The biofuel developed for ASU's "Tubes in the Desert" project (artist rendering above) avoids many of the downsides presented by biofuels such as corn, cellulose or other crops/plants. Because it uses a microscopic bacteria as the fuel source, it doesn't compete with food crops and could yield a much larger amount of fuel per acre. Image Credit: From YouTube Video - The Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University
Greenhouse Gas Studies Ignore Two Considerations
On Friday, The New York Times reported on the conclusions of two recently released studies that looked into the CO2 equation of the production and use of ethanol and the potential mandated use of biofuels for America in the future.
The conclusions of these studies basically state that when one measures the potential of the release of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere from biofuel and ethanol one has to take into account the front end … the CO2 production and release caused by the conversion of land and the harvesting of cellulosic matter to feed the biofuel creation process.
While this may be true given a traditional, corn based ethanol/biofuel paradigm, the conclusion focuses only on the reasons for this push to a plant based fuel solution to be Global Warming / Climate Change / Environmental Protection.
The biofuel developed for ASU's "Tubes in the Desert" project uses a microscopic bacteria as the fuel source (the bacteria are grown in transparent tubes, hence the name). ASU researchers are also exploring the possibilities of microbial fuel cells -- tiny microbes that generate energy by feeding on waste. Image Credit: From YouTube Video - The Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University
We, at MAXINE, have to ask – Whatever happened to becoming less dependent on foreign sources of petroleum based fuel so that we do not continue to feed the potentials of increased terrorism from hostile nations?
Biofuels make greenhouse gases worse, scientists say By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL - The New York Times - Friday, February 8, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
These studies, published in the prestigious journal Science, for the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look at the emissions effects of the huge amount of natural land that is being converted to cropland globally to support biofuels development.
The destruction of natural ecosystems — whether rain forest in the tropics or grasslands in South America — not only releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they are burned and plowed, but also deprives the planet of natural sponges to absorb carbon emissions. Cropland also absorbs far less carbon than the rain forests or even scrubland that it replaces.
Together the two studies offer sweeping conclusions: It does not matter if it is rain forest or scrubland that is cleared, the greenhouse-gas contribution is significant. More important, they discovered that, globally, the production of almost all biofuels resulted — directly or indirectly, intentionally or not — in new lands being cleared for food or fuel. ---- Searchinger's team determined that corn-based ethanol almost doubles greenhouse-gas output over 30 years when the land-use changes to grow corn are considered. Cellulosic ethanol made in the U.S. from switchgrass, a fuel that has been singled out by President Bush as a way to reduce the country's dependence on oil, produces 50 percent more emissions than gasoline does, the study said.
The clearing of grassland releases 93 times the amount of greenhouse gas that would be saved by the fuel made annually on that land, said Joseph Fargione, lead author of the second paper, and a scientist at the Nature Conservancy. "So for the next 93 years you're making climate change worse, just at the time when we need to be bringing down carbon emissions."
ASU's "Tubes in the Desert" Project
Searchinger said the only possible exception he could see for now was sugar cane grown in Brazil, which takes relatively little energy to grow and is readily refined into fuel. He added that governments should focus on developing biofuels that did not require cropping, such as those from agricultural waste products. "This land-use problem is not just a secondary effect — it was often just a footnote in prior papers," Searchinger said. "It is major."
Industry groups, like the Renewable Fuels Association, immediately attacked the new studies as "simplistic."
"Biofuels like ethanol are the only tool readily available that can begin to address the challenges of energy security and environmental protection," said Bob Dineen, the group's director, in a statement issued after the Science reports' release. ---- The U.S. recently enacted legislation boosting biofuel production to 36 billion gallons in 2022 from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. The European Union requires 10 percent of transportation to use biofuels by 2020. ---- There should be more focus on producing biofuels from municipal waste and from land that can't be used for food crops, said Alex Ferrell, an energy and resource professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Soil and plants are essential stores of carbon, containing more than the atmosphere, he said.
Ferrell, who wasn't involved in the two studies, said the economic model used in Searchinger's study will have a "profound" impact on the biofuel debate because it questions the rationale of governments who see biofuels as a way to limit global warming. Reference Here>>
Mitt Romney at CPAC 2007 - Image Credit: Rob Bluey
Mitt Romney - One Class Act Bows Out For Unity
This is a sad but strong day for conservativism. Mitt Romney suspends his campaign to seek the nomination for the Republican candidate to run for the President of the United States.
He does so for the very highest reasons for this has never been about Mitt Romney for Mitt Romney.
This has been about having a leader for the next four years that believes in fighting evil Islamic terrorism (and the war on terror) in the face of strengthening the freedom of people around the world.
This is also about beating the "blame America first" Democrats for this world and nation leadership position ... for the good of America and the good and unity of the Republican party.
This excerpted from Michelle Malkin -
Live from CPAC: Romney speaks…”Frankly in this time of a war, I cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror…I feel I need to stand aside” By Michelle Malkin • February 7, 2008 12:44 PM 12:43pm Eastern.
I’m starting a new thread for Romney’s speech…awaiting his official announcement of the suspension of his campaign. And possible endorsement today of John McCain.
Laura Ingraham continues to warm up the crowd. “It’s not enough to say you’re a footsoldier for Reagan. The question is: “What have you done for conservatism lately?”
(Applause)
Laura Ingraham’s introduction: “Mitt Romney is the conservative’s conservative. Above all, he is a class act.”
Romney enters. Loud applause, standing ovation.
Thanks talk radio.
I love being introduced as the conservative’s conservative.
I look forward to joining you many, many more times in the future…
…To all of you, thank you here for caring enough about america to show up to speak up to stand up for conservative principles…
Conservative principles are needed now more than ever…face a new generation of challenges…unless america changes course we could become the france of the 21st century…
He’s very energetic.
“Culture makes all the difference…The threat to our culture comes from within. welfare state. dependency is culture killing. we’ve got to fight it like the poison that it is. (Applause.)”
Talks about fatherless children.
It’s time for the people of America to fortify marriage by constitutional amendment so liberal judges cannot attack it.
(Applause.)
Europe is facing a demographic disaster…Stand up for family values and morality and culture. Conservatives here and across the country will always be honored to stand on and for principle.
We face economic competition unlike any we’ve known before…China and Asia…if we don’t change, they will pass us by as world superpowers.
Invest in nuclear energy, clean coal, etc. Cheers and applause. Simply put, America must never be held hostage by the likes of Putin, Chavez, and Ahmadenjiad.
(Standing ovation.)
Segues to government spending. Let’s not just focus on pork. Any plan for the future must include entitlement reform. We have to solve it, not just acknowledge it.
(Applause.)
Government workers make more than private sector employees. Lower taxes. take a weed whacker. stand up to the increasingly voracious appetites of the unions in our government.
(Applause)
And finally…the threat of radical violent jihad…they hate everything we believe about freedom, just as we hate everything they believe about radical jihad…
But there’s an important difference from 1976. Today we are a nation at war.
i disagree with sen mccain on a number of issues…(audience boos) but i agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be succesful in iraq
and i agree with him on eliminating al qa
if i fight on in my campaign all the way to the convention, i want you to know that i forestall the launch of a national campaign.
