Liberating the inhibitors

Can obeying the Ten Commandments actually be freeing?

We recently had our gas central heating serviced. The serviceman said it needed "inhibitors" to protect us by preventing corrosion.

The use of the word "inhibitor" as something positive took me by surprise; I'm used to thinking of it as a negative term.

That set me thinking about some recent free speech issues where I felt that a little wise inhibition – or self-discipline – might have gone a long way to reducing tensions and might even enlarge the audience of those who would give these points thoughtful consideration.  Continue...

Call Your State Legislators:

Urge Them To Support Protecting Florida's Investments Act
Votes Expected this Week on Legislation to Divest State Funds from Companies Supporting Rogue Regimes in Iran and Sudan
April 27, 2007

Dear Patriot:

The Protecting Florida's Investments Act introduced in the State Senate by Senator Ted Deutch (D-Boca Raton), with leadership from Senators Jeff Atwater (R-North Palm Beach) and Don Gaetz (R-Fort Walton Beach), and sponsored in the House by Representatives Ari Porth (D-Coral Springs) and Adam Hasner (R-Delray Beach), will require the State Board of Administration to review the public pension system and remove any investments in companies doing business in Iran's petroleum-energy sector or with the government of Sudan.
 
Iran continues to develop its nuclear program in defiance of the United Nations Security Council's demands to halt uranium enrichment, while Sudan maintains an organized campaign of genocide against the people of Darfur. Divesting from companies doing business with these two regimes will deprive them of the desperately-needed foreign capital that fuels their illicit activities.

ACTION
 
Please call Florida State Senators and Representatives at their Tallahassee offices and ask them to support the Protecting Florida's Investments Act (SB 2142 in the Senate and CS/HB 703 in the House).  Look up your state officials  and their contact information at this link. http://capwiz.com/constitutioncenter/dbq/officials/  

KEY PROVISIONS OF THE BILL
The Protecting Florida's Investments Act:

• Requires Florida's public pension funds to review their holdings in companies invested in Iran's energy sector or in companies with business ties to the government of Sudan.
• Mandates pension funds divest their direct holdings from companies invested in Iran's energy sector or in companies with business ties to the government of Sudan.
• Calls on the pension fund managers to review their holdings in mutual funds, index funds, or other commingled investments, and identify ways to create alternative funds without holdings in these companies.
• Requires a quarterly report of all state pension holdings and actions taken to be submitted to the state legislature to ensure the full implementation of the legislation.

TALKING POINTS
Time to Act

• Iran has accelerated its nuclear development program in defiance of mandatory United Nations Security Council resolutions.  When combined with its support for international terrorism, Iran's nuclear program poses an imminent threat to global security.
• A nuclear-armed Iran would pose unacceptable threats to the United States and its allies. An Iran armed with nuclear weapons could: use them in conjunction with its growing arsenal of missiles to threaten US allies and interests in the Middle East; share its nuclear technology with other rogue regimes; embolden Iran's support of extremist groups in the Middle East and elsewhere; touch off a regional nuclear-arms race among other Mideast nations.
• Simultaneously, the people of Darfur continue to face the organized campaign of genocide being carried out by the Sudanese government and its allies.  Sudan has rejected the efforts of the United Nations, the United States and several African nations to stop the bloodshed.
• Floridians can ensure that our state's financial holdings are not invested in companies that provide critically-needed capital for these two outlaw states.

Investments in Sudan and Iran Pose a Financial Risk to Florida

• The SEC has determined there is a special risk associated with investments in terror-sponsoring states such as Iran and Sudan.  Under U.S. law, companies that have invested more than $20 million in Iran's petroleum-energy sector are liable to sanctions.  Additionally, economic sanctions, embargos and loan restrictions imposed by the UN Security Council further increase the financial risk associated with such investments. 
• As citizens of Florida, we are deeply concerned that the state's holdings in companies with investments in Iran's petroleum-energy sector and business ties to the government of Sudan pose a financial risk to the shareholders.  It is both morally wrong and financially irresponsible for the state to invest funds in these companies.
• Protecting Florida's Investments Act will safeguard Floridians from such risky investments.

