Saturday, March 23, 2013

Guns=Murder=Shame

What Is the Matter With America? Watch Michael Moore ask this question on the Ed Schultz Show. Moore has been directly and indirectly asking this same question since...
"Bowling For Columbine"
Storyline

The United States of America is notorious for its astronomical number of people killed by firearms for a developed nation without a civil war. With his signature sense of angry humor, activist filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the roots of this bloodshed. In doing so, he learns that the conventional answers of easy availability of guns, violent national history, violent entertainment and even poverty are inadequate to explain this violence when other cultures share those same factors without the equivalent carnage. In order to arrive at a possible explanation, Michael Moore takes on a deeper examination of America's culture of fear, bigotry and violence in a nation with widespread gun ownership. Furthermore, he seeks to investigate and confront the powerful elite political and corporate interests fanning this culture for their own unscrupulous gain. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
And as of today March 23, 2013 Michael and the rest of us have not gotten the answer, not from our legislators, not from the NRA, not even from our presidents. So of course, I say blatantly, THE VIOLENCE GOES ON. Please watch the clip from The Ed Schultz Show featuring a true American, Michael Moore. As far as the Republican Congress, they are as Anti, as Anti can get American. thinkingblue

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
ABC OTUS News
President Barack Obama says each of his proposed steps to reduce gun violence should get a vote in Congress — even an assault weapons ban that both parties agree stands little chance at passing.

Senate Democrats dropped the ban from the bill they plan to debate next month out of concern it could sink the whole package. Still, Obama says he's pushing for it.

In his weekly radio and Internet address released Saturday, Obama says the U.S. has changed in the three months since the December school shooting in Newtown, Conn. He says Americans support the ban, plus limits on high-capacity ammunition magazines, school security funding and a crackdown on gun trafficking.

"Today there is still genuine disagreement among well-meaning people about what steps we should take to reduce the epidemic of gun violence in this country. But you, the American people, have spoken," Obama said.

The White House said Saturday that Obama will make additional trips outside Washington to rally support for the measures, including the assault weapons ban. The White House also said that before Obama left for Israel earlier this week, his push for gun control was among the issues he raised with lawmakers from both parties as he embarked on a concerted effort to reach out to Congress.

In the Republican address, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah says the Senate Democrats' budget raises taxes by $1.5 trillion without doing anything to save entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. He says Republicans want a balanced budget that lives up to the nation's moral obligation to act in the best interest of future generations.

"Republicans recognize that keeping dollars, decisions, priorities and power in the hands of the people is what has made America the greatest civilization the world has ever known," Lee says. "Now is the time to return to that model."

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posted by thinkingblue at 3:51 PM

Thursday, March 21, 2013

So many questions, so little time.

Thank goodness for The Internet (and those who use it thoughtfully) which tries to answer the many questions we have from time to time about existence. If only technology had advanced a bit quicker, perhaps we, the Hoi Polloi, would be so much the wiser. Ya think?
Carolyn

