"FORGET THE WORLD!" - Democratic Underground

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Thu Mar-27-08 03:44 PM
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"FORGET THE WORLD!"

Meditation XVII
from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions
Nunc lento sonitu dicunt, morieris.
Now this bell tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.

Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me and see my state may have caused it to toll for me

All mankind is of one author and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated. God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another. As therefore the bell that rings a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness.

Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world? No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Another man may be sick too, and sick to death. This bell that tells me of his affliction digs out and applies that gold to me. By this consideration of another's dangers I take mine own into contemplation. -- John Donne 1624

Chasing Cars (Would you lie with me and just forget the world?)

By Snow Patrol

We'll do it all
U.N. Warns of Rapid Decay of Environment

By JAMES KANTER
Published: October 26, 2007

PARIS, Oct. 25 — The human population is living far beyond its means and inflicting damage to the environment that could pass points of no return, according to a major report issued Thursday by the United Nations.

Climate change, the rate of extinction of species, and the challenge of feeding a growing population are putting humanity at risk, the United Nations Environment Program said in its fourth Global Environmental Outlook since 1997.

“The human population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available at current consumption patterns,” Achim Steiner, the executive director of the Environment Program, said in a telephone interview. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/world/26environ.html

Everything
March 20th, 2008
25 Environmental Threats In Our Future

Environmental scientists and policy makers have done some deep brainstorming sessions about our future, according to an article in New Scientist. 35 representatives from organizations involved in environmental policy, academia and scientific journalism in the UK have used what they call “horizon scanning.” They established a list of 25 future threats facing biodiversity. This list includes toxic nanomaterials and biomimetic robots that could become invasive, genetically engineered viruses.

The original inspiration for the event came from the debate over genetically modified (GM) crops. “I was struck by the fact that we were doing a lot of research into the environmental effects of GM crops after policy makers had made their decisions,” William Sutherland, told New Scientist.

With many of his colleagues, Sutherland participated to several workshops to scrutinize the effects of current and future technologies on or environment. They call for research into the potential environmental impact of releasing manmade viruses. In Australia, researchers have developed a novel way of controlling the invasive red fox — a virus that infects and sterilizes it. “What happens if the virus spreads outside its target range?” asks Sutherland. “Could it sterilize other foxes? Could the virus infect different species?“ http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=869

On our own
Bush to Skip U.N. Talks on Global Warming
By Steven Lee Meyers
Published: September 24, 2007

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 — Dozens of world leaders are to gather at the United Nations on Monday for a full agenda of talks on how to fight global warming, and President Bush is skipping all the day’s events but the dinner.

His focus instead is on his own gathering of leaders in Washington later this week, a meeting with the same stated goal, a reduction in the emissions blamed for climate change, but a fundamentally different idea of how to achieve it.

Mr. Bush’s aides say that the parallel meeting does not compete against the United Nations’ process — hijacking it, as his critics charge. They say that Mr. Bush hopes to persuade the nations that produce 90 percent of the world’s emissions to come to a consensus that would allow each, including the United States, to set its own policies rather than having limits imposed by binding international treaty.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/world/24warming.html?ref=environment

We don't need
Anything

Cows, pigs and sheep: Environment's greatest threats?
17:09 12 December 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Catherine Brahic

Cows, pigs, sheep and poultry have been awarded the dubious honour of being among the world's greatest environmental threats, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The report, entitled Livestock‘s Long Shadow, says the livestock industry is degrading land, contributing to the greenhouse effect, polluting water resources, and destroying biodiversity. In summary, the sector is "one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems at every scale".

The authors say the demand for meat is expected to more than double by 2050 and therefore the environmental impact of production must be halved in order to avoid worsening the harmful impacts of the industry. http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn10786-cows-pigs-and-sheep-environments-greatest-threats.html

Or anyone
Europeans angry after Bush climate speech 'charade'
· US isolated as China and India refuse to back policy
· President claims he can lead world on emissions

Ewen MacAskill in Washington
The Guardian, Saturday September 29 2007

George Bush was castigated by European diplomats and found himself isolated yesterday after a special conference on climate change ended without any progress.

European ministers, diplomats and officials attending the Washington conference were scathing, particularly in private, over Mr Bush's failure once again to commit to binding action on climate change.

Although the US and Britain have been at odds over the environment since the early days of the Bush administration, the gap has never been as wide as yesterday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/29/usnews.climatechange

If I lay here
March 26, 2008: Canadian Fishermen to Start Killing 275,000 Harp Seal Pups on Friday

In addition to being a cruel, unnecessary slaughter, the harp seal hunt is one of the most glaring displays of Canadian mismanagement of the oceans. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has regulated the cod fishery into oblivion and is working hard to wipe out the seals now, in this cruel, wasteful massacre they call the 'seal hunt'. Last year, the sealers managed to kill over 215,000 seal pups after at least a quarter million drowned because of the historically poor formation of sea ice. Weather and these drownings prevented them from killing the rest of the 270,000 seal quota.