“NOOOOO!”
Frankly in this time of a war, I cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.
This isn’t an easy decision. I hate to lose
not just about me…i entered this race because i love america. i feel i have to now stand aside.
We cannot allow the next president of the United States to retreat in the face of evil extremism.
I want to begin by saying thank you. It's great to be with you again. And I look forward to joining with you many more times in the future.
Last year, CPAC gave me the sendoff I needed. I was in single digits in the polls and I was facing household Republican names. As of today, more than 4 million people have given me their vote for president, less than Senator McCain's 4.7 million, but quite a statement nonetheless. 11 states have given me their nod, compared to his 13. Of course, because size does matter, he's doing quite a bit better with his number of delegates.
To all of you, thank you for caring enough about the future of America to show up, stand up and speak up for conservative principles.
As I said to you last year, conservative principles are needed now more than ever. We face a new generation of challenges, challenges which threaten our prosperity, our security and our future. I am convinced that unless America changes course, we will become the France of the 21st century -- still a great nation, but no longer the leader of the world, no longer the superpower. And to me, that is unthinkable. Simon Peres, in a visit to Boston, was asked what he thought about the war in Iraq. "First," he said, "I must put something in context. America is unique in the history of the world. In the history of the world, whenever there has been conflict, the nation that wins takes land from the nation that loses. One nation in history, and this during the last century, laid down hundreds of thousands of lives and took no land. No land from Germany, no land from Japan, no land from Korea. America is unique in the sacrifice it has made for liberty, for itself and for freedom loving people around the world." The best ally peace has ever known, and will ever know, is a strong America!
And that is why we must rise to the occasion, as we have always done before, to confront the challenges ahead. Perhaps the most fundamental of these is the attack on the American culture.
Over the years, my business has taken me to many countries. I have been struck by the enormous differences in the wealth and well-being of people of different nations. I have read a number of scholarly explanations for the disparities. I found the most convincing was that written by David Landes, a professor emeritus from Harvard University. I presume he's a liberal -- I guess that's redundant. His work traces the coming and going of great civilizations throughout history. After hundreds of pages of analysis, he concludes with this:
If we learn anything from the history of economic development, it is that culture makes all the difference. Culture makes all the difference.
What is it about American culture that has led us to become the most powerful nation in the history of the world? We believe in hard work and education. We love opportunity: almost all of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants who came here for opportunity -- opportunity is in our DNA. Americans love God, and those who don't have faith, typically believe in something greater than themselves -- a "Purpose Driven Life." And we sacrifice everything we have, even our lives, for our families, our freedoms and our country. The values and beliefs of the free American people are the source of our nation's strength and they always will be!
The threat to our culture comes from within. The 1960's welfare programs created a culture of poverty. Some think we won that battle when we reformed welfare, but the liberals haven't given up. At every turn, they try to substitute government largesse for individual responsibility. They fight to strip work requirements from welfare, to put more people on Medicaid, and to remove more and more people from having to pay any income tax whatsoever. Dependency is death to initiative, risk-taking and opportunity. Dependency is a culture-killing drug -- we have got to fight it like the poison it is!
The attack on faith and religion is no less relentless. And tolerance for pornography -- even celebration of it -- and sexual promiscuity, combined with the twisted incentives of government welfare programs have led to today's grim realities: 68% of African American children are born out-of-wedlock, 45% of Hispanic children, and 25% of White children. How much harder it is for these children to succeed in school -- and in life. A nation built on the principles of the founding fathers cannot long stand when its children are raised without fathers in the home.
The development of a child is enhanced by having a mother and father. Such a family is the ideal for the future of the child and for the strength of a nation. I wonder how it is that unelected judges, like some in my state of Massachusetts, are so unaware of this reality, so oblivious to the millennia of recorded history. It is time for the people of America to fortify marriage through constitutional amendment, so that liberal judges cannot continue to attack it!
Europe is facing a demographic disaster. That is the inevitable product of weakened faith in the Creator, failed families, disrespect for the sanctity of human life and eroded morality. Some reason that culture is merely an accessory to America's vitality; we know that it is the source of our strength. And we are not dissuaded by the snickers and knowing glances when we stand up for family values, and morality, and culture. We will always be honored to stand on principle and to stand for principle.
The attack on our culture is not our sole challenge. We face economic competition unlike anything we have ever known before. China and Asia are emerging from centuries of poverty. Their people are plentiful, innovative, and ambitious. If we do not change course, Asia or China will pass us by as the economic superpower, just as we passed England and France during the last century. The prosperity and security of our children and grandchildren depend on us.
Our prosperity and security also depend on finally acting to become energy secure. Oil producing states like Russia and Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran are siphoning over $400 billion per year from our economy -- that's almost what we spend annually for defense. It is past time for us to invest in energy technology, nuclear power, clean coal, liquid coal, renewable sources and energy efficiency. America must never be held hostage by the likes of Putin, Chavez, and Ahmendinejad.
And our economy is also burdened by the inexorable ramping of government spending. Don't focus on the pork alone -- even though it is indeed irritating and shameful. Look at the entitlements. `They make up 60% of federal spending today. By the end of the next President's second term, they will total 70%. Any conservative plan for the future has to include entitlement reform that solves the problem, not just acknowledges it.
Most politicians don't seem to understand the connection between our ability to compete and our national wealth, and the wealth of our families. They act as if money just happens -- that it's just there. But every dollar represents a good or service produced in the private sector. Depress the private sector and you depress the well-being of Americans.
That's exactly what happens with high taxes, over-regulation, tort windfalls, mandates, and overfed, over-spending government. Did you see that today, government workers make more money than people who work in the private sector. Can you imagine what happens to an economy where the best opportunities are for bureaucrats?
It's high time to lower taxes, including corporate taxes, to take a weed-whacker to government regulations, to reform entitlements, and to stand up to the increasingly voracious appetite of the unions in our government!
And finally, let's consider the greatest challenge facing America -- and facing the entire civilized world: the threat of violent, radical Jihad. In one wing of the world of Islam, there is a conviction that all governments should be destroyed and replaced by a religious caliphate. These Jihadists will battle any form of democracy -- to them, democracy is blasphemous for it says that citizens, not God shape the law. They find the idea of human equality to be offensive. They hate everything we believe about freedom just as we hate everything they believe about radical Jihad.
To battle this threat, we have sent the most courageous and brave soldiers in the world. But their numbers have been depleted by the Clinton years when troops were reduced by 500,000, when 80 ships were retired from the Navy, and when our human intelligence was slashed by 25%. We were told that we were getting a peace dividend. We got the dividend, but we didn't get the peace. In the face of evil in radical Jihad and given the inevitable military ambitions of China, we must act to rebuild our military might. Raise military spending to 4% of our GDP, purchase the most modern armament, re-shape our fighting forces for the asymmetric demands we now face, and give the veterans the care they deserve!
