For 50 to 100 years our power holders *(politicians) have been trying to figure out a way to create a tax to put on one of the four elements of life. When global warming and cooling theories started to pop up people like Al Gore would be there to try and influence the minds of the newly awakened enviormentalists. We are lead to believe that are little lives are the reason that the earth is experiencing all kinds of heating and cooling, but let the truth ring because it is all lies. It is a basic fact in all science that carbon is essential to plant life, and in return all life. If Al Gore and his friends get their way then we would all have a universal global carbon tax on everything we eat, breathe, whatever we do. It is sad because there is pollution problems, and enviormental conditions that need to be fixed. However its the same people that have created all these problems that are trying to offer the solution to the same problems, how familiar that sounds (banks, bailouts, corporations, waste, enviormentalism) For example people like Al Gore and other elite enviormentalists have to fly their personal leer jets, and other super carbon emitting lifestyle accessories in order to bring their ideas, and messages to people it’s complete hipocracy. These people should be living in caves, and have no access to anything, even air since when we exhale it lets out carbon. After thinking about this it is rather easy to see through all the bullshit, the elites and power controllers want to act like they ” care ” about the enviorment and what not, and in return put a tax on a fundamental life source. It is smoke and mirrors, and a disgrace to the human race I am utterly sick with thinking about how these people who created all of these problems are trying to blame it on the people like you and me, and tax us for it. I can’t get over that global carbon tax, this will be worse than healthcare debates, and whatever else you thought the government was doing that makes it tyrannical. So infowarriors and other like minded informational individuals please write yourself an article, or spread this one and let others know about all of this. It’s extremely upsetting that it is up to us that our generation has to deal with this. Hopefully after we are done with the work we were sent here for than only when this generation be remembered for something other than the lazy, or party generation. All my great hopes and desires rumble when I think about elite’s and the money and power they have over us, albeit money and material it really effects mentally eventually likewise for our physical if not complete will counter react a homeostatic psych. Peace and Love human galacticus. !

Republican. Democrat. Libertarian. What do they stand for? Where do I fit? I can’t answer that for you. You have to answer it for yourself. I can direct you to a quiz that will help you determine it. The world’s smallest political quiz at http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html .

I can, however, give you my take on the parties and what they mean to me. My views can be boiled down short enough to fit in this post comfortably and still get the message across. For example, the Republican Party, they stand for big business. The Democrat Party, they stand for big government. The Libertarian Party, they stand for the individual. Is that short and sweet enough for you? Oh, you’d like a little more?

Well, let’s see. The Republican party has traditionally sided with GM, GE and Wal-Mart. They counted on the trickle down theory of economics. In other words the rich get richer and the people get more scraps from the table of big business. It works ok, but in recent years they’ve been trying to follow a more Constitutionally friendly agenda. Without much success, I might add.

Now the Democrat Party is totally different while being exactly the same. Confused? Basically, the Democrat party thinks that government can solve any problem from poverty to quantum physics. They claim to be for the working class while expanding the welfare state. Am I making this clear? No? That’s because they are very contradictory. At least with the Republicans you know how they’re going to screw you. The Democrats try to hide it. But the result is the same, you and I pay more.

The Libertarian party, contrary to popular belief, is the most conservative. They actually believe what the Constitution says. They are for the individual and his rights. They do desire to remove most of the barriers in the way of business as well. However, this can create a kind of “buyer beware” sort of climate. They believe in smaller government, just enough to get the job done.

I personally, am an Independent at this point. But if I had to side somewhere it would definitely be Libertarian.

The Dem’s are going to ’spank’  Obama for his so-called decision to send more troops to Afghanistan next year? I find this to be more than hilarious. It has taken Obama three months to even get to the point where he will announce his decision. I said in October that our Commander-in-Chicken was stalling and I knew all along it was because he was afraid of his own party.

