... Senegal has lowest AIDS and CANCER incidence in the world because the soil there has the highest selenium content. Neighbouring countries has a very high AIDS rate, and very low soil selenium.
. . . Although Bush has negotiated terms to keep U.S. troops in Iraq in perpetuity, the majority of American people oppose a permanent American occupation of Iraq.
So do many Iraqis. University of Michigan Juan Cole's blog, "Informed Comment," cited an Al-Hayat report in Arabic that the Sadr Movement and the Sunni Iraqi Accord Front rejected the "memorandum of understanding" between the United States and Iraq that Bush and Nuri al-Maliki signed. These groups say this agreement would be illegal unless agreed to by the legislature, and they complain about the absence of any timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. . . .
Betsey Dyer
betsey's bacteria
The professor of biology publishes the tell-all text on her decades-old love affair with bacteria, which surround us in strange and wonderful ways.
. . . The first humans to look at a crock of coagulating spoiled milk were surely hungry as they took their initial tastes. It was fortunate for all of us that over the ages many humans from different cultures were adventurous enough to sample all sorts of dairy products that had "gone by." And we are many times fortunate that the French, in particular, experimented hundreds of times, producing some of our most exquisite examples of rotten milk, or cheese.
Interestingly, cheese did not become part of the cuisine of China or the Americas. These cultures did, however, develop other fermented food, such as bean curds and fish sauces, using various gram-positive bacteria. Genetic differences in the abilities of adult humans to digest milk may have influenced these cuisines, although many people with an intolerance for lactose can tolerate lactic acid in fermented milk products. . . .
There are reports that more than one million Iraqis have died in the war. These reports cannot be corroborated because the US military does not make public the number of the Iraqi dead and injured. There are also reports that some four million Iraqis have been displaced and are refugees either abroad or within their own country. Iraqis with the resources to leave the country have left. They are frightened. They don�t trust the US, its allies or its mercenaries to protect them and their interests.
We must ask ourselves whether continuing to pursue this war is benefiting the American people or weakening us. We must ask whether continuing the war is benefiting the Iraqi people or inflicting greater suffering upon them. We believe the answer to these inquiries is that both the American and Iraqi people would benefit by ending the US military presence in Iraq. . . .
The US justice department and the CIA are launching a joint inquiry into the CIA's destruction of two videotapes of interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects.
. . . San Francisco locks up a higher percentage of members of the African American community in drug cases than any other county in the study. In the county, 123 people out of every 100,000 are sent to state prison each year for drug offenses. Of those, whites are incarcerated at a rate of 35 per 100,000 white people, while blacks are incarcerated at a rate of 1,013 per 100,000 black people.
"It is not that San Francisco is sending a lot of people to prison for drug offenses, it is that the people they are sending are black," said Jason Ziedenberg, executive director of the institute. "An average citizen who uses drugs in San Francisco has a pretty low chance of going to prison, but if you are African American, the chances are fairly high."
"If you go to any courtroom in the Hall of Justice, you will see that the majority arrested are African American," said San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi. "At every stage of the criminal process - arrest, conviction and those who are sent to prison - there is a disproportionate impact on blacks.
"It is a tradition in San Francisco to focus sting operations in communities where there are larger populations of African Americans, and there are state and federal grants that support those stings."
. . . After the Shah of Iran consolidated his power with CIA help in 1953 in what is known as Operation Ajax, the country became America's most important ally in the Middle East after Israel. In return for access to Iran's bountiful oil fields, Washington sold the Shah an arsenal of modern weapons. With state-of-the-art fighter jets, new rockets and powerful tanks, Iran became a leading military power in the Persian Gulf. Some 40,000 US military advisors taught Iranians how to use the weapons.
After the Islamic fundamentalist regime led by Ayatollah Khomeini toppled the Shah in 1979 and sparked a crisis by taking 52 Americans hostage, it became painfully clear to Washington that its weapons were now in the wrong hands. And so the US government quickly turned to the biggest enemy of the religious fundamentalists -- Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
. . . In Iraq, with America's departure, there could indeed be a near-genocidal civil war, a partition of the country into three or 33 parts, and even a brutal regional war - or there could not. In fact, any of these things - as the present threatened Turkish invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan reminds us - could happen while US troops remain in residence. All this aside, deaths in Iraq are already approaching staggering levels without America's departure. After all, if the Lancet study's estimate of 655,000 "excess deaths" by mid-2006 is accurate, then imagine what that number must be an even bloodier year later.
Ethiopia is backing the Somali interim government against Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). The BBC News website logs the two countries' troubled relationship.