Soon, the face of liberalism in America will have a new name. Whether it is Barack or Hillary, the result would be the same if they were to win the Presidency. The opponents of American culture would push the throttle, devising new justifications for judges to depart from the constitution. Economic neophytes would layer heavier and heavier burdens on employers and families, slowing our economy and opening the way for foreign competition to further erode our lead.
Even though we face an uphill fight, I know that many in this room are fully behind my campaign." You are with me all the way to the convention. Fight on, just like Ronald Reagan did in 1976. But there is an important difference from 1976: today... we are a nation at war.
And Barack and Hillary have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war on terror. They would retreat and declare defeat. And the consequence of that would be devastating. It would mean attacks on America, launched from safe havens that make Afghanistan under the Taliban look like child's play. About this, I have no doubt.
I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues, as you know. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and on eliminating Al Qaeda and terror. If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.
This is not an easy decision for me. I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters... many of you right here in this room... have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming President. If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country.
I will continue to stand for conservative principles; I will fight alongside you for all the things we believe in. And one of those things is that we cannot allow the next President of the United States to retreat in the face evil extremism!!
It is the common task of each generation -- and the burden of liberty -- to preserve this country, expand its freedoms and renew its spirit so that its noble past is prologue to its glorious future.
To this task... accepting this burden... we are all dedicated, and I firmly believe, by the providence of the Almighty, that we will succeed beyond our fondest hope. America must remain, as it has always been, the hope of the earth.
Thank you, and God bless America.
... AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY, GOV. MITT ROMNEY.
Mitt Romney Surge Seen In California (an observational commentary)
Conservative Republican’s may finally be able to send Arnold Schwarzenegger a message on how they feel about his liberal betrayal of the people who swept him into office.
Arnold endorses a man cut from the same cloth in Senator John McCain for President … California Republicans can bring the party back to its conservative principles with a vote cast for Mitt Romney.
This excerpted from the Sacramento Bee –
Turnout may set primary record Tight races, early election energize California's voters. By Kevin Yamamura - Sacramento Bee - Published 12:00 am PST Tuesday, February 5, 2008
With California poised to play a pivotal role in today's highly competitive Super Tuesday presidential contests, a record 8.9 million primary voters are projected to participate statewide, according to the Field Poll.
The election has energized voters because it is the first presidential primary since 1952 in which no incumbent or sitting vice president is running for the White House and neither major party has yet to settle on its nominee. ---- Republican turnout may be determined in large part by how successful candidates Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are in spurring the party's conservative base to vote, DiCamillo said.
The projected 8.9 million voters would be a record for a California primary, but not for all elections – more voters have participated in past November presidential contests. Field Poll anticipates 38.8 percent of Californians eligible to vote will do so in this election, the highest percentage in a primary since 1980, when Republicans first nominated California favorite son Ronald Reagan.
The big turnout, a record number of absentee voters and recent changes in voting equipment will delay results, officials have said. The final tally of presidential delegates, based on outcomes in each congressional district, may not be known for days.
"You Have No Choice Friend" Image Credit: htfttf/YouTube
Candidates and their surrogates worked Monday to urge their supporters to vote – and to persuade the remaining high number of undecided voters to back them. Romney held an event late Monday in Long Beach. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had an event Monday for Sen. John McCain at a phone bank in Gardena.
In Sacramento, former President Clinton addressed a crowd of about 600 people at Cal Expo, urging supporters to persuade their friends to vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, particularly the 18 percent of likely Democratic voters who remained undecided as of Saturday. "All the surveys show, actually, there are still a fair amount of undecided voters out there, people you could reach between now and tomorrow," he said. ---- The Field Poll predicts a record number of absentee voters, an estimated 4.1 million, which is expected to represent 46 percent of the electorate.
According to the Field projection, Democrats are expected to constitute 45 percent of likely voters, and Republicans will be 37 percent. Independents and third-party voters will make up the remaining 18 percent. Roughly half the independents will vote in the Democratic primary. They can't vote Republican because the GOP contest is a closed election.
Unlike her predecessors, Secretary of State Debra Bowen did not release turnout projections Monday. She declined to make a prediction because of the unusual factors surrounding this contest. Those factors include this being the earliest primary California has held and the fact the races remain wide open, spokeswoman Kate Folmar said.
About 2,000 supporters greeted Romney near the Long Beach airport to hear the candidate make an election eve pitch for votes in what appears to be a tightening California primary.
"California is huge," Romney told reporters after the rally. "There's something happening here in California that's big. People in California are really concentrating on this race with renewed attention. … I'm getting greater support in California than I had a week ago, and we wanted to come back and put an exclamation point on the kind of support I'm getting here in California."
Kathy Kirchhoff of Long Beach attended the Romney rally with her husband and two children, drawn to the event by polls showing the former Massachusetts governor narrowing the gap in California against McCain. Reference Here>>
Statement released to the Laura Ingraham show via YouTube (click image). James C. Dobson, Ph.D., is founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, a non-profit organization that produces his internationally syndicated radio programs, heard on over 3,000 radio facilities in North America and in twenty seven languages in approximately 4,130 additional facilities in over 160 other countries. Image Credit: Focus On The Family
Dr. James Dobson, evangelical leader from Colorado Springs, Colorado, has released a statement exclusively to be read on the Laura Ingraham radio talk show this morning.
The statement reads as follows:
“I’m deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a Constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, who voted for embryonic stem cell research to kill nascent human beings, who opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, and who has little regard for freedom of speech, who organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters, and has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language.
“I am convinced Sen. McCain is not a conservative, and in fact, has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are. He has at times sounded more like a member of the other party. McCain actually considered leaving the GOP in 2001, and approached John Kerry about being Kerry’s running mate in 2004. McCain also said publicly that Hillary Clinton would make a good president. Given these and many other concerns, a spoonful of sugar does not make the medicine go down. I cannot, and I will not vote for Sen. John McCain, as a matter of conscience.
“But what a sad and melancholy decision this is for me and many other conservatives. Should John McCain capture the nomination as many assume, I believe this general election will offer the worst choices for president in my lifetime. I certainly can’t vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama based on their virulently anti-family policy positions. If these are the nominees in November, I simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life. These decisions are my personal views and do not represent the organization with which I’m affiliated. They do reflect, however, my deeply held convictions about the institution of the family, about moral and spiritual beliefs, and about the welfare of our country.” Reference Here>>
UPDATE - February 6, 2008:
Super Tuesday did not deliver the strength of showing that Mitt Romney had hoped for. It did not help that in West Virginia the Huckabee forces were aided by the McCain camp on a second ballot buy-off and threw in with Huckabee to give him the 18 delegates. John McCain arranged for his delegates to vote for Huckabee by offering to give each of the delegates a Blackberry as a buy-off if they changed their vote. On the first ballot, Romney had outclassed the field by 9% but State Conventions allow for second and third ballots until over 50% for just one candidate is achieved.
