veterans is "a scandal," says Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, said "Twenty six million people deserve answers." That was this week.

Last week, the Senate voted 50-49 to allow illegal aliens to collect Social Security based on past illegal employment, even if the job was obtained using forged - or stolen - documents.

If the thief who stole the vets' data is caught exploiting that information, there is little doubt he will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law - unless, perhaps, that data is used by illegals to secure employment.

The moral? If you want to obtain stolen data, have an illegal alien steal it for you.
Link Here>> (free subscription)

Now take a look at Day By Day by Chris Muir (next post here) lest we think this is a partisan issue ... it just fits!

"Mr. Amnesty" - Day By Day

To Scan, Or Not To Scan? - That Is The Question

At the register, the contents of a customer's shopping cart are recorded and stored in a computer, giving the retailer a profile of the customer's purchases as well as help with inventory control, product placement and other strategic decisions. Photo Credit: JACOB LANGSTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL

If one stops to consider just how much information is floating around out there about themselves, one must get to the point that a modification in behavior is the only way to limit or protect ones identity information.

Truthfully, the Federal Government's NSA eavesdropping/wiretapping effort has nothing on you compared to the broader databases housed at retailing establishments.

This from the Orlando Sentinel -

Retailers gather data the same way spies do
'Data mining' provides valuable clues to customers' spending habits.
Chris Cobbs Sentinel Staff Writer Posted May 22, 2006

Using powerful search tools, computers can now sift through millions of electronic records to study patterns of behavior that could uncover terrorist plots -- or boost sales at the supermarket or drugstore.

"Data mining," as it's called, may have been used by the National Security Agency on millions of Americans' phone records in a quest to find planned acts of terrorism. Congress has expressed concern that such a secret data-gathering project, disclosed this month by USA Today, may violate citizens' privacy rights and civil liberties.

But the same methods are also widely used by retailers, who assemble computerized collections of customers' purchases along with their names, addresses, income levels and other tidbits, giving businesses clues to people's buying habits on a giant scale.

Although some experts contend that such data mining may be an invasion of privacy, others say it's actually more about spending than spying.
----
"They have no interest in doing anything malicious with the data, because their interest is economic," he said. "They don't want to harm you -- they want you to come back to them and shop."

A common way to accumulate information is through discount or loyalty cards. When the card is used at the checkout register, details of what's in the customer's shopping cart are recorded and stored in a computer, giving the retailer a purchase profile of the customer as well as help with inventory control, product placement and other strategic decisions.
----
The benefits to shoppers include targeted coupons for favorite products and in-store credits based on a percentage of purchases made the previous quarter.
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Among grocery chains, there is a split among Publix Super Markets and Albertsons on the use of the discount cards, a key element in data mining.

Publix tried them in the early 1990s but doesn't use them now because of concerns about privacy, spokesman Dwaine Stevens said.

"The privacy of our customers' shopping is a priority," he said. "We don't track individual buying habits. Information about individuals is not in our archives."

Publix doesn't need information obtained from a shopping database to track its inventory, Stevens added.
----
Albertsons also puts a premium on privacy but says customers like the discounts they receive from the company's "targeted marketing" program, spokesman Shane McEntarffer said.

Newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel use data mining to help tailor their marketing efforts as they seek to increase subscribers, said Ashley Allen, spokeswoman for Orlando Sentinel Communications, which publishes the newspaper.
----
Consumer advocates and privacy-rights groups raise concerns about the security of such shopping data, noting that the average American appears in as many as 50 commercial databases.

"All this personal information is a hot commodity that businesses are collecting, using and sharing," said Brad Ashwell, consumer and democracy advocate for Florida PIRG (Public Interest Research Group).

"The more information that's compiled, the easier it is for others to find, which contributes to ID theft. We want to see regulations and hard consequences."
----
"In the private sector, it's driven by marketing, while in national security, the search is for dangerous individuals," he said. "But the larger issue is how much data is collected and how long it's stored. Consider that Google stores every search query that's ever been typed, and you get a feel for it."

However, those fears are unfounded, said Britt Beemer, the Orlando-based chairman of America's Research Group, a consumer-behavior research company.

"I work for some of the biggest Fortune 500 companies, and none of them rent or share information about customers," he said. "All the people in the consumer-interest groups see a bogeyman behind every tree."
Read All>>

To scan, or not to scan - that really IS the question!

Post republished at Symblogogy, the automatic identification & data capture weblog for all things AIDC.

What Is So Wrong About Reporting It All?

Just not enough ink to go around? Writer's cramp, maybe? Agenda, that's it ... Agenda!

This from Captain's Quarters -

What The AP Discarded
Posted by Ed Morrissey , AKA Captain Ed, at May 23, 2006 10:04 PM

The AP ran an earlier story on the Osama bin Laden tape that included an admission implicating two Gitmo detainees in the 9/11 attack. However, the the AP later ran "excerpts" of the Bin Laden tape, that admission curiously went unreported -- even though it would have a significant impact on the debate over the fate of Gitmo detainees.

This is what ran in the original piece by Maamoun Youssef, which I have also cached here:

The terror mastermind did indicate that two suspects had links to the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon: "All the prisoners to date have no connection to the Sept. 11 events or knew anything about them, except for two of the brothers," bin Laden said [emphasis mine -- CE]. But he did not provide names or elaborate further and it wasn't possible to determine if or where they were held.

However, that passage cannot be found in the AP excerpts. It does, however, include this:

"And then I call to memory my brothers the prisoners in Guantanamo — may Allah free them all — and I state the fact, about which I also am certain, that all the prisoners of Guantanamo, who were captured in 2001 and the first half of 2002 and who number in the hundreds, have no connection whatsoever to the events of September 11th..."

Note the strategic appearance of the ellipses at the end of the quote in the later article. The AP wants to cut off Osama before he admits that Gitmo holds two accessories to the 9/11 attacks. One would think that a news organization might have found that somewhat, oh, newsworthy.
Link Here>>

Simply baffling.

UPDATE (May 24, 2006 - 7:11 AM PST):

I was just watching Andrea Mitchell report on the TODAY program on NBC about this issue and she repeated the information conveyed by the AP edited version - "Osama stated, that all the prisoners of Guantanamo, have no connection whatsoever to the events of September 11th" - PERIOD!

Good on ya' Andrea.

Oil & Water? - No!, It's Oil And Governments That Don't Mix

This from Johan Norberg -

In Dagens Industri today I continue to write on oil, today about how oil controlled by governments create authoritarianism, corruption and poverty. (See also Tom Friedman´s first law of petropolitics)

Let´s not forget that most OPEC-countries didn´t nationalise their oil until the early 1970s. Between 1950 and 1973 these countries got more than 4 percent richer every year, 1973-2003 they got almost 1 percent poorer every year.
Link Here>>

HT: Pajamas Media

Report Card On The Global War On Terror

Mailers Council Quarterly Report Card on Postal Productivity. Image Credit: Mailers Council

Self assessment is a good thing. It doesn't matter who does it or when. It is good to stop, take a breath, take account, and then move forward with a renewed confidence.

The problem lies in the fact that many functional segments in our society do not believe in the process of self assessment. The media and our political leaders may be the most egregious examples of those in our society who run and hide from this invigorating, eye opening, and cleansing process.

This opinion from the New York Post -

DEFEATING TERROR
DESPITE THE POLS, WE'RE WINNING
By Ralph Peters – Opinion, New York Post

May 23, 2006 -- WITH the formation of Iraq's new government, it's a good time to take stock of where we stand in our confrontation with Islamist terror. You wouldn't know it from the outrageously dishonest headlines, but we're winning.

We could do even better, if we put national security above partisan politics.

Our enemies are far from giving up, of course. But they realize now that Americans won't quit after suffering the first dozen casualties. That came as a shock after the cowardice of past presidential administrations.

Our enemies can still grab the tactical initiative by killing the innocent, but terrorists around the world have been shoved onto the strategic defensive. We tend to overlook that. So let's consider just how far we've come:

* The mainstream media said it couldn't be done, so the Iraqis did it: Under new Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, they formed a permanent government based on free elections. (Those free elections were supposed to be impossible, too - remember?)

Yes, Iraq could still break into bloody bits. But it hasn't, despite ceaseless predictions of doom. Now the great danger isn't from terrorists but from a premature troop draw-down before our midterm elections. We could throw it all away over a few congressional seats.

* Headlines from Afghanistan always read "Five Soldiers Killed and Wounded," not "150 Taliban Killed." If today's journalists reported the Battle of Midway, we'd read "U.S. Aircraft Shot From Skies," with a brief mention of the destruction of the Japanese carrier fleet buried at the bottom.

The Taliban was decisively defeated. That doesn't mean it's gone. The religious madness the Taliban represents will remain at the edges of Afghan life - it's part of the cultural package, just as bigotry haunts the fringes of our society. But Afghanistan's a far less-menacing place than it was. In the real world, that's enough.

* Pakistan's a worsening problem - overshadowed by the less immediate issue of Iran. Taliban remnants and al Qaeda terrorists survive because the Pakistani military is afraid to go into the country's tribal areas to root out them out. Riddled with extremists, nuclear armed and incapable of controlling its own territory, Pakistan should have Washington in crisis mode.

* Al Qaeda has been broken. Yes, its remnants remain deadly. Yes, autonomous terror cells pose a growing threat. But the organization behind 9/11 has seen its surviving leaders driven into caves and remote villages where they live in constant fear. Islamist terror may have moved beyond al Qaeda, but our government and our military deserve credit for shattering the greatest international terror ring in history.

* The United States has taken this war to our enemies and to their homelands - without suffering another terrorist strike on our soil. While that long-awaited strike still seems only a matter of time, the greatest strategic surprise to this columnist has been the inability of our enemies to hit back to date. Kudos to the feds and the folks in uniform. In the Global War on Terror (or whatever it's called this week), the cardinal indicator of success is what doesn't happen.

* A fundamental reason why we've remained safe from further attacks on our homeland has been intelligence successes. While our intel system is far from all it could be, it's not nearly as incompetent as it's portrayed to be.

Poor intel has become an easy excuse for flawed decision-making. We need to be honest with ourselves: No matter how much we improve, we'll never have perfect intelligence. To pretend otherwise is to lie to the American people. Instead of blaming our institutions, leaders in both parties have to lead.

* Domestic politics hurt us in our struggle against terrorists. The phony claim that the government "spies on American citizens" is about party sympathies and the upcoming elections, not about threats to our freedom. To the chagrin of a biased media, a convincing majority of Americans believe it's just fine to listen in on terrorist phone calls.

If journalists really cared about our right to privacy, they'd be tackling online auction houses, corporate information-sharing and Internet spyware - not wartime efforts to prevent another 9/11.

* At least 40 times more Americans will die on our highways this year than will be lost in Iraq. More Americans will be murdered in Prince George's County outside of Washington, D.C., than are likely to die in Afghanistan. We're doing pretty well overseas; our crunch-time strategic problems are here at home: the inexcusable lack of a serious alternative-fuels policy; the need to face our immigration crisis with honesty, decency and respect for the rule of law - and, above all, a political system held captive by extremists on the left and right, corrupted by an irresponsible media culture.

Plenty remains to be done. We must see our Iraq mission through to the end - unless the Iraqis fail themselves. We must restore integrity and common sense to our foreign policy by ceasing to pretend that the Saudis are our friends and by living up to our rhetoric about support for democracy. And we need to take a very hard line on China's currency manipulation and cheating on trade.

Still, any fair-minded review of the last several years of American engagement abroad would conclude that, despite painful mistakes, we've changed the world for the better. The results have been imperfect, as such results always will be. But the bewildering sense of gloom and doom fostered my many in the media is as unjustified as it is corrosive.

Our global report card right now?
A for effort. B for results. C for consistency. D for media integrity. And F for domestic political responsibility.
Link Here>>

"Mr. Lordi" At Eurovision 2006 - Athens, Greece

Lordi's lead singer, Mr. Lordi, on the way to winning the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. Image Credit: The Advertiser Newspapers Pty Limited, Adelaide, Australia

Lordi!, Lordi! - It's A Hardrock Upset Over Europop

The group Lordi celebrate after their win in the Eurovision final at the Indoor Olympic stadium in Athens, early Sunday, May 21, 2006. Finland's Lordi took the first position of the Eurovision contest with the song ''Hard rock hallelujah''. Photo Credit: AP/Petros Giannakouris

With 5" platform boots, rubber facepart applique's, and a graveyard character look, Finnish 'horror-rock' group Lordi, wins against techno, and europop groups at this year's Eurovision contest held in Greece.

The cartoon-like metalheads with their spark-spewing instruments, fought off a strong challenge from the Russian heart-throb Dima Bilan to take the 51st annual music prize.

Excerpts from the Associated Press via Yahoo! -

Finns 'Turn the Amps Up,' Win Eurovision
By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer - Sat May 20, 11:01 PM ET

ATHENS, Greece - There's a giant stadium, highly toned participants, intense rivalry and flag-waving fans from many nations.

It's not the Olympics: It's the Eurovision Song Contest, the annual kitsch extravaganza, known for its bland dance music and bubble-gum pop, that sees acts from 24 countries face off before tens of millions of television viewers.

But in a stunning upset for the contest that launched the Swedish group ABBA, a Finnish metal band with monster masks and apocalyptic lyrics won the contest late Saturday.

The band Lordi scandalized some of their compatriots when their song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" was chosen to represent the nation. At a press conference, the band's frontman said his plan for the final was to "scream louder. And turn the amps up."

"This is a victory for rock music ... and also a victory for open-mindedness," the band's lead singer, Mr. Lordi, said after the win — Finland's first. "We are not Satanists. We are not devil-worshippers. This is entertainment."

Combining crunchy guitars, a catchy chorus and mock-demonic imagery, Lordi is reminiscent of U.S. '70s stars KISS — an acknowledged inspiration of Mr. Lordi.

Band members never appear without their elaborate masks and makeup, and do not reveal their true names.

