Category Archives: ethics and morals

Earthships in Malawi **edited

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Michael Reynolds’ Earthships has a post up on their project in Malawi.  They are asking for donations for the $50,000 tuition.  I’m a little late to the party, but if you scroll down, you will see a benefit to help–$100 donation for a lunch and 1 beer. 🙂

Please donate if you are able.

I would go in a heartbeat if I could.

I love earthships’ philosophy–use local materials, build with sustainability in mind, and once folks are taught how to build, get out of the way.  I also love the artsy designs–the use of the glass bottles behind Phil Baseheart are awesome!

**edited to correctly identify Phil Baseheart.  Argh…stupid ADD.

A scab by any other name

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Diane Ravitch has an excellent link up to Black Agenda’s take on the charter schools takeover.  I am glad there are voices coming from the African American community against charters.  Up until now, I haven’t heard their voice being raised at what is surely a stealth racism of closing public schools in poor and minority neighborhoods and replacing them with deficient charters run by well-paid CEO’s.

I hear plenty against Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel, but I’ve yet to hear any voices raised against Oprah for promoting charters out the wazoo.

Rape is Not A Joke

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Ever. Black or White.

Thanks to Michael Twitty for speaking out on rape.

He is speaking about slave rape, but the post is just as relevant to today.

I wish we had white men speaking out against Robin Thicke’s rape song “Blurred Lines”....but no….they’re actively promoting it….along with white women gushing over it.  Makes me want to throw up.

Here’s a piece on the controversy of Thicke and how others have not been held to the same standard.  It seems a little on the apologist side….a weird thing I’ve noticed with the Thicke crowd…”he really is for women’s rights”  and “you’re just not understanding the meaning of the lyrics…”  Oh, really?? What don’t I understand about “I’m going to give you something to tear your ass in two” or  “I’m gonna take a good girl….you know you want it” or “not many women can refuse this pimpin'”  or “do it like it hurt”  ??

I can tell you that I didn’t know about the others’ songs.  I don’t listen to rap.  The only way I knew about Thicke is because it’s being heavily promoted all over the place, from the web to TV.  I’m sure if the others were that heavily promoted, there would be some backlash.

Rape is not fun.  Rape is not a joke.  And making your money off of promoting rape is the lowest of the low.

All things ALEC

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Center for Media and Democracy has several links up on ALEC:

(most of these are from the week prior to the 40th birthday bash in Chicago)

They long for the bygone era.

ALEC agenda.

More *cough* scholarship funds for those poor, poor legislators…

I, for one, would like to know the reasons that Larry Summers, a hedge fund manager, would be the optimal choice for Federal Reserve.  WTH?

Pissed off at how much you’re taxed….well, how does this grab ya?  You at least expect your taxes to go towards useful things like roads, police, fire, schools….but, no, it is going to subsidize these folks.

This is the latest–the treatment of the protestors by Chicago P.D.  A note in the comments section said that over 900 people were arrested.

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On to other things–

Pandora’s lunchbox. Basically, like Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride tells GAPS patients….nothing processed is good for you–avoid it like the plague.  Try to eat more raw than cooked food.  Cooking destroys the enzymes in food–enzymes are used in all processes in your body.  This includes digestion of proteins and other nutrients so that your body can utilize them.  It won’t do your body any good if it lacks the enzymes to digest the nutrients.

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Lastly, there’s nanotechnology everywhere.  Is anybody regulating it? Well, yes and no.  The FDA is regulating silver nanoparticals, but you know the FDA on the nanotechnology as a whole….throw it out there and hope nobody notices.  Be sure to click on the links for Grist’s take (I knew there was a reason that I felt like I had sludge in my gut after eating M&M’s); also the link for Purdue’s report on the fish; and  the effect on DNA.  Yep.

 

Fukushima gets much worse

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The water is being contaminated...and they have no effing clue how to stop it.  Why is this kind of thing always an after-thought?  Why are companies allowed to build nuclear reactors (or do fracking or deep well oil drilling)  when they haven’t the slightest idea how to deal with emergencies like this?

Tell me, when your aquifer is contaminated with radioactive waste….where do you go for water?  Where?

Folks, if you don’t have clean water to drink, you die.  Three days is the longest one can go without water.  Three days.

Four things you should know about Fukushima.

Being misled by media here.

And here.  See…it’s all in your head.  It’s all in your head.  It’s all in your head.

This one isn’t quite as bad as the rest, but still has false reassurances.

From the last link:

Fukushima isn’t there yet. So far, most of the material in the core, including the longest-lived isotopes, seems to have stayed there. Far less material entered the atmosphere (only 10 percent of what was released by Chernobyl), and most of that drifted over uninhabited areas of the Pacific.

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Aren’t fairy tales nice?  /snark

I would like them to define “uninhabited areas”….because I’m pretty sure if the living beings in the ocean were given a voice, they would be shouting that they’re pretty damn sure they’re living in the radioactive water.  Good Grief, we human beings can be so dense sometimes….

Liberal media, where are you? **edited

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Diane Ravitch has a link up to a daily kos piece on the non-coverage of issues Americans care about…

**edited to add this link.