Matthew 7:15 (King James Version)

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Reference: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A15&version=KJV

Drummond Pike

Drummond Pike (born October 11, 1948) is an American philanthropist, activist and social entrepreneur. He founded Tides Foundation in 1976[1] and is the current CEO of Tides[2]. Pike helped pioneer the advent of donor advised funds in philanthropy.[citation needed]

Pike was born in San Rafael, California, the third of four brothers, to Peter Pike, an investment banker, and Catherine Cline Pike, Marin County’s first ever female pediatrician.[citation needed]

Pike studied Political Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and became involved in the anti-war movement of the late 1960s. He was selected as campus representative to the Board of Regents during his senior year in 1969, and graduated with a BA in 1970. Pike continued his education at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University [3] where he obtained a Master’s Degree in Political Science.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drummond_Pike

Tides Foundation

Part 1

34 Years of Tides
Since 1976, Tides has worked with individuals and institutions committed to positive social change.

Tides was started out of a need to facilitate the giving of an anonymous couple in New Mexico. They wanted to support grassroots community groups and environmental organizations, and Drummond Pike created Tides Foundation to channel their grants. In 1979, there emerged another need that we responded to: helping new projects get started.

Through the 1980s, Tides grew slowly as we defined our role as a values based infrastructure for progressive nonprofit work. We define "progressive" as creating a positive impact on people's lives in ways that honor and promote human rights, justice, and a healthy, sustainable environment.

The 1990’s was a time of exponential growth for Tides as new Tides organizations were added. In 1996, the Projects Program that nurtured new activities became Tides Center, a nonprofit organization independent from Tides Foundation. In the same year, we opened the Thoreau Center for Sustainability - a twelve building complex in San Francisco's Presidio National Park dedicated to nonprofits concerned about social and environmental sustainability. In 1999, we founded Groundspring.org to facilitate online giving to progressive groups. We also collaborated in the launching of Tides Canada Foundation.

In the new millennium, our real estate endeavors - like the creation of Thoreau Center - evolved into a program called Tides Shared Spaces which creates, operates and promotes sustainable workspace for nonprofits. In 2005, Groundspring.org merged with Network for Good to form the largest nonprofit provider of Internet-based fundraising and donor management tools.

In the ten-year period between 1996 and 2006, Tides Center was fiscal sponsor to 677 projects with combined revenues of $522.4 million, and has worked with well over 800 projects since the first days as the Projects Program. Tides Foundation has had 30 years of visionary philanthropy for progressive social change. Since 2000, it has granted more than $400 million to progressive nonprofit organizations. Our growth is a testament to the joint commitment among our partners and staff to supporting positive social change domestically and globally. It is truly a privilege to do this work.
Why "Tides?"

There are a number of reasons why the word "tides" is an appropriate metaphor for our work. Tides are a clean, efficient and sustainable source of energy. Tides connect us around the world. And tides are constantly changing the landscape around us.

The "Tides" name comes from a Bay Area independent bookstore that once served as a meeting place for readers, writers and activists. While honoring the progressive community which founded Tides, the name also suggests the remarkable power derived from people and ideas coming together at the right time, in the right place.

Reference: http://www.tides.org/about-us/history/index.html

Part 2

Tides Center is a non-profit organization in the United States which provides fiscal sponsorship for progressive groups. Tides Center is classified a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization by the IRS. The organization is based in San Francisco with offices in the Presidio.

Tides Center is administratively linked to the Tides Foundation; both are part of a family of organizations linked by a commitment to social change, innovation, and responsible stewardship of resources. Jeff Jones wrote the Stimulus Bill.

The Tides Center provides administrative services such as payroll, benefits, insurance, and tax form 990 in exchange for a fee.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tides_Center

Lower back tattoo

A lower back tattoo is a body decoration, sometimes intended to emphasize sexual attractiveness. Such tattoos have become popular since the late 1990s, but they are sometimes derided as suggestive of promiscuity and pejoratively referred to as "tramp stamps", "slag tags", "pull out targets", and other slang terms.

While the lower back is not the widest area of the human back, it has abundant space for a large design, and horizontal tattoo designs can be worked easily. In contrast to the abdomen, which is otherwise a similar location, the lower back does not stretch significantly during pregnancy or other weight gains, thus providing a more stable site for a design. Lower back tattoos are often left uncovered by individuals wearing crop tops that are designed to expose the midriff, and low-rise jeans that are worn low around the hips.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tramp_stamp

7 Ways to Burn Fat Faster

1. TIME YOUR PREMEAL SNACK
Eating a low-carbohydrate protein bar 90 minutes before you work out will enable you to exercise longer and harder (and burn more calories) than you normally would, says Steve Zim, author of Hot Point Fitness. However, that 90-minute mark is crucial. Eat any closer to your workout, and blood will rush to your stomach, actually diminishing your performance.

2. BREATHE THROUGH YOUR NOSE
Inhaling and exhaling through your nose, rather than your mouth, helps stabilize your heart rate and (like the preworkout snack) increase your endurance. The result? You work out longer and burn more calories. But don't get discouraged if it feels unnatural at first — it takes about six to eight workouts to perfect.