What are the liberal’s going to do to punish Obama? Withhold some pork-barrel spending somewhere? They couldn’t stop spending taxpayer money if their lives depended on doing so. Are the liberal’s going to change their misguided votes on their ridiculous Health care bill? Hell no. Wait, are the liberals going to suddenly start to listen to the majority of Americans instead of ramming legislation down our throats? Not going to happen. So what then?

Better yet, what is the real reason that liberal’s are so afraid to fight? There is no rational reason that the chicken liberals can justify not being in Afghanistan or Iraq. We have a volunteer military folks. The young men and women who sign up to join our military services do so willingly. They are well aware that they have a better than even chance of being sent to fight a war! These are brave Americans that we should all be very thankful are willing to serve our country.

We are not in Vietnam where we had a draft forcing  men to a war that had no clear agenda, with no clear support from the White House. There is nothing similar to compare today’s war with a war of yesteryear. Get over your hippy lunacy! Go back to your den and smoke your dope. Leave the important things like keeping normal Americans safe from terrorist attacks to people who have guts and fortitude.

Remember that we were attacked on 9/11. You do remember don’t you? You remember the thousands of lives lost that day? I truly wonder. If we do not seek out the enemy on their own soil, they will surely bring their war to our soil again. Liberals, they spit in the faces of those victims and their families when they do not support our need for military action against our enemies.

Comrade Obama is marching America directly into the hellish fires of Marxism and Socialism. Many of you were or continue to be  blinded by his way with words. You were ready for his promise of change. Some still believe he can deliver! And his delivery is well under way. The cost of the fulfillment of his promises will be the destruction of the greatest nation known to mankind.

Iran, Nuclear weapons, China, America and Non Proliferation.

India, today voted against Iran’s secret nuclear programs at the IAEA with Russia and China co-sponsoring the motion and I was laughing my guts out, thinking look who is talking about nuclear proliferation.

China hand delivered nuclear Bombs to Pakistan in eighties with US looking the other way around.  The Americans thought what the heck, India need to be countered with its ally Pakistan.  China of course has been a curse to India and is fast becoming one to   America too.  I mean the Chinese government here, not the people.

The Americans provided all the nuclear designs to the French and the British and the Israelis.

Now they are trying to stop Iran. Of course, nothing is wrong here, with what the Iranian president publicly threatening to wipe out Israel.

My point is every nation has been doing this nuclear transfer and the chickens have home to roost for America vis-vis Pakistan.

Indian’s weapon program- it is a joke.

As we metabolize our way through the annual tryptophan haze, two contributions on a theme that’s been raised here before (c.f., for example,  here, here, and most fundamentally, here), two video commentaries on the current state of economic play…

First, via the ever-insightful Calculated Risk, a piece from the Versus Holiday Songbook:

And (on a very different note, but to the same end), via MonkeyBusinessBlog, a “soliloquy” from Wallstreetpro2 (alert:  after you get past the first few seconds– which are devoted to a pitch for precious metals– this video is, by reason of sustained use of profanity, not even nearly “suitable for work”… but then, it’s a holiday; we’re not at work):

While it’s easy to quibble with a detail here or there, and to fault the not-so-veiled xenophobia in the latter, it’s hard to dismiss the through-line.   But that it’s a problem of a scale befitting both the cynical nostalgia and the epic anger?  Quod erat demonstrandum.

So, what to do?

Increasingly, wise and experienced observers are arguing that financial institutions central to the economic infrastructure– banks, some insurance companies, a few huge employers (like GM and Chrysler)… any institution that government(s) can’t permit to crash– must not be allowed to become (or, in our current situation, to remain) “too big to fail.” Former IMF Chief Economist and MIT Professor Simon Johnson, Nobel Laureate Joesph Stiglitz (see also Bloomberg video here), former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker– all warn against letting institutions grow so large that they cannot be allowed to die.