McCain did well on Super Tuesday. It was speculated that McCain needed at least 600 delegates for him to claim anything more than just front runner status. The tally as it stands at the time of this update - McCain/613 - Romney/269 - Huckabee/190. The race is not over but special events, like a recognition of the conservative strength between Romney and Huckabee, will have to happen.
Boy, this sounds like an oxymoron - the Republicans want to have a "Big Tent" but isn't this a tent pole too far?
This excerpted from GOPUSA -
The Strange GOP Nominating Victory By Tony Blankley - February 6, 2008
Assuming John McCain gets the GOP nomination, it will show how whimsical history can be. It would be the first time in living memory that a Republican presidential nomination went to a candidate who was not merely opposed by a majority of the party but was actively despised by about half its rank-and-file voters across the country -- and by many, if not most, of its congressional officeholders. After all, the McCain electoral surge was barely able to deliver a plurality of one-third of the Republican vote in a three-, four- or five-way split field. He has won fair and square, but he has driven the nomination process askew.
This result reminds me of a nursery rhyme: "For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail."
In the current instance, the lost nail was a viable conservative candidate. And despite the crabby, orthodoxy-sniffing, slightly over-the-hill condition of the conservative Republican majority, it still could easily nominate its candidate. In fact, we had two strong conservative candidates, either of whom almost surely would have unified the party early, as George W. did in 2000. But through accidents of history, neither ran.
Consider the recently very popular, tall, attractive, smart, eloquent, conservative, successful two-term Republican governor of one of our most populous swing states -- married to a beautiful Hispanic woman, no less. In fact, he is the son of a former president. Unfortunately for him and the party, he is also the brother of the current president. If Jeb Bush's name were Jeb Smith, the former Florida governor easily could have kept the conservative two-thirds of the Republican vote united and won the nomination. But fate made him a Bush in the only election in the past 20 years when no Bush need apply.
Or consider the cheerful, handsome, solidly conservative Virginia senator expected to run as the son of Reagan. Unfortunately, he uttered three little syllables: Ma-ca-ca. He lost his re-election, and so adieu, Sen. George Allen. ---- So, the mischievous gremlins and elves inside the wheel of history have served up John McCain to lead Ronald Reagan's party into November battle. McCain is both the finest war hero since Eisenhower to run for president and the one senior Republican who has gleefully put his thumb in the eyes of his fellow Republicans and conservatives for a decade and a half. He is the apostate leader of a party tending toward ossified orthodoxy.
Conservatives, such as Rush Limbaugh, worry (with good cause) that this fluke of Republican history might permanently deflect the course of the party away from conservatism. And indeed, we came to power in the party through, in part, a fluke of history. In the nomination fight of 1964 (in which I was a youth coordinator for Barry Goldwater in California), Goldwater had been running even or behind all spring. (He lost New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, West Virginia, Oregon and Pennsylvania. He won Illinois, Texas, Indiana, Nebraska and some caucus states.)
We were losing the decisive California primary until a few days before the vote, when Nelson Rockefeller's new young second wife, "Happy" Murphy Rockefeller, gave birth to little Nelson Jr. -- reminding social conservatives of his previous, presumed adultery. Goldwater won by a thin 2 percent.
We went on to the Cow Palace Convention in San Francisco, where we Goldwaterites and Rockefeller exchanged vulgar, angry epithets. Rockefeller, Mitt's dad, George Romney, and other moderates refused to support Goldwater. Some moderates formed "Republicans for Lyndon Johnson."
Would we conservatives have taken over the party if Goldwater had lost that California primary? Perhaps we had history's wind at our backs anyway, but I remember being very grateful at the timing of young Nelson Jr.'s arrival. History is made of such things.
If we conservatives sit on our hands this November, as moderates did 44 years ago, will we marginalize ourselves within the party (as the old Romney moderates did)? Or will we be saving the party for the grand old cause? Let's watch McCain's next moves. Reference Here>>
Making An Entrance: McCain and Clinton head to the stage as co-hosts of a movie premiere in Washington – Image Credit: Brooks Kraft For TIME / Corbis
John McCain Endorses Hillary Clinton For President
Sometimes, listening to the radio can be really depressing. John McCain wins in the Florida primary last night and it is discovered that if the conservative vote was not diluted between three candidates, Mitt Romney would have won walking away. Tonight, the Republicans debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
This morning, Laura Ingraham pointed out (humorously) that John McCain had once been caught on tape endorsing Hillary Clinton as a potential "Good President".
In an interview from Tim Russert on Meet the Press given to John McCain and Hillary Clinton when the two of them were on a tour of Iraq, John McCain stated the Hillary Clinton would make a good president. The interview took place on the February 20, 2005 airing of Meet the Press.
Ahhhh, admiration! - Image Credit: New York Times/The Caucus Blogs
This excerpted from MSNBC -
Meet the Press Transcript for Feb. 20 - Guests: Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz; Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.; Katty Kay, British Broadcasting Corp.; Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Dana Priest & Robin Wright, The Washington Post NBC News - updated 4:48 a.m. PT, Wed., Feb. 23, 2005 - MODERATOR/PANELIST: Tim Russert - NBC News
MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: Iraq. Who will emerge as the next prime minister? How widespread is the terrorist insurgency? And how long before the Iraqis are able to secure their own country without American troops? With us: from Baghdad, Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton of New York and Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona. Clinton and McCain from Iraq, only on MEET THE PRESS. ---- MR. RUSSERT: Senator McCain, a serious question: Do you think the lady to your right would make a good president?
SEN. CLINTON: Oh, we can't hear you, Tim. We can't hear you.
SEN. McCAIN: Yeah, you're breaking up. I am sure that Senator Clinton would make a good president. I happen to be a Republican and would support, obviously, a Republican nominee, but I have no doubt that Senator Clinton would make a good president.
MR. RUSSERT: Equal time, Senator Clinton. The gentleman to your left?
SEN. CLINTON: Absolutely.
MR. RUSSERT: We may have a fusion ticket right here.
SEN. McCAIN: Thanks for doing that to us. Thanks for doing that to us, Tim.
MR. RUSSERT: A fusion ticket.
SEN. McCAIN: We're both in trouble.
SEN. CLINTON: Yeah. We're in trouble now. Thanks a lot.
What we, at MAXINE, are afraid of (after this vote and win by John McCain in Florida) is that Super Tuesday may give us a watered down version of a Democrat to run for the office of President ... THEN we would all be - "in trouble now".
Conservatives are in trouble and it is because John McCain is willing to negotiate away the conservative principles (in the hopes of forging political harmony) that Ronald Reagan held and pursued, without waiver, for the eight years he was in office.
As syngas fermentation leads to lower ethanol concentrations than corn fermentations, the energy and cost to separate the ethanol from water is proportionally higher. To reduce this differential, Coskata has exclusively licensed membrane separation technology to reduce the energy requirements by over 50%. The vapor permeation process is amenable to separating ethanol from biofermentation broth because of the very low solids content of the broth relative to other fermentation processes. Image Credit: Coskata
It’s Time To “Buck” Up And Implement Bacteria Biofuel Solution
There was a time one could buy fuel for ones car or truck for a “Buck” a gallon … and it is a past we can embrace right now … TODAY!