3. DO CARDIO LAST
Strength-train before doing any cardiovascular work, says Ken Fitzgerald, owner of Lift Gym in New York. Why? It takes the body about 15 minutes to warm up and start burning fat. So, a 30-minute bike ride is really only burning fat for the last 15 minutes of your workout. But, if you lift weights first, your body is warmed up by the time you hit the bike, and you'll burn fat throughout the entire ride.

4. VALUE VARIETY
Do the exact same workout every time you hit the gym, and your body will start to adapt to it — and eventually stop burning as many calories, says Zim. So if you jog one day, try biking or swimming the next. Or, if you weight-train from the shoulders down one day, next time, begin with your legs and work up. The important thing, Zim says, is to keep your body guessing.

5. DON'T SLOUCH
Slumping over the handlebars on a stationary bike inhibits the amount of oxygen your body can take in — and slows your fat-burning process, says Fitzgerald. The bars and handles are there to help you balance, not to support you. If you can't move without holding on, slow down.

6. TRAIN IN INTERVALS
The best way to burn fat is to work out as hard as you can for as long as you can, says Malick Diop, a trainer at Equinox Gyms in New York. But, if you're just starting to exercise, interval training's your ticket. Two minutes on the treadmill at, say, 7 mph, followed by two minutes at 5 mph, then back to 7 mph (and so on) for 20 to 45 minutes will whittle away pounds and build your endurance. Eventually, you'll be able to extend the high-intensity periods (and decrease the low ones) until your whole workout is done at top speed.

7. ADD LIGHT WEIGHTS
It's a fact: The more muscle tone you have, the more calories you burn — even when you're sitting still. So, if you can't seem to find time to weight-train and do your cardio, Zim suggests doing bicep curls and overhead presses holding two- to three-pound weights while you're fast-walking or stair-climbing. This will build muscle tone, helping you shed more fat during your cardio workout than you would without the weights.

Reference: http://www.marieclaire.com/health-fitness/advice/tips/burn-fat-fast

Math to Burn Fat

Thank goodness the holidays are over, and the new year is here.

But are you finding that holiday celebrations have resulted in a new "you" as well?

As a personal trainer, I hear the same thing every year after the holidays: "Stefan, I gained fat over here," and "Stefan, I gained fat over there."

Be honest. Are you really surprised by the change in your body composition due to your calorie intake over the last few months?

You shouldn't be.

First, understand that your body's metabolism slows down 2 percent for each decade of your life after age 20. This means that your body burns calories more slowly with each passing year.
Related
Burning Health Question? We Want Your Video Comments

As a result, you should also be more careful with your calories as you get older. How much more careful? You can figure it out with the simple calculation below that will give you your basal metabolic rate, or BMR:

Take your desired weight in pounds.

Multiply this number by 11 if you are a woman, 12 if you are a man.

Subtract 2 percent of this total for every 10 years after age 20.

Add 10 percent. This represents the calories you need to maintain your daily life functions.

The number you end up with is your minimum daily calorie intake.

So say you are a 50-year-old man who would like to keep your weight at a trim 140 pounds. Here's how you would calculate your BMR:

Desired weight = 140

140 × 12 = 1,680

1,680 - 3(1,680 × .02) = 1,57 9

1,579 + 158 = 1,737 calories per day

Now keep in mind that some of you are more active than others. Hence, you should add on 180 calories per hour of housework (or if your house is already clean, feel free to come by and help me!), 650 calories per hour of cycling, 800 calories for every hour of running, and 1,200 calories per hour for cross-country skiing.

If you want to lose body fat, however, calorie control is only one side of the equation. The question you still need to ask is: "How do you burn the most calories and, best, the most fat calories?"

Interval training! Yes, you need to push yourself. You need to vary your training intensity between 65 percent of your total capacity to 85 percent and 95 percent. This approach will help you to lose the most calories from fat.

Stefan Aschan is a fitness consultant in New York City.

Reference: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Exercise/story?id=2817212&page=1

The Secret Town Fed By The Underground Railroad

In a 5-acre clearing in central New Jersey, half an hour south of Trenton, there's a hole about 6 feet deep and 15 feet across. Months ago, except for a few trees, the site was empty.

For decades, it was rumored to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Turns out it was. Now, Westampton Township has commissioned a geophysical survey and allowed Temple University archaeologists to do a thorough excavation. And they're finding that the freed and escaped slaves who made it here didn't just pass through — they stayed.

Timbuctoo

The site was once a village called Timbuctoo. In the 1820s, freed and escaped blacks formed a self-sustaining town well before the Civil War and emancipation. Timbuctoo survived through the end of slavery in New Jersey, the Fugitive Slave Act and the Jim Crow era. The last families didn't leave until the 1950s. At its peak, Timbuctoo was home to more than 150 people.

The villagers weren't all escaped slaves from the South. Some were freed slaves from New Jersey, and a few immigrants and American Indians joined the community as well.

Researchers don't know if the name "Timbuctoo" was chosen by the blacks who founded the village or by the Quakers in the area, who most likely offered assistance to them.

On a scorching 100-degree July day, Patricia Markert of Temple University and about a dozen others are digging and cleaning the site.

Markert is standing near a gaping hole in the field, where a building once stood. Her team has carefully dug down layer by layer. Underground are several houses, roadways, the remains of a church and a school.