Lordi beat an unusually eclectic 24-nation field, which ranged from the perky pop of Danish teenager Sidsel Ben Semmane and Malta's Fabrizio Faniello to the balladry of Ireland's
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Regarded by many as the contest good taste forgot, Eurovision is adored by fans of camp everywhere.

"You don't imagine something so bad could be so good," said Carmela Pellegrino, an Australian who traveled to Athens from London to watch rehearsal ahead of Saturday's finale.

Since 1956, it has pitted European nations against one another in pursuit of pop music glory. Previous winners include '60s chanteuse Lulu, ABBA — victors in 1974 with "Waterloo" — and Canada's Celine Dion, who won for Switzerland in 1988.

Saturday's showdown was broadcast live in 38 countries to a TV audience estimated at 100 million. Some 13,000 fans packed the indoor arena used during the 2004.
----
Lordi received a trophy shaped like an ancient Greek column, and the show opened with a garish musical number inspired, organizers said, by Greece's rich history, mythology and sparkling seas. The hosts — Greek pop singer Sakis Rouvas and "Access Hollywood" correspondent Maria Menounous — made their entrance by "flying" onto the set, which resembled an ancient theater.

Some of the acts, like Switzerland's Six4One, stuck to the classic Eurovision formula of catchy tunes and blandly uplifting lyrics, singing, "If we all give a little, we can make this world a home for everyone."
----
Yet Eurovision victory is no guarantee of fame.

Dion and ABBA went on to glory — as did Olivia Newton John, who lost to ABBA while competing for Britain in 1974. Other winners have sunk without trace, victims of the "curse of Eurovision."
Read All>>

Turnabout Is Not Fairplay In Mexico - de Nada, Immigrant

With all of the demonstrations and threats of lawsuits toward the USA by Mexican nationals and the Mexican Government, one would think Mexico is only asking the USA to be a little more like their nuanced approach on the subject of immigrant participation in their country, do you think?

Ahhhh!, NO!

Excerpts from AP via Yahoo! News -

Mexico Works to Bar Non-Natives From Jobs
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer - Sun May 21, 12:12 PM ET

MEXICO CITY - If Arnold Schwarzenegger had migrated to Mexico instead of the United States, he couldn't be a governor. If Argentina native Sergio Villanueva, firefighter hero of the Sept. 11 attacks, had moved to Tecate instead of New York, he wouldn't have been allowed on the force.

Even as Mexico presses the United States to grant unrestricted citizenship to millions of undocumented Mexican migrants, its officials at times calling U.S. policies "xenophobic," Mexico places daunting limitations on anyone born outside its territory.

In the United States, only two posts — the presidency and vice presidency — are reserved for the native born.

In Mexico, non-natives are banned from those and thousands of other jobs, even if they are legal, naturalized citizens.

Foreign-born Mexicans can't hold seats in either house of the congress. They're also banned from state legislatures, the Supreme Court and all governorships. Many states ban foreign-born Mexicans from spots on town councils. And Mexico's Constitution reserves almost all federal posts, and any position in the military and merchant marine, for "native-born Mexicans."
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Mexico's Interior Department — which recommended the bans as part of "model" city statutes it distributed to local officials — could cite no basis for extending the bans to local posts.

After being contacted by The Associated Press about the issue, officials changed the wording in two statutes to delete the "native-born" requirements, although they said the modifications had nothing to do with AP's inquiries.

"These statutes have been under review for some time, and they have, or are about to be, changed," said an Interior Department official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name.
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The foreign-born make up just 0.5 percent of Mexico's 105 million people, compared with about 13 percent in the United States, which has a total population of 299 million. Mexico grants citizenship to about 3,000 people a year, compared to the U.S. average of almost a half million.

"There is a need for a little more openness, both at the policy level and in business affairs," said David Kim, president of the Mexico-Korea Association, which represents the estimated 20,000 South Koreans in Mexico, many of them naturalized citizens.

"The immigration laws are very difficult ... and they put obstacles in the way that make it more difficult to compete," Kim said, although most foreigners don't come to Mexico seeking government posts.
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Some Mexicans agree their country needs to change.

"This country needs to be more open," said Francisco Hidalgo, a 50-year-old video producer. "In part to modernize itself, and in part because of the contribution these (foreign-born) people could make."

Others express a more common view, a distrust of foreigners that academics say is rooted in Mexico's history of foreign invasions and the loss of territory in the 1847-48 Mexican-American War. [link to history links]
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Some say progress is being made. Mexico's president no longer is required to be at least a second-generation native-born. That law was changed in 1999 to clear the way for candidates who have one foreign-born parent, like President Vicente Fox, whose mother is from Spain.

But the pace of change is slow. The state of Baja California still requires candidates for the state legislature to prove both their parents were native born.
Read All>>

New Iraqi Government Formed - 2 stories, 1 report

NEW GOVERNMENT: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani applauds as the new Cabinet is approved by the Council of Representatives, Iraq’s parliament, meeting in the Baghdad Convention Center. Photo: Getty images - ht: LA Times

The Associated Press reporter in this momentous announcement finds it hard to just report the importance of this political milestone ... Iraq - a nation reborn, freely elected and formed for the first time in the history of man.

Nope! It is more important to report and review the violence of those who want to embrace terror against the wishes of the majority in the same announcement report.

Two edits, same report from the AP via Yahoo! News -

Iraq's Parliament Approves New Cabinet
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer - May 20, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's parliament approved a national unity government Saturday, achieving a goal Washington hopes will reduce violence so U.S. forces can eventually go home.
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In a show of hands, the 275-member parliament approved each of the 39 Cabinet ministers proposed by incoming Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The new Shiite Muslim, Sunni Arab and Kurdish ministers then took their oaths of office during the nationally televised session in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

The installation, coming after months of political wrangling following Dec. 15 parliamentary elections, completed a democratic process that began after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

In his first address, al-Maliki told parliament he would make restoring stability and security the top priority of his new administration. He said he would "work fast" to improve and coordinate Iraqi security forces so they can reduce attacks by insurgent groups and militias.

Al-Maliki also said he would set "an objective timetable to transfer the full security mission to Iraqi forces, ending the mission of the multinational forces."
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Al-Maliki, a Shiite, said he would be acting interior minister for now, and he made Salam Zikam al-Zubaie, a Sunni Arab, the temporary defense minister. Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, a Kurd, was made acting minister for national security.

Al-Maliki hopes to fill all three posts with politicians who are independent and have no affiliation with any of Iraq's militias.
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Many of Iraq's insurgent groups are Sunni led, and a key goal of the government is to win the support of Sunnis and to recruit as many of them as possible into Iraq's security forces.

The Bush administration hopes the new national unity government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds can calm violence and pave the way for beginning the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

In a speech after the inauguration, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, predicted that the new government will help his oil-rich country resolve its many problems.

"It will achieve security, stability, peace and prosperity. Working with our people and our allies, this national unity government will purge Iraq of its evil forces, allowing it to once again become independent and prosperous," Talabani said.

The Cabinet includes two women: human rights minister Wijdan Mikaeil, the only Christian chosen, and women's affairs minister Fatin Abdel-Rahman.

The top ministers include Hussain al-Shahristani, a Shiite who will oversee oil; Bayan Jabr, a Shiite in charge of the Finance Ministry; Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd who is foreign minister; and Abed Falah al-Sudani, a Shiite heading the trade ministry.

The legislative session began about 1:30 p.m., 2 1/2 hours later than planned as al-Maliki held last-minute meetings with other politicians, apparently to hammer out final agreements on some of the Cabinet posts.

And this edit of the same report -

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's parliament approved a national unity government Saturday, achieving a goal Washington hopes will reduce violence so U.S. forces can eventually go home. But as the legislators met, a series of attacks killed at least 27 people and wounded dozens.

Police also found the bodies of 21 Iraqis who apparently had been kidnapped and tortured by death squads that plague the capital and other areas. The wounded included two British soldiers whose convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in the southern city of Basra, police said.
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But the challenges facing the new government were obvious when al-Maliki was unable to make a final decision about the top three security posts: defense minister, who oversees the Iraqi army; interior minister, who is responsible for police; and minister for national security.
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It was apparent how tough that will be. Before the Cabinet was approved and inaugurated by parliament, legislators turned down a motion by Sunni Arab leader Saleh al-Mutlaq to postpone the session. Al-Mutlaq then walked out with about 10 other Sunni deputies.
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U.S. and Iraqi forces didn't impose daytime curfews or ban traffic in Baghdad and major cities, as they did during earlier national elections and a constitutional referendum. But security was heavy in the Green Zone and the capital's airspace was closed to commercial flights at Baghdad's international airport. The government and U.S. officials declined to say why.

Meanwhile, violence continued across the country.

Suspected insurgents set off a bomb hidden in a paper bag in a Shiite district of Baghdad, killing 19 people and wounding 58, police said. The blast occurred near a food stand in Sadr City where men gather to wait for jobs as day laborers, police Maj. Hashim al-Yaser said.

"It was a huge explosion," said Mohammed Hamid, who works in a bakery in the area. "We carried many of the injured to ambulances and helped remove the bodies."

Sadr City is the stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who operates a powerful militia, one of many that exist in the capital outside the control of the government. Al-Maliki hopes to disband such militias and integrate them into the country's military and police.

In the western border town of Qaim, a suicide car bomber killed at least five people and wounded 10 in an attack on a police station, said the head of the local hospital, Hamdi al-Alousi. He did not have any details about the attack.

In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide bomber apparently trying to target a U.S. military convoy instead killed three Iraqi civilians, police Brig. Abdul-Hamid al-Jibouri said.

Police found the bodies of 21 people who apparently had been kidnapped and tortured, six in Baghdad and 15 in Musayyib, about 40 miles south of the capital. All appeared to be victims of death squads that have killed hundreds in sectarian violence, personal vendettas and kidnappings for ransom.
Two Reports, No Edits Here>>

We all know war is not pretty, but why, now there is an new, freely elected government in Iraq, can't we get reports separated out like we would normally do from a responsible world press? Political Reports about the politics of the new government in Iraq and War Reports about the war on terror, unrest, and the violence in Iraq.

Perspective can be achieved in opinion reports, and clarity of reporting can be achieved by separating out the information for the subject of the actual report.

UPDATE:

Bush Praises Political Progress in Iraq
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer Sun May 21, 10:47 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The inauguration of Iraq's new government marks a new era in relations with the country that the U.S. has occupied for more than three years, President Bush said Sunday.

"The formation of a unity government in Iraq is a new day for the millions of Iraqis who want to live in peace," Bush said. "And the formation of the unity government in Iraq begins a new chapter in our relationship with Iraq."

Bush briefly spoke to reporters from the White House with his wife, Laura, at his side, to highlight the political development without mentioning the violence that still rages in Iraq.
The president did not speak of the spree of bombing, mortar rounds and a drive-by shooting that killed at least 18 Iraqis and wounded dozens — most of them hit by a suicide bomber who targeted a Baghdad restaurant during Sunday's lunch hour.

Bush said he called President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani to congratulate them on working together.

"I assured them that the United States will continue to assist Iraqis in the formation of a new country because I fully understand that a free Iraq will be an important ally in the war on terror, will serve as a devastating defeat for the terrorists and al-Qaida and will serve as example for others in the region who desire to be free."
Read All>>

UPDATE #2 - 1:23 PM, PST:

Iraqi Prime Minister Vows to End Violence
By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 44 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's new prime minister promised Sunday to use "maximum force" if necessary to end the brutal insurgent and sectarian violence wracking the country, while a suicide bomber killed more than a dozen people at a restaurant in downtown Baghdad.

Although he focused on the need to end bloodshed, Nouri al-Maliki also had to address unfinished political negotiations at a Cabinet meeting on the government's first full day in office.

Al-Maliki said the appointment of chiefs for the key Defense and Interior ministries should not "take more than two or three days." He is seeking candidates who are independent and have no ties to Iraq's myriad armed groups.

The two ministries, which oversee the army and the police, are crucial for restoring stability, and al-Maliki needs to find candidates with wide acceptance from his broad-based governing coalition of Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Failure to set the right tone could further alienate the disaffected Sunni Arab minority, which is the backbone of the insurgency. Or it could anger Shiite militias, some of which are thought to number in the thousands.

"We are aware of the security challenge and its effects. So we believe that facing this challenge cannot be achieved through the use of force only, despite the fact that we are going to use the maximum force in confronting the terrorists and the killers who are shedding blood," al-Maliki said.
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Twelve Steppin’ With Elephants - One Day At A Time

Asian Elephants ‘drinking’ it in at the Pinnawela Elephant preserve.
Image Credit: Galen R. Frysinger

This is not your everyday program.

They will not be sitting around in "rooms" working through their obsessions with others and drinking coffee.

The motto of this program just may be - "One Ride At A Time" - giving a new weight to the meaning of the phrase - "Easy Does It"!

Report from AP via The Washington Times -

Rogue elephants to escape death by entering rehab
By Bharatha Mallawarachi - ASSOCIATED PRESS - May 20, 2006

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Some of Sri Lanka's wildest, most destructive elephants could get reprieves from possible death sentences -- but they will have to spend some time in rehab first.

Elephants that rampage through villages, destroy crops or kill people will be caught, tamed and put to work giving rides to tourists and park rangers.

Wildlife conservation chief Dayananda Kariyawasam said his department had already identified 20 to 30 of the worst rogue elephants for the program, which is designed to keep angry villagers from killing them.

Wild elephants are increasingly entering villages in search of food as deforestation destroys their habitat.

A century ago, 10,000 to 15,000 elephants roamed wild in Sri Lanka, but today only about 3,000 remain, largely as a result of poaching and habitat loss.

Rampaging elephants have killed at least 84 persons in Sri Lanka since early 2005, and villagers have destroyed 156 of the beasts by shooting or electrocuting them, according to government figures.

The pardoned pachyderms will not get any free rides -- in fact, they will give them. "We will be using them for [wildlife] protection work," Mr. Kariyawasam said. "Officials can ride on them, where vehicles can't go, to prevent poaching."