States take lead in cutting carbon emissions

from the April 27, 2007 edition

Tide power: Last December, the state of New York installed the first of six underwater turbines in New York City's East River (off Roosevelt Island, NY), to harness the energy of the tides. The other turbines will be installed by early May.

At least 21 states and the District of Columbia are on track to trim 108 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year.

By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

While the US ponders whether to curb greenhouse gases, several states are pushing ahead with plans that already are bearing fruit.
At least 21 states and the District of Columbia are on track to create 46,000 megawatts of renewable power by 2020, eliminating 108 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide emissions a year that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, according to an analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). While that's a drop in the bucket of 6 billion tons of CO2 emissions that vehicles and power plants spew out annually, it is beginning to have an impact. ...........

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Smells like bad cologne

A cheap marketing ploy? Sure, but a fun one. On May 3 fans of NBC's My Name is Earl will be allowed to smell their way along with the popular sitcom. The catch: you've got to own a copy of next week's TV Guide, which will include scratch and sniff panels. Scents include new-car smell and obnoxious cologne; onscreen boxes tell you when to scratch. continue...

Now everyone's a comedian

from the April 27, 2007 edition

From stockbrokers to firefighters, more people are pursuing stand-up comedy as a hobby – or even a second career.

By Harry Bruinius | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

JOHN KEHE – STAFF

NEW YORK - When Billy Bingo, New York's "bravest comic," took the stage at Comic Strip Live in Manhattan, his first joke went straight to his alliterative mic moniker: "Of course it's a stage name, right? What mother would name her kid Billy Bingo? My real name is Gary Bingo." Most of the 35 or so in the audience laughed and grinned – a good start.

Actually, his mother named him William Denis, and "Bingo" is simply an old softball name his former firefighter friends gave him. "And I'm known as 'the bravest' not because I'm a fireman, but because of my lousy jokes!" he later quips. (The "bravest," see, is what we call firefighters here in New York. Cops are NYC's "finest," and sanitation workers, not to be left out, are the "strongest.")

Like many of New York's bravest, Bingo has a walrus moustache, hangdog eyes, and a mischievous grin. "In the firehouse, I was a kitchen guy," he says. "If we were going to pull a stunt, I'd have to be a part of it."

Now he often wears red suspenders on stage – a comic cliché long dubbed "hacky" in the world of stand-up – but Bingo makes it part of a self-deprecating shtick that emphasizes his blue-collar profession and, when all goes well, endears his "lousy jokes" to his audience. (And they're not that lousy, actually. He headlines at the biggest clubs in Manhattan and has just shot a pilot for a TV show.) continue...

2007 Tribeca Film Guide - Taxi to the Dark Side

Taxi to the Dark Side
[DARKS] World Documentary Competition
2007, 105 mins
Interests: Mystery, War, Social Issues, Islam, Asian, History, Politics, Middle Eastern, Documentary, Violence

This documentary murder mystery examines the death of an Afghan taxi driver at Bagram Air Base from injuries inflicted by U.S. soldiers. In an unflinching look at the Bush administration's policy on torture, the filmmaker behind Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room takes us from a village in Afghanistan to Guantanamo and straight to the White House. In English and Pashtu. » Read More

http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/tixSYS/2007/filmguide

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2007 Tribeca Film Guide

2 Days in Paris
(Deux jours à Paris)
[PARIS] Spotlight
2007, 96 mins
Interests: Dramedy, Romance, Drama, Comedy, Women, Actors Behind the Camera, Female Directors