Well, at least General Motors seems to think so with its investment in Biofuel processing startup Coskata.
The key to the conversion approach Coskata has perfected uses bacteria to break down the broad array of organic waste (switch grasses, twigs, corn husks, leaves, landscape waste, and other non-food sources of organic material) and make Ethanol for a fuel mix or replacement.
After the carbon-hydrogen bonds in the feedstock are "cracked" using gasification and converted into syngas, bacterial fermentation (biofermentation) of the syngas into ethanol occurs using proprietary Coskata microorganisms. Image Credit: Coskata
The real kicker is that this process not only protects our current food paradigm built upon corn for feed and food, the process uses far less petroleum fuel (about 13% as opposed to 77% - or 17 times more efficient) and water while greatly increasing the productive output per bale of feedstock in order to create a gallon of this cleaner burning substance.
Design engineer Mike Sura adjusts settings on Coskata's 150L bioreactor to make ethanol. Image Credit: Tyler Mallory/General Motors
This excerpted from WIRED -
Startup Says It Can Make Ethanol for $1 a Gallon, and Without Corn By Chuck Squatriglia - 01.24.08 1:00 PM
A biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon, and it wouldn't interfere with food supplies, company officials said.
Coskata, which is backed by General Motors and other investors, uses bacteria to convert almost any organic material, from corn husks (but not the corn itself) to municipal trash, into ethanol.
"It's not five years away, it's not 10 years away. It's affordable, and it's now," said Wes Bolsen, the company's vice president of business development.
The discovery underscores the rapid innovation under way in the race to make cellulosic ethanol cheaply. With the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requiring an almost five-fold increase in ethanol production to 36 billion gallons annually by 2022, scientists are working quickly to reach that breakthrough. ---- Besides cutting production costs to fire sale prices, the process avoids some key drawbacks of making ethanol from corn, company officials said. It wouldn't impact the food supply, and its net energy balance is high because the technique works almost anywhere using almost anything with great efficiency. The end result will be E85 sold at the pump for about a dollar cheaper per gallon than gasoline, according to the company.
Coskata won't have a pilot plant running until this time next year, and it will produce just 40,000 gallons a year. Still, several experts said Coskata shows enough promise to leave them cautiously optimistic. ---- Coskata uses existing gasification technology to convert almost any organic material into synthesis gas, which is a mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Rather than fermenting that gas or using thermo-chemical catalysts to produce ethanol, Coskata pumps it into a reactor containing bacteria that consume the gas and excrete ethanol. Richard Tobey, Coskata's vice president of engineering, says the process yields 99.7 percent pure ethanol.
Image Credit: Coskata
Gasification and bacterial conversion are common methods of producing ethanol, but biofuel experts said Coskata is the first to combine them. Doing so, they said, merges the feedstock flexibility of gasification with the relatively low cost of bacterial conversion. ---- Coskata's method generates more ethanol per ton of feedstock than corn-based ethanol and requires far less water, heat and pressure. Those cost savings allow it to turn, say, two bales of hay into five gallons of ethanol for less than $1 a gallon, the company said. Corn-based ethanol costs $1.40 a gallon to produce, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. ---- May Wu, an environmental scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, says Coskata's ethanol produces 84 percent less greenhouse gas than fossil fuel even after accounting for the energy needed to produce and transport the feedstock. It also generates 7.7 times more energy than is required to produce it. Corn ethanol typically generates 1.3 times more energy than is used producing it. ---- Making ethanol is one thing, but there's almost no infrastructure in place for distributing it. But the company's method solves that problem because ethanol could be made locally from whatever feedstock is available, Tobey said.
"You're not bound by location," he said. "If you're in Orange County, you can use municipal waste. If you're in the Pacific Northwest, you can use wood waste. Florida has sugar. The Midwest has corn. Each region has been blessed with the ability to grow its own biomass." ---- "Even if you produce it county by county, you still need an infrastructure," he said. "People aren't going to go to some remote location for fuel." Reference Here>>
The Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University - Alternative Engergy (click image to launch video)
The biofuel developed for ASU's "Tubes in the Desert" project avoids many of the downsides presented by biofuels such as corn, cellulose or other crops/plants. Because it uses a microscopic bacteria as the fuel source, it doesn't compete with food crops and could yield a much larger amount of fuel per acre. The bacteria are grown in transparent tubes, hence the name. /// ASU researchers are also exploring the possibilities of microbial fuel cells -- tiny microbes that generate energy by feeding on waste. /// Guest interviews include: Neal Woodbury, Ph.D., the Biodesign Institute; Wim Vermaas, Professor, ASU School of Life Sciences. /// Learn More: Visit http://www.azpbs.org/asuspotlight
Trinity United Church of Christ - "A CHURCH IN BLACK ... and white". Trinity UCC was founded in 1961. Ten years later, when the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright became its pastor, the church had 87 families. Today, Trinity UCC has more than 8,000 members, 70 ministries and three Sunday worship services. Image Credit: TUCC Newsletter
"Ideating" Barack Obama & Trinity United Church of Christ
Well, we at MAXINE, felt like doing a little “Ideating” of our own when we began to read about Barack Obama and his twenty year association with the Chicago-based Trinity United Church of Christ.
The problem isn’t that this church may/may not have practices or beliefs that many would not consider mainstream – such as have some believers who speak in tongues, or handle snakes, or think that the Devil and Jesus Christ are related in a family way, or do a bunch of faith healings in a tent, or – well you get the idea. The problem starts with what this church tells about ITSELF and what it believes on its website.
Barack Obama (pictured here with TUCC Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.) has put his religion back into the headlines, trumpeting the power and salvation of faith and asking a church audience in South Carolina to help him become “an instrument of God” and join him in creating “a Kingdom right here on Earth." Image Credit: Trinity United Church of Christ/Religion News Service via FOX News
This issue first came to our attention during a morning review of Pajamas Media through this excerpted posting –
Obama’s Creepy, Race-Obsessed Church By Burt Prelutsky - Pajamas Media – 1/12/2007
Introduction from PJM A leading Democratic candidate for president attends an “Afrocentric” church that bestows awards on Louis Farrakhan and practically defines itself through race-baiting. Burt Prelutsky asks, why isn’t Barack Obama’s faith-based problem making national headlines and the nightly news?
One of the obvious differences between Democrats and Republicans is the role that religion plays in their presidential campaigns. For instance, every Democrat, while pretending to believe that “separation of church and state” actually appears somewhere in the Constitution, must also insist that religion plays an essential role in his or her life. ---- What’s more, when questioning these people, the liberal media kindly limits itself to a yes or no question regarding the existence of God. ---- Why is it, I wonder, that nobody is asking Barack Obama about his religious convictions? From what I’ve gathered, they’re far more fascinating than Mitt Romney’s. ---- The vision statement of the TUCC is based upon something called the systematized liberation theology that began in 1969 with the publication of Dr. James Cone’s book, “Black Power and Black Theology.” Dr. Cone believes that black Christians should not follow the “White Church,” as it had failed to support them in their struggle for equal rights in America. I suspect that most white Christians would disagree.