The animals also will be used to promote the island's tourism industry, giving rides in elephant safaris, Mr. Kariyawasam said.

Capturing wild elephants was officially banned in 1937, though the government has made some exceptions.

Most of those have been for elephants to be used by temples for traditional Buddhist processions. More are needed, and many Buddhists hope the government decision will help alleviate an elephant shortage.

Sunil Rambukpotha of the Millennium Elephant Foundation, an elephant rights group, said there currently are only 153 tame elephants in Sri Lanka, and 63 of them are over 60 years old, toward the end of their natural life spans.

"As a result, we face immense hardships in carrying out our religious processions, which is part of our culture," he said.

For centuries, aristocratic families in Sri Lanka have kept elephants as status symbols with the consent of kings and later the British Empire, which ruled the country for more than 100 years until 1948.
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Now, if only there would be a twelve step program for rogue PETA protesters. "Easy Veg-it"

Yellow, Red, Blue - Not Badges Of Honor - UPDATED

The United States, whose President George W. Bush (R) is pictured here, Canada and Australia, whose Prime Minister John Howard (L) is pictured here on 16 May 2006 in Washington D.C., lost little time in blasting Iran for a report, quickly denied, that Tehran may force non-Muslims to wear colored badges in public. Photo Credit: AFP/File/Brendan Smialowski

Absolutely troubling! Iranian parliment is pondering a rule that all Jews, Christians, and other non-muslims must wear colored badges on their clothes while in public.

Hugh Hewitt dedicated a large segment of his show to this report and it should make everyone shudder who believes that all men (genderless) are created equal.

Excerpts from AFP via Today Online -

US and allies concerned by reports Iran to tag non-Muslims
AFP - Posted: 20-May-2006 06:25 hrs (Time is GMT + 8 hours)

The United States, Canada and Australia lost little time in blasting Iran for a report, quickly denied, that Tehran may force non-Muslims to wear colored badges in public.

While acknowledging they had no details beyond a report in a Canadian newspaper, the three countries went on the offensive in separate statements, with Washington and Ottawa evoking the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

"If you did have such an occurrence, whether it was in Iran or elsewhere, it would certainly be despicable," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington. "I think it has clear echoes of Germany under Hitler."

The National Post newspaper, citing human rights groups, reported Friday that Iran's parliament had passed a law this week that sets a public dress code and requires non-Muslims to wear a special insignia.

Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear a yellow, red or blue strip of cloth, respectively, on the front of their clothes, according to the newspaper.
----
"Unfortunately, we have seen enough already from the Iranian regime to suggest that it is very capable of this kind of action," Harper [Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada] said in Ottawa.

"I think it boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the earth would want to do anything that could remind people of Nazi Germany," he added.

"The fact that such a measure could even be contemplated, I think, is absolutely abhorent."

Howard also expressed indignation during an official visit to Canada, calling the report "appalling" if confirmed.

"Anything of that kind would be totally repugnant to civilized countries, if it's the case, and something that would just further indicate to me the nature of this regime," he said.

Iran's new hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already come in for widespread criticism for suggesting that the Holocaust was a myth and calling for Israel to be wiped off the face of the map.
----
The United States, Canada and Australia lost little time in blasting Iran for a report, quickly denied, that Tehran may force non-Muslims to wear colored badges in public.

While acknowledging they had no details beyond a report in a Canadian newspaper, the three countries went on the offensive in separate statements, with Washington and Ottawa evoking the atrocities of Nazi Germany.
----
In Ottawa, Harper's parliamentary secretary, Jason Kenney, also told the House of Commons that Canadian officials were trying to verify the claims and were "deeply concerned".

"Should these reports turn out to be true, this government will condemn in the strongest terms possible this kind of revisiting of the darkest period of the last century. It is something that the entire civilized world should condemn," Kenney said.
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UPDATE:

PRESS RELEASE: AMIR TAHERI ADDRESSES QUERIES ABOUT DRESS CODE STORY
by Amir TaheriBenador Associates May 22, 2006

Regarding the dress code story it seems that my column was used as the basis for a number of reports that somehow jumped the gun. As far as my article is concerned I stand by it. The law has been passed by the Islamic Majlis and will now be submitted to the Council of Guardians. A committee has been appointed to work out the modalities of implementation.

Many ideas are being discussed with regard to implementation,including special markers, known as zonnars, for followers of Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, the only faiths other than Islam that are recognized as such. The zonnar was in use throughout the Muslim world until the early 20th century and marked out the dhimmis, or protected religious minorities. (In Iran it was formally abolished in 1908). I have been informed of the ideas under discussion thanks to mysources in Tehran, including three members of the Majlis who had tried to block the bill since it was first drafted in 2004. I do not know which of these ideas or any will be eventually adopted. We will know once the committee appointed to discuss them presents its report, perhaps in September.

Interestingly, the Islamic Republic authorities refuse to issue anofficial statement categorically rejecting the concept of dhimmitude and the need for marking out religious minorities. I raised the issue not as a news story, because news of the new law was already several days old, but as an opinion column to alert the outside world to this most disturbing development.

Iranian author and journalist Amir Taheri is a member of Benador Associates.
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3-D Image Pollution @ Google Earth

Image Credit: Google

Google Earth Pollution!

Where's Greenpeace and the science community when we need them the most?

This from "Google Watch" via eWEEK News & View's -

Google Earth Pollution, in 3-D!
By Ben Charny - Google Watch

Google's nascent 3-D experiment is enabling a bit of a problem: Google Earth pollution.

Since late April, Google's been making available a number of free programs to create 3-D images, then upload them onto Google Earth maps, or the 3D Warehouse, a place where the graphic can be downloaded by others.

The goal was to bring 3-D to the masses. It's sure working.

Take a gander at the Empire State Building, via Google Earth's "fly to" feature. There's now several 3-D images of buildings near the Empire State Building, including one of the Chrysler Building.

To some people, these new images only add to the existing clutter on the maps. The Google Maps screen was so filled with names of locations and businesses as the image resolves into Manhattan that, at one point, all the scrunched-up names and symbols totally obscured the satellite photo.

As to the clutter and in Google's defense, Manhattan is a special case, where there are hundreds of listings to cram onto the map. And Google makes available a quick and relatively painless way to get rid of all of the, assuming here, paid listings.

Of course, the 3-D features showing up on Google Earth can all be avoided by not downloading the network software Google makes available.

But a lot of Google Earth users are sure to like the new additions. The 3-D imagery is a kind of high-tech graffiti that adds an interesting flavor to the maps. The King Kong image for the Empire State was a nice touch, for instance.

So in a way, for a lot of people it's kind of welcome clutter.

But Google's got a difficult task on-hand of walking the fine line between cute and so cluttered it's tough to make things out.
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Meathead Money - Rob Reiner's Additional Million

Photo Credit: www.TAX-R-US.de

The Reiner family commits another million dollars (bringing the contribution total to $2,700,000) to the Yes on Proposition 82 cause that will tax a special class of our fellow citizens.

In a move to conceal the fact that "meathead money" is the main source of funding for the porposition, Rob Reiner's wife is credited with the lions share of the contribution.

Excerpts from LA Weekly - Bill Bradley's NEW WEST NOTES -

Reiner Antes Up, Again
May 18th, 2006

Movie director Rob Reiner has just put another million dollars into his universal preschool initiative on California’s June 6 ballot, Proposition 82. This brings the total to date from Reiner to some $2.2 million. His TV comedy pioneer father Carl Reiner has also previously contributed $500,000 to the campaign.

Also this week, Reiner public relations counsel Mark Fabiani, who ran damage control for the Clinton White House during the Whitewater controversy, confirmed that Reiner attended UCLA but did not earn a bachelor’s degree. This would make the Oscar-nominated director and Emmy-winning actor ineligible to be a preschool instructor. Under the terms of Reiner’s initiative, only those with bachelor’s degrees would be allowed to teach preschoolers their numbers, letters, and colors, a reason why many existing preschool programs oppose the initiative.

Prop 82 would levy a 1.7 percent tax surcharge on high-income Californians making over $400,000 a year to set up a $2.4 billion annual preschool program open to all 4-year olds. The initiative requires preschool instructors to have teaching credentials. Around two-thirds of 4-year olds already attend some kind of preschool program.

Reiner, who insisted that “This isn’t about me” during his unsuccessful attempt to defuse the controversy over his stewardship of the California Children and Families Commission at a March 14th appearance before the Sacramento Press Club, has disappeared from public view following his resignation under fire from the commission.
----
There is some gamesmanship in the form of the new million dollar Reiner contribution. $750,000 of the money is attributed to his wife, Michelle Singer Reiner. Her listed occupation is that of homemaker. According to the Internet Movie Database, she has one Hollywood credit, for a small role in the 1994 Steve Martin comedy Mixed Nuts, in which her husband co-starred.

By attributing most of this contribution to her, the Yes on 82 campaign could avoid describing Reiner as the initiative’s biggest backer on TV ad disclaimers.

Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and current and former Senate Presidents Pro Tem Don Perata and John Burton, both Democrats, oppose Prop 82. Democratic gubernatorial candidates Phil Angelides and Steve Westly both support it.
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The Yes on 82 campaign will also protest the No side’s use of actors to depict a teacher and principal in the opposition’s only TV ad. The No on 82 ad focuses on the creation of a new bureaucracy, the possible imposition of a “parent tax” (which is not explained) if the initiative is not providing enough money, and better uses for the funds to buttress the existing K-12 system. The opponents, however, generally oppose all tax increases and are not supporting a tax hike for that purpose.
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Well, at least this isn't the type of "Meathead Money" Rob Reiner was planning to use before he was forced to resign ... The monies that were potentially to be directed from his stewardship of the California Children and Families Commission in the form of PR and advertising contracts awarded and improperly dedicated to the YES on Proposition 82 campaign.

Ring Of Fire Speaks Up

Indonesia's Merapi volcano erupts in Cangkringan Wednesday, May 17, 2006 as seen from Yogyakarta, the capital of Central Java province, Indonesia. The highest-status alert remained Wednesday for the 3,000-meter (9,800-foot) mountain at the heart of Java island, and scientists cautioned that a lull in activity did not mean the danger was over.
Photo Credit: AP-Ed Wray

Alert the Greenies, global warming and ozone layer agenda gets put on hold!

This from AP via Yahoo! News -

Indonesia's Mount Merapi Erupts Violently
By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 18 minutes ago

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - Mount Merapi shot a large cloud of searing hot ash and gas into the sky Wednesday, ending two days of relative calm and underscoring the dangers still facing thousands of people living on the volcano's slopes.

Witnesses said the eruption appeared to be smaller than the mountain's most violent sputterings Monday, when ash and gas clouds surged around 2 1/2 miles from the peak and triggered panic.

Vulcanologists keeping the mountain on 24-hour watch were not immediately available for comment on the eruption just after 5 p.m. (6 a.m. EDT), which sent volcanic material plunging down its western flanks, but appeared to fell well short of populated areas.
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Moonshine Makeover

THIS 10 GALLON GEORGIA RIDGE MOONSHINE STILL HAS COMBINED BOTH A HIGH EFFICIENCY LOW PRESSURE EXPANSION JOINT COLUMN WITH THE MODERN TECHNOLOGY OF REFLUX MAKING FOR ONE OF THE FINEST ALL COPPER MOONSHINE STILLS AVAILABLE. COMPLETE = $799 Photo Credit: COLONEL WILSON'S COPPER MOONSHINE STILLS

It is time to bring back the art of home brewin' as a national agenda of sacrifice to aid in our country's effort on the war on terror. There would be nothing more uniting to our country's culture, and put our country on a war-footing than to fire up the backyard moonshine still ... and make ethanol.

Of course the EPA would have problems with the burdens we all would put on our air quality and it wouldn't be long until our landscape would resemble parts Mexico City ... or North Hollywood (no trees).

Excerpts from AP via The Washington Insider -

Stills brew motorists' moonshine
By Bill Poovey - ASSOCIATED PRESS - May 17, 2006

TULLAHOMA, Tenn. -- The still -- standard equipment of any moonshiner -- has a shot at becoming the must-have accessory of penny-pinching motorists.

An upstart Tennessee business is marketing stills that can be set up as private distilleries making ethanol -- 190-proof grain alcohol -- out of fermented starchy crops such as corn, apples or sugar cane. The company claims the still's output can reduce fuel costs by nearly a third from the pump price of gasoline.

Buyers of stills need a federal permit to make ethanol on private property. In what amounts to an honor system, they are to add a poison to their homemade alcohol so it isn't "white lightning."

"We make it very clear that it is against the law to drink what comes out of it," said Shelley McClanahan, a spokeswoman for her family's business, Dogwood Energy.
----
Mr. Sasher's new creekside assembly warehouse in south-central Tennessee -- down a backwoods road, next door to a noisy rooster and less than 5 miles from the distillery that makes Jack Daniel's whiskey -- has orders for an estimated 45 assembled stills.

The company is building four or five stills a day and has sold 45 in recent weeks, more than 125 since September, to meet the demand from customers ranging from small businesses to thrifty individuals.

"You can save a lot of money. That's what this is all about," Mrs. McClanahan said.

A bushel of the fermented starch crop, mixed with yeast, water and sugar, and allowed to sit for about 2½ days, then strained and heated to boiling, makes about 2.6 gallons of ethanol, which is then added to gasoline to produce a blended fuel.

Dogwood Energy says it costs about 75 cents per gallon to make ethanol at home. Adding 15 percent ethanol to $3 gasoline reduces the cost of a fill-up to $2.40 per gallon, Mrs. McClanahan said.

A blend with 85 percent ethanol cuts the cost to $1.09 for a blended gallon, she said.
----
"We don't have to use oil from the Middle East. There are options," Mr. Mollenarro said.

Dubose Porter of Dublin, Ga., a state representative and editor of the Courier Herald, said the newspaper ordered a still to help offset delivery costs.

"The still idea is intriguing for a small company like ours," he said.