Actress Julie Delpy (Before Sunrise) writes, directs, edits, produces, stars in and even composes music for her crowd-pleasing directorial debut. With a snappy comic edge, the story revolves around Marion bringing her American boyfriend Jack (Adam Goldberg) on a visit to Paris. Between clashes of culture, language and flirtatious ex-boyfriends, their relationship is tested in this charming, smart gem. In English and French. A Samuel Goldwyn Films and Red Envelope Entertainment Release. » Read More

http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/tixSYS/2007/filmguide/title-detail.php

Tribeca Film Festival-Tribeca Film Festival Drive In

Free Movies at the Tribeca Film Festival

A New York (preschool) state of mind

Here's a test for 3-year-olds elbowing to get into the best nursery school.
By Chuck Cohen

A test is now in place to determine if 3-year-olds in Manhattan meet the rigid criteria to get into nursery school. Not just any school but the "right" school that puts them on the no-detour road to Harvard.

The test can be administered verbally for 3-year-olds who might, shockingly, have difficulty reading. But if the child is able to take the test in French, they will move closer to the top of the admission list. continue...

Rooting out bad language with a unicorn

This year's list of banished words includes fused names, such as 'Brangelina,' which one critic says are'lamethetic.' By Dale Roberts

I've never been much of a joiner, but who could pass up the chance to join the Unicorn Hunters? In 1980 I set out to find Peter Thomas, the poet who taught my college freshman English class. I wanted to thank him for encouraging me to write and inspiring me to teach.

The letter I wrote to him was forwarded to the college that is now Lake Superior State University (LSSU) in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. When Mr. Thomas wrote back, I learned that he was a professor of English, the editor of a literary magazine, and a Unicorn Hunter.

The Unicorn Hunters were founded in 1971 by W.T. Rabe, Thomas, and other LSSU faculty and staff to encourage and regulate the hunting of unicorns. The regulations define the unicorn hunting season – "All days of the year except St. Agnes' Eve" – and list the "Approved Questing Devices: Unicorns may be taken with: (1) Serious Intent (2) Iambic Pentameter (3) General levity (4) Sweet talk." continue...

Creating Your Own 'Wiki' Web Site

By KATHERINE BOEHRET
Program Simplifies Steps for Entries; Nothing Is Private
April 25, 2007; Page D8

Wikipedia.com, the encyclopedia Web site created and operated with contributions from online users around the world, is a resourceful tool. Though accuracy isn't guaranteed, it reflects a collection of knowledge contributed and edited by many users.

A "wiki" is a Web site or similar online resource that allows anyone to add and edit content collectively. But while the idea behind Wikipedia.com and other collaborative sites is a good one, the process of contributing content can be intimidating for nontechies. Instead, many people opt to publish their writing and digital media on personal blogs or Web sites. Yet these don't do much to encourage online communities and interaction. continue.....

The Great Pall of China

Explosive growth means China will overtake America this year as world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases By Michael McCarthy and Clifford Coonan Published: 25 April 2007

In a seismic shift for the world, China will overtake the United States as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases this year, far earlier than thought - and present the problem of tackling climate change in even more difficult terms.

The Chinese economy, which is now growing at the unprecedented rate of 11 per cent annually, is sending carbon emissions from China's mushrooming coal-fired power stations beyond those of the whole of the US, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday. continue...

Shouldn't we drop the name 'War on Terror?'

COMMENTARY | April 23, 2007

Bush's favorite phrase has created a culture of fear -- but beyond that has no useful function. And while we're at it, what's the right way to describe what the U.S. is doing in Iraq? continue...

By Dan Froomkin
froomkin@niemanwatchdog.org

Back in November, when NBC announced that it would start calling the conflict in Iraq what it is -- a civil war – the White House howled in protest and the Washington establishment belittled it as a semantic sideshow.

But I think it made a difference. Watching a major media institution assert its right to its own word choice (rather than letting the White House set the terms of the debate) emboldened the rest of the press corps. It ushered in a period of greater truth-telling. And after a while, even the White House was forced to admit that Iraq was indeed in a state of civil war – among other things.