Trinity United boasts that it is a congregation “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian.” What’s more, “it is a congregation with a non-negotiable commitment to Africa. We are an African people, and remain true to our native land, the mother continent, the cradle of civilization.”
Its pastor, Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., has referred to “white arrogance” and “the United States of Whiter America.” To my ears, that sounds unashamedly black, but I’m not so sure about the unapologetically Christian.
Furthermore, Rev. Wright’s church publishes a magazine, The Trumpet. Not too surprisingly, all things considered, the recipient of the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Trumpeter Award for Social Justice was none other than Louis Farrakhan, the fellow who plays the race card even better than he plays his violin. ---- That being said, I have no idea how a member of a black church that apparently feels it owes greater allegiance to Africa than to America and that pays homage to a bigot like Farrakhan, has the gall to present himself as the one candidate who can bring us all together. Reference Here>>
Of course we had to do some investigation of our own, and sure enough this “Ideating” stuff can get really interesting.
Again, Barack Obama states that he has been an active member of this church for the last twenty years.
The website of the Trinity United Church of Christ has several revealing and disturbing written postings that need to be read in context in order to see what all of the fuss is about.
Trinity United Church of Christ sanctuary. Image Credit: TUCC
This from the TUCC website –
Trinity United Church of Christ
We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian... Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization.
God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.
The Pastor as well as the membership of Trinity United Church of Christ is committed to a 10-point Vision:
1. A congregation committed to ADORATION.
2. A congregation preaching SALVATION.
3. A congregation actively seeking RECONCILIATION.
4. A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA.
5. A congregation committed to BIBLICAL EDUCATION.
6. A congregation committed to CULTURAL EDUCATION.
7. A congregation committed to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA.
8. A congregation committed to LIBERATION.
9. A congregation committed to RESTORATION.
10. A congregation working towards ECONOMIC PARITY. Reference Here>>
Image from YouTube video of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan receiving from Obama's pastor, Dr. Wright Jr., the "Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright,Jr. Lifetime Achievement Trumpeteer" Award for Social Justice at the 2007 Trumpet Gala held on November 2, 2007 - Hyatt Regency Chicago - Video Credit: TRINITYCHGO - TUCC
Talking Points
Dr. Wright’s talking points (3.1.7) [3/1/2007] for Trinity United Church of Christ its Web site and the Black Value System (in response to Erik Rush’s comments (2.28.07) on the Hannity and Colmes show):
• One of the biggest gaps in knowledge that causes the kind of ignorance that you hear spouted by this man [Erik Rush] and those like him, has to do with the fact that these persons are completely ignorant when it comes to the Black religious tradition. The vision statement of Trinity United Church of Christ is based upon the systematized liberation theology that started in 1969 with the publication of Dr. James Cone’s book, Black Power and Black Theology.
• Black theology is one of the many theologies in the Americas that became popular during the liberation theology movement. They include Hispanic theology, Native American theology, Asian theology and Womanist theology.
• I use the word “systematized” because Black liberation theology was in existence long before Dr. Cone’s book. It originates in the days of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. It was systematized and published by theologians, Old Testament scholars, New Testament scholars, ethicists, church historians, and historians of religion such as Dr. James Cone, Dr. Cain Hope Felder, Dr. Gayraud Wilmore, Dr. Jacqueline Grant, Dr. Kelley Brown Douglas, Dr. Renita Weems, Dr. Katie Cannon, Dr. Dwight Hopkins, Dr. Linda Thomas, and Dr. Randall Bailey.
• These scholars, who write in various disciplines, also include seminary presidents like Dr. John Kinney and professors of Hebrew Bible, like Dr. Jerome Ross. Black liberation theology defines Africans and African Americans as subjects – not the objects which colonizers and oppressors have consistently defined “others” as.
• We [African Americans] were always seen as objects. When we started defining ourselves, it scared those who try to control others by naming them and defining them for them; Oppressors do not like “others” defining themselves.
• To have a church whose theological perspective starts from the vantage point of Black liberation theology being its center, is not to say that African or African American people are superior to any one else.
• African-centered thought, unlike Eurocentrism, does not assume superiority and look at everyone else as being inferior.
• There is more than one center from which to view the world. In the words of Dr. Janice Hale, “Difference does not mean deficience.” It is from this vantage point that Black liberation theology speaks.
• Systematized Black liberation theology is 40 years old. Scholars of African and African American religious history show that Black liberation theology, however, has been in existence for 400 years. It is found in the songs, the sermons, the testimonies and the oral literature of Africans throughout the Diaspora. Reference Here>>
“IDEa … what?”, The man at the door asks the workgroup lying on the floor, on mats, while having their necks supported with custom travel pillows. Image Credit: IBM via Mikntosh3001
And last but not the least -
THE BLACK VALUE SYSTEM
Trinity United Church of Christ adopted the Black Value System, written by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee, chaired by the late Vallmer Jordan in 1981.
Dr. Manford Byrd, our brother in Christ, withstood the ravage of being denied his earned ascension to the number one position in the Chicago School System. His dedication to the pursuit of excellence, despite systematic denials, has inspired the congregation of Trinity United Church of Christ. Prayerfully, we have called upon the wisdom of all past generations of suffering Blacks for guidance in fashioning an instrument of Black self-determination, the Black Value System.
Beginning in 1982, an annual Black Value System – Educational Scholarship in the name of Dr. Byrd was instituted. The first recipient of the Dr. Manford Byrd Award, which is given annually to the man or woman who best exemplifies the Black Value System, was our brother, Dr. Manford Byrd.
These Black Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered. They consist of the following concepts:
1) Commitment to God. “The God of our weary years” will give us the strength to give up prayerful passivism and become Black Christian Activists, soldiers for Black freedom and the dignity of all humankind.
2) Commitment to the Black Community. The highest level of achievement for any Black person must be a contribution of strength and continuity of the Black Community
3) Commitment to the Black Family. The Black family circle must generate strength, stability and love, despite the uncertainty of externals, because these characteristics are required if the developing person is to withstand warping by our racist competitive society.
Those Blacks who are blessed with membership in a strong family unit must reach out and expand that blessing to the less fortunate.
4) Dedication to the Pursuit of Education. We must forswear anti-intellectualism. Continued survival demands that each Black person be developed to the utmost of his/her mental potential despite the inadequacies of the formal education process. “Real education” fosters understanding of ourselves as well as every aspect of our environment. Also, it develops within us the ability to fashion concepts and tools for better utilization of our resources, and more effective solutions to our problems. Since the majority of Blacks have been denied such learning, Black Education must include elements that produce high school graduates with marketable skills, a trade or qualifications for apprenticeships, or proper preparation for college.
Basic education for all Blacks should include Mathematics, Science, Logic, General Semantics, Participative Politics, Economics and Finance, and the Care and Nurture of Black minds.
5) Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence. To the extent that we individually reach for, even strain for excellence, we increase, geometrically, the value and resourcefulness of the Black Community. We must recognize the relativity of one’s best; this year’s best can be bettered next year. Such is the language of growth and development. We must seek to excel in every endeavor.
6) Adherence to the Black Work Ethic. “It is becoming harder to find qualified people to work in Chicago.” Whether this is true or not, it represents one of the many reasons given by businesses and industries for deserting the Chicago area. We must realize that a location with good facilities, adequate transportation and a reputation for producing skilled workers will attract industry. We are in competition with other cities, states and nations for jobs. High productivity must be a goal of the Black workforce.
7) Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect. To accomplish anything worthwhile requires self-discipline. We must be a community of self-disciplined persons if we are to actualize and utilize our own human resources, instead of perpetually submitting to exploitation by others. Self-discipline, coupled with a respect for self, will enable each of us to be an instrument of Black Progress and a model for Black Youth.
8) Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness.”Classic methodology on control of captives teaches that captors must be able to identify the “talented tenth” of those subjugated, especially those who show promise of providing the kind of leadership that might threaten the captor’s control.
Those so identified are separated from the rest of the people by:
** Killing them off directly, and/or fostering a social system that encourages them to kill off one another.
** Placing them in concentration camps, and/or structuring an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons.
** Seducing them into a socioeconomic class system which, while training them to earn more dollars, hypnotizes them into believing they are better than others and teaches them to think in terms of “we” and “they” instead of “us.”
** So, while it is permissible to chase “middleclassness” with all our might, we must avoid the third separation method – the psychological entrapment of Black “middleclassness.” If we avoid this snare, we will also diminish our “voluntary” contributions to methods A and B. And more importantly, Black people no longer will be deprived of their birthright: the leadership, resourcefulness and example of their own talented persons.
9) Pledge to Make the Fruits of All Developing and Acquired Skills Available to the Black Community.
10) Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting Black Institutions.
11) Pledge Allegiance to All Black Leadership Who Espouse and Embrace the Black Value System.
12) Personal Commitment to Embracement of the Black Value System. To measure the worth and validity of all activity in terms of positive contributions to the general welfare of the Black Community and the Advancement of Black People towards freedom. Reference Here>>
All pretty biased and somewhat inflammatory stuff if what we are seeking here is a Christian culture based on Christian values.
One last thought as registered on the comments area from the Pajamas Media article "Obama’s Creepy, Race-Obsessed Church" referenced above:
Lawrence B : Ayn Rand has written, "Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man's genetic lineage—the notion that a man's intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collection of ancestors."
It seems to me that until now voters have been willing to judge Sen. Obama by his own character and actions, avoiding racist standards.
However, after looking at the Trinity United website for myself, it is openly racist. The phrase, "Unashamedly Black," is precisely that — appealing to genetic lineage.
Trinity United's statement that “it is a congregation with a non-negotiable commitment to Africa. We are an African people, and remain true to our native land, the mother continent, the cradle of civilization,” — is even more unsettling.
This is not religion — this is blatant racism.
If Sen. Obama expects to be President of the United States, he owes this country an explanation, not for his lineage or for his religion, but for his association with a racist organization that pledges allegiance to a foreign land. Reference Here>>
Now that we, at MAXINE, have "Ideated" this information ... the question has to be asked:
"Is a twenty year attending member, informed from this institution with all that it believes and teaches, the right person to become the leader of the Free World for all peoples?"
Answer? - Just as in the example shown at the conclusion of the IBM commercial - "We haven't ideated that yet!"
The man who turned on the lights at the beginning of the spot says, "Good luck!"
... and as he turns to leave, the female voice says in an uplifted, melodic tone, "Thanks!"
The lights go out and as the room goes to total darkness, the following statements flash on the screen.
The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin is the geographic territory encompssing the former Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, now the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin. Image Credit: Wikipedia
Episcopal Church - Working To Stop The Long, Slow Slide To The Bottom Rung (UPDATED 1-12-2008)
It has taken eighteen months for a diocese in the Episcopal Church here in North America to change the direction of its "new" tradition.
In June of last year, The Episcopal Church elected Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to become the first woman elected to lead a church in the global Anglican Communion when she was picked to be the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. It was another groundbreaking and controversial move for a denomination that consecrated Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop just three years earlier.
Tradition based churches here in North America have been in a quandary ever since. The churches and their congregations had to ask themselves -- Do we stand on the side of change where Gay Marriage, and Openly Gay and/or Female leadership at the highest levels is pursued and embraced, or do we match up with the centuries old traditions that had come to define the global Anglican Communion?
Churches that are confirmed in the belief of tradition, are voting to join up and answer to church leadership that governs geography other than the leadership that features this new approach set by Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
Anglican traditionalists believe gay relationships violate Scripture and they have demanded that the U.S. church adhere to that teaching or face discipline.
Just as has happened last February when two Virginia churches voted 92% to leave The Episcopal Church, the U.S. wing of global Anglicanism, and join up under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin voted 173-22 (or 87.28%) to bolt and join up with a conservative South American congregation of the Worldwide Anglican Communion.
The Bishop of San Joaquin, the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield. Photo taken July 31, 2007. Image Credit: geoconger (Rev. Canon George Conger)
The break is likely to spark a lengthy, expensive legal fight over the historic properties in the San Joaquin valley, which are worth tens of millions of dollars.
This excerpted from the Sacramento Bee -
Diocese votes to split with Episcopal Church By Associated Press - Last Updated 12:45 pm PST Saturday, December 8, 2007
An Episcopal diocese in central California voted Saturday to split with the national denomination over disagreements about the role of gays and lesbians in the church.
Clergy and lay members of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin voted 173-22 at their annual convention to remove all references to the national church from the diocese's constitution, according to spokeswoman Joan Gladstone.
The Fresno-based congregation is the first full diocese to secede because of a conservative-liberal rift that began decades ago and is now focused on whether the Bible condemns gay relationships. ---- The decision is almost certain to spark a court fight over control of the diocese's multimillion-dollar real estate holdings and other assets.
President of the [Episcopal] House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson speaks about her experiences of pastoral visits to various parishes and dioceses throughout the Episcopal Church. This person speaks for the current Episcopal Church leadership, on behalf of the United Nations program entitled "Eight Millennium Development Goals", and the 22 “Clergy and lay members” who voted against the 173 “Clergy and lay members” to secede. She is part of the machinery that is taking The Episcopal Church on its long, slow slide to the bottom rung of respected, tradition based, organized religion ladder in America. Video Credit: TECtube
The head of the U.S. denomination had warned Bishop John-David Schofield of the Fresno-based diocese against secession.
"I do not intend to threaten you, only to urge you to reconsider and draw back from this trajectory," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, head of the U.S. denomination, wrote in a letter to Schofield earlier this week.
Schofield responded that the Episcopal Church "has isolated itself from the overwhelming majority of Christendom and more specifically from the Anglican Communion by denying Biblical truth and walking apart from the historic Faith and Order."