Using ethanol to power cars isn't new. The original Model T Ford was built to run on alcohol.
----
More than 30 models of new flex-fuel cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles -- including General Motors' Yukon and Ford's Taurus -- can use up to 85 percent ethanol, known as E85 fuel.
----
Its great advantage is cooking the mash at just the right temperature, 170 degrees, according to John Franklin, a former engine company design engineer and teacher in Evansville, Ind., who has ordered two of the stills.

"If the temperature is too high, then you are losing the alcohol. If it is too low, you are not able to recover enough of that alcohol that is pure enough, that is fuel grade," Mr. Franklin said.

"It really isn't rocket science," he said. "He makes it to where it is much more automated. He does that with that mechanical temperature-control valve. That is half the expense of the still. His still is much more automated and much more precise."

Ethanol already is routinely added to gasoline in New York, Connecticut, California and the Midwest, and makes up about a third of the gas sold in the United States, according to Kristin Brekke, a spokeswoman for the American Coalition of Ethanol in Sioux Falls, S.D.
----
Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association, which represents ethanol producers, has heard of Dogwood Energy.

"You've got to appreciate Americans' entrepreneurial spirit," he said. He hasn't heard of anyone making homemade ethanol, though.

"The only ethanol I know being made at home is still the beverage," Mr. Hartwig said.
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You gotta love the product "photo studio" over at Colonal Wilson's Copper Moonshine Stills!

New Archaeological Find In The Amazon

Part of the group of 127 granite monoliths up to three-meters-high discovered 12 May, 2006 in the middle of the Amazonian florest, in the state of Amapa, northern Brazil. According to the archaeologists of the Scientific and Technological Research Institute of the state of Amapa (IEPA) this could possibly be the oldest astronomical observatory in Brazil.
(AFP/SECOM/Gilam Nascimiento)

Just when you think our human experience has nothing new to find or offer ... after all, we have Google Earth, we have landed on the Moon, and we don't even need to have a bank account to have and use an ATM card.

This from AFP via Yahoo! News -

'Amazon Stonehenge' found in Brazil
Sat May 13, 6:12 PM ET

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - Archaeologists discovered a pre-colonial astrological observatory possibly 2,000 years old in the Amazon basin near French Guiana, said a report.

"Only a society with a complex culture could have built such a monument," archaeologist Mariana Petry Cabral, of the Amapa Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (IEPA), told O Globo newspaper.

The observatory was built of 127 blocks of granite each three meters (10 feet) high and regularly placed in circles in an open field, she said.

Cabral said the site resembles a temple which could have been used as an observatory, because the blocks are positioned to mark the winter solstice. In December, the path of the sun allows rays to pass through a hole in one of the blocks, possibly to calculate agricultural activity and religious rituals.

Its exact age has been difficult to determine, but based on ceramic fragments found nearby, archaeologists estimate it between 500 and 2,000 years old.

The discovery is in Calcoene, 390 kilometers (240 miles) from Macapa, the capital of Amapa state, near Brazil's border with French Guyana.

Archaeologists said the find holds mysteries similar to Stonehenge, in Salisbury, England, another monument of huge stones, whose purpose is also unclear.
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Illegal Immigration Hurts All Citizens

Here is a point of view as to how race is not the issue from voices of American citizens who would know better.

The left in this country, the "Open Borders" proponents, are really trying to use the issue of race to tear apart the last thread of fabric in our American culture that holds us together.

Our non-response on illegal immigration is resulting into more than what our liberal political leaders, Hispanic leadership and clergy want us to think it is --- It is not just race as a wedge issue ... it is evolving into a race against race as a wedge issue.

American sovereignity is the real issue and our government needs to step up and be counted as protecting the interests of ALL American citizens over the "so called" rights (claimed) of illegal immigrants.

Excerpts from The Washington Insider -

Blacks see threat from Hispanic illegal aliens
By Keyonna Summers - THE WASHINGTON TIMES - May 15, 2006

Blacks in the region are joining Minuteman militia groups opposed to illegal Hispanic aliens working in the United States, saying they take jobs from blacks and piggyback off the strides made during the civil rights movement.

Several blacks Friday attended a Minuteman rally in the District. And yesterday, Ted Hayes, a black Los Angeles-based homeless activist and founder of the Crispus Attucks Brigade, held a rally in Upper Senate Park denouncing attempts by immigrant rights groups to link their movement to that of black civil rights.

"Illegal immigration is the greatest threat to black people since slavery," Mr. Hayes said. "The civil rights movement was made by black citizens of this country, but [illegal aliens] are claiming civil rights as a key to cross the American border illegally."

He and several area blacks at the rallies said losing jobs is their biggest concern.

Mr. Hayes said illegal aliens are accepting "slave wages" after decades of blacks' not allowing employers to pay them less than minimum wage.
----
"If I'm going to be held to abiding by the law, they should be, too," she said. "I don't like my tax money going to people who are living here illegally."

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center shows that about 80 percent of blacks have a favorable view of Hispanic immigrants' work ethic and family values. The survey also shows that 33 percent of blacks are less likely to suggest deportation of illegals aliens, compared with 59 percent of whites.

However, the survey indicates that about half of blacks in the region see immigrants as a burden because they take jobs and housing. More than 50 percent of blacks in the region and more than 75 percent nationwide say increased immigration has led to difficulties in finding a job, compared with 50 percent of whites nationwide and 20 percent in the region who say the same.

The survey stated 22 percent of blacks and 14 percent of whites said they or a relative had lost a job to an immigrant.
----
Brigade members have also branded supporters of the immigrant movement such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and black leaders the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as "sellouts" who are "leading blacks in a circle."

Mr. Hayes predicted their imminent overthrow.

"They do not own civil rights," he said. "They don't speak for us. They haven't talked to us, the black people, about their civil rights. These are not our leaders. We've had 40 years of Jesse Jackson, and enough is enough. This will be his undoing."
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Again, this tension really isn't about race, it is about citizenship.

Let me know when we all are going to wake up and protect ourselves from the gross degradation of our basic American rights, the rights that come with citizenship.

MAXINE, On Mother's Day

Maxine, with brood (JET) at "HollyLoa", 1953. Photo Credit: WCJ (dad)

"To share often and much … To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded."—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy Mother's Day, Mom (1917-1989).

Grinding Meathead - Government Worker Unions Threaten Consumer Boycotts

Capitol and Grounds from the Capitol Mall, California State Capitol in Sacramento, California taken March, 2001. Photo Credit: Les Partridge

In a move that could only be seen as bizzarre, unions that represent the interests of federal, state and county government workers ... issue a threat to organize a boycott.

This consumer boycott would be directed at some niche market clothing retailers because the unions wanted to show their displeasure over these companies support of the defeat of the actor, director, and now shamed liberal political operative, Rob Reiner's preschool initiative, Proposition 82.

These tax payer-paid ingrates want to raise taxes, again, on successful wage earners (those who are classified as upper-income) so that the state would provide universal pre-school to all 4 year olds.

Excerpts from the Sacramento Bee -

Prop. 82: Initiative backers threaten Gap boycott
By Laura Mecoy -- Bee Los Angeles Bureau - Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, May 12, 2006 - Story appeared on Page A1 of The Bee

LOS ANGELES - Employing a new political tactic, two large labor unions are using the threat of a consumer boycott to try to curb corporate contributions to groups opposing the universal preschool initiative on the June ballot.

The Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees sent a letter last week threatening a national boycott of all of the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic stores.

They said they would launch the boycott if the Gap, its affiliates or any members of the family that founded the Gap donated to groups opposing actor and director Rob Reiner's preschool initiative, Proposition 82.

"It is our hope that you come to the conclusion that opposing preschool for every child in California is bad for kids and bad for California," said the letter, signed by SEIU's and AFSCME's presidents and SEIU's secretary treasurer. The two unions, AFSCME and SEIU, represent more than 2.7 million members nationwide. They are likely to gain more members if Proposition 82 is approved because it would allow collective bargaining among those working in the preschools the initiative would fund.
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Proposition 82 would raise upper-income Californians' taxes to pay for a free half-day of voluntary preschool for all the state's 4-year-olds by 2010.

The California Business Roundtable, the California Chamber of Commerce and several other business groups have said they oppose the measure because it is "badly flawed" and could ultimately hurt K-12 education funding.

Opponents started their campaign against the initiative long after the proponents and have fallen behind in fundraising.
--
Kathy Fairbanks, "No on 82" campaign spokeswoman, also called the boycott threat and the union's statements "unfortunate," saying the opposition is widespread.

Nathan James, "Yes on 82" campaign spokesman, applauded the boycott threat and said the Fisher family patriarch, Don Fisher, has been soliciting donations for opponents.
"He's not been outspoken publicly," James said. "But in donor circles ... he's committed to fighting it by raising money against it."

Proposition 82's backers have been trying to make an issue of the Fisher family donations for months by distributing leaflets at Gap stores around the state.

John Jackson, founder of the Say Yes to Children Network, said he organized those demonstrations in hopes of discouraging other corporate donors.

He said John Fisher was the first big corporate contributor against Proposition 82, and he hoped others would be discouraged to give if they believed their companies could be picketed.
"The strategy for us was ... that perhaps it would slow down the money," he said.
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Bob Stern, Center on Governmental Studies president, said he'd never heard of a group seeking to halt campaign contributions by threatening a boycott.

He said he had mixed feelings about the threat: He was pleased to see publicity about large campaign contributions but troubled by attacks on a company that was staying out of the election.

Bob Witeck, a Washington, D.C.-based public relations executive who has worked with several large corporations facing boycotts, called the union's boycott threat "novel."
--
[Witeck continues] "The notion of getting into a boycott as a political tactic is very interesting," he said. "But I think it's going to be hard to convince and educate enough people to boycott the stores. ... It's harder than people think."
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Just think, if Rob Reiner was still able to control the government-collected, cigarette tax monies he once had control over ... the "Meathead Money" would be all over the support of this initiative.

Of course, this is why "Sausage" (Rob Reiner) was removed and replaced with "Chorizo" (Hector Ramirez).

Proposition 82 is goin' down.

Iraq - Takes A Step To Secure Governmental Future

Iraqi members of Parliament raise their hands as they vote on a resolution.
Image Credit: AFP/Getty Images

The photo above illustrates clearly why our troops are in Iraq. From "purple fingers" to parliament votes, our effort in this part of the world is producing dividends dispite what one may hear from the naysayers.

Excerpts from The Washington Times -

Iraq leader seeks 'interim' control
By Sharon Behn - THE WASHINGTON TIMES - May 12, 2006

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's prime minister-designate has proposed to take over temporarily the powerful ministries of interior and defense in order to end a crippling political stalemate and move ahead with the formation of a new government.

Nouri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, would command the two ministries for an "interim" period of as little as one week while the political parties continue negotiations on who will serve as permanent ministers, officials close to the talks said yesterday.

"This is temporary until they reach a solution and find the right people," said former government member Mahmoud Othman.
--
Mr. Othman said the political parties have already agreed that the interior ministry -- which controls the police and certain other security forces -- will go to a Shi'ite, while the defense ministry will go to a Sunni. But infighting continues over which parties and individuals will get the posts, with Sunnis pressing for a more secular Shi'ite at the interior ministry.

"I think [Mr. al-Maliki's move] helps get the rest of the process moving," said another official close to the government talks, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "You can't get bogged down because of two ministries. This is not a grab for power, it is to keep the process moving."
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"The violence is tragic," said Hanna Edwar, a women's rights activist who has been fighting for more women in government. "On every corner of the street, there is a body full of blood."

Mrs. Edwar, the secretary of the Iraqi Al-Amal Association, which works to foster nonviolence and respect for human rights, was not confident that Mr. al-Maliki's move would end the daily torture and killings, large movements of displaced people and the constant car bombs.

The politicians, she said, appeared to be more interested in serving their own parties' interests than the good of Iraq. "They don't want to see people with real qualifications, they are looking from inside their circles," she said.
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At MAXINE, we believe these are the stories from Iraq that carry the most weight.

An Iraq with an elected, and negotiated government is the goal, the ideal, and the vision.

This is the type of success the MSM and the Democrat Party leadership are not as pleased to hear about than those of us who know that we are actually ... AT WAR ... and why.

On-Line Retailing's Shortcomings Highlighted

Image Credit: U.S. Free Ads

A Forrester survey conducted for a recent report titled, “How to Master Online Merchandising,” found that the penetration of tools and technologies that improve online merchandising still has far to go among retailers.

The most commonly used online functionality falling under Forrester’s definition of online merchandising tools was site search. With 54% of retailers surveyed saying they use site search --- that means more than a third of the retailers still don’t have a site search function.

More excerpts from Internet Retailer newsletter -

Online retail merchandising ripe for improvement, Forrester report finds
Internet Retailer – May 11, 2006

Internet retailers generally have nailed the basics of e-commerce, opening the way for them to start investing in improving their online merchandising with more innovative tools and technologies. And online merchandising is an area in need of retailers’ attention, notes Forrester Research, with conversion rates averaging only about 2.6% and some retail verticals averaging even lower.
--
Among other online merchandising tools now in use among surveyed retailers, 55% said they had implemented technology to bring richer imagery to their sites, 47% use zoom, and 42% use swatching technology.

A total of 41% use buying guides on their site, while 33% use A/B design testing.

Customer ratings and reviews were cited by 26%, live chat by 26%, streaming video by 22% and personalized recommendations were used by 16% of the retailers.

Gift registries and wish lists were cited by only 15% of retailers surveyed; 9% use 3-D rotation technology, and only 6% used virtual model technology.

“Even though online retail sites have evolved and matured, most consumers who come to those sites just don’t purchase,” says Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru. “By engaging in efforts that place products more effectively throughout a web site and present features in a more engaging way, retailers can drive the incremental conversion improvements that dramatically affect overall sales.”
Link Here>>

We know retailing online will never replace the tactile nature of a "brick & mortar" experience ... but with the way "Gaming" technology (E3 tradeshow in LA this week) has evolved recently, one thinks that these effects could be applied to bring forth a more satisfying experience that results in increased sales.