Reporting on political public opinion polls, and should your newsroom undertake polls of its own?

ASK THIS | March 24, 2004
By Barry Sussman
editor@niemanwatchdog.org
 
Q. The smaller the sample, the less useful the poll. Is the sample large enough?
 
Q. Should your news organization do its own political polls? Why or why not, and how difficult would that be?
 
Q. Where do focus groups fit in? (Answer: Nowhere.)
 
Done properly, opinion polls are marvelous contributions to understanding politics. But too often they're not done properly.
 
Chances are there will be more news media opinion polls and focus groups in 2004 than in any previous election season. That would be fine if these tools were used intelligently. But for the most part, they won't be. So here's a primer.  continue...

Record of Iraq War Lies to Air April 25 on PBS

Record of Iraq War Lies to Air April 25 on PBS
Submitted by dswanson on Thu, 2007-04-12 05:12.

By David Swanson

Bill Moyers has put together an amazing 90-minute video documenting the lies that the Bush administration told to sell the Iraq War to the American public, with a special focus on how the media led the charge. I've watched an advance copy and read a transcript, and the most important thing I can say about it is: Watch PBS from 9 to 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25. Spending that 90 minutes on this will actually save you time, because you'll never watch television news again – not even on PBS, which comes in for its share of criticism. continue...

What's In The Foods You Eat: Find a food

What's In The Foods You Eat Search Tool

Enter a name or descriptive words or Enter a full or partial food code number (1 to 8 digits).  See food coding scheme for outline of foods.



continue...

Living legend

Published: 23 April 2007

His innings ended with a wimper rather than a bang: run out for 18 in a meaningless World Cup match. But what an innings it has been for Brian Lara. The Trinidadian has proved himself a truly great figure in the history of world cricket. And he retires from international cricket with the plaudits - rightly - ringing in his ears.

Lara's career will inevitably be summed up in numbers. He has scored more Test match runs - 11,953 - than anyone else in the history of the game. Who could forget his magnificent 375 against England in 1994, where he beat Sir Garfield Sobers' record for the highest score in an innings? In the same year he scored 501 on his own against Durham, to post the highest score ever recorded in first class cricket. Then when his test record was broken, four years ago, he promptly went on to score 400, once again against England, to reclaim his crown. As the late Bob Woolmer, his coach at Warwickshire, remarked: "Anyone who can score that prolifically has to be one of the greatest batsmen of all time, not just his era." continue...

Two faces of the Maldives

Dylan Jones: 'The Maldives - islands with that aquamarine sea that most of us probably still remember from the Bounty ads'
Published: 23 April 2007

The Maldives is made up of 1,200 islands, 600,000 tourists (per year), 300,000 natives, and pretty much two countries. For a visitor it is a magnificent place, one of the most up-market resorts in the world, a necklace of beautiful atolls that pepper the Indian Ocean like jewels, each of them surrounded by aquamarine water, the sort that a lot of us probably still remember from the Bounty ads. Each of the 88 tourist islands has four-, five- or six-star cuisine, luxurious beach-side villas and first-rate staff; the service in the Maldives is as good as anywhere in South Asia. It is about the closest thing imaginable to paradise. Only with better food and no mosquitoes (the islands are sprayed daily).

The country is also renowned for being the likely first casualty in any serious increase in global warming. The sea here rises by exactly one centimetre every year, and the tourist industry can do nothing about it. However, there are bigger problems, namely those caused by the iniquity of existence. While the indigenous population who live on the resorts - most of which cater largely to Europeans - live in comparatively good conditions, those who live on the non-tourist islands, and in Male, the capital, live in something approaching squalor. This, compounded by boredom, lack of opportunities and large-scale claustrophobia (Male is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with more than 100,000 people squashed into an island barely a mile long) has resulted in a heroin epidemic. continue...