"So the first area that we really dug are these center bricks, the center of the eastern foundation that we see here," says Markert, as she points to buried rows of dirt-covered bricks. "We knew this was here based on the geophysical survey."
Temple University's Chris Barton is the dig's leader.

The bricks they've found are throwaways from the Quaker brickyard that used to operate down the road, where many Timbuctoo residents worked. The construction of the buried building isn't top-notch — the residents did the best they could with what they had.

"These people had to deal with Jim Crow, they had to deal with slavery, they had to deal with economic oppression, racism," says Chris Barton, the Temple archaeologist leading the dig. "That's what we're really trying to find."

He says that every artifact recovered helps show the amazing tenacity of Timbuctoo residents. That tenacity was displayed by Timbuctoo residents in what's known as the Battle of Pine Swamp, when in 1860 the town rallied to protect a runaway slave named Perry Simmons from Southern bounty hunters.

A History In Bottles

About 40 feet from the excavation site, Markert rummages through an old white van. It's full of bottles, tools and toys dug up from the ground. The van is a temporary museum of sorts. Dozens of zip-lock bags sit where seats would be, full of categorized artifacts, waiting to go to Temple University for cleaning.

A lot of those artifacts are bottles for household products, like Listerine and Vaseline. What's notable is that most of the brand names on the bottles are national, because white-owned local stores rarely sold to the people of Timbuctoo. Residents often ordered supplies by mail, so vendors wouldn't know they were black.

Timbuctoo Lives On

One of the local volunteers, 75-year-old Mary Weston, lives just down the street. Since the dig began, she's been a fixture at the site.

"My great-great-great-grandfather actually purchased the land for, what was it, $38 dollars and 50 cents?" says Weston. He was one of the original inhabitants of Timbuctoo.

Weston has been collecting the history of her family and Timbuctoo. Inside her home, she shows off her favorite piece of Timbuctoo history.

"This is my family Bible. It was passed down to me from the 1800s," says Weston. "I keep it together with a belt, because ... I am determined that my children and my grandchildren will know a lot more about not only their family, but about their heritage, who they are, where they came from."

Back at the dig, Westampton Township's mayor, Sidney Camp, has arrived. He was instrumental in getting the dig started and frequently visited the clearing before he knew it was Timbuctoo:

"When I was having a bad day, I would come out here and just stand in the middle of this field, because it's so peaceful and so serene out here," says Camp. "To come out now and see what I've been standing over for so many years — it's amazing. It's indescribable."

Reference: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128754990

Underground Words

Zines, journals, books, magazines, spoken word....words are magic. I want to discuss what we're all doing with them.

Reference: http://undergroundwords.tribe.net/

Knockabout Comics

Knockabout Comics is a UK publisher and distributor of underground and alternative comic books.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knockabout_Comics

Harry Mason Reid

Harry Mason Reid (born December 2, 1939) is the senior United States Senator from Nevada and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected to the Senate in 1986, he was re-elected in 1992, 1998, and 2004, and is currently seeking a fifth term in 2010.

Reid has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader from 2005 until the Democrats won control of the Senate in the 2006 midterm elections. He earlier served as Senate Minority Whip (1999–2001, 2001, 2003–2005) and Senate Majority Whip (2001, 2001–2003).

Before his election to the Senate, Reid was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Nevada's 1st congressional district from 1983 to 1987. A native of Searchlight and graduate of Utah State University and George Washington University Law School, he previously served as city attorney of Henderson (1964–1966), a member of the Nevada Assembly (1969–1970), Lieutenant Governor of Nevada (1970–1974), and chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission (1977–1981).

Reid apologized on January 9, 2010, for racially charged comments he had made when President Obama was campaigning for president. In private conversations, Reid had remarked that Obama could win the Presidency because the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama—who he referred to as being "light-skinned" and "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one". These comments had been recently revealed by journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann in Game Change, their book about the 2008 election. In addition to his public apology, Reid called President Obama to apologize; Obama accepted his apology, stating that as far as he was concerned, the book was closed on the incident. RNC Chairman Michael Steele and Senators John Cornyn and Jon Kyl called on Reid to resign his leadership position in the Senate citing Majority Leader Trent Lott resigning because of a statement relating to race. However, this has virtually no chance of happening according to multiple experts. DNC Chairman Tim Kaine and Senators Dianne Feinstein and Jack Reed expressed support for Reid and confidence he would retain his leadership position, and another senior Democrat indicated Reid has "produced supportive statements from key African American leaders in the Congress and civil rights community".

Reid is a first generation member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon or LDS Church). Reid and his wife, who was born to Jewish immigrant parents and grew up in Henderson, converted to Mormonism while Reid was a college student.[4] In a 2001 interview he said, "I think it is much easier to be a good member of the Church and a Democrat than a good member of the Church and a Republican." He went on to say that the Democrats' emphasis on helping others, as opposed to what he considers Republican dogma to the contrary, is the reason he's a Democrat. He delivered a speech at Brigham Young University to about 20,000 students on October 9, 2007, in which he expressed his opinion that Democratic values mirror Mormon values. Reid remains active in his congregations in Washington and Nevada,[citation needed] though he contrasts with the generally conservative Mormon population in the United States. Several Republican Mormons in Utah have contested his faith because of his politics, such as his private comments that the church's backing of California's Proposition 8 wasted resources.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Reid

'Conan' painting by late Pa. artist goes for $1.5M

PHILADELPHIA - A 1971 painting by fantasy artist Frank Frazetta has sold for $1.5 million, two months after the Pennsylvania artist's death.