No "Thanks" In The Golden State - Top Rank = #58

#1 Albuquerque, NM – Image Credit: © Lonely Planet

Forbes Magazine ranked the best Metro places for businesses and carrers and the Golden State did not do so well.

Of the 25 most expensive places to locate a business in the U.S., 20 are in California, thanks to high taxes and worker's compensation costs. (No one in the Golden State is getting a break on labor or office space costs either.)

The highest-ranking metro in the Golden State is the Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine area. This Orange County area placed 58th thanks to low crime and a very educated labor force.

More excerpts from Forbes via Yahoo! Finance -

The Top Ten Metros
By Kurt Badenhausen - Forbes.com

"In a progressive country," Benjamin Disraeli once said, "change is constant."

And how.

In this year's ranking of the best places for business and careers, perennial top-ten metros like Atlanta, Austin and Northern Virginia-Washington, D.C., fell from the highest perch, hurt by slowing income growth.

Newcomers that cracked the top tier include Houston, riding high on oil profits, and Phoenix, lifted by a housing and population boom. Overall, half of the top ten places are new this year.

We expanded this year's list to include the 200 largest metro areas, up from 150, thanks to Uncle Sam's reconfiguration of metropolitan statistical areas--which split regions like Raleigh-Durham into two.
--
A tip of the hat to West Chester, Pa., research firm Moody's Economy.com, which provided data for the rankings. Its business cost index weighs labor, energy, tax and office space costs.

Our top-ranked metro, Albuquerque, N.M., has the lowest business costs in the country, 24% below the national average. Albuquerque also benefited from an educated population and rising household incomes.

To calculate living expenses, Economy.com considered housing, transportation, food and other household expenses. In the rankings, we also examined job and income growth, as well as migration trends over the last five years.

Bertrand Sperling, a consultant in Portland, Ore., analyzed crime data for us and developed an arts and leisure index that tracks things like museums, theaters, golf courses and sports teams. He also gauged the education of the workforce and assessed the presence of top colleges in the area.
Read All>>

A New "CAFE" To Visit

Not this type of cafe, but this is an interesting photo. Image Credit : Urban 75

A former Senate majority leader and a founder of Sun Microsystems urge creation of new CAFE standard: Carbon Alternative Fuel Equivalent.

In a move that would massage the governments response to being addicted to oil imports, Tom Daschle, the former Democratic Senate majority leader, and Vinod Khosla, a founder of Sun Microsystems, put forth an opinion in the New York Times that calls for a fundamental change in the way the government measures the "petroleum mileage" of a vehicle so that ethanol mix would become a positive factor in the automobile's mileage assessment.

Excerpts from the New York Times -

Op-Ed Contributor
Miles Per Cob
By TOM DASCHLE and VINOD KHOSLA - Published: May 8, 2006 - Washington

ON Wednesday, the White House proposed to overhaul fuel economy standards for automobiles by making them "size based," with differing requirements for big and small cars. Automakers worry that any revisions will hurt their business; environmentalists oppose the administration's plan, and its earlier proposal for revising mileage standards for light trucks, as not going far enough. But a debate on Corporate Average Fuel Economy, known as CAFE, misses the point; if we are serious about reducing our dependence on imported oil, we need to shift our focus.
--
We need to upgrade to a new CAFE: Carbon Alternative Fuel Equivalent. This new CAFE will measure "petroleum mileage" and give automakers incentives and credits for increasing ethanol consumption as a percentage of fuel use of their vehicles, not least by promoting flex-fuel vehicles, which can run on either gasoline or E85 fuel, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. This approach promises several significant benefits.

First, it could set America free from its dependence on foreign oil. As Brazil's "energy independence miracle" proves, an aggressive strategy of investing in petroleum substitutes like ethanol can end dependence on imported oil.

Second, switching from gasoline to ethanol produced from perennial energy crops like switch grass can slash our carbon dioxide emissions.

Third, it could build on a comparative advantage of American automakers. American auto manufacturers are churning out hundreds of thousands of flex-fuel vehicles. Their foreign competitors make far fewer. Promoting these vehicles will help our automakers build on their already strong market share.

And fourth, by encouraging the production of ethanol and new renewable fuel technologies, this new CAFE standard could invigorate rural communities in America's heartland and innovation and research centers along its coasts.
--
So instead of squabbling over a mile a gallon here and a mile a gallon there, let's move to a new CAFE standard that offers Americans a fresh chance to work together to meet some of this country's most pressing challenges.
Read All>>

This is a start at the Federal level. Now, if only we can get California more than four E85 stations, three of which are dedicated to fueling government vehicles.

Congress Discusses Lowering Tariffs On Ethanol

Question: Does it make sense to swap one energy resource supply dependency to another potential resource supply dependency?

These excerpts from the National Association of Convenience Stores -

Members of Congress Fuel Talks on Ethanol Tariff
News & Media Center - May 10, 2006

WASHINGTON -- U.S. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said on May 9 that a temporary reduction of the U.S. tariff on ethanol imports would help ease prices at the pump, reports Reuters.

"We don't have enough ethanol in production today. It's coming on board, but if we were to temporarily reduce the tariff on ethanol coming into our country, I think that would ease the pressure that's out there, resulting in lower gasoline prices," Rep. Boehner told reporters.

Last week, President Bush called on Congress to lift the current tariffs on ethanol imports. When asked if the House and Senate had enough votes to lift the tariffs, Boehner told reporters, "I think it's possible."
--
"Lifting the tariff would be a victory for the oil companies, a kick in the face to rural America where the ethanol comes from, and leave consumers with the same high gas prices we have today," said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which is the committee that would review tariff legislation.

Rep. Boehner commented to Reuters that not all ethanol industry representatives are opposed to the idea of easing U.S. ethanol import tariffs.
--
"Our two countries need to accelerate their cooperation … Brazil and the United States should combine their strengths to contribute to the region's economic, social and political development," notes the op-ed. "We both face challenges to our energy security from the sharply rising worldwide demand for energy … But amid this new energy threat, we also have an opportunity to fashion a win-win response that could benefit both our countries."
Read All>>

In all truthfulness, we need to have the issue of ethanol supply, as we do for petrol fuel supply, be our own. Open up ANWAR for more oil, create more refineries, and internally expand the distilling of ethanol through tax incentives.

Michael Yon - A Three-fer Tucked Into A Two-fer

Not a rose by any name. From “Why We Write”. Photo Credit: Michael Yon

Two dispatches from Michael Yon show the contrasts of fighting a war to win (Iraq) and fighting a war to show a momentary (Afghanistan) effect.

The first highlights how Iraqi security forces are responding to the training and conviction our military forces are imparting to their efforts. Stories from Baquba with link and full credit going to the Washington Times and their correspondent Maya Alleruzzo.

Excerpts from Michael Yon: Online Magazine –

One More Reason For Hope

An Iraqi Warrior is fighting for new life in America after an assassination ambush by insurgents riddled his body with a dozen bullets but failed to extinguish this soldier’s force of life. I’ve been paying close attention to this story for months, having heard many of the “behind the scenes” events that eventually led Iraqi Captain Furat to American soil. The following series of photographs was shot by Washington Times correspondent Maya Alleruzzo as the platoon of Iraqi soldiers with whom she was traveling was ambushed by insurgents in Baquba.
--
I was told that a battalion of our own soldiers at Fort Benning recently gave Captain Furat a standing ovation for his courage and sacrifice in the war to rid Iraq of terrorists.

Please read this story, and know that if it were not for the Washington Times and their correspondent Maya Alleruzzo, along with those quiet Americans, this Iraqi hero would be dead.

But today he lives. In Georgia.
Read All>>

The second dispatch deals with the developments in Afghanistan and the reasons why some reporters write.

Excerpts from Michael Yon: Online Magazine –

Why We Write

Soldiers on the ground hold our helicopter pilots in extreme regard. I’ve never heard a real combat soldier calling pilots “fly boys” or anything disrespectful. If I were willing to share my closest combat helicopter photos from Iraq, folks would understand just why the infantry loves our helicopter pilots.
--
I’ll be thinking about our troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa and so many other places while I go into seclusion to write. I’ve written pointedly about Afghanistan recently, and will post a couple more dispatches about the place before getting settled. My remarks about Afghanistan have angered many readers and I understand that. I appreciate that many folks have strong political aspects; certainly, they have been blunt sharing their viewpoints, so I knew many would be angry before posting those words, but I was speaking important truths. I care about our soldiers and our people and will not go silent when a man should speak.
--
Many people in my generation and younger — keep asking me about this “Joe Galloway” who I keep saying people should listen to. Joe Galloway is one of the finest war correspondents our country ever produced. Joe ranks with Ernie Pyle, but Joe is a lot meaner than Ernie. Plus, Ernie had the “advantage” of dying in combat with our Marines. Joe has somehow survived all his extreme bouts with combat. Joe lived with the soldiers and told their stories, eventually writing an incredible book called, We were Soldiers Once… And Young. My copy is here on the desk beside me. So when Joe talks, old sergeant majors and old generals — and most of current top military leadership — listen. And when these old veterans talk, we should all listen. They know war. We should listen more to our veterans than to politicians. We are more likely to get straight answers about war from warriors than we are from politicians and most of the media.
--
Like Ernie Pyle once noted, nobody is more plainspoken than combat soldiers. The ones I met in Afghanistan call that the “forgotten war” but unless things change dramatically, 2007 will be a year everyone remembers in Afghanistan.

I figure my part is telling what I saw when I was there.
Read All>>

The Two Faces Of Radical Activism

Image Credit: Garold W. Sneegas - nativefish.org

A win for PETA as it works within the system. No animal costumes, no blood on fur, no sign carrying whiners. Just stock holders wanting to talk with management.

This from the PETA Media Center –

PETA WITHDRAWS 3M SHAREHOLDER RESOLUTION AFTER COMPANY IMPLEMENTS ANIMAL WELFARE PROPOSAL
May 8, 2006 - Contact: Holly Mattern 757-622-7382

Norfolk, Va. — Following negotiations with 3M, PETA has agreed to withdraw a shareholder resolution that the group planned to present at 3M’s annual meeting in St. Paul tomorrow, May 9. PETA’s resolution called on the company to formally adopt an animal welfare policy that would extend to its outside contract testing laboratories and include social and behavioral enrichment measures for the physical and psychological well-being of the animals used in the company’s experiments.

3M has now posted its existing animal welfare policy on its Web site that includes these measures. The company has also agreed to publicly issue an annual report regarding compliance with the animal welfare policy and continue discussions with PETA on animal testing issues.

“We are delighted with 3M’s response to our proposal,” says PETA’s director of regulatory testing, Jessica Sandler. “We look forward to working with 3M to ensure that the company uses as few animals as possible and leads the way in improving conditions for those animals who are still used.”

Copies of the resolution are available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
Link Here>>

And this the very next day -

PETA Tells Middle-School Students To Not Eat Fish
KFMB News 8, San Diego - Last Updated: 05-09-06 at 1:19PM

Say no to fish. That was the message People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals were telling students at a protest outside an Ocean Beach middle school.

Monday's event at Correia Middle School encouraged students to stop eating fish. PETA members said fish feel pain, just like any other animal.

They also said eating fish is not the healthy alternative it is made out to be.

"Many people don't know that fish isn't a health food," said Chris Link of PETA. "It's full of lead, mercury and other heavy metals, as well as PCBs, which can accumulate in your body and cause cancer."

PETA members also handed out trading cards to students.

In fairness, many studies have shown that some fish contain healthy Omega-3 fatty acids.
Link Here>>

Just when you get to thinking that PETA is adopting a mainstreaming strategy, they go and do this. Let's be honest, the agenda is to have all humans eat only vegetables – somebody tell ‘em We’re Omnivores.

I’ll tell you what PETA, you teach all fish to live out of water … and then we humans, all of us, will eat only vegetables.

W e' r e W a i t i n g .........................!

Let The Insults To The System Begin

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Moussaoui, the infamous "20th" highjacker files an appeal to have a new trial. He claims to only be part of a second wave of attacks and that he had never met with lead hijacker Mohamed Atta or any of the other terrorists that carried out the 9/11 attacks. He requested a new trial to prove his innocence to the September attacks. His appeal was rejected.

Excerpts from the Washington Post -

Moussaoui Fails in Bid to Withdraw 9/11 Guilty Plea
By Jerry Markon - Washington Post Staff Writer - Tuesday, May 9, 2006; Page A16

Facing transfer to the nation's toughest federal prison, Zacarias Moussaoui served up what may be his final legal surprise yesterday: The al-Qaeda conspirator said he was not involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror plot after all and wants a new trial to prove it.

His efforts were immediately rejected by a federal judge.

In a motion in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Moussaoui sought to withdraw his guilty plea and be granted a new trial "to prove my innocence of the Sept. 11 plot.'' The filing came four days after he was sentenced to life in prison, a punishment determined by a jury that heard Moussaoui testify during a seven-week sentencing trial that he had planned to fly a fifth hijacked airplane into the White House on Sept. 11.

Now, the French citizen says that testimony was "a complete fabrication.'' In an affidavit accompanying the motion, Moussaoui said he never met lead hijacker Mohamed Atta, didn't know the other 18 hijackers "or anything about their operation" and was taking flying lessons in the United States only to train for a second wave of attacks.

He also offered measured praise for the U.S. legal system he has spent the past four years attacking. Moussaoui said he lied on the stand because he assumed he would be executed "based on the emotions and anger toward me for the deaths on Sept. 11.'' But he was "extremely surprised" at the jury's verdict, he said, and now believes "it is possible I can receive a fair trial even with Americans as jurors.''
--
Even Moussaoui's attorneys acknowledged in a footnote yesterday that their motion could not be granted under federal rules, but they said they were filing it anyway "given their problematic relationship with Moussaoui."
--
Yesterday's motion was another twist in the case of Moussaoui, the only person convicted in the United States in connection with the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Moussaoui, 37, pleaded guilty last year to taking part in a broad al-Qaeda conspiracy to crash planes into U.S. buildings that led to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Read All>>

We all know how this system works, spare a life, and support a phalanx of lawyers, judges, court clerks, MSM journalists, liberal cause/sympathy supporters, and etc. This will be the first of many challenges and "insults" to the system.