The Union of Islamic Courts controlled most of southern Somalia for six months after winning a battle for the capital, Mogadishu, in June. The US say they are linked to terrorist groups but they deny that... Almost all Somalis are Muslim but some are wary of the hardline elements.
The Islamist group that has controlled much of Somalia for the last six months has been defeated after an Ethiopian-backed government offensive. But there are fears that hostilities could still engulf the region in conflict. So where does each side get its money, weapons and moral support?
. . . What is behind the genocides of the twentieth century if it is not the egocentrism and insecurity accompanying the affirmation of the individual's autonomy which characterizes modernity ? The temptation to project onto the other what is ours is strong. And a Rwandan proverb tells us : "Nta wiyanga nk'uwanga undi (Nobody hates himself more than he who hates others)".
In their quest to surpass, artists open themselves up to all influences and facilitate the removal of projections. They thus explore a fraternity in which the identities of each and everyone are no longer the centre of human identities : not a fraternity of blood, but a fraternity of sharing.
Shock and awe is a military doctrine and a method of unconventional warfare that attempts to destroy an adversary's will to fight through spectacular displays of power. Its authors label it a subset of rapid dominance, a doctrine that advocates defeating an adversary by swift action against all aspects of their ability to resist, rather than by strictly military forces. It is a product of the National Defense University of the United States, and has been notably applied in the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
However, "shock" and "awe" are both synonyms of terror. To that extent, or from the perspective of the insurgent forces fighting conventional forces in military theatres such as the Middle East who frequently use terrorist doctrines or methods, or both, shock and awe is difficult to distinguish from terrorism because of the large number of indiscriminate civilian deaths. Mortality due to violence in Iraq since 2003, for example, has been due to coalition forces far more than insurgents.
I think that as Americans, we must also make a clear distinction between "guilt" and "responsibility." The Al Qaeda group is indeed guilty of committing mass murder. But the United States government is largely responsible for creating the conditions for reactionary Islamic fundamentalism to flourish. During Reagan's administration, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) provided over three billion dollars to finance the mujahadeen's guerilla war against the Soviet Union's military presence in Afghanistan. The CIA used Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, or secret police, to equip and train tens of thousands of Islamic fundamentalists in the tactics of guerilla warfare. . . .
There is a clear link between 9/11 and the shameful political maneuvering committed by the U.S. at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa, only days before the terrorist attacks. There the U.S. government opposed the definition of slavery as "a crime against humanity." It refused to acknowledge the historic and contemporary effects of colonialism and racial segregation on the underdevelopment and oppression of the non-European world. The majority of dark humanity is saying to the United States that racism and militarism are not the solutions to the world's major problems. Transnational capitalism and the repressive neoliberal policies of structural adjustment represent a dead end for the developing world. We can only end the threat of terrorism by addressing constructively the routine violence of poverty, hunger, and exploitation that characterize the daily existence of several billion people on this planet. Racism is, in the final analysis, only another form of violence. . . .
... In conclusion, Jacob was victorious in taking responsibility for
the indemnity course to pay for Abraham's mistake. By using his wisdom
for the sake of God's Will, Jacob triumphed as an individual in his
struggle with Esau to win the birthright. He entered Haran and, as a
family, triumphed in a twenty-one-year struggle with his uncle Laban
to win the birthright. On his way back from Haran to Canaan, Jacob was
victorious in the fight with the angel. He was the first fallen man to
fulfill the indemnity condition to restore dominion over the angel.
Thereupon, he received the name "Israel,"75(Gen. 32:28)
signifying that he set the pattern and laid the groundwork upon which
the chosen people would be established. After returning to Canaan with
these victories, Jacob won Esau's heart, and together they fulfilled
the indemnity condition to remove the fallen nature.
Jacob thus victoriously completed the model course to bring Satan to
submission. Moses, Jesus, and even the people of Israel would walk
this course after the pattern set by Jacob. The history of Israel can
serve as a good historical source for understanding the course to
bring Satan to submission on the national level. For this reason, it
is central to the study of the providence of restoration.
. . . This worst-case scenario may unfold unless Hamas meets the three conditions imposed by the �international community� � a technical term referring to the US government and whoever goes along with it. For Palestinians to be permitted to peek out of the walls of their Gaza dungeon, Hamas must recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept past agreements, in particular, the Road Map of the Quartet (the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations).