Why?  Far from reducing the appetite for the kind of risky behavior that drove us into our current trough, the effective guarantee of a government bailout removes all moral hazard; if the truly-huge get to keep their winnings, but have their losses covered, why not take more and more risk?  And since the bankers and the markets all know that the guarantee is in place, the gargantuan incumbents enjoy a cost advantage– they can (as the first video reminds us) raise money more cheaply than their competitors (after all, there’s no risk)– money that they have used not to restore the flow of credit, but to acquire even more scale through acquisitions, to fund extraordinarily profitable proprietary trading…  and of course, to pay those infamous bonuses (and here).  All, while these behemoths raise their fees to their customers (see here, here, and here, for instance).

For my part, I agree– I hope that efforts like those of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders bear some fruit.

But I fear that they neither go far enough to address inherent risk and the attendant issues of fairness, nor get at what is, at the core of our troubles, an extraordinary opportunity for growth…  and after all, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.  More on that shortly…

Too much of the world lacks access to clean drinking water. Engineer Michael Pritchard did something about it — inventing the portable Lifesaver filter, which can make the most revolting water drinkable in seconds. An amazing demo from TEDGlobal 2009.

With cutting-edge nanotech, Michael Pritchard’s Lifesaver water-purification bottle could revolutionize water-delivery systems in disaster-stricken areas around the globe.

via Michael Pritchard’s water filter turns filthy water drinkable | Video on TED.com.

Feverfew nutritional supplements and herbal remedies contain parthenolide, the active chemical compound found in the herb feverfew new born baby tests. Although it is a natural compound, it can cause some side effects.Read on to learn how to avoid the side effects of nutritional supplements and herbal remedies feverfew.

jQuery ( '. intro. vignette'). each (function (i, e) (jQuery (e). find ( 'img'). a ( 'error', function () (jQuery (e). remove (); ));)); Email Print l ' Article Add to Favorites Flag Article Difficulty: Moderately Easy Instructions Step 1

Stop taking supplements if you suffer symptoms of digestive disorders such as indigestion, flatulence, abdominal pain, diarrhea and nausea or vomiting

Step 2

Beware the risk of developing mouth ulcers, loss of taste and swollen tongue, lips and mouth if you chew the leaves of feverfew materials.

Step 3

Avoid taking nutritional supplements feverfew remedies or herbal if you are allergic to chamomile, yarrow or ragweed. if you are, you may suffer an allergic reaction to feverfew.

Step 4

Do not take feverfew if you are pregnant or nursing. It should not be administered to children aged under two.

Step 5

Reconsider taking feverfew if you are on medication to thin the blood like aspirin or wafarin. These supplements inhibit normal blood clotting activity of platelets, causing a tendency to bleed.

Step 6

Lower the dosage of feverfew, rather than abruptly stop taking it if you took it for over a week.stop suddenly you will suffer a withdrawal syndrome, characterized by rebound headaches, muscle stiffness, fatigue, anxiety and joint pain.

Step 7

Store prepared feverfew extract correctly. Storing the sample at normal temperature will result in some constituents to deteriorate.

…

From: Ho

How can a struggling country break out of poverty if it's trapped in a system of bad rules? Economist Paul Romer unveils a bold idea: “charter cities,” city-scale administrative zones governed by a coalition of nations. (Could Guantánamo Bay become the next Hong Kong?)

Paul Romer is developing a radical new model of growth and governance, which calls for the establishment of city-scale special administrative zones.

via Paul Romer’s radical idea: Charter cities | Video on TED.com.

A graphic posted on FoxNews.com suggested that President Obama is responsible for all of the $3.5 trillion in federal outlays for Fiscal Year 2009. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has stated that “much” of the 2009 increase in spending “results from legislation enacted in calendar year 2008 in response to turmoil in the housing and financial markets-in particular, $133 billion for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and $291 billion for the estimated costs of placing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship.”

Read More

http://mediamatters.org/research/200911250006?lid=1080054&rid=37900544

Arutz Sheva is reporting that Obama is demanding, that in connection with the terrorists for Gilad trade, which is being made with Hamas, Israel release an additional 1,000 terrorists as a gesture to “moderate” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen.
  