Hey Zackie, do you think that claiming to have regret that you were picked up before you were able to fly a plane into the White House might make a nation of innocent people be hostile toward YOU?

Guess what; feel good that the system saved your life so that you can participate in a bizarre form of capitalism ... The American Legal System.

A Fish Out Of Water

In a world of his own ... David Blaine floats in his water-filled sphere.
Photo Credit: Brendan McDermid

The amazing David Blaine, was good, but not world record breaking. His performance stunt captivated the attention of New Yorkers and an East Coast television audience but in the end, he did not even get all of the chains and handcuffs off, his feet were still bound when he came out.

Excerpts from The Sydney Morning Hearld -

Blaine damaged
By Dylan Welch and David Braithwaite
May 9, 2006 - 11:16AM Sydney Australia Time

Illusionist David Blaine has been rescued by divers after failing to hold his breath underwater for a record breaking nine minutes.

Blaine managed to hold his breath for seven minutes, eight seconds before starting to shake and blow bubbles out of his mouth.

Blaine spent the past week submerged in a plastic sphere in New York City's Lincoln Square in preparation for his world-record attempt.

The Herald's New York correspondent, Mark Coultan, watched the two-hour US television special which climaxed with Blaine's stunt.

"He failed - he got to seven minutes, eight seconds,'' he told smh.com.au.
"He was a very sick puppy when he came out - it was horrible to watch, quite frankly.

"He started to shake after seven minutes and blow bubbles out of his mouth so they've gone in and got him.

"He wasn't exactly unconscious but he was losing it.
--
Yesterday Blaine described his seven days in a sphere of water as "horrific", saying he had never experienced pain like it before.

"I think the time has started to really take its toll on my body. It has started to become horrific in many, many ways.

"Every muscle doesn't just ache, it feels like a sharp shooting pain, like a knife being stabbed."

Blaine's skin had shrivelled and pruned, and he was concerned for his muscles, which had begun to atrophy.
--
Public interest in the spectacle was huge, with thousands of people flocking to the Lincoln Center in downtown Manhattan to stand in line and get a chance to make brief eye contact with the water-logged magician.

In a society increasingly weary of in-your-face reality television, it seems that Blaine's self-declared magic trick has been elevated to art.

Even president of the Lincoln Centre Reynold Levy, whose centre has played host to such performers as Placido Domingo and Yo-Yo Ma, is quick to jump on the Blaine bandwagon.
--
The Times reported comments by Ann Sheridan, who popped in to visit Blaine on Thursday night and drew comparisons with contentious New York public art project The Gates that covered Central Park in saffron last year.

"It's like The Gates ... nobody understands what The Gates meant, but everybody went and saw them."
Read All>>

It was fun but a little unfulfilling. Kinda' like a muffed magic trick. Great photo opportunity though!

60 Minutes Over-reaches On E85 Expose

"There are oil fields in Texas, and that is called their black gold. And I think Iowa, that's our green gold." Image Credit: CBS News

I know that CBS News and 60 Minutes think their hearts are in the right place but the piece they just ran on E85 had some very big flaws and the largest one wasn't the swipe they made at the "Big" oil companies.

First, they mentioned that California was somehow a model leading the conversion of gasoline stations to ones that carry E85 FlexFuel. California has ONLY four (4) ethanol capable fuel stations and three of them are for the exclusive use of the U. S. Government.

Second, there is the actual availability of "Corn" based ethanol; It is limited very limited given its current growing production.

Excerpts from CBS News -

The Ethanol Solution
Could Corn-Based Fuel Help End America's Dependence On Imported Oil?
May 7, 2006

60 Minutes traveled to Brazil to see how they made it work. Brazil had two problems: they grew more sugarcane than they could sell and their economy was being strangled by the high price of imported oil.

Making ethanol out of sugarcane solved both problems. In cities like Sao Paulo, with 18 million people, they call ethanol "álcool," and it’s sold at every gas station, right alongside gasoline.

Ethanol really took off in Brazil when "flex-fuel" cars went on sale four years ago. These cars gave drivers a choice: they can use gas, or ethanol, or any combination of the two. Because ethanol is cheaper, the law of supply and demand took care of the rest.

There’s already a substantial supply of ethanol here in the U.S., where the fuel is made from corn instead of sugar-cane.
--
But it's not a simple switch to make. Out of about 170,000 gas stations in the U.S., only 650 sell E85. And, the engines in conventional cars may not perform as well with E85, and could be damaged by it.

In Detroit, they’ve solved the car problem by making small modifications to a standard engine’s fuel-supply and injection systems. That produces the same kind of "flex-fuel" cars they’ve been selling in Brazil, and it doesn’t cost any more than a conventional car.

Flex-fuel autos adjust automatically to whatever's put in the tank – gas, ethanol, or any combination. You can convert a standard car into a flex-fuel vehicle, but you would need a skilled mechanic and some parts to do it.

And ethanol isn’t new to the auto business: the first Model T's ran on it.
--
Another board member, Polly Granzow, says, "There are oil fields in Texas, and that is called their black gold. And I think Iowa, that’s our green gold."

The folks at the plant showed 60 Minutes how they do it: huge trucks filled with corn come into the plant every day and unload their cargo into what is, in reality, an industrial-sized distillery.

In a maze of pipes and tanks, corn, water and yeast are mixed and fermented into beer. Operators keep track of everything on computers.

"In 48 hours, each fermenter will make about 15 percent volume beer," Plant manager Scott Dorow explains. It's not stuff you want to drink. "It's non-filtered, and, but it's very sweet-smelling. And you can definitely tell it's beer."

Then, under high temperatures, the mixture is distilled in a giant version of an old-fashioned corn-liquor still. What emerges at the end is ethanol, which is nearly pure alcohol. Trucks carry it to a nearby railroad line. For the farmers who own the plant, ethanol is more than just a new way to make money.

"Ethanol has been one of the best-kept secrets that is out there. We know it’s a good product. We know it's good for the economy. We know it’s good for the environment," says Granzow.
And more and more people are seeing it that way. To meet rising demand, the plant will expand to double its capacity by next year. But the farmers who run the place are already thinking beyond that: to a new process of making ethanol from cellulose, instead of corn. This would be much cheaper, because cellulose is found in everything from prairie grass to agricultural waste to wood chips.
--
Oil industry executives, taking heat from Congress over their multi-billion-dollar record profits, favor a different approach. They want to spend billions find to new sources of oil, which is more expensive to produce, instead of switching over to E85.
--
"It's my understanding that the petroleum industry in general says "ethanol — fine," but not in favor or E85. Is that true?" Rather asked.

"No, that's not correct," Cavaney replied. "The six largest refiners said that they support the E85 in their facilities as long as the mixture arrives and meets the government specifications for that. But we must understand that the market is exceptionally limited."
--
"What we don’t wanna do is over-promise to the American public what can be done with these alternative fuels, and then under-deliver," says Cavaney.

But some states, like California, are already moving to deliver E-85 to more gas stations by helping pay the cost of adding the E-85 pumps. Professor Kammen from Berkeley says the process would be a lot less expensive than the oil industry’s estimate of $200,000 per station, and wouldn’t take that long.

"The transition is pretty easy. It looks like its $30,000 to $40,000 per gas station to change over and have ethanol-dedicated pumps," he says.

"Are we talking three years? Five years? 20 years?" Rather asked.
"I think it's less than that, actually." Kammen replied. "I would bet that we will have enough ethanol stations within two to three years' time, at most.
Read All>>

Cellulose to ethanol conversion have not proven to be economically viable as yet for dedicated production (still a theory), plants are currently dedicated to corn which is in limited supply.

This from MAXINE post linked in preamble comments -

The entire 73.6 million acres of corn harvested in 2004 would supply only 15.5 days of gasoline replacement. There simply is not enough land available to produce enough corn or other crops for ethanol to make a significant dent in gasoline demand. Moreover, current environmental policy encourages taking agricultural land out of production, not expanding production. (ht: Henery Lamb)

MAXINE opines, you decide ... this report over-reaches!

Insane Blaine Is At It Again

American magician David Blaine floats inside a water-filled glass sphere where he is spending seven days and nights underwater at the Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center in New York May 5, 2006. Blaine, who is now on his fifth day underwater, receives regular treatment for his skin from his medical team. At the end of the stunt titled 'Drowned Alive,' Blaine will attempt to hold his breath under water longer than any other human has ever accomplished. Photo Credits: REUTERS/Mike Segar, Brendan McDermid & AFP/Getty Images/File/Brad Barker

Noted street magician and performance artist David Blaine (most noted for being able to levitate oneself without appearent props ... on the street), becomes a fish for one week before he re-submerges himself for an attempt at a world record.

Excerpts from AFP via Yahoo! News -

David Blaine growing weak from breathtaking new stunt
Fri May 5, 1:48 PM ET

NEW YORK (AFP) - US illusionist David Blaine, who has been submerged since Monday in a water-filled sphere in downtown New York, is growing weak and will receive medical attention over the weekend, his spokesman said.

"Doctors are concerned that he's weakening. They are going to work with him through the weekend, trying to stabilize both his diet and his training regimen," spokesman Pat Smith told AFP.

"His skin is peeling very badly on his hands. Those are our biggest concerns right now," Smith said.

The spokesman said Blaine, 33, is "telling the people 'I feel great,' ... and he's determined" to see his seven-day stunt through to the end.
--
Blaine said that after the week is up, he would come out and be handcuffed, wrapped in 150 pounds (68 kilos) of metal chains and dropped back inside the sphere.

He aims to hold his breath for about nine minutes, while escaping from the chains. The current world record for a human holding his breath is eight minutes and 58 seconds.
Read All>>

A Day Of Mourning At MAXINE

2 Corinthians 4:7-12; 16-18 (NIV)

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

May serenity and peace find all who are mourning a tremendous and irreplaceable loss on this day.

Personal Post - Passing Of A Family Generation

Image Credit: ecj

Edmund Everett Jenks passed on at approximately 9:45 AM this Saturday morning, May 6th, 2006, of complications brought about from congestive heart failure.

He was 83, a loving father, a consistent and caring husband/partner, a loyal brother, an independent living human, a very good cook, a lover of all things Hawaii, an Elk, a member of the Navy during WWII, a really good salesman, a talented carpenter, a romantic, a fun namesake, a conservative voter with a ready opinion, a man who knew how to forgive, a great patriarch, and the last direct link to the Jenks family of his generation.

We believe he knew God and that God has received him in His domain. He passed away in peace and with little stress with a timing that had the knowledge and power of God written all over it.

Long Live Edmund Everett Jenks

Michael Yon - Dust "Up" At Camp Bastion

Camp Bastion by night. A calm before the storm. Photo Credit: Michael Yon

Over at Michael Yon: Online Magazine, Michael has posted a series of pictures that tell the story of a storm in Afghanistan. Michael, and his friend, Steve find themselves in the middle of an Afghani plain, at an encampment of tents when the weather turns. (a great piece of photojounalism, really).

Michael writes -

Camp Bastion, Afghanistan

On Camp Bastion, I walked outside and there it was: a tremendous dust storm boiling from the South. The storm brought at least two bolts of lightning and much cool air, followed by a hard, blowing rain. The dust turned to mud. The sky cleared. The air was nearly still. But off to the West, there it was again: a different dust storm rolling in, this one at a 90 degree angle from the first storm.
Visit & Enjoy>>

Cinco de Mayo - I'll Pass - Cinco no Mas!

Image Credit: Party 411

Great! A second day off from "being in the shadows" this week for illegal immigrants.

If ONLY the illegal immigrants were "in the shadows" as opposed to staging an occupation and highjacking our country's sovereignty. Besides, I thought they were here to work and make money? Not to bad ... a three day work week!

"Governator" Takes Credit For Big Bonds Passage

Image Credit: freelargephotos.com

An early morning surprise awaits the democratic voters in our "Golden State". Big bonds package (Stratagic Growth Plan) is voted on and passed in the State Assembly at 3:03 AM.

Excerpts from Bill Bradley's New West Notes (LA Weekley) -

Big Bonds Pass In Win For Arnold
By Bll Bradley - LA Weekley

In a major boost for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative Democrats -- if not for Democratic gubernatorial candidates Steve Westly and Phil Angelides -- the California Legislature passed the biggest infrastructure bonds package in history a few hours ago, $37 billion for the November ballot. “Today is a proud day for California,” declared Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. Actually, more like the middle of the night. Passage of the package in the Assembly came at 3:03 AM after earlier adoption by the Senate.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who hosted most of the negotiating sessions in his office, said: “What was at stake was the future of the middle class. People were spending more time in their cars during the week than with their families.”

Not to be outdone, of course, in the general congratulatory air, the governor said: "First, let me thank the legislative leaders for all of their efforts to make the Strategic Growth Plan a reality. In January, I proposed the Strategic Growth Plan during my State of the State address. Everybody said it couldn't be done. Everybody said it was impossible to bring both parties together for such a historic undertaking. But we did it.”