The hypocrisy is stunning. Obviously, the United States and Israel do not recognise Palestine or renounce violence. Nor do they accept past agreements. While Israel formally accepted the Road Map, it attached 14 reservations that eviscerate it. To take just the first, Israel demanded that for the process to commence and continue, the Palestinians must ensure full quiet, education for peace, cessation of incitement, dismantling of Hamas and other organisations, and other conditions; and even if they were to satisfy this virtually impossible demand, the Israeli cabinet proclaimed that �the Roadmap will not state that Israel must cease violence and incitement against the Palestinians.�
Jerusalem Post
Ahmadinejad: Bombs won't fix world
... The Iranian president also said he did not deny the Holocaust but that he merely "raised questions on it."
"I said that in World War Two sixty million people were killed. They were all humans with self-respect. Why (do we talk of) just six million? If it happened, it is a historic event, so why do they not allow for an independent investigation? Moreover, how are the Palestinians at fault? These questions need to be answered," said Ahmadinejad.
Surah 41. Ha Mim Sajdah: Revelations Well Expounded
http://www.ishwar.com/islam/holy_quran_(pickthall)/sura041.html
34
The good deed and the evil deed are not alike. Repel the evil deed
with one which is better, then lo! he, between whom and thee there was
enmity (will become) as though he was a bosom friend.
35
But none is granted it save those who are steadfast, and none is
granted it save the owner of great happiness.
Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi) -- September 29, 2006
Posted to the web September 29, 2006 -- Emmanuel Milingo, the renegade former Catholic archbishop of Lusaka, remained defiant on Wednesday, scoffing at the Vatican announcement that he had been excommunicated.
Milingo told a news conference in Washington, USA, that he would continue his campaign to force the Church to accept married priests, Reuters reports.
"We do not accept this excommunication and lovingly return it to His Holiness, our beloved Pope Benedict XVI, to reconsider it and withdraw it and join us in recalling married priests to service once again," Milingo said.
"I'm not excommunicated. Who says? No, I'm not excommunicated. I'm in line with God."
For the past several years Dr. Pak has been working on some projects to raise a large endowment fund for the continued operation of the Korean Cultural Foundation, the Little Angels and the Universal Ballet. In addition he was trying to set up a new foundation called "The Korean Peoples Unification Foundation" in order to promote and realize the dream of the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. He had many other ideas and programs that he wanted to realize for the spiritual and ethical revitalization of the Korean people. As anyone who is acquainted with Dr. Pak knows he is an irrepressible man of action to whom retirement or idleness is an impossibility.
For these reasons he was desperately pursuing some ill advised and ill-fated fundraising schemes introduced to him by some church members. To make a long story short Dr. Pak became a victim of international criminal scam artists who defrauded him of all of his money with the promise of huge financial support to the foundations.
American Clergy Leadership Conference
Exchanging the Cross for the Crown
Christian Leaders to Carry Cross,
Then Take It Down in Effort for Peace and Reconciliation
Human sexuality, especially male sexuality, is polymorphous, or utterly wild (far more so than animal sexuality). Men have had sex with women and with men; with little girls and young boys; with a single partner and in large groups; with total strangers and immediate family members; and with a variety of domesticated animals. They have achieved orgasm with inanimate objects such as leather, shoes, and other pieces of clothing, through urinating and defecating on each other (interested readers can see a photograph of the former at select art museums exhibiting the works of the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe); by dressing in women's garments; by watching other human beings being tortured; by fondling children of either sex; by listening to a woman's disembodied voice (e.g., "phone sex"); and, of course, by looking at pictures of bodies or parts of bodies.
There is little, animate or inanimate, that has not excited some men to orgasm. Of course, not all of these practices have been condoned by societies -- parent-child incest and seducing another's man's wife have rarely been countenanced -- but many have, and all illustrate what the unchanneled, or in Freudian terms, the "un-sublimated," sex drive can lead to.
By and large, it is society, not the individual, that chooses whether homosexuality will be widely practiced. A society's values, much more than individual tendencies, determine the extent of homosexuality in that society. Thus, we can have great sympathy for the exclusively homosexual individual while strongly opposing social acceptance of homosexuality. In this way we retain both our hearts and our values...
Even if the majority of men became incapable of making love to women, it would still not be normal. Men are designed to make love to women, and vice versa. The eye provides an appropriate analogy: If the majority of the population became blind, blindness would still be abnormal. The eye was designed to see. That is why I choose the third response -- that homosexuality is unhealthy. This is said, however, with the understanding that in the psychological arena, "illness" can be a description of one's values rather than of objective science (which may simply not exist in this area)...