  
What could go wrong?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/6637916/Gilad-Shalit-to-be-released-soon.html

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/175320

http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2007/07/dear-president-bush-abu-mazen-is-not.html

http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2006/07/history-lesson.html

Earlier this summer, the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma won a $10.5 million settlement in its case against Continental Carbon for pollution that threatened the environment and the health of people on tribal lands. As Native American property owner Amos Hinton said of Continental’s Taiwanese-based parent company, “Pollution being placed on our ancestors’ graves and our homes for the sake of profit by foreign corporations … is completely unacceptable and it had to be stopped.”

Ponca Chiefs White Eagle, Standing Buffalo Bull, Standing Bear

Hinton is a descendent of Ponca Chief Standing Buffalo, a contemporary of Chief Standing Bear, who is the subject of a recent book, “I Am a Man”: Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice. The Oklahoma Ponca are descendents of the Ponca tribe that originated 600 miles north in Nebraska. In the late 1870’s, the federal government forced the tribe out of the homeland and into the then Indian Territories of Oklahoma. But Chief Standing Bear led a band on foot back to their homeland, where they were arrested by the military and imprisoned at Fort Omaha. Local lawyers sympathetic to the Chief came forward to fight another forced exile, and argued against the government’s contention that the Native Americans had no right to a writ of habeas corpus, on the grounds that Indians were not citizens.

In a historic first, Judge Elmer S. Dundy sided in favor of the Chief, ruling that “an Indian is a person within the meaning of the laws of the United States” and that the band could not be forcibly moved or confined to a reservation without their consent. The small band of Nebraska Ponca were ultimately awarded back a small slice of their homeland, where they remain to this day, apart from their Oklahoma kin.

Reflecting on the story of Chief Standing Bear, author Joe Sarita noted the parallels with issues around military tribunals today.

Undoubtedly, Standing Bear would have been considered an enemy combatant of his time….Yet 130 years later, scores of [what until recently were known as] “enemy combatants” remain locked up in Guantánamo, cut off from the oldest liberty in the Constitution, unable to have a court decide their guilt or innocence. And this is not about their guilt or innocence. What has often separated this country from others is its adherence to the belief of  “equality before the law.” So how could this have been a guiding principle in 1879 but not in 2009?

Remember that there is only one world population and one common world of thoughts. The building of nations have divided a common world of thoughts in too many different believes and thoughts. In order to create lasting world peace all the many people in the world have to be united again.

The last plague

2 Moses 11, 1-10

Pharaoh did not do as God said. Now he was warned though Moses that there would come a last plague. And after the tent plague would Pharaoh finally let the Hebrew people leave Egypt.

“The eldest son in all Egyptian families, either they are slaves or free, shall die,” said Moses to Pharaoh. “The first born of all animals will die to. But the children of the Hebrew families will be safe. This will show that there is a difference between Gods people and yours.”

Pharaoh did not believe that something like that could happen. It meant that also his first born son also should die. They would lose all the new calves, lambs and young goats to. Pharaoh trembled by rage. How dared the Hebrew threaten him this way!

Pharaoh decided to not believe in the power of God. He said to himself: “This cannot happen.”

“Get out! Out from here!” he shouted to Moses, and Moses left Pharaoh.

Certainly this story has never happened. Not yet. This is a true symbol for the fight between the good and the evil in the world at present time. The fight between good and evil have to be settled first of all in your own world of thoughts and in the common world of thoughts. This camouflaged story illustrates how difficult it will be for humans to even begin to think that their way of life is destroying planet earth.

Will the worlds national leaders really wait until people and animals die on their doorstep; before they let their people go?

Consider the fact that both the Hebrew and the Egyptian people are in your thoughts all the time with Pharaoh in command. It means that all humans living on planet earth is good people, but still living with the forces of evil controlling every minute of your life from birth to death.

Therefore, in order to be set free from the despotic slavery of present time, the rule that Pharaoh started using and you know so well, have to be recognized as wrong in your mind. It is easily done by learning to know the Diagram Star. Only knowledge about the lost Motherland can remove the imposed belief from your world of thoughts.