Frazetta's managers said this week that a private collector bought "Conan the Destroyer" from a family trust. Managers Robert Pistella and Stephen Ferzoco call it the price the highest ever for a work by Frazetta.

The illustrator died in Florida in May at age 82. His iconic illustrations of Conan the Barbarian, Tarzan and other characters often graced comic books, album covers and movie posters.

In recent years, his children have fought over an estate estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars.

The feud boiled over in December when Frank Frazetta Jr. used a backhoe to try to break into the artist's museum in the Pocono Mountains.

Reference: http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/ap-conan-painting-sold.html

Censored News: Obama’s Assasination Hit List Targets Americans

A PROJECT CENSORED/MEDIA-OCRACY NEWS REPORT

The Washington Times reports that dozens of Americans may be on the Obama administration’s hit list. In a June 24th report, the paper quotes John Brennan, the Deputy White House Nationa Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism explains that:

“There are, in my mind, dozens of U.S. persons who are in different parts of the world, and they are very concerning to us.” Meredith Bailey discusses the terror hit list in greater length below, drawing on the always seminal work of Glenn Greenwald.

Meredith Bailey

Here’s an article by Glenn Greenwald about the dozens of Americans who are on the assassination hit list. There’s no opportunity for due process to prove the innocence for these Americans. If you are not aware by now, we are clearly living in a tyrannical government. Guantanamo Bay detention camp is still open and the Obama administration has no plans of shutting down Guantanamo Bay even though he promised he would make substantial efforts to close Guantanamo before we elected him. Innocent people have spent years in prison and the Obama admin knows this and does nothing to close Guantanamo.

The respected White House News Correspondent Helen Thomas was fired on June 7. Then General McChrystal was fired on June 22, and then Dave Weigel was fired from the Washington Post on June 26 for saying critical remarks in his private emails. All three of these respected American citizens lost their jobs this past month because they spoke freely and made some controversial remarks. The media destroyed their reputations and careers practically overnight after years of service. We are proud to be Americans because we have the right to freedom of speech. But that right is disappearing before our eyes. The outspoken are being attacked by the media. There’s also a law being pushed by Lieberman to shut down the Internet in America so freedom of speech is on the way out the door (http://www.dailypaul.com/node/137911).

Glenn Greenwald is one of the few remaining journalists left to speak truth to power.

How many Americans are targeted for assassination?

By Glenn Greenwald
When The Washington Post’s Dana Priest first revealed (in passing) back in January that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens targeted for assassination, she wrote that “as of several months ago, the CIA list included three U.S. citizens.” In April, both the Post and the NYT confirmed that the administration had specifically authorized the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki. Today, The Washington Times’ Eli Lake has an interview with Obama’s top Terrorism adviser John Brennan in which Brennan strongly suggests that the number of U.S. citizens targeted for assassination could actually be “dozens”:

Dozens of Americans have joined terrorist groups and are posing a threat to the United States and its interests abroad, the president’s most senior adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security said Thursday. . . . “There are, in my mind, dozens of U.S. persons who are in different parts of the world, and they are very concerning to us,” said John O. Brennan, deputy White House national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism. . . .

“If a person is a U.S. citizen, and he is on the battlefield in Afghanistan or Iraq trying to attack our troops, he will face the full brunt of the U.S. military response,” Mr. Brennan said. “If an American person or citizen is in a Yemen or in a Pakistan or in Somalia or another place, and they are trying to carry out attacks against U.S. interests, they also will face the full brunt of a U.S. response. And it can take many forms.”

Nobody — or at least not me — disputes the right of the U.S. or any other country to kill someone on an actual battlefield during war without due process. That’s just obvious, but that’s not remotely what Brennan is talking about, and it’s not remotely what this assassination program is about. Indeed, Brennan explicitly identified two indistinguishable groups of American citizens who “will face the full brunt of a U.S. response”: (1) those “on the battlefield in Afghanistan or Iraq”; and (2) those “in a Yemen or in a Pakistan or in Somalia or another place.” In other words, the entire world is a “battlefield” — countries where there is a war and countries where there isn’t — and the President’s “battlefield” powers, which are unlimited, extend everywhere. That theory — the whole world is a battlefield, even the U.S. — was the core premise that spawned 8 years of Bush/Cheney radicalism, and it has been adopted in full by the Obama administration (indeed, it was that “whole-world-is-a-battlefield” theory which Elena Kagan explicitly endorsed during her confirmation hearing for Solicitor General).

Anyone who doubts that the Obama administration has adopted the core Terrorism policies of Bush/Cheney should listen to the concession — or boast — which Brennan himself made in his interview with Lake:

Mr. Brennan toward the end of the interview acknowledged that, despite some differences, there is considerable continuity between the counterterrorism policies of President Bush and President Obama.

“There has been a lot of continuity of effort here from the previous administration to this one,” he said. “There are some important distinctions, but sometimes there is too much made of those distinctions. We are building upon some of the good foundational work that has been done.”