Actually, it’s not entirely clear what Schwarzenegger did to make the massive transportation, flood control, and education facilities measure happen, although he did cancel his appearance at a San Bernardino fundraiser yesterday to remain in Sacramento. The deal was put together during more than a month of negotiations between the “Fab Four” legislative leaders, Perata and Nunez, and the Republican leaders, Dick Ackerman in the Senate and George Plescia in the Assembly. Outgoing Assembly Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was also very involved.
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This time around, the legislative leaders followed Schwarzenegger’s own advice, issued upon the collapse of the March effort, to work among themselves to produce a deal. Aside from their role in paring down the size of the deal -- from $50 billion in March to $37 billion in May -- Republicans got little of their agenda into the package. No labor law revisions, no dams, limited relief from the California Environmental Quality Act on levee and bridge repair. The pay-as-you-go approach insisted upon by Assembly Republicans was abandoned, though the package does include $500 million as an immediate allocation.
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Despite the evident downsizing of Arnold’s role in the process -- not to mention the major scaling back of the package and wholesale changes to his original proposal -- this is a win for him and a serious challenge for the Democratic gubernatorial nominee.
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If Jerry Brown could turn around after the passage of Proposition 13 and become “Jerry Jarvis” -- working to implement the popular will expressed in an initiative he opposed on his way to a landslide 1978 re-election victory -- you can bet the farm that Arnold Schwarzenegger will have a field day with the passage of something he highlighted in his State of the State address.

Bonds for the November Ballot
Transportation: $19.9725 billion
Housing: $2.850 billion
Education: $10.416 billion
Flood protection: $4.090 billion

Total: $37,328,500,000
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For Arnold's part, he is taking credit by couching this as a vehicle to shore up our levees. Thank god that Arnie's no Mayor Nagin.

National Day Of Prayer

Image Credit: National Day Of Prayer

May 4, 2006 - America, Honor GOD.

"I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."
- 1 Timothy 2:1-2 (NIV)

"Freedom Five"

"Freedom Five" is a commitment to pray daily for our country. Pray for five minutes every day about these five centers of power and cultural influence:

Government - The government establishes and implements policies that have far-reaching consequences. From legislature to judicial to executive, actions and decisions of government can impact an entire society for generations.

Media - The media is the nation's most influential center of power. From news to entertainment, media shapes public attitudes, values and behaviors for good or for evil.

Education - Our schools and universities are our main institutions of learning today. Minds are shaped by the education process and the values communicated to students.

Church - The church is in a position to impact communities for eternity, as well as influence social change. The church is God's instrument and influence in the world.

Family - The family is the most immediate of the five centers of power and is one of America's greatest assets. Family is the most fundamental unit of society where values are formed and communicated every day.
(ht: Lake Avenue Church, Pasadena, CA)


Submission to Rulers and Masters

13 - Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14 - or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 - For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. 16 - Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. 17 - Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
- 1 Peter 2:13-17 (NIV)

Of Ozone And Protocols

Anomalous temperature averages in Antarctica are illustrated in an undated illustration. The ozone layer is showing signs of recovering, thanks to a drop in ozone-depleting chemicals, but it is unlikely to stabilize at pre-1980 levels, researchers said on Wednesday. Image Credit: NASA/Handout/Reuters

Ozone measurements are improving and some scientists are very pleased.

Excerpts from Reuters via Yahoo! News -

Ozone layer shows signs of recovery: scientists
By Patricia Reaney - Wed May 3, 1:08 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - The ozone layer is showing signs of recovering, thanks to a drop in ozone-depleting chemicals, but it is unlikely to stabilize at pre-1980 levels, researchers said on Wednesday.

Depletion of the earth's protective ozone layer is caused by the chemical action of chlorine and bromine released by man-made chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are used in aerosol sprays and cooling equipment.

Ozone-depleting chemicals were banned by the 1987 Montreal Protocol which has now been ratified by 180 nations.

"We now have some confidence that the ozone layer is responding to the decreases in chlorine levels in the atmosphere due to the leveling off and decrease of CFCs," said Dr Betsy Weatherhead, of the University of Colorado in Boulder.

"Not only is the ozone layer getting better, we feel it is due to the Montreal Protocol," she added in an interview.
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Despite the signs of recovery, Weatherhead, who reported the findings in the journal Nature, said people should still protect themselves from harmful ultraviolet rays.
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Shifting temperatures, greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide (N20) and atmospheric dynamics, which can influence ozone levels, are going to change in the future, they added.

"Therefore we really don't think ozone is going to stabilize back to its pre-ozone-depleting-substance levels," Weatherhead said.

Volcanic activity on Earth also has an impact. The 1993 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines caused ozone levels to backslide for several years, according to the researchers.
Read All>>

Really, do you think that the Montreal Protocol success claim is valid in the face of such little evidence??

The truth is that this is a big system, Earth. This system has been around for millions and millions of years, yet WE humans feel that our little agreement is netting returns in 19 years, even though Mt. Pinatubo caused the ozone levels to "backslide".

Exactly how long have WE humans been able to measure changes in the ozone layer? Excuse me for being skeptical. Say 30 years, maybe? Okay!

The Eco Downside Of E85 & Hybrid Alternatives

Image Credit: Department of Energy via World Net Daily

For all of the promise of having a viable replacement for petroleum based fuel; there are still problems that could lead to a quick fix to our dependency on Muslim based product resources.

The problems may not be that easy to solve just because the cost of petrofuel raises to wipe away the costs of implementation involved with Ethanol production.

Excerpts from WorldNetDaily -

Will $3 gasoline be enough?
By Henery Lamb - Posted: April 29, 20061:00 a.m. Eastern

A $60 fill-up is certainly enough to get fingers of blame pointing in every direction: Democrats blame Bush; pundits blame "Big Oil"; and consumers blame the powers that be. The real cause of the ridiculously high gasoline prices is generally ignored.

The underlying cause, of course, is the incontrovertible fact that demand has outstripped supply. There's plenty of oil in the world; the problem is that the available oil cannot be extracted and refined into usable gasoline in sufficient quantities to meet the world's demand.

Why? Thirty years of environmental advocacy has produced a majority in the United States who would rather pay $3 per gallon, and even more, than to allow oil to be extracted from the frozen tundra of Alaska, or from the Gulf, or from any other place.

Not a single refinery has been built in the U.S. in 30 years. Arizona Clean Fuels has been trying since 1989 to build a new refinery east of Phoenix. Having finally gotten an initial permit, environmental organizations are gearing up their opposition.

Extremely high gasoline and energy costs are the price society must pay for the environmental protection it has demanded.

Ethanol is not the answer. Increased use of ethanol will help, but it can never replace oil as the primary transportation fuel. An acre of corn produces 160.4 bushels, from which 57.3 gallons of ethanol can be made. Used as E85 (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline), an acre of land would produce the equivalent of 67.4 gallons of gasoline. The daily gasoline consumption in the U.S. is 320,500,000 gallons.

The entire 73.6 million acres of corn harvested in 2004 would supply only 15.5 days of gasoline replacement. There simply is not enough land available to produce enough corn or other crops for ethanol to make a significant dent in gasoline demand. Moreover, current environmental policy encourages taking agricultural land out of production, not expanding production.
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Federal and state taxes take more than twice the amount retained as profits by the oil companies. Many local communities impose additional taxes. Politicians are not calling for the repeal of these taxes.

Regulatory costs are more difficult to identify. The EPA requires dozens of different gasoline formulations for different parts of the country, and these formulations change with the seasons. These changes are cost-intensive and add to the price at the pump. Clean air regulations at the refinery and other environmental regulations at every step of the production process also add to the price at the pump. These are the requirements society has demanded, and they must be paid by the consumer.

The greatest pressure on price is the burgeoning demand from China and India, and the growing dependence in the U.S. upon foreign oil. As a percentage of total consumption, domestic production has declined steadily for 30 years and currently accounts for only 40 percent.
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The price at the pump will continue to rise until it reaches a point that forces a realistic assessment of the value of affordable transportation, compared to the value of keeping frozen tundra, wastelands and oceans free from oil production.
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Three dollars per gallon may not be enough. But it is getting close.
Read All>>

Of course, there is always Hybrid technology. The cars, however, are around 30K and the batteries need to be replaced every 4 to 7 years, depending on who one listens to, at an additional cost that can approach 15% of the original cost of the vehicle. Then there is the problem of battery disposal when a major automobile population is hybrid based.

It is time to get away from the geopolitical resources that power our economy and the sooner the better ... not due to the cost per gallon argument, but because of the issue referred to as "WARFOOTING".

At MAXINE, we believe it is time to adopt environmental policies that also help to promote self preservation; a balance has to be achieved.

Earl Woods Died Today (1932-2006)

Tiger Woods, right, and his father, Earl Woods, left, wait for their agent Hughes Norton to tee off on the 10th tee of the Spyglass Hill Golf Course during a practice round in Pebble Beach, Calif., Tuesday Jan. 27, 1998. Tiger and his father will be playing together as a team in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Earl Woods, who was more determined to raise a good son than a great golfer and became the role model, architect and driving force behind Tiger Woods' phenomenal career, died Wednesday morning May 3, 2006 at his home in Cypress, Calif. He was 74. Photo Credit: AP, Eric Risberg

Excerpts from AP via Yahoo! Sports -

Earl Woods, father of Tiger Woods, dies
By DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer - May 3, 2006

Earl Woods, who was more determined to raise a good son than a great golfer and became the architect and driving force behind Tiger Woods' phenomenal career, died Wednesday morning at his home in Cypress, Calif. He was 74.

"My dad was my best friend and greatest role model, and I will miss him deeply," Tiger Woods said on his Web site. "I'm overwhelmed when I think of all of the great things he accomplished in his life. He was an amazing dad, coach, mentor, soldier, husband and friend. I wouldn't be where I am today without him, and I'm honored to continue his legacy of sharing and caring."
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The last tournament Woods attended was the Target World Challenge in December 2004, when his son rallied to win and then donated $1.25 million to the Tiger Woods Foundation that his father helped him establish. The Tiger Woods Learning Center, another vision inspired by his father, opened in February.

Earl Woods was more than a golf dad, more than a zealous father who lived vicariously through his son's achievements.

He had played catcher for Kansas State, the first black to play baseball in the Big Eight Conference, and he had been a Green Beret for two tours in Vietnam. But he felt his true purpose was to train Tiger, and he watched his son evolve into the dominant player of his time -- the youngest player to win the career Grand Slam -- and one of the most celebrated athletes in the world.
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In the forward to his father's book, Woods said: "In retrospect, golf for me was an apparent attempt to emulate the person I looked up to more than anyone: my father. He was instrumental in helping me develop the drive to achieve, but his role -- as well as my mother's -- was one of support and guidance, not interference."
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Earl Woods was born March 5, 1932, in Manhattan, Kan., the youngest of six children. His parents died by the time he was 13.

His father wanted him to play for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues, and his mother stressed education. Woods wound up going to Kansas State, graduating in 1953 with a degree is sociology.

Woods did two tours during the Vietnam War as a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. It was his second tour that shaped the latter part of his life.

He met Kultida Punsawad, who was working as a receptionist in Thailand, and married her in 1969. He fought alongside Lt. Col. Nguyen T. Phong of the South Vietnamese army, a friend he nicknamed "Tiger" because of his courage and bravery. Woods promised Tiger Phong that he would name a son after him.

Eldrick "Tiger" Woods was born Dec. 30, 1975.

Earl Woods moved to Cypress, Calif., -- to the house where he died -- and set up a makeshift practice range in the garage with a mat and a net, placing his son in a high chair as he practiced.
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Woods was proud of saying he never left his son with a babysitter, but his goal was to eventually let Tiger run his own life.
Read All>>

Long live Earl Woods, may God receive him now.

Michael Yon - On The Media Watch

Car bomb - 01 May 2006 in Tarin Kot, Afghanistan. Photo Credit: Michael Yon

This media watch report is not about catching the political bias in the reporting from all of the usual suspects ... this report is a clear rebuttal from a "boots-on-the-ground" reporter and businessman who knows opportunity when he sees it. Read to see how the Wall Street Journal gets it wrong.

Excerpts from Michael Yon: Online Magazine -

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006
A Virgin Market - But not innocent

I’ve never posted a rebuttal to a news story. Today is an exception.Last week I participated on a panel at the Marine Command General Staff College in Quantico, Virginia. The dais was stacked with distinguished journalists — I was the baby in the room — who addressed a large group of military officers. I traveled from Afghanistan just to speak there after a scheduling conflict with their first choice, Joe Galloway, resulted in his recommendation that I fill his seat. When Joe Galloway talks, people listen. I was honored by his recommendation and privileged to join the panel in a vigorous debate of the symposium theme: “Selling the Truth: Media Portrayal of Insurgents, the Government, and the Military.”

As the day opened, a Marine officer was asked to pick a story about current events and comment on it. He held a copy of the Wall Street Journal, a paper I first started reading as a teenager. The WSJ is a reliable source, and so I’ve stuck with it through the years. The Marine was holding a WSJ in front of this distinguished group of military officers that also included DEA and FBI officials, not to mention the representatives of CBS, CNN, Al Jazeera and others. As the Marine opened the paper, I said something like, “That’s yesterday’s Wall Street Journal? That’s easy. Turn to page A16 and there is a commentary about Afghanistan. It’s pure bullshit.” There was a microphone in front of me, but luckily, the crowd was mostly military and they laughed off the language.

When I’d first read that item on page A16 about doing business in Afghanistan, I was so put off that I actually remembered the page number. The piece entitled “A Virgin Market,” described a business climate in Afghanistan in such glowing terms that it crossed the line from upbeat to being wishful.

“A Virgin Market,” begins thusly:

KABUL — The recent Yale graduate I was chatting with at a party here spoke Chinese and had lived in China, the seeming epicenter of all things capitalist. Why did you decide to come to Afghanistan?” I asked. He stared at me. “This is the largest rebuilding and development effort in the history of the world. Who wouldn’t want to be here?”

Stop. Interview at a party? I just spent two weeks on the ground talking with business people who seldom get time to go to cocktail parties in Kabul. I met people with millions of dollars in contracts in Afghanistan who were too busy trying to navigate the grime and crime to stop long enough to clink glasses together. I also talked with officials from several governments, many Afghans, and military personnel from various countries.
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The commentator in the WSJ goes on to posit:

The security situation is far better than the media and the $500-a-day security companies would have you believe. British-educated Minister of Communications Amirzai Sangin notes that Americans are losing opportunities due to fears about security: “There is potential for five mobile companies here.

The fact that Investcom paid $40 million for their license — and that another company is in negotiations with us now — should give you the assurance that there is security here. We have 3,700 employees in every one of the 34 provinces and to date no person has been killed or kidnapped.”