Only after you and the whole world population knows that the present ruling system, with many nations, a global capitalistic system and all the religions, slowly but surely are destroying the world, the global system of ruling as presented in the Bible can be restored.

The world leaders have to get together and start working together towards a total change of thinking, and plan to remove the three factors of the Original Sin as soon as possible. When the common thoughts in the world are recognized as wrong, they will not be used any longer.

Will the world leaders wait until the long lasting famine in the world reaches also the rich countries in the world and their own people starts dying by the thousands every day? Will they wait until brother kills brother over one piece of bread? Will they wait until there is no food at all left to buy, even for the richest of the rich? Will they then know what to do?

Perhaps they in time will discover that only the people living together as tribal people in self supported villages will survive in to the future, as they have done before. In our present time it is still possible to build modern villages with the technology and communications systems intact, just as they had before the Motherland was destroyed in a natural catastrophe some twelve thousand years ago.

The change will take time. Don’t wait too long.

I had a horrible day yesterday. Bleh.

First of all, I really did not enjoy our seminar in the morning. It’s precisely the kind of philosophy that annoys me, the kind that makes me want to scream, “It’s not a problem!” I mean, really, do they think that when philosophers have finally figured out what ‘reference’ entails or what knowledge really is, that there’ll be a parade?! My apologies, I’ve just heard that we’ll be right on after the guys who cured cancer.

I have nothing against epistemology, or metaphilosophy, whatever. They’re good for keeping the logic muscles toned, keeping the old gears lubricated. But don’t let’s pretend that these are real problems or that their solution will herald A New Era. It’s like people who calculate pi to Dis knows how many decimal places. Not important in the least. Fun, and no doubt an excellent way to keep in mathematical shape, but I don’t think you’ll make the front cover of Circles Monthly for it. Well, maybe Circles Monthly.

I lament that I didn’t speak up sooner and get on the ethics module (it clashes with one of my other modules, something that might have been avoided if I had expressed an interest earlier). Ethics is real philosophy, because it is the philosophy of real things. And although I hate the methodologies of political philosophy, and don’t recommend taking politics too seriously when it’s being stupid about things, at least pol-phil can make some sort of a difference. There are areas of philosophy of mind that can be helpful too.

One of Birmingham’s philosophers, Lisa Bortolotti, does a lot of work in psychology and with psychologists/psychiatrists, and recently published a book about delusions. This is important. Right now, a new DSM is being prepared. This is one of two internationally recognised diagnostic manuals for psychology (along with the ICD). I cannot exaggerate the importance of this document. We’re on the DSM-IV right now, and it was only one edition previously that listed homosexuality as a deviant practice, to be treated as a mental disorder. So work on delusions is exceptionally important. I’m not saying that this will be the time that religious faith is added as one officially (we’ll hold out for DSM-VI for that, muahahaha), but it’s important to get these definitions correct, and sometimes you need philosophers to do that. In fact, anyone who tries to define things like ‘delusion’ are going to have to do philosophy.

Even my pet area, the philosophy of consciousness, can have an impact. It won’t affect the way people live their lives, but if we can solve the mind-body problem, if we can finally explain the existence of the one thing we experience directly, the one thing that we know to exist, then we’ll have made some form of Progress. And we might have come up with a new ontology along the way that will help us explain other things.

I’m far less able to suspend disbelief than most of my peers. They all swallow this nonsense with silent WhatTheFuck, if any at all. Indeed, mine has been silent up until now, because I don’t care to express this to them directly. I don’t fit in with them, in all honestly, the metaphorical chemistry isn’t right. I get on with the Latin crowd far better.