If I just lay here
115 Beached Whales, Dolphins Die
(AP) A total of 115 whales and dolphins died after swimming onto beaches on two southern Australian islands, authorities said Tuesday as the search continued for more pods in danger.

The strandings coincided with the beaching of 75 pilot whales in recent days on the coast of New Zealand.

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Current mass-extinction event is the largest in recorded history

According to a 1998 survey of 400 biologists conducted by New York's American Museum of Natural History, nearly 70 percent of biologists believe that we are currently in the early stages of a human-caused mass extinction, known as the Holocene extinction event. In that survey, the same proportion of respondents agreed with the prediction that up to 20 percent of all living species could become extinct within 30 years (by 2028). Biologist E. O. Wilson estimated in 2002 that if current rates of human destruction of the biosphere continue, one-half of all species of life on earth will be extinct in 100 years. More significantly the rate of species extinctions at present is estimated at 100 to 1000 times "background" or average extinction rates in the evolutionary time scale of planet Earth; moreover, this current rate of extinction is thus 10 to 100 times greater than any of the prior mass extinction events in the history of the Earth.

I don't quite know

Not Known Why They Swam Onto Two Southern Australian Islands
On King Island, marine biologists will continue Tuesday to take samples and measurements from the dead whales strewn along a remote beach and examine weather patterns in a bid to explain the tragic phenomenon, Brennan said.

"Strandings are always a mystery; we'll see if we can find something that can shed some light on it," he said.

How I feel

Navy to study possible link between beached whales and sonar

(CNN) -- Important clues have surfaced that may help prove a suspected link between beached whales and powerful sonar equipment used by the U.S. Navy and other nations around the world.

Scientists discovered the clues earlier this year in March, when seven whales were found dead on a Bahamas beach, near the time and location of a U.S. Navy sonar operation.
"We did have an operational exercise going on using ships with operational sonars," said Robert Pirie, assistant secretary, U.S. Navy. "...and that was closely correlated with the ... strandings and that's the source of our concern."

These three words

“ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST“
http://www.earthsendangered.com/list.asp#

Are said too much

Bush Appointee Fails to Designate Species “Endangered”

Bald eagles, wolves, snails, butterflies and many other species native to the US have long been at risk. Many have made it on to the country's endangered species list, but not under the Bush administration over the last two years.

Conservation groups claim that Bush appointees have been deliberately making it harder to designate animals and plants as endangered, and have launched a series of lawsuits. Administration officials admit that there are about 280 species waiting to be added to the list.

They're not enough

George Bush's father designated 231 species as endangered or threatened in his single term. In Bill Clinton's eight years 521 species were designated as endangered. Bush has designated 59 in seven years, and none in the last two since Dirk Kempthorne became secretary of the interior, the department responsible.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/24/7847/

If I lay here

Nearly 14 years after Exxon was ordered to pay $5 billion dollars because of the damages done to people and their livelihood during the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the nation's top court is scheduled to hear the final appeal this week.

If I just lay here

High Court Finally Hears Exxon/ Valdez Oil Spill Suit
Sunday, February 24, 2008

The U.S. Supreme Court will listen to arguments this coming Wednesday from the 1994 judgment against Exxon/ Mobile that awarded residents and fishermen the huge award. The award has been reviewed three times by a district judge and twice by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco. In December 2006, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its final ruling, setting the punitive damages award at $2.5 billion.

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Most local residents have waited over fourteen years for settlements from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. In the meantime, 20% of the more than 30,000 fishermen, Native Alaskans, cannery workers and others who triumphed in the Anchorage, Alaska court that day in 1994 are now dead.

Forget what we're told

Following the 1989 oil spill, more than 11 million gallons spilled. An estimated 300 bald eagles died and another 200,000 common murres perished. Scores of other whales, otters, salmon and invertebrates also died in the aftermath of the spill that hit Prince William Sound and the surrounding areas.

Before we get too old

Members of IBRRC's response team spent nearly six months in Alaska helping care for oiled birds in the spill.

Show me a garden that's bursting into life
Chinese drought affects millions

At least 18 million people have been affected by China's worst drought in 50 years, according to the state news agency Xinhua.

The south-western region of Chongqing has been worst hit, but areas of Sichuan and Liaoning are also affected.

In Chongqing there has been no rain for more than 70 days, and two-thirds of the rivers have dried up, Xinhua said.

Residents in some mountain villages are having to walk up to 2km (1.25 miles) to get water. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5261918.stm

Let's waste time

Wasting Time
For your typical off the shelf political conservative, there are a number of issues that really get their heart rate up and make them red in the face. Some of them are obvious, abortion, the “vast left wing media conspiracy”, national defense; others are not as prominent but continue to have a vocal backing that will make your head spin if you even begin to argue to the contrary. We have such an issue in global warming.