I would really like never to hear again the complaint that comparing Bush and Obama’s Terrorism and civil liberties policies is unfair, invalid or hyperbolic given that Obama’s top Terrorism adviser himself touts that comparison. And that’s anything but a surprise, given that Brennan was a Bush-era CIA official who defended many of the most controversial Bush/Cheney Terrorism policies.

I’ve written at length about the reasons why targeting American citizens for assassination who are far away from a “battlefield” is so odious and tyrannical, and I won’t repeat those arguments here. Suffice to say — and I’m asking this literally — if you’re someone who believes, or are at least willing to acquiesce to the claim, that the U.S. President has the power to target your fellow citizens for assassination without a whiff of due process, what unchecked presidential powers wouldn’t you support or acquiesce to? I’d really like to hear an answer to that. That’s the question Al Gore asked about George Bush in a 2006 speech condemning Bush’s claimed powers merely to eavesdrop on and imprison American citizens without charges, let alone assassinate them: “If the answer is yes, then under the theory by which these acts are committed, are there any acts that can on their face be prohibited? . . . If the president has th[is] inherent authority. . . . then what can’t he do?” Can anyone defending this Obama policy answer that question?

One other thing that is truly amazing: the U.S. tried to import this same due-process-free policy to Afghanistan. There, the U.S. last year compiled a “hit list” of 50 Afghan citizens whose assassination it authorized on the alleged ground (never charged or convicted) that they were drug “kingpins” or funding the Talbian. You know what happened? This:

A U.S. military hit list of about 50 suspected drug kingpins is drawing fierce opposition from Afghan officials, who say it could undermine their fragile justice system and trigger a backlash against foreign troops. . . .

Gen. Mohammad Daud Daud, Afghanistan’s deputy interior minister for counternarcotics efforts . . . said he worried that foreign troops would now act on their own to kill suspected drug lords, based on secret evidence, instead of handing them over for trial . . . “They should respect our law, our constitution and our legal codes,” Daud . “We have a commitment to arrest these people on our own” . . . .

The U.S. military and NATO officials have authorized their forces to kill or capture individuals on the list, which was drafted within the past year as part of NATO’s new strategy to combat drug operations that finance the Taliban.. . . . “There is a constitutional problem here. A person is innocent unless proven guilty,” [Ali Ahmad Jalali, a former Afghan interior minister] said. “If you go off to kill or capture them, how do you prove that they are really guilty in terms of legal process?”

In other words, Afghans — the people we’re occupying in order to teach about Freedom and Democracy — are far more protective of due process and the rule of law for their own citizens than Americans are who meekly submit to Obama’s identical policy of assassination for their fellow citizens. It might make more sense for Afghanistan to invade and occupy the U.S. in order to spread the rule of law and constitutional values here.

Reference: http://www.media-ocracy.com/?p=700

Libya of Tomorrow: What for Human Rights

In a recent report entitled 'Libya of Tomorrow: What for Human Rights,' Amnesty lays a slate of violations at Tripoli's door - women flogged for adultery, amputations as a consequence of theft, and the death penalty for free speech - and calls, unreservedly on the EU not to ignore the country's dire track record at the expense of national interests.

Reference: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5762862,00.html

Health care in North Korea

Health care in North Korea is in a state of crisis. That's according to
a new Amnesty International report today. It's based on interviews with more
than 40 North Korean defectors. The human rights group told of amputations
performed without anesthesia and spreading disease tied to chronic malnutrition.

Reference: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec10/othernews_07-15.html

Weather Underground (organization)

Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization (abbreviated WUO), was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)[2] composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their supporters. Their goal was to create a clandestine revolutionary party for the violent overthrow of the US government and the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat.[3]

With leadership whose revolutionary positions were characterized by Black separatist rhetoric,[2] the group conducted a campaign of bombings through the mid-1970s, including aiding the jailbreak and escape of Timothy Leary. The "Days of Rage", their first public demonstration on October 8, 1969, was a riot in Chicago timed to coincide with the trial of the Chicago Seven. In 1970 the group issued a "Declaration of a State of War" against the United States government, under the name "Weather Underground Organization" (WUO). The bombing attacks mostly targeted government buildings, along with several banks. Most were preceded by evacuation warnings, along with communiqués identifying the particular matter that the attack was intended to protest. For the bombing of the United States Capitol on March 1, 1971, they issued a communiqué saying it was "in protest of the US invasion of Laos." For the bombing of the Pentagon on May 19, 1972, they stated it was "in retaliation for the US bombing raid in Hanoi." For the January 29, 1975 bombing of the United States Department of State Building, they stated it was "in response to escalation in Vietnam."[4]

The Weathermen grew out of the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM) faction of SDS. It took its name from the lyric "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows", from the Bob Dylan song Subterranean Homesick Blues. You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows was the title of a position paper they distributed at an SDS convention in Chicago on June 18, 1969. This founding document called for a "white fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other radical movements[5] to achieve "the destruction of US imperialism and achieve a classless world: world communism."[6]

The Weathermen largely disintegrated after the United States reached a peace accord in Vietnam in 1973, which saw the general decline of the New Left.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground_(organization)