You see, with two known exceptions, I’m doing better at the Latin than most of the others. This means that I don’t feel intimidated by them. They’re all more intelligent than me in areas such as antiquities, English language and so on, of course, but these aren’t areas that I have a stake in, so I don’t feel threatened by their superiority. Also, they’re all quite nice. Philosophy students tend to be quite obnoxious. Yes, I, Luke, consider some people obnoxious. That should tell you something. I don’t know why, maybe it’s the secret tacit understanding shared by them all that we don’t really know why we bother doing what we do in a world that wouldn’t notice if we were gone. Maybe the only thing that makes us feel better about that is to cultivate an environment of dog-eat-dog sneering and snobbiness. I will say, however, that if my Birmingham experience so far is anything to go by, this seems to disappear when one actually works as a philosopher. The academic staff at Birmingham have been nothing but pleasant to me. So maybe there is hope for our generation.

Moving on.

Then I managed to lock myself out of the flat at half past two. Way to go, Bob. Two and a half hours waiting for Amy to get back. It’s cold out there, folks. It wasn’t dreadful, I went for a walk around Cannon Hill Park, which was almost empty, so very nice. Even so, not having my phone, bus pass, wallet or MP3 player on me was exceptionally irritating.

The evening picked up, though, Amy came with me to see The Men Who Stare At Goats, which was a very good film, better than I thought it would be. I thought it would be merely good. I kept thinking it would have been great to have watched it in Parapsychology last year. Not sure if I’ll get it on DVD though. There wasn’t anything in it that was particularly awesome that I’d love to see again.

Thanks to everyone who has given me advice over the past couple of days. I intend to follow your unanimous recommendation, if only I can work out the proper way in which to do it. Somehow, I don’t think an e-mail will do the trick!

Oh! Wednesday! Yes. Went to see Ariane Sherine give a talk at Aston uni, about the Atheist Bus Campaign. It was wonderful. I hadn’t any idea how much money had been raised. They needed 5.5k, and raised over 150k. I cannot express how much it meant to see what could happen when atheists unite over something. Ariane’s story was inspirational, and she has become my latest favourite person. She is the Atheist Who Did Something, and I hope one day to follow her example. I also met an atheist more militant than me, which was refreshing. Perhaps I should make contact with him, and see what can be done. The time has come for atheists to stop huddling together in pubs and lecture theatres, and do what Ariane has done – make a bold, public statement that can be seen internationally.

In psychological terms, we are the goats to the theist sheep, and so are naturally quite individualistic creatures. But I would say that there are goatherds. And when it is in our common interest, and the best interests of the world and humanity itself, I believe that we can and must come together.  To any atheists who don’t think that a formal movement is a good idea, that it would make us Like Them, I say this: Order will always beat chaos. A united multitude will always defeat a passionate crowd as long as they remain divided, no matter how correct their beliefs. We are united by our common beliefs, let us be united in name as well. Strength through unity. We are Humanists, and we must see to it that our voice rings through the world long after the prophets and priests have faded into the dust. We already know that our rationalism has the will to survive the oppression of religion, the power to outlast theocratic tyranny.

I think I admire the emotional aspects of religious faith. The self-assuredness, the optimism, the hope for the future. Obviously the cognitive aspects are less desirable: the deliberate ignorance of evidence; the belittling of reason and rationality; and those who accept the evidence and are reasonable but still cannot let go. I do not see why we cannot look at the world as it is, and look at humanity as it is, and derive the same optimism. The same hope. These things may require faith, but not religious faith. Some things have evidence neither for nor against, and so are merely believed because of one’s tendency to see the best or worst of a situation. I’m traditionally an optimist, which leads me to enormous disappointment and my faith in humanity has been diminished in recent times. What do I lack that a Christian has? Not a god, because they don’t have one either. I lack a strong community. A Christian can go to his fellow God-Botherers and say that his faith has been challenged. And though they aren’t the people to go to in that instance because of course his faith is rightly challenged, he receives support and reassurance. If I see some fresh atrocity, some new outrage, in the news, to whom do I turn to ask, “can there be redemption from this? Can we recover, can we grow and become a better people?”

I close with this video. Her voice is just… amazing.