Why are members of the conservative movement so adamant that global warming does not exist? Criticisms include the costs we would incur pursuing an imaginary specter are wasteful. Such environmental causes are said to be political scare tactics to drum up support for the base during election years and the factual basis of events like global warming are proclaimed by some online experts as being non-existent.

Chasing cars

U.S. stalls on banning human trafficking by defense contractors
Pentagon has yet to ban forced labor
By Cam Simpson

WASHINGTON - Three years ago, President Bush declared that he had "zero tolerance" for trafficking in humans by the government's overseas contractors, and two years ago Congress mandated a similar policy. But notwithstanding the president's statement and the congressional edict, the Defense Department has yet to adopt a policy to bar human trafficking.

A proposal prohibiting defense contractor involvement in human trafficking for forced prostitution and labor was drafted by the Pentagon last summer, but five defense lobbying groups oppose key provisions and a final policy still appears to be months away, according to those involved and Defense Department records.

The lobbying groups opposing the plan say they're in favor of the idea in principle, but said they believe that implementing key portions of it overseas is unrealistic. They represent thousands of firms, including some of the industry's biggest names, such as DynCorp International and Halliburton subsidiary KBR, both of which have been linked to human trafficking-related concerns.

Around our heads

John McCain's 'Global Warming' Hearings Blasted by Climatologist
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer

Washington - Recent U.S. Senate hearings into global warming, chaired by Arizona Republican John McCain, were among the "most biased" that noted climatologist Patrick J. Michaels has ever seen - "much less balanced than anything I saw in the Clinton administration," he said.

I need your grace

AIDS death toll in Africa may reach 100 million by 2025
June 3, 2006
Associated Press
AIDS could kill 31 million people in India and 18 million in China by 2025, according to projections by U.N. population researchers. By then in Africa, where AIDS likely began and where the virus has wrought the most devastation, researchers said the toll could reach 100 million.
http://www.worldrevolution.org/news/article1857.htm

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
In Kennebunkport, Me., where he was playing golf this afternoon, President Bush said it was "too bad" that the AIDS conference would not be held in Boston, adding, "They'll find other ways to get together, so it doesn't bother me."

To remind me

Katrina Victims Suffer, Bush Plays Guitar

While millions of Americans have lost their homes or lives in the devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina, Bush not only goes about business as usual, he plays the guitar. http://www.talkleft.com/story/2005/08/30/324/97688

To find my own

McCain: Most absentee '08 Senator
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), missing another major vote on the Iraq war today in favor of presidential campaigning, has pulled far ahead of his 2008 rivals in at least one category: absenteeism.

McCain, who missed today's vote while campaigning in South Carolina as part of another re-launch of his White House bid, has gone two straight weeks without casting a single vote on the chamber floor. He's missed 18 straight votes.

Over the last month, the Senate has held 33 votes. McCain, the onetime frontrunner for the Republican nomination, has been on hand for just seven of those votes. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2007/04/mccain_most_absentee_08_senato.html

If I lay here

McCain says 'We’re succeeding' as bin Laden uses Iraq war to recruit
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 9:29 AM by Domenico Montanaro

Returning from his eighth trip to Iraq, McCain didn’t back down on his promise to see the war through despite yesterday's tragic milestone of 4,000 deaths. “We're succeeding. I don't care what anybody says. I've seen the facts on the ground," the Arizona senator insisted a day after a roadside bomb in Baghdad killed four U.S. soldiers and rockets pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone there, and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide. The events transpired as bin Laden called on the people of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to ‘help in support of their mujahedeen brothers in Iraq, which is the greatest opportunity and the biggest task.”

If I just lay here

McCain: Let’s occupy Iraq for “ONE HUNDRED YEARS.”

During a town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told a crowd of roughly two hundred people that it “would be fine with him if the U.S. military stayed in Iraq for a hundred years.”

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

October 11, 2006
Updated Iraq Survey Affirms Earlier Mortality Estimates
Mortality Trends Comparable to Estimates by Those Using Other Counting Methods
As many as 654,965 more Iraqis may have died since hostilities began in Iraq in March 2003 than would have been expected under pre-war conditions, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. The deaths from all causes—violent and non-violent—are over and above the estimated 143,000 deaths per year that occurred from all causes prior to the March 2003 invasion.

Forget what we're told

New study says 151,000 Iraqi dead

One of the biggest surveys so far of Iraqis who have died violently since the US-led invasion of 2003 has put the figure at about 151,000.

This is about a quarter of the figure given in a disputed Lancet article, but nearly three times higher than that of the Iraq Body Count campaigning group.