Now it’s time to say in writing what I said to those government officials, military officers and journalists down at Quantico: Bullshit. While I was there, one driver under contract for a friend — who has been doing business in Afghanistan since 1997 — was murdered. They shot his truck with RPGs and small arms fire and killed him. There were attacks every day. Even some of the bases might be in danger of being overrun.
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These cocktail party interviews have no place in the Wall Street Journal, and should not count as informed reporting. I very much hope that Iraq and Afghanistan become self-sufficient, prosperous countries, but misleading people who might invest money, energy and blood into these areas is no way to make that happen. I’ll still pick the WSJ out of any 10 papers, but I should hope the editors exercise more circumspection when printing commentary.

In fact, the media is not up-playing the danger in Afghanistan but seems to be grossly missing it. Unfortunately, I predict NATO and other forces will lose increasing numbers of soldiers in Afghanistan. The place is bad. Really bad. And it’s getting worse. Yesterday an Indian engineer was murdered. They cut off his head. Also, yesterday, the car bomb in the photo above exploded close by some employees of a friend. I was close by two bombings in just six days in Lashkar Gah, a place they used to call “safe.”

It is easy to start a business in Afghanistan, and some people are truly making a lot of money. But Afghanistan is no place for rookies.
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Stand-Alone Kiosks Find Favor In New Environments

A customer rents a DVD from a Redbox machine at a Springville, Utah, McDonald's. The fast-food chain hopes to capitalize on the program, in which videos cost a dollar a night. Photo Credit: George Frey / Getty Images

Technology expansion pace quickens within niche retail environments. There was a time that niche marketing was about defining the brand through product awareness and positioning. Now retailers are able to introduce additional product and service sales opportunities through stand-alone Kiosks … but is this a good thing?

Excerpts from AP via the Detroit News -

Want a DVD with those fries?
McDonald's hopes to profit with vending machine that rents movies for $1 per night.
By Joshua Freed / Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS -- The big red vending machine at the McDonald's whirrs and hums and spits out rental DVDs of "Chicken Little" and "King Kong" -- and maybe, if McDonald's is lucky, profits.

Machines run by McDonald's Corp. subsidiary Redbox Automated Retail have popped up in hundreds of Golden Arches restaurants in six cities in an experiment to see whether they drive more customers into the stores. Rental chain Movie Gallery is experimenting with DVD rental machines, too, saying the machines will make rental transactions easier for customers and make its stores more efficient.

The spread of DVD rental machines comes as rental stores are struggling under a business model that hasn't changed much from the mom-and-pop video stores of 20 years ago. The rental business has suffered from the sale of cheap DVDs, rent-by-mail services like Netflix Inc., and expanding video-on-demand from cable companies.

"We think it's a tremendous op-portunity," said Greg Waring, Redbox's vice president of marketing. "We think we're providing a new model for the industry that is going to be difficult for the traditional retailers to compete against."
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McDonald's came up with the idea in 2003 as it looked for ways to draw more people into its restaurants.

It began experimenting with the machines in Denver in 2004 and now has 750 machines in restaurants in five cities, including the Twin Cities. It's measuring their popularity and whether they draw more people into the stores.

Its subsidiary Redbox isn't waiting to see how the McDonald's experiment turns out. It has placed the machines in 75 grocery stores, and has signed agreements for 400 more grocery locations, including Stop & Shop and Giant stores owned by Royal Ahold NV in the Northeast.
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The Kliners, of Kenosha, Wis., used the machine to avoid signing up at Blockbuster to rent a single movie.

"With kids, it's easier this way, because they're not running all over the store," Teresa Kliner said while daughters Olivia and Analiese played on the slides at the restaurant's indoor playground.
Read All>>

And this from RetailWire (AP story) –

The Invasion of the DVD Rental Kiosks
By George Anderson

A&P and McDonald's are just two of the retail and foodservice companies looking to drive additional customer traffic by placing DVD rental kiosks in their stores.

TNR Entertainment Corp. (The New Release), the nation's largest owner/operator of DVD rental kiosks in grocery outlets, announced yesterday that it had signed an agreement with A&P to place rental kiosks in 30 company stores covering Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

According to a TNR press release, the company's kiosks dispense DVDs to roughly 1 million consumers a month. Individual units store up to 200 DVD titles that are updated on a weekly basis. Rentals cost consumers $1 a day.

McDonald's is also pursuing the DVD rental opportunity but instead of using a third-party to supply and operate kiosks, it has created its own vending unit, Redbox Automated Retail.
Read All>> (subscription required)

Additional questions:

Do DVD rental kiosks offer retailers the opportunity to drive frequency of consumer visits and additional profits either through the rentals themselves and/or add-on sales made while customers are in the store?

Are DVD rental kiosks viewed as a smart merchandising and customer service move by retailers?

Monday, Monday - In Los Angeles

Thousands of demonstrators march through the streets of downtown Los Angeles May 1, 2006, as part of a nationwide protest staged by immigrant rights advocates to protest proposed legislation to reform U.S. immigration law. Photo Credit: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Most citizens report that the traffic on the freeways was similar to Sunday mid-morning bliss. Some teachers were heard reporting on talk radio that more teaching was accomplished due to the impression that the trouble makers and the reduced English understanding students were not in attendance ... discussions and interchange flowed without disruptions, distractions, and additional translation clarifications.

At MAXINE, the wish is that if only we could try a month without (illegal) immigrants. Many put forth the argument that "we are a nation of immigrants", but those who hold onto this position are forgetting that "FIRST, we are a nation under the rule of law".

Our politictions are not serious when they take the oath of office after they win an election. The part of the oath that they are conveniently dropping in their representation is the part that states "to uphold the laws of the land"! Mayor Antonio, for his part, stated that if one plans to carry a flag during the PRO illegal immigrant rally, carry an American flag ... thank you Mayor, for coming down hard on the side of having folks respect our laws.

Excerpts from Reuters -

Immigrants flex economic muscle in boycott
By Jill Serjeant and Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of mostly Hispanic immigrants walked off the job and rallied in cities across the United States on Monday, wielding their economic clout to demand rights for illegal immigrants.

Factories closed, day labor jobs went begging, children skipped school and cargo was left on docks in what the organizers called "A Day without Immigrants."

The largely Latino crowds chanted "Si, se puede!" or "Yes, we can!" and banged drums while waving American and Mexican flags. Rallies stretched from the lettuce fields of Central California to the streets of Chicago.

The demonstrations were aimed at pressuring the U.S. Congress into granting amnesty to some 12 million illegal immigrants and scuttle a proposal to build a wall along the Mexican border.

"What the marches have done is give a human face to the immigration issue in the United States today," said Harry Pachon, professor of public policy at the University of Southern California.
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"Today we say with one voice that we want fair and sensible bipartisan immigration reform," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the son of a Mexican immigrant and a lifelong campaigner for legalization of illegal immigrants.

The economic impact of the boycott was unclear and some lawmakers and conservative groups predicted a backlash.
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"It's a celebration of immigrants. It isn't just a protest or even a boycott," said Los Angeles Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony, who has urged priests to disobey laws that would criminalize those who help illegal immigrants.

In Chicago, more than 300,000 people marched, waving flags and pushing baby strollers. Demonstrations unfolded in Denver, Houston and San Francisco and thousands marched in Mexico in solidarity with compatriots who make up the bulk of the illegal immigrants.
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Actress Susan Sarandon told a festive rally in New York's Union Square, "We now know that you are no longer silent, you are no longer invisible and let's keep it that way."

Several major meat-packing plants were closed to allow workers to demonstrate, and 90 percent of workers who unload cargo at the busy ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach joined the strike.
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"The government has to realize how important Latinos are to this economy and give us full rights," said American Apparel customer service representative Ruben Eustaquio.
Read All>>

That's right! We have to give up our American sovereignty in order to award FULL RIGHTS to all non-citizens.

How would Ruben Eustaquio, customer service representative for American Apparel, like it if everyone in the world was awarded CUSTOMER status with American Apparel without buying any products from American Apparel ... do you think he would like his job then? How long do you think he, or anyone else, would be able to KEEP their job if this happened?

Folks, we are under a foreign occupation in our own country and it is time to take our country back. MAXINE is not anti-immigrant, but MAXINE is for a reasoned, managed approach to immigration under the rule of law. When are our sworn-in, oath taking, lawmakers going to stand up and ENFORCE our existing laws?

... Just askin'!

UPDATE: This from Pajamas Media News -

Economy takes small hit from boycott
May 3, 2006 (Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News delivered by Newstex)

Monday's immigration boycott and protest march knocked an estimated $52 million out of the Los Angeles economy, a fraction of the region's $1.2 billion daily activity, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. estimated Tuesday.

LAEDC chief economist Jack Kyser noted that the impact would be particularly felt in the Latino community.

"A lot of them live paycheck to paycheck, so this has a big impact on their lives," Kyser said. "The truck drivers were out, (the LAUSD) took a big hit, there were lost sales from the closed businesses along the route and probably extra costs for the city with overtime and for the MTA."

The truck drivers to whom Kyser referred made their voices heard particularly sharply at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, with a 90 percent no-show rate Monday.

The Los Angeles Hispanic Chamber of Commerce estimated that 70 percent of its small businesses felt some losses. Vice chairman Manolo Cevallos said the members he'd spoken to would be supportive of future shutdowns of up to a week.

"There was an impact, but it was worth it," he said. "Restaurants, mini-markets, shops selling bread, meat markets, clothing stores, clothing factories, the grocery business, flower shops -- small Hispanic businesses were affected, but they're telling me that they'd do it again. They're showing loyalty."

Several San Fernando Valley-based manufacturers were able to juggle production and shipping. San Fernando-based Fabe's All Natural Bakery, which has nearly 175 workers, worked an extra day over the weekend, then took Monday off.

Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Pet Foods in Pacoima brought a few people in to handle warehouse shipping, but closed its dog- and lion-food factories. President Joey Herrick said about half of his 60 workers attended the marches and that he'd be able to make up the delayed production fairly quickly.

"Let's hope they don't do it every month, but for one day, it was OK," Herrick said. "You're entitled to personal days, so if you let us know in advance, that's OK."

"It was inconvenient, but a lot of people showed up for the march, so we had to go with it and support our workers however we could."

Debit Cards Added To Class-Action Lawsuit

Astrodome, September 2005: Within two minutes of AFP photographer Stanley Honda electronically publishing a photo of Katrina victim Latesha Vinette holding up her Red Cross debit card, Ms. Vinette was paged by the management of Reliant stadium to receive a call from MasterCard asking about cash advances totally $65,237, the attempted purchase of a Ferrari automobile using her card #, along with hundreds of purchases from eBay, including, ironically, camping gear. "I don't know what I was thinking" said AFP photographer Honda, who failed to obscure any of the card's digits, or expiration date in his photo. I guess I could have just had her put her thumb over the first four digits." Ms. Vinette's balance reportedly dropped from $2000 to .45 cents in less than three minutes. Photo Credit: STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images

Fraud is not the only problem with the plastic money vehicles we use in our day to day transactions. According to a class-action lawsuit being pursued by the National Association of Convenience Stores, the National Grocers Association, the National Restaurant Association, the National Association of Travel Plazas and Truckstops, and other retail associations allege Visa, MasterCard and the banks engage in collusive practices to fix credit card interchange fees. The lawsuit has now been amended to include the interchange fees banks use for Debit cards.

Excerpts from the National Association of Convenience Stores News & Media Center -

Antitrust, Class-Action Lawsuit Against Visa, MasterCard and Major U.S. Banks Amended to Include Debit Cards
NACS News & Media Center - May 1, 2006

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – An amended consolidated complaint against Visa, MasterCard and several major banks has been filed by a broad range of merchant groups, including NACS, in the Eastern District of New York.

The consolidated complaint, filed April 24, updates an earlier complaint filed in September 2005 by NACS and other groups that alleged Visa, MasterCard and the banks engage in collusive practices to fix credit card interchange fees. The complaint updates the earlier complaint to include debit cards, and additional merchant associations joined as plaintiffs.

“We believe that price fixing of interchange is equally as problematic in debit cards as it is in credit cards,” said NACS President and CEO Hank Armour. “Because debit cards are commonly used at convenience stores, especially at the gas pump, this is a significant amendment to the complaint,” said Armour.

“Whether debit or credit cards, the fact is that Visa and MasterCard charge Americans some of the highest interchange fees in the world,” said Armour, who on Feb. 15 testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection in the hearing, “The Law and Economics of Interchange Fees.”

The complaint in the lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction barring the companies from continuing practices that violate antitrust law.

Interchange, a fee that is collectively set by Visa and MasterCard’s member banks, is a percentage of each transaction that banks collect from retailers every time a credit or debit card is used to pay for a purchase, adding up to billions of dollars each year.
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“The system is clearly broken,” added Mallory Duncan, chairman of the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC), a coalition of some 20 trade associations representing retailers, restaurant, supermarkets, drug stores, convenience stores, gas stations, online merchants and other businesses that accept debit and credit cards. The coalition is fighting for a more competitive card system. “Visa and MasterCard compete to charge the highest interchange fees--fees that banks don’t pay but all consumers do. In virtually every other marketplace, competition results in lower prices, but not with interchange fees,” said Duncan, who also is senior vice president and general counsel at the National Retail Federation.
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“It’s not just that the fees are unfair; they are hidden,” Duncan said. “Credit card companies can increase their interchange fees--which can approach 2 percent or more on each transaction--by any amount, and they forbid merchants from disclosing the fees they charge.”

In the United States, interchange impacts not only the merchants but has the largest impact on American consumers. This “hidden” tax was estimated to cost approximately $26 billion in 2004.
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Do not expect to see much on this lawsuit soon. The lawsuit is expected not to go to trial until sometime in 2008.

In the meantime, the banks will just see their fees grow as the price of fuel grows and as the taxes collected by state and federal governments on the fuel grow.