PS, yes, “a better people” is grammatically correct. Look it up.

As doctors, we never expected to be “harassed” by anyone, most specially “political harassment”. We bloody toiled for decades studying and training to be what we are today, with grace and mercy of our Lord. So when we are subjected to certain situations we are not accustomed to, it brings us great pressure to decide “is it really worth it…”

A doctor, duly licensed by the PRC, finished specialty training, certified by the specialty board, has a lot of career options. Private practice, plus/or affiliation with a private company/hospital; teaching (yes, we can teach…) at med school, or go into government service as health provider. In government, one md can go into DOH-md’s to the barrios, be DOH-reps, other DOH positions, or government hospital specialist. And also, one can go into local government unit health care as a provincial or city health officer or municipal health officer. In the LGU’s, “political harassment” is often times seen.

A “health officer” (P.H.O., C.H.O. or M.H.O.) is appointed by the local chief executive (governor or mayor) and holds a “key” position as the health officer is in control of all health centers (rural health units). There is no problem if the local chief executive and the health officer are “mag-kakampi”. But if there is a change in leadership, as is seen every 3 years during elections, and a “kalaban” wins, the health officer is often subject to harassment. WHY??? The “kalaban” will want to put his own “health officer” but since the health officer plantilla item is PERMANENT and not co-terminus with the elective official, he cannot simply terminate the current health officer. So instead, he will make life difficult for the health officer to force the poor md to resign then position.

We know of a MHO, in a city just in the outskirts of metro manila. She was doing a fine job, managing over more than 30 health centers thru out her city. After the recent elections, a new mayor took office and started harassing her. They tried to dig up dirt against her, made false accusations and threatened to slap her with admin suits in court. For want of peace of mind, she simply resigned, even though she didn’t do anything wrong. Another MHO, doing great work with her more than 20 health centers, often cited for outstanding accomplishments. The incumbent mayor was suspended, and the vice-mayor took office. The (over) acting mayor appointed his own “executive assistant for health” and this exec assistant started throwing her weight around against the MHO. In the local government code, the mayor is the chairman of the local health board, and the MHO is the vice-chairman. So technically, the exec assistant is out of line in ordering the MHO around.

Nakakalungkot lang isispin na ang propesyon ng isang manggagamot, na itinuturing na isa sa pinaka dakilang propesyon, ay hahaluan ng maduming politika ng mga taong walang inisip kundi ang sariling kapakanan. Lord, kayo na po ang bahala sa kanila. Patamaan nyo na lang po ng kidlat…

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

‘Shameful Flight’ relates the history of the final years of the British Raj in India, including the partition of India into both Pakistan (West and East) and India, and the early hostility of the two new nations destined for perpetual warfare in such regions as the Kashmir.The history of this era of political instability on the subcontinent includes all the main players from Great Britain, India and Pakistan.These main players include Winston Churchill, Viceroy Louis Mountbatten, Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah. There is not a single figure in this history of India’s partition who comes out of it in a good light, though several seem to have had very well-intentioned aims and motivations. It is the true story of lost opportunity and the devastating consequences of human pride and selfishness that have reverberated down through the decades to the present day and remain visible in the continuing clashes between India and Pakistan, as well as in the extremism expressed in both the Islamic and Hindu communities throughout the sub-continent. It is a story of perpetual tragedy and human suffering with no end in sight.

This book is extremely easy to read, passes on a wealth of historical information and whets the appetite for further research on the India/Pakistan situation. It provides enlightenment, by bringing understanding to the current political instability in both India and Pakistan, by clearly revealing the root of the problem – the manner of the birth of both nations out of British imperialism and that nation’s final haphazard departure aptly described as a ‘Shameful Flight.’ This is a great book for understanding the sub-continent and the wounds it still carries to this day.

This book was provided to me for review by Oxford University Press – www.oup.com

Someone near and dear to me has repeatedly said “you are so brave for posting your sketches.”

