August 1, 2013

Keith Ellison, Minnesota Congressman, Sings Support For Gay Marriage In State

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/01/keith-ellison-gay-marriage-minnesota_n_3689559.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037&ir=Politics





Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN), the Representative for the 5th district of Minnesota, released a short, but cute, video to celebrate the first day of same-sex marriage in his home state.

While strumming a guitar and singing "This Land Is Your Land," Ellison congratulates the people of Minnesota for standing up for marriage and making a difference in their state. As he says in the video, "Tomorrow, marry who you want, marry who you love."

Congratulations, Minnesota!

August 1, 2013

Turtle Disguised As Burger Smuggled Through Airport In China

We've heard of snakes on a plane, but now turtles, too?

Security officials at China's Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport noticed something rather peculiar in the bag of a traveler identified only as "Mr. Li" on Monday.

The airport's X-ray machine showed “suspicious corners” on what appeared to be a KFC sandwich package, according to the AFP.

Mr. Li vehemently insisted the item was "nothing but a burger. " When security staff pointed out that the odd shape of the burger resembled that of a turtle, Li replied, “There is no turtle in there, just a hamburger. There’s nothing special to see inside,” the South China Morning Post News. ..........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/31/turtle-disguised-burger-smuggled-airport-plane-china_n_3682332.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

August 1, 2013

Army Child Abuse Cases Jump 40% From 2009: Report

Incidents of child abuse in the Army are on the rise, an alarming trend that coincides with the return of tens of thousands of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to an investigation conducted by the Army Times, 3,698 cases of Army child abuse and neglect were reported last year, a 40 percent increase from 2009.

While the military has not drawn any concrete conclusions as to why such crimes are on the rise, some experts say that abusers may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which could lead to their taking their frustrations out on their children. Others cited in the report were quick to note that this type of maltreatment doesn’t always come at the hands of the spouse wearing a uniform.

A 2007 Pentagon study concluded that mothers were three times more likely to mistreat their children while their soldier husbands were away, than when they were home. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/31/army-child-abuse_n_3677851.html?utm_hp_ref=impact

August 1, 2013

Richard Wolff's Economic Update: Economy: Private and Public (audio link)

Listen: http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-economy-private-and-public


by Richard Wolff.
Published on July 27, 2013

Updates on polls on the economy, austerity and national debts, financial transaction tax, North Carolina's people mobilize on economics, G-20 plans to tax corporations, austerity's privatization effects, and Walmart fights DC to keep minimum wage low. Major discussions on Detroit's bankruptcy and private versus public enterprises. Response to listeners on "wagemark" and on capitalism and race.

August 1, 2013

Never Again Enough: Field Notes from a Drying West

from TomDispatch:




Never Again Enough
Field Notes from a Drying West

By William deBuys


Several miles from Phantom Ranch, Grand Canyon, Arizona, April 2013 -- Down here, at the bottom of the continent’s most spectacular canyon, the Colorado River growls past our sandy beach in a wet monotone. Our group of 24 is one week into a 225-mile, 18-day voyage on inflatable rafts from Lees Ferry to Diamond Creek. We settle in for the night. Above us, the canyon walls part like a pair of maloccluded jaws, and moonlight streams between them, bright enough to read by.

One remarkable feature of the modern Colorado, the great whitewater rollercoaster that carved the Grand Canyon, is that it is a tidal river. Before heading for our sleeping bags, we need to retie our six boats to allow for the ebb.

These days, the tides of the Colorado are not lunar but Phoenician. Yes, I’m talking about Phoenix, Arizona. On this April night, when the air conditioners in America’s least sustainable city merely hum, Glen Canyon Dam, immediately upstream from the canyon, will run about 6,500 cubic feet of water through its turbines every second.

Tomorrow, as the sun begins its daily broiling of Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, and the rest of central Arizona, the engineers at Glen Canyon will crank the dam’s maw wider until it sucks down 11,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). That boost in flow will enable its hydroelectric generators to deliver “peaking power” to several million air conditioners and cooling plants in Phoenix’s Valley of the Sun. And the flow of the river will therefore nearly double. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175730/tomgram%3A_william_debuys%2C_goodbye_to_all_that_%28water%29/#more

August 1, 2013

There Is No Good Drug War

There Is No Good Drug War

Wednesday, 31 July 2013
By Maya Schenwar, Truthout | Interview


Twenty years ago, when acclaimed neuroscientist Carl Hart began studying drugs, he was motivated by a desire to help communities like the one in which he grew up: poor communities of color that had been, he believed, ravaged by the crack "epidemic." The media craze around crack headlines was swirling to a fever pitch at the time - the late '80s and early '90s - and, Hart writes, "I became utterly convinced that crack cocaine was the cause of everything that I now saw as wrong with the neighborhood."

However, nothing is that straightforward, in the world or in High Price, and Hart's work in the lab called into question some of his most deeply rooted assumptions.

As the DARE program hit its full stride and the aftermath of Nancy Reagan produced ever-more-terrifying tales of drugs' disastrousness, Hart was piecing together a more complex picture—one in which most drug users don't become addicted (in fact, only a small percentage do), and in which even the most taboo drugs can have positive effects.

Hart began studying the effects of drugs like crack and methamphetamine on humans (he always uses controlled doses and studies only people who use regularly anyway) and found that many well-known "facts" about drugs actually bordered on mythology. He started discovering that drug users - even those who were "experienced and committed" (and sometimes, addicted) - made choices based on a wide range of factors, just as the rest of us do. He writes, "I found out people with addictions weren't driven only by drugs." For many drug users, poverty, housing, food and other basic concerns were of foremost concern. In fact, Hart found in his lab, many regular drug users, presented with alternatives like cash or vouchers for merchandise, chose the alternatives over the drugs. Similarly, in experiments where drug-tested patients were rewarded with merchandise vouchers if their urine came back drug-free, the relapse rate proved relatively low – demonstrating that they weren't simply trading the vouchers for another hit. ................................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/17865-bad-science-and-the-drug-war-book-review-interview-with-carl-hart