4G

4G refers to the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. It is a successor to 3G and 2G families of standards. The nomenclature of the generations generally refers to a change in the fundamental nature of the service, non-backwards compatible transmission technology and new frequency bands. The first was the move from 1981 analogue (1G) to digital (2G) transmission in 1992. This was followed, in 2002, by 3G multi-media support, spread spectrum transmission and at least 200 kbit/s, soon expected to be followed by 4G, which refers to all-IP packet-switched networks, mobile ultra-broadband (gigabit speed) access and multi-carrier transmission.[citation needed] Pre-4G technologies such as mobile WiMAX and first-release 3G Long term evolution (LTE) have been available on the market since 2006[1] and 2009[2][3][4] respectively.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

When a missing page from the diary of John Wilkes Booth surfaces, Bens great-great grandfather is suddenly implicated as a key conspirator in Abraham Lincolns death. Determined to prove his ancestors innocence, Ben follows an international chain of clues that takes him on a chase from Paris to London and ultimately back to America. This journey leads Ben and his crew not only to surprising revelations but to the trail of the worlds most treasured secrets.

Five days after the end of the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth and Michael O'Laughlen, both members of the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC), enter a tavern and approach Thomas Gates (Ben Gates' great-great-grandfather), a well-known puzzle solver, to decode a message written in Booth's diary. Thomas recognizes the message and begins to translate it. While he does so, Booth leaves for Ford's Theatre to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Thomas solves the puzzle, a clue to a map to Cibola, the city of gold, and realizes the men are still loyal to the South and have a sinister motive for finding the treasure. A fight breaks out, and Thomas rips several pages from the diary and throws them in the fireplace. Thomas is shot, and the gunman attempts to retrieve the pages, but only obtains a page fragment. As Thomas dies, Thomas tells his distraught son, Charles Gates, "The debt that all men pay..."

Over 140 years later, Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) is telling his great-great-grandfather's story at a Civilian Heroes conference. Black market dealer Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris), a Virginia Military Institute graduate, shows one of the 18 missing pages of John Wilkes Booth's diary, with Thomas Gates' name on it, convincing everyone that Thomas was not only a conspirator, but the grand architect of the Lincoln assassination, which tarnishes the Gates family's reputation and Ben is disgraced. Refusing to allow his ancestor's name to be tarnished, Ben sets out to prove the innocence of his great-great-grandfather. Ben discovers a cipher pointing to Édouard Laboulaye hidden on the back of the diary page. He travels to Paris, France, where he finds a clue engraved on the torch of the scale model of the Statue of Liberty on the Île des Cygnes, referring to the two Resolute desks. Ben then heads to England to look at the desk at Buckingham Palace with the help of his friend Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and estranged girlfriend, Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) (His relationship with Abigail having soured due to him constantly predicting what she might want without even bothering to ask her, even if he is often correct in his assumptions). From the Queen's desk, he obtains an ancient wooden plank with ancient symbols carved into it.

Meanwhile, Wilkinson breaks into Patrick Gates' (Jon Voight) house and clones Patrick's cell phone in order to track Ben's whereabouts. Wilkinson eventually obtains the wooden plank, but not before Ben manages to photograph the symbols carved into the plank. At Ben's insistence, Patrick reluctantly asks his ex-wife and Ben's mother, Dr. Emily Appleton (Helen Mirren) for help in translating the symbols. She does so, but points out that some of the glyphs are partial, leading Ben to conclude another plank must be hidden in the other Resolute desk located in the Oval Office. Ben and Abigail coax Abigail's new love interest, Connor (Ty Burrell), who works at the White House, into letting them into the office to see the desk. Ben discovers that the second plank is missing, but he does find a stamp bearing the seal of the Book of Secrets. Riley tells Ben that the Book of Secrets contains documents collected by Presidents for Presidents' eyes only, covering such controversial subjects as the eighteen minutes erased from Watergate tapes, Area 51, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

After he and his family set the situation up so that all other hotels where the party might take place are fully booked, Ben crashes the president's birthday party at Mount Vernon, where he meets the president (Bruce Greenwood). After showing him a map of Mt. Vernon drawn by George Washington, Ben convinces the president to follow him into a secret tunnel under the House where he confronts him about the book; the president sympathetically warns Ben that his actions will be interpreted as an attempt to kidnap the president, confirming a conclusion Ben and his companions have already reached; Ben is now wanted for committing a federal offense. Ben convinces the president to reveal the location of the book, which is at the Library of Congress. The President also tells Ben to read page 47 along with the information he needs. Shooting of the film in London

In the book, Ben finds a picture of the missing plank from the desk and an entry by President Coolidge, who found the plank in 1924, had it destroyed, and commissioned Gutzon Borglum to carve Mount Rushmore to erase the map's landmarks in order to protect the treasure. Ben, Riley, Abigail, and Patrick head to Mount Rushmore where they meet Wilkinson, who has kidnapped Ben's mother. He helps them find the entrance of a cave containing the legendary Native American city of gold, Cíbola. Once inside, they encounter several traps, and Ben, Abigail, Riley, and Wilkinson get separated from Ben's parents. Eventually, they find the city of gold behind Mount Rushmore. However, in order to leave the city of gold when it suddenly begins flooding, one person has to stay behind to hold open the stone door to the drainage tunnel beneath the city, an action which would result in certain death. Wilkinson demands to go first by threatening Abigail, so Ben agrees to stay behind. However the pounding of waves causes Wilkinson to be the one to stay behind, where he drowns in the cavern beneath the city.