The Fresno diocese has explored breaking ties with the American church since 2003, when Episcopalians consecrated the church's first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. The resulting uproar throughout the world Anglican fellowship has moved the 77 million-member communion toward the brink of schism. Reference Here>>
What do the United Nations "Eight Millennium Development Goals" have to do with spreading and bringing Christian ideals to the rest of the world? Just asking.
Don't get us wrong, here at MAXINE, these goals are nice if they are included as part of an overall missionary effort, but this Episcopal Church agenda seems to only lead with and extol the Eight Millennium Development Goals as opposed to leading with the Word Of God!
UPDATE January 12, 2008:
Episcopal Church officials push back and place Bishop John-David Schofield on practicing ban. This edited and excerpted item from AP via the Sacramento Bee -
Episcopal Church bans Valley bishop from practicing for 2 months Associated Press FRESNO - Last Updated 6:28 pm PST Friday, January 11, 2008
The Episcopal Church banned a California bishop Friday from practicing for two months after he led his congregants in seceding from the national church. Bishop John-David Schofield drew sharp criticism from the U.S.-based denomination when he urged his conservative diocese to sever its ties to the church in early December in a fight over the Bible and homosexuality.
Clergy and lay members of the Diocese of San Joaquin became the first full diocese to secede from the denomination on Dec. 6.
Schofield cannot perform any religious duties until early March, when the national denomination's leaders will meet to determine a final judgment, said the Rev. Canon Charles Robertson, Canon to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. A spokeswoman for the diocese did not immediately return calls Friday. Reference Here>>
Excuse us for asking ... but if this Diocese has seceded, what position does the Episcopal Church have in banning the Bishop from performing duties within the Diocese of San Joaquin?
It seems to me that if a break was voted on and the Diocese is no longer operating as part of the Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori Episcopal Church, Bishop John-David Schofield can do what ever the Diocese wants him to do in the course of Diocese duties. I don't expect that he will be traveling to Episcopal Church chapter of the Worldwide Anglican Communion anytime soon, however.
The Bucket List – Another loss in a streak of losses for Reiner. Image Credit: The Bucket List One-Sheet [CanMag]
Rob Reiner’s Latest Effort? Chopped Liver!
Hot on the heels of a failed effort to place a pre-school, socialist education program in the cash strapped and mismanaged California budget, Rob Reiner goes back to grinding them out with a loser of an effort known as “The Bucket List”.
Rob has not quit on his political involvement, however, and it shows up in this film where he actually directs Nicholson to one of the worst performances of his career.
Politically, “Meathead” is still placing his (and eventually our) money behind Hillary Clinton who agrees with Rob Reiner’s plan for a federally funded, socialist values, pre-school education program. Hillary's plan is similar to a plan that Rob Reiner failed with here in California (Proposition 82) re-skinned as ‘universal preschool’ K-12 … a $10 billion proposal that essentially would add a whole new grade onto the front end of the K-12 system.
This video interview is ALL one needs to see of The Bucket List ... it really does speak for itself. YouTube Video Credit: The Cinema Judge
Here is an excerpted review of “The Bucket List” from New City Chicago -
The Chemo Brothers, Kicking "The Bucket List"
Ray Pride - New City Chicago - (2008-01-08)
Rob Reiner: miracle worker.
With "The Bucket List," Reiner does something almost unthinkable: he makes Jack Nicholson painful to watch. Even when Nicholson overacts in tsunamis and torrents and waterfalls of overacting, he's got charm to burn. ---- Reiner does the inconceivable with his bizarre, unfunny, often dreadful latest production: he coaxes a world-class shitty performance from the 70-year-old Hollywood icon amid mirthless, pallid surroundings.
The circumstances of death are funny. Human frailty and failing are funny. "The Bucket List" is not. ---- But this original script by Justin Zackham for "Bucket" is the kind of treacle-ridden badness that swells the arteries, but one would hope not the bank accounts of all involved.
Nicholson plays Edward Cole, a movie-type billionaire, one whose healthcare concerns are champion cost-cutters, who meets another sufferer, car mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman, on day leave from God roles) in a cancer ward, and offers to finance a "bucket list," all the potential thrills they'd left behind as they lived their lives. (Generic name, meet generic name. Introduction of schematic conflict. Generic joke about growing old. Cliché about dying! Smile through gritted teeth.) Skydiving, visiting the Great Pyramids, Hong Kong, the Taj Mahal, bonding between bouts of puking from chemo.
The computer-generated backdrops—surely this production didn't go much beyond the Culver City limits—are often amusing, in a Bob Hope-Bing Crosby "Road to Inertia" kind of way, but as the old saying goes, it's always a bad sign when you leave a movie humming the scenery or wondering how many of the scenes were constructed as Kodak Theatre moments.
James L. Brooks-style sentiment seems what's intended during the revelations of child neglect and emotional failures, but despite several wonderful films on Reiner's resume, including "Spinal Tap," "Stand by Me," "Misery" and "When Harry Met Sally," he's also helmed "Ghosts of Mississippi," "The Story of Us," "Alex and Emma," took over the botched filming of "Rumor Has It" (as a favor to his former business partner who now heads Warners and who green-lit this delight) and in 1994, wrought "North," which inspired Roger Ebert's justly famous zero-star pan:
"I have no idea why Rob Reiner, or anyone else, wanted to make this story into a movie... "North" is one of the most unpleasant, contrived, artificial, cloying experiences I've had at the movies. To call it manipulative would be inaccurate; it has an ambition to manipulate, but fails... I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it."
I quote Ebert at length in order to reflect: Hmmm. ---- Reiner himself says the attempt to juggle a film career with his political activism damaged his work, and after several setbacks and defeats as an activist, he intends to make more movies, concentrating on the few films left to him as a man in his 60s. That's his "bucket list." ---- "The Bucket List"? I hated hated hated... well, I only just hated it. Reference Here>>
I guess one could say that this movie is about as funny as a cigarette machine in a cancer ward … or a $10 Billion dollar ‘universal preschool’ K-12 socialist values based education program in a free and democratic society.
TIP: If you want to see a movie that affirms life, is funny, honest and entertains - we, at MAXINE, recommend JUNO. The movie is worth the money spent for tickets, parking, and even the popcorn.
Ebert picked JUNO to be #1 for his 2007 Top 10 Movies list.
The biofuel developed for ASU's "Tubes in the Desert" project (artist rendering above) avoids many of the downsides presented by biofuels such as corn, cellulose or other crops/plants. Because it uses a microscopic bacteria as the fuel source, it doesn't compete with food crops and could yield a much larger amount of fuel per acre. Image Credit: From YouTube Video - The Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University
The biofuel developed for ASU's "Tubes in the Desert" project uses a microscopic bacteria as the fuel source (the bacteria are grown in transparent tubes, hence the name). ASU researchers are also exploring the possibilities of microbial fuel cells -- tiny microbes that generate energy by feeding on waste. Image Credit: From YouTube Video - The Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University