Let's hear it for the multicultural St George

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: The version of England on show today is but a small, parochial and mean part of its heritage
Published: 23 April 2007

Van and cab drivers will blazon the cross of St George today; proud men and women will wear it on their beating chests and heaving breasts, symbol of their England, their pride, their land which is looking especially lovely this sunny spring. Since the turn of this century the patriotic brave knight has become markedly more popular. I do genuinely wish the merry crowds a happy day and I hope this column doesn't wreck their good humour.

The England they imagine and celebrate is prelapsarian, an innocent garden of Eden, only more neatly cultivated and ordered. Its pure-blooded natives are congenial unless provoked to Boadicean fury and care not for bloody foreigners, daring modern ideas or interfering governments.
Much of this is fantasy. Stanley Baldwin's dreamy place of country smithies and corncrakes on dewy mornings never even existed in the 1920s when crashingly loud machines had turned over life in the countryside and towns. And the English are in truth a blend, a mongrel tribe, unable ever to resist the lure of outside delights.

I should know. It took but 10 minutes to ensnare my good husband, son of old Sussex, with sturdy, ancestral roots deep in the South Downs. As Jeremy Paxman writes in his book The English: "Any sensible reading of history would have to conclude that for the English to talk of racial purity is whistling in the wind; there is scarcely a family in the land which has no Celtic blood in it, to say nothing of the Romans, Jutes, Normans, Huguenots and all the others who have added to the national bloodstock." But reality checks like these hardly matter on this day. Life would be unbearable without flights of fancy and all nations make up myths to soothe the soul. continue...

Saving the planet: Battle for the land of Khan

A self-taught yak herdsman from Mongolia who forced the closure of polluting mines on the Onggi river is today awarded the world's biggest environmental prize. Clifford Coonan reports
Published: 23 April 2007

The Mongolian yak herder Tsetsegee Munkhbayar loves the Onggi river, which provides his people with water and fish. It broke his heart to watch mining companies transform the waterway of his homeland in the steppes into a poisoned mess as they poured toxic slurry from the mines straight into the river.

Mr Munkhbayar, 40, decided that if he did not act to save his beloved Onggi river nobody would and so he decided to do something about it. Almost singlehandedly, and at considerable personal risk, he took on the mining companies, and it worked. This was the very first time that anyone had stood up for environmental rights in Mongolia, a country which is still opening up after decades of communist rule by the Soviet Union. continue...

TV: "Arts with Religion" on CBS today

From SAJA E-mail Lists @ http://www.saja.org

Bharata Natyam and SAJA Lister Swati Bhise are among the features of this program. Questions to producer Bruce Wallace <bruce.wallace@gmail.com>

THE ARTS WITHIN RELIGION, an interfaith religion special, will be broadcast
Sunday, April 22 on the CBS Television Network.  Please check your local
station for exact time.  (For those of you in New York City, it will air on
WCBS at 11:30 Sunday morning.)

    This special  profiles an Islamic Hip-Hop group called Native Deen, who
use rap music to promote a message of tolerance and understanding while
maintaining their religious and cultural identity. The members, Joshua
Salaam, Naeem Muhammad and Abdul-Malik Ahmad call themselves "Native Deen"
drawing from the Arabic word "deen" meaning Religion.

    The program also looks at 'Bharata natyam,' the classical dance of South
India. This art form originated five thousand years ago in the temples of
ancient India. The roots of this tradition are from the Hindu Vedas, the
holy books of India. Through a performance and interview with Swati Gupte
Bhise, the program explains how this colorful dance is a reflection of the
religious and cultural history of India.

    The program also features The Church of Holy Apostles soup kitchen,
where a weekly arts program was created to foster a sense of community and
provide those in need a chance to express themselves through music and art.
We hear from the program's founder, Marion Williams, an artist and a student
at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

John P. Blessington is the executive producer of the special, Liz Kineke is
the producer. The special is produced with the cooperation of the National
Council of Churches, The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops , The Islamic
Society of North America, and a consortium of Jewish organizations.