Wake Up Call:
~~~~~~~
Today's Critical Thinking Question
How many solar systems are in our galaxy?
I have a question from our young friends at the Mountain Home Air Force Base Youth Activities Center in Mountain Home, Idaho. They wonder how many solar systems are in our galaxy. Well, I wish I knew the answer to this thought-provoking question, but not only do I not know, no one does. Even so, this question brings up some thrilling ideas.
For many years scientists have studied our own solar system. But until the last few years, we knew of no other solar systems.
This may seem surprising, as the Sun is one of about 200 billion stars (or perhaps more) just in the Milky Way galaxy alone. With all those other stars, why haven't scientists studied other solar systems, at least enough to know how many are in our galaxy?
Two artists renderings of star with planet peeking from behind.
Using regular visible light telescopes, planets are very hard to see in the glare of a star. Using infrared space telescopes, the planets shows up much more clearly.
Well, the reason is that planets around other stars are really hard to find. Planets shine only by the light they reflect from the star they orbit, and they don't reflect much light at that. And the stars, along with any planets under their control, are so far away that picking out a faint planet near a distant star is like spotting a mosquito next to a brilliant searchlight miles away.
Young Marc meets the astronomers.
Marc Rayman at age 14 meets astronomer Peter van de Kamp (center), who had "discovered" planets outside our solar system. On the right is radio astronomer Grote Reber. (Image from Sky and Telescope, Aug. 1971.)
So although scientists, philosophers, writers, and people like you who have been fascinated by the universe have thought about other solar systems for centuries, they haven't had any to study. When I was young, this was one of many topics that I spent a great deal of time wondering about. In fact, when I was in the ninth grade, I was lucky enough to meet an astronomer who thought he had detected two planets around Barnard's Star, one of the closest stars to our solar system. It was quite a thrill for me to meet someone involved in such exciting work. Alas, later evidence suggested his conclusions were incorrect, but I learned a great deal about the subject, as well as about the scientific method, by studying what this impressive astronomer had accomplished.
Finally in the middle 1990s, astronomers found strong evidence of planets around other stars. In all cases, they found the planets not by taking pictures of them, but rather by detecting their astonishingly gentle tugs on the stars they orbit. Although the star holds the planet tightly in its gravitational grip, the planet also exerts a gravitational pull back on the star, and that is what astronomers measure. It amounts to seeing the star wobble back and forth very slightly as the planet completes each orbit. Learn more about this gravitational dance as you try to solve the extraterrestrial riddle.
After that, astronomers started detecting planets through several other methods as well. For example, if the orbit of a planet happens to be aligned so that planet occasionally travels in front of the star from our perspective on Earth, it blocks some of the light. Even though the planet is tiny compared to the star, extremely sensitive instruments can measure the tiny change in brightness. NASA's Kepler mission used this technique to identify hundreds of stars that may have planets. Astronomers are observing these stars more carefully to confirm the presence of the candidate planets.
NASA is working on more space missions that will allow scientists not only to find other solar systems but also to study the planets there in greater detail. Some of the intriguing questions these missions might help answer are how common are other solar systems; is our solar system typical, with giant planets like Jupiter and smaller ones like Earth; how do solar systems form and evolve; are there other planets capable of supporting life; and is there life on other planets?
Artwork shows a steaming hot (with water!) planet discovered in another solar system.
So far, astronomers have found more than 500 solar systems and are discovering new ones every year. Given how many they have found in our own neighborhood of the Milky Way galaxy, scientists estimate that there may be tens of billions of solar systems in our galaxy, perhaps even as many as 100 billion.
Whether this estimate is correct and how similar other solar systems are to ours, remain to be seen. It has only been a few years since the first solar system apart from ours was detected, and they are still extremely difficult to study, so this whole subject is still in its infancy. By the time our friends who asked the questions are adults, we will know a great deal more.
Perhaps someday you will help find the answers. And even if you don't, you may grow up in a time when humankind has a much clearer idea of how we and our home planet fit into the cosmos.


posted by thinkingblue at 1:34 PM

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Iraq Vet Pens Last Letter

Ten Years Since George W. Bush and Dick Cheney Lied Us In To The Irag War
Iraq Vet Pens Last Letter
This is a very sad ending to a very sad event that the Bush/Cheney Administration perpetrated upon the American people. Please read Tomas Young's poignant letter to Bush and Cheney and watch the video highlights from Phil Donahue's Body of War featuring Tomas Young. The people responsible for this horrible war have yet to receive any punitive actions against them and they are war criminals beyond a doubt! thinkingblue
Body of War - No More War
Iraq War vet pens ‘last letter’ to Bush and Cheney
By Dylan Stableford

An Iraq War veteran who joined the U.S. Army two days after 9/11 has written a powerful open letter to former President George W. Bush and ex-Vice President Dick Cheney accusing them of war crimes, "plunder" and "the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole."

Tomas Young, who was shot and paralyzed during an insurgent attack in Sadr City in 2004, five days into his first deployment, penned the letter from his Kansas City, Mo., home, where he's under hospice care.

"I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney," Young wrote in the letter published on Truthdig.com. "I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole."

The 33-year-old, who was the subject of Phil Donahue's 2007 documentary "Body of War," continued:

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues.

Young believes he was injured fighting the wrong war:

I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.

"When Tomas Young saw President Bush on television speaking from the ruins of the Twin Towers, his life changed," his bio on the "Body of War" website reads. "As his basic training began at Ft. Hood, he assumed that he would be shipped off to Afghanistan where the terrorist camps were based, routing out Al Qaeda and Taliban warriors. But soon, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq."