Ben clears his family's name with the discovery and is cleared of all charges when the president tells everyone that Ben did not kidnap him, but actually saved his life when the secret passage they were looking at was accidentally activated. Everyone including Wilkinson is given credit for the discovery of the Lost City of Gold. The president then asks Ben about what he read on page 47 of the Book of Secrets, to which Ben replies, "It's life-altering, sir."

The last scene shows Riley walking down the street when he sees his towed car. He jumps in, and discovers a letter from the president. The back says "Tax Free." Riley reverses, and crashes.

Reference: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465234/synopsis

People who say Pop vs. People who say Soda Statistics

Utah statistics:

Total responses: 1591 (0.50% of all responses, 0.54% of all U.S. responses)
pop: 709 (44.56% of all Utah responses, 0.57% of all pop responses)
soda: 658 (41.36% of all Utah responses, 0.52% of all soda responses)
coke: 126 (7.92% of all Utah responses, 0.26% of all coke responses)
other: 98 (6.16% of all Utah responses, 0.63% of all other responses)

CONCLUSION: People who say "Pop" are much, much cooler.

Reference: http://popvssoda.com:2998/stats/UT.html

Jacob C. White, Jr. (1837-1902)

A Black educator who lived here, White was the principal of the Robert Vaux School for forty years. He was a founder of the city's first Black baseball club, the Pythians, and the first president of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital.

Reference: http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=16

Al Gore feels the temperature rising

Al Gore gets friendly during a massage and a woman thinks he is trying to rape her. Her friends encourage her to suck it up and forget the incident or otherwise the planet will burn up from Global Warming, leaving Bill Clinton jealous of Gore’s leverage.

The police report of the masseuse’s complaint is 73 pages long and extremely detailed. According to the document, she got a call from the front desk of the trendy Hotel Lucia on the night of Oct. 24, 2006. The hotel had a special guest. Could she come at 10:30 p.m.?

She went to Gore’s room carrying a folding massage table and other equipment. Gore, whom she had never met, greeted her with a warm embrace. “The hug went on a bit long, and I was taken just a bit aback by it,” the masseuse told police. But she went along because Gore “was a VIP and a powerful individual and the Hotel Lucia had made it clear to me by inference that they were giving him ‘the royal treatment.’”

Gore said he was tired from travel and described in detail the massage he wanted. It included work on the adductor muscles, which are on the inside of the thighs. “I mentally noted that a request for adductor work is a bit unusual,” the masseuse told police, because it can be “a precursor to inappropriate behavior by a male client.”

Gore also requested work on his abdomen. When that began, “He became somewhat vocal with muffled moans, etc.,” the masseuse recounted. Gore then “demand[ed] that I go lower.” When she remained focused on a “safe, nonsexual” area, Gore grew “angry, becoming verbally sharp and loud.”

The masseuse asked Gore what he wanted. “He grabbed my right hand, shoved it down under the sheet to his pubic hair area, my fingers brushing against his penis,” she recalled, “and said to me, ‘There!’ in a very sharp, loud, angry-sounding tone.” When she pulled back, Gore “angrily raged” and “bellowed” at her.

Gore seems to have a magical ability to transform his personality from a sanctimonious crusader for mankind to a pathological rapist (Think Ted Bundy) in seconds.

Then, abruptly, the former vice president changed tone. It was “as though he had very suddenly switched personalities,” she recalled, “and began in a pleading tone, pleading for release of his second chakra there.”

At that moment, the masseuse brought up Gore’s long marriage. “How do you rectify this with your wife?” she asked. That brought on another “quick shift” in Gore’s mood. “I never saw anybody’s moods just go like this,” the masseuse told police, snapping her fingers.

“Chakra,” in Gore’s new-agey jargon, refers to the body’s “energy centers,” which the masseuse interpreted as having a specific meaning. “This was yet another euphemism for sexual activity he was requesting,” she told police, “put cleverly as though it were a spiritual request or something.”

She wanted to end the session, but Gore “wrapped me in an inescapable embrace” and “caressed my back and buttocks and breasts.” She tried to get away — in the process calling Gore a “crazed sex poodle” — but the former vice president was too strong for her.

A little later, she said, Gore produced a bottle of brandy and mentioned there were condoms in the “treat box” provided by the hotel. “He then forced an open mouth kiss on me,” she said.

Apparently, the sanctimonious crusader is turned on by criticism of George Bush. He told the woman he wanted her to listen to a song that attacks George Bush, titled “DearMr Preident”, by “Pink” and became violently and sexually aroused by the music.

“As soon as he had it playing, he turned to me and immediately flipped me flat on my back and threw his whole body face down over atop of me,” she said. “I was just shocked at his craziness.”

“He pleaded, grabbed me, engulfed me in embrace, tongue kissed me, massaged me, groped by breasts and painfully squeezed my nipples through my clothing, pressed his pelvis against mine, rubbed my buttocks with his hands and fingers and rubbed himself against my crotch, saying, ‘You know you want to do it.’”

Finally she got away. Later, she talked to friends, liberals like herself, who advised against telling police. One asked her “to just suck it up; otherwise, the world’s going to be destroyed from global warming.”

She got a lawyer and made an appointment to talk with authorities. She canceled and did not tell police until January 2009 and even then did not press charges.