Before we get too old

US agent orange ruling disappoints Vietnamese
Feb 23, 2008
Vietnamese victims of wartime agent orange are disappointed by a US court's dismissal of a lawsuit against chemical companies, but believe they have gathered more support for their cause.

"We anticipated this because it is not easy suing big and powerful US companies on US soil and under the US court system," said Nguyen Trong Nhan, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin.

Show me a garden that's bursting into life

The lawsuit contended agent orange caused ailments, including birth defects and cancer.

Studies have shown the compound of dioxin, a component of "agent orange" herbicides sprayed during the war, is still present in so-called "hot spots" at levels hundreds of times higher than would be accepted elsewhere.

The United States has maintained there is no scientifically proved link between the wartime spraying and the claims of dioxin poisoning by more than 3 million people in Vietnam.

All that I am

US soldiers in Iraq suffer horrific brain and mental injuries
By Rick Kelly
20 November 2004

According to official figures, the Iraq war has so far seen 9,000 US soldiers wounded in action, in addition to the more than 1,200 troops killed. These wounded, whose numbers may well be underestimated, include those with gunshot and shrapnel wounds, lost limbs and other injuries caused by landmines and bombs. Less well known, however, is the terrible toll enacted through brain and psychological injuries, which frequently have devastating and permanent effects.

The war has seen unusually high rates of traumatic brain injury (TBI). This head injury causes life-long damage in many cases. Symptoms include memory loss, difficulty with attention and reasoning, headaches, confusion, anxiety, irritability and depression.

All that I ever was

Post-traumatic stress disorder
The US military is experiencing a very high rate of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among troops. Many of the symptoms are similar to traumatic brain injury. Post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers can experience feelings of detachment and isolation, poor concentration and memory, depression, insomnia, flashbacks, as well as headaches, gastrointestinal complaints, and immune system problems. Like TBI, soldiers suffering from psychological disorders have high rates of alcohol/ drug abuse, and suicide.

A study published by the New England Journal of Medicine in July found that up to 17 percent of the surveyed Iraq veterans suffered from PTSD, generalized anxiety, or major depression. This probably underestimated the true scale of the problem, since the soldiers in the study served in the early phase of the war, before the Iraqi resistance really intensified.

Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

Army sergeant struggles with images of death
Former Army sergeant, Matt La Branche, told the Los Angeles Times that the memories of his nine-month stint as a machine-gunner in Iraq left him “feeling dead inside.” He constantly struggles with the image of the Iraqi woman who died in his arms after he had shot her. The woman’s children were also wounded in the incident. “I’m taking enough drugs to sedate an elephant, and I still wake up dreaming about it,” he said.

I don't know where

VA Hospitals underfunded
Affected soldiers receive grossly inadequate treatment from the military establishment. Brain trauma and psychological injuries often require months of expensive and intensive rehabilitation, long-term drug therapy and psychological counseling. Facilities that were already underfunded and overstretched are now at breaking point.

Confused about how as well

Army psychologists don’t know how to treat PTSD patients that deny they have problems
Receiving treatment is especially difficult for sufferers of PTSD. Army psychologists are pressured to get their patients back out in the field as soon as possible, while the macho culture cultivated within the ranks leads many soldiers to deny that they have a problem. The New England Journal of Medicine study found that less than half of all soldiers affected by PTSD sought treatment, fearing stigmatization or damage to their careers.

I know that these things will never change for us at all

Monday, March 24, 2008

Trial Moves Ahead in Lawsuit Against VA -- Veterans with PTSD Sought

A class action lawsuit between Veterans for Common Sense and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs challenges the VA's failure to provide prompt mental health care to veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (PTSD) Other charges include the VA’s failure to promptly and accurately process disability compensation claims for PTSD.

The week of March 3, the judge held a hearing about the quality and timeliness of mental health care given to suicidal veterans. After four days of testimony, the judge ordered a full trial on all of our issues to start on April 21, 2008. This is a very quick timeline, and we hope this means that we will receive a final decision from the judge in the next few months.

If I lay here

The atomic bomb named "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima by the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 bomber, at 8:15 in the morning of August 6, 1945.

If I just lay here

6 Signs the U.S. May Be Headed for War in Iran
March 11, 2008
Is the United States moving toward military action with Iran?

The resignation of the top U.S. military commander for the Middle East is setting off alarms that the Bush administration is intent on using military force to stop Iran's moves toward gaining nuclear weapons. In announcing his sudden resignation today following a report on his views in Esquire, Adm. William Fallon didn't directly deny that he differs with President Bush over at least some aspects of the president's policy on Iran. For his part, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it is "ridiculous" to think that the departure of Fallon—whose Central Command has been working on contingency plans for strikes on Iran as well as overseeing Iraq—signals that the United States is planning to go to war with Iran.

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?