I’m sure she doesn’t mean to say “wow, those sketches are crap and I sure as hell wouldn’t be sharing them”… or maybe she does.

The point is that I feel safe posting them…. well one that I will be posting tonight makes me a bit nervous, but probably not for the reason you might guess.

There are other things that I could write about, or post about. This week for instance, I went to the Alberta School Board Association Fall General Meeting. Actually, why don’t a write a *little* bit about this experience before getting to the Thursday Night Drawing Bit.

Part of what I was thinking about as I was drafting this blog post is that i’d love to be able to share all the funny little things that happen in a lot of different areas of my life, but some, particularly this School Trustee thing, are intimidating to me because I feel such immense pressure to get everything right. To do a good job. To live up to the expectations that I put on myself, and that other people put on me.

So while you can chuckle at the notes I was directed to take by guest keynote speaker Ian Hill, the hope that I keep confidence is what keeps me from blogging as deeply as I would like to about this political experience. The desire for voters to feel confident in me was a barrier to the blogging that I had intended to do during the campaign. However I felt suddenly that if I did share doubts and concerns through my blog, that people might not vote for me.

When I sketch I feel safe.

I know that I’m not a great artist, and it doesn’t really matter to me. Although I think that I’ve said that before in this blog, and if I keep repeating it I may be “protesting too much.” The point being that I’m not “brave” in posting them because the expectation of myself to produce a “perfect” piece, a “perfect” sketch died a long time ago.

I had worked on a large canvas painting a series of coffee cups with wings, and I painted and painted, but no matter how much I tried I couldn’t get the image out of my head and on the canvass in the way that I wanted to. I was striving for perfection and falling painfully short. So short in fact, that after spending months on the painting I got frustrated and tearfully threw in the garbage.

After a good long cry, I came to the conclusion that the way I wanted it to look was better suited to photography than painting, and if I was going to stay so stuck on perfectionism, that I may as well take up photography, which I didn’t do.

A long time Later, after starting to attend the Thursday Night Drawing Group we had a visiting artist named Rolph Crone who held a workshop on bamboo ink sketching and painting with Charcoal powder. Through the workshop he kept reminding us to stand *WAY* back from our pieces. holding the bamboo sticks by their ends and loosely sketching. This way of sketching forced me to give up on perfection all together (although I did find myself creeping towards the paper until I was gripping the bamboo inches away from the tip and my nose intently close behind.)

Through these experiences I just learned to appreciate the act of trying capturing the image before me. I love the challenge of seeing the way a shoulder-blade juts and trying to capture that in a sketch. I love the way that muscles form the craziest continual lines and blocks underneath the cover of skin. I’m loving the process of learning to foreshorten.

And I suppose that because I identify as a recreational student of drawing I don’t pressure myself. I give myself the space to be imperfect, and to enjoy sharing my imperfections.

Our warm up for drawing is 10 one minute sketches. Believe me, there is no perfection to be attained in a minute. It does help you to loosen up and focus on prioritizing lines though!

we move on to five minute sketches which still don’t allow for a lot of time to catch the fine details and shadows.

And after a long time of 5 minute and 15 minute sketches… We can comfortable rest in the half hour sketch.

The drawings above were done over the past couple of drawing groups, and the image below is of my favorite from these sessions:

Priceless: Obama czar confronted with absolute proof global warming is a hoax and she just keeps her head in the sand.  Don’t blame her, the long list of dominoes is just beginning to fall and Obama’s White House is well known for lack of any class.  Community organizer and all that…

Obama administration climate czar Carol Browner on Wednesday rejected claims that e-mails stolen from a British university show climate scientists trumped up global warming numbers, saying she considers the science settled. [Well golly, I guess that's it then.]

“I’m sticking with the 2,500 scientists [Who are out of a job if global warming is a hoax]. These people have been studying this issue for a very long time and agree this problem is real,” said Ms. Browner, who President Obama has tapped as his chief of policy on global warming.

via Climate ‘czar’ says hacked e-mails don’t change anything – Washington Times.