In 2007, a Portland paper learned what had happened. Gore’s lawyers called the story “absolutely false,” and it wasn’t published.

It is humorous that Liberals who have backed the call for feminism and feminists themselves consider the indiscretions of a Leftist Leader to be excusable as long as the perpetrator stands for the “Part Line”. Such passions are to be expected by powerful men and women should just accept being raped if it is in the best interests of the party, after all they are great and powerful men.

Reference: http://www.floppingaces.net/2010/06/30/the-left-excuses-sexual-assault-by-the-global-warming-hoaxster-reader-post/

July 4th a Look Back

Philadelphians marked the first anniversary of American independence with a spontaneous celebration, which is described in a letter by John Adams to Abigail Adams. However, observing Independence Day only became commonplace after the War of 1812. Soon, events such as groundbreaking ceremonies for the Erie Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad were scheduled to coincide with July 4th festivities.

In 1859, the Banneker Institute of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, urged African Americans to celebrate Independence Day while bearing witness to the inconsistencies between the ideals espoused in the Declaration of Independence and the practice of slavery. Banneker's orator of the day, Mr. Jacob C. White Jr., also promised his audience a brighter future:

We have learned by experience and by the comparison of ourselves with people similarly situated, to hope that, at some day not very far in futurity, our grievances will be redressed, that our long lost rights will be restored to us, and that, in the full stature of men, we will stand up, and with our once cruel opponents and oppressors rejoice in the Declaration of our common country, and hail with them the approach of the glorious natal day of the Great Republic.

Reference: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jul04.html

Socialist Funeral

I'm sure most of my readers have seen Mafia funerals depicted on "The Sopranos" or "The Godfather" movies.

The FBI is always there, photographing every dapper suited "don" and thuggish looking "soldier".

In its war against the Mafia, the FBI knows that funerals are a great opportunity to learn more about the Mob's "order of battle", hierachy and internal relationships.

Socialist funerals and memorial services can be a bit like that.

In politics, as in other forms of crime, you may be judged by the company you keep.

On March 13th 1998, Saul Mendelson, a lifelong socialist activist died in Chicago.


Mendelson had been a member of various Trotskyist factions in the 1930s and '40s before joining the US Socialist Party.

In 1958 Mendelson founded the Debs Dinner, an ongoing annual event and highpoint of the Chicago socialist calendar.

Over the years, the dinner has served as a focal point for Chicago's socialist, ex Trotskyist, ex-communist and left wing Democratic Party community.

In 1983, many of the Debs Dinner crowd helped form a new Marxist organisation-Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)

The Debs Dinner crowd/DSA, in conjunction with the Communist Party, helped elect Chicago's leftist Mayor Harold Washington in 1983, Carol Mosely Braun to the US Senate in 1992 and Barack Obama to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 and to the US Senate in 2004.

The same crowd continues to back Barack Obama in his current bid for the US presidency.

Saul Mendelson was a leader of the Chicago DSA and personally played a large role in the election of Harold Washington.

The Saul Mendelson Memorial Service was held on Sunday, March 29, 1998, at the First Unitarian Church, Chicago.

According to Chicago DSA leader, Carl Marx Shier (who addressed the gathering);

At the memorial service held at the 1st Unitarian Church on South Woodlawn, speaker after speaker recounted Saul's contributions.

The service was ably MC'd by a retired colleague, Bob Clark. I spoke first and was followed by Saul's friend Deborah Meier, a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient who is now starting a new school in Boston. Amy Isaacs, National Director of the ADA, spoke of what Saul had meant on foreign affairs to the ADA.

Other speakers included Senator Carol Moseley Braun, Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, State Senator Barak Obama, Illinois House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie and a good friend from New York, Myra Russell.

The concluding remarks were made by an old friend, Harriet Lefley, who is now Professor of Psychology at the University of Miami Medical School.

Deborah Meier was a former Trotsyist and Socialist Party comrade of Saul Mendelson's and a leader of Chicago and Boston DSA.

Amy Isaacs was national director of Americans for Democratic Action. In recent years ADA has been increasingly linked to DSA and the DSA initiated Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Carol Moseley Braun was then a US Senator with strong links to both DSA and the Communist Party. Barack Obama helped get her elected in 1992 and then took over her old Senate seat in 2004.

State Senator Barak Obama probably knew Saul Mendelson through his ties to the old communist/socialist infiltrated, Independent Voters of Illinois, in which Mendelson played a leading role.

Alderman Toni Preckwinkle and Illinois House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, are both leftist Democrats with ties to Chicago's socialist community. Both endorsed Barack Obama in his successful 2004 bid for the US Senate.

Harriet Lefley was a Trotskyist in the 1940s with Saul Mendelson.

Eulogies also came from Quinn Brisben, (Socialist Party presidential candidate 1976, 1992) and David McReynolds (Socialist Party presidential candidate 1980, 2000).

Both Brisben and McReynolds are also members of DSA.

Ten short years ago, Barack Obama was up to his ears in the Chicago socialist mafia.

Like the criminal mafia, the socialist version gets want it wants through fraud and other covert means. Deception and underhand political maneuvrings are the socialists stock in trade.

The US wouldn't want a president who had ties to the criminal mafia.

Why would they want a president with links to the socialist "mob"?

Reference: http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2008/02/obama-file-10-barack-obama-and.html