In an interview with Truthdig.com, Young—who suffered an anoxic brain injury in 2008—said he had been contemplating "conventional" suicide, but decided to go on hospice care, "stop feeding and fade away."

He said, "This way, instead of committing the conventional suicide and I am out of the picture, people have a way to stop by or call and say their goodbyes," Young said. "I felt this was a fairer way to treat people than to just go out with a note. When truthdig.com is up and running you can see the letter here: CLICK HERE FOR TRUTHDIG

posted by thinkingblue at 1:51 PM

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

No Way To Stop It







A song that should have had more prominence but since it was cut from the 1965 film version of The Sound of Music (for political reasons) it did not achieve the fame it should have. I wished every Politician would listen to it (especially Conservative Republicans) and try to "think" while doing so, perhaps it could help to mend their ways.
There's no way to stop it but we sure can start thinking about taking care of our Earth instead of concentrating only on the bottom-line $$$.
(Are you listening Republicans?). thinkingblue

The Sound of Music Lyrics
No Way to Stop It
by Rodgers & Hammerstein
{{The satiric cynical number, which is about "amoral political compromising" (and in fact an anti-protest song), is theorised by Broadway Musicals: A Hundred Year History to be the first-ever rock song to be introduced to a Broadway musical. The book cites its similarity to songs by the Kingston Trio from around that time. The song, along with "How Can Love Survive" (which was also cut from the film), was cited in The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television as an example of Roger and Hammerstein's "wry sense of sophistication". The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity compares the song to So What? from Cabaret, in that they both "articulate [the] general sense of indifference among many constituencies that would eventually allow the Third Reich to expand its influence beyond the point of return". Both these songs include the theme of obsessive circular motion in order to create a sense of inevitability. In the case of "No Way to Stop It", the lyrical motif is the orbit of various satellites, and by the end of the song, it is implied that "I" is the centre of the universe. As a result of this duet (in which the Captain and the Baroness "attempt to work out their competition and the complexities of a dually rich marriage") being cut from the film: class and political tensions are eliminated, secondary characters become less complex, and Maria and the children most of the film's focus.}}
No Way to Stop It Lyrics
[She] You dear attractive dewy-eyed idealist,
Today you have to learn to be a realist.

[He] You may be bent on doing deed of daring due,
But up against a shark, what can a herring do?

[She] Be wise, compromise.

[He] Compromise, and be wise!

[She] Let them think you're on their side, be noncommittal.

[He] I will not bow my head to the men I despise!

[Other He] You won't have to bow your head to stoop a little.

[She] Why not learn to put your faith and your reliance,
On an obvious and simple fact of science?

Refrain

[She] A crazy planet full of crazy people,
Is somersaulting all around the sky.
And everytime it turns another somersault,
Another day goes by.
And there's no way to stop it,
No, there's no way to stop it.
No, you can't stop it even if you tried.
So, I'm not going to worry,
No, I'm not going to worry,
Everytime I see another day go by.

[He] While somersaulting at a cockeyed angle,
We make a cockeyed circle 'round the sun.
And when we circle back to where we started from,
Another year has run.

[Both] And there's no way to stop it,
No, there's no way to stop it,
If the earth wants to roll around the sun.
You're a fool if you worry.
You're a fool if you worry,
Over anything but little number one.

[He]That's you!

[She] That's I!

[He] And I!

[Other He] And me!

[He]That all absorbing character.

[She] That fastinating creature.

[Other He] That super special feature,

[All] Me!

[He]So every star on every whirling planet,
And every constellation in the sky,
Revolves around the center of the universe,
That lovely thing called, I.

[All] And there's no way to stop it.
No, there's no way to stop it,
And I know, though I cannot tell you why (sigh).
Just as long as I'm living,
Just as long as I'm living,
There'll be nothing else as wonderful as I.
[All] And there's no way to stop it.
No, there's no way to stop it,
And I know, though I cannot tell you why (sigh).
Just as long as I'm living,
Just as long as I'm living,
There'll be nothing else as wonderful as I.
I! I! I! Nothing else as wonderful as I! (I think this lyric is a Paul Ryan GOP Mantra )
Sound of Music, The (1959), a musical play by Howard Lindsay, Russel Crouse (book), Richard Rodgers (music), Oscar Hammerstein (lyrics). [ Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, 1,443 perf.; Tony Award.] When the lively Maria (Mary Martin), a postulant at an Austrian convent, seems an unlikely candidate for her religious order, the Mother Abbess (Patricia Neway) arranges for her to serve as governess to the seven children of the stern, widowed naval officer Captain Georg von Trapp (Theodore Bikel). Maria wins the children's love immediately and inadvertently falls for the Captain himself. He is opposed to the Nazis, so when they order him to report for duty, the whole family flees to the safety of the West. Notable songs: The Sound of Music; My Favorite Things; Edelweiss; Do-Re-Mi; Climb Ev'ry Mountain; The Lonely Goatherd; Sixteen Going on Seventeen. Written shortly before Hammerstein's death and thus this great partnership's last work, the musical, which was based on Maria von Trapp's autobiography The Trapp Family Singers, was condemned by such staunch detractors of operetta as Brooks Atkinson. The public, however, adored it. A 1965 film version broke records, helping the show to remain a favorite in theatres across the country. A 1998 Broadway revival was well received by audiences and the critics.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/the-sound-of-music#ixzz2O0Az8lbP
MORE THINKINGBLUE BLOG BELOW:

posted by thinkingblue at 1:50 PM

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Marketing and Industry's One Motivation - Sell, Sell, Sell.


AT ALL COSTS!
That is why we need regulation.

Bill Hicks On Marketing and Industry's Motivations from thinkingblue on Vimeo.

posted by thinkingblue at 1:20 PM

Saturday, March 09, 2013

The Right To Vote, A Long Hard Struggle.

A long hard struggle for the basic principle of Democracy.
The struggle continues. The GOP's philosophy, if you can't win legitimately... CHEAT! They have had too much success with this ideology, especially when SCOTUS helped them take the White House in 2000. Why, they say to themselves, should we become honest now?
There is only one word that can describe such actions and that is tyranny. thinkingblue

posted by thinkingblue at 8:43 AM