MELVILLE, N.Y. — A New York man who said he donated sperm to a female co-worker as a friendly gesture and sent presents and cards to the child over the years likely will owe child support for the college-bound teenager, according to a judge's ruling.
... Gay or straight, we are all becoming homosexual because we cannot achieve the spiritual union or permanent intimacy that we really crave.
Sex is mistaken for love and replaces it, thereby assuming a deceptive importance. We are obsessed with it. Because it cannot satisfy our real need, we continue to up the ante and become kinkier.
We judge people strictly by their sex appeal and are cruelly indifferent to those who are not physically attractive. Women develop eating disorders. The aged naturally are treated with contempt.
We compensate for failure to find permanent love by making a public display of our promiscuity. This is supposed to affirm our freedom and identity. TV and movies testify to this perverse trend. In many cases homosexuals now are defining heterosexual norms. ("Sex and the City"; "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"; "Kinsey: Let's Talk About Sex")
We are in constant denial about our malaise and the forces that enslave us. . (See my "Is this Gay Behavior Sick? http://www.savethemales.ca/201101.html )
In contrast, heterosexuality is monogamous, exclusive and private. It is concerned with procreation, nurturing, and personal development.
The denomination has seen a steady stream of defections since its decision to consecrate as a bishop an openly partnered homosexual. That decision was reaffirmed this summer at a national meeting of the denomination.
THE INFUSION OF SEX INTO POPULAR CULTURE
HAS BEEN SO SEAMLESS THAT SOME CRITICS
ARE CALLING IT A PUBLIC-HEALTH CRISIS
Lorna Martin at Negril Beach
Sex, Sand and Sugar Mummies
in a Caribbean beach fantasy
A controversial new West End play will explore sex tourism in Jamaica, where lonely women flock for flings with young black men. But are these holiday romances sleazy or simply harmless?
In "The Overhauling of Straight America: Waging Peace Part Two" written in 1987, it outlines the recommended steps to be taken in order for America to accept homosexuality as normal... "To desensitize the public is to help it view homosexuality with indifference instead of with keen emotion...if you can only get them to think that it is just another thing, with a shrug of their shoulders then your battle for legal and social rights is virtually won..."
To bring a balance of resource sites I recommend visiting Changing Worldviews' Issues Library under Dr. Christopher Wolfe's and Dr. Warren Throckmorton's interviews with us for links such as People Can Change, and Is Homosexuality Genetic?
There will be those who design machines with values that don't comply with regulation, but this threat is best met by putting resources into the development of complying AIs that can help detect and eliminate non-complying AIs. This is very similar to Kurzweil's own prescription for accelerating development of defensive technologies for genetic engineering and nanotechnology. He makes clear that such defenses are very difficult but that the problem must be solved to avoid a catastrophe. The same logic applies to defenses against pathological AI: very difficult but necessary.
. . . Ray Kurzweil has advocated regulation of biotechnology and nanotechnology, but appears to be pessimistic about regulation of AI. In The Singularity is Near, he writes "But there is no purely technical strategy that is workable in this area, because greater intelligence will always find a way to circumvent measures that are the product of a lesser intelligence." I think the answer is to design AI to not want to harm humans (I think SIAI agrees with this, although we disagree on the details).
Kurzweil also writes that AI will be "intimately embedded in our bodies and brains" and hence "it will reflect our values because it will be us." But the values of some humans have led to much misery for other humans. If some humans are radically more intelligent than others and retain all their human competitive instincts, this could create a society that the vast majority will not want. If they are given a choice. Meetings like the Singularity Summit should help educate the public about the ethical choices they face with new technologies.
... Senegal has lowest AIDS and CANCER incidence in the world because the soil there has the highest selenium content. Neighbouring countries has a very high AIDS rate, and very low soil selenium.
... Though far from proven, it is possible that the research for a polio vaccine created AIDS. We know that the monkey tissue cultures used to develop the polio vaccine (for which Ender recieved the Nobel Prize in 1954, the same year Jonas Salk used the technique to develop the first working vaccine) introduced a number of simian virii (SV’s) into the human population on a large scale for the first time. It is known now, for example, that SV40 went undetected in the first years of the polio vaccine, contributing to many patients developing cancer later in life. This, too, was an unintended consequence–SV40 went undetected because is was unknown at the time, and thus, impossible to test for. There is some indication that AIDS may have been caused similarly: by introducing a simian virus into a large human population, early polio vaccine trials in the Belgian Congo may have provided the perfect environment for such a simian virus to jump the species barrier and mutate into HIV as we know it today. To date, this theory has not yet been properly investigated, so conclusive evidence is lacking.