Environmental Citizenship goal seems to be global citizenship

English 597.03 / Geography 597.03 at The Ohio State University:
Get past the jargon, and you’ll see the point of the course is to convince brains of mush young students that they are citizens of the globe (i.e., not of a nation or territory) and to qualify OSU for more federal grant money.

It began innocently in 2009 as a campus "conversation," but will extend much further: “In response to President Gee’s signing of the University President’s Climate Commitment [Scarlet, Gray and Green] last April (2008), the [Humanities] Institute initiated a campus-wide conversation about environmental citizenship, drawing together faculty, staff and students interested in advancing the discussion of sustainability and environmental values at the university. The initiative seeks broad-based involvement [and probably federal grant money] aimed at raising environmental awareness and embedding concepts and practices more deeply in the fabric of university life.”

Since it’s tough to get natural resources, energy, architecture, biology, and agriculture into an English curriculum, just merge English (reading and writing) into geography.

English 597.03 / Geography 597.03 offers students an opportunity to reflect on the skills and knowledge needed to act responsibly as environmental citizens. We will focus on "reading" and "writing" the environment (i.e., learning, on the one hand, how to interpret the physical, social, and cultural forces that shape environments, and on the other hand, various ways of playing an active role in shaping environments).

English/Geography 597.03 will involve reading and student-led discussion, weekly "lab" sessions (e.g., film screenings, guest speakers, field trips), and a group-authored Green Paper.

We will highlight change over time, including past relations of culture and environment, present issues, and possible futures—in other words, we will strive to place the present moment in historical perspective. We'll also focus on variation and linkages across space, tying local issues into
progressively larger contexts. The course will be explicitly iinterdisciplinary, examining concepts from the natural science (e.g., natural history; cycles of matter and energy; land forms and climate dynamics), social sciences (e.g., patterns of human impacts on nature, social relations that shaped human impacts, and possible future directions), and the arts and humanities (e.g., cultural conceptions of nature, relationship between conceptions and actions, the role of representation in shaping environments and our relationships to them). The course will also explicitly acknowledge the expertise and experience of environmental actors beyond academia such as environmental organizations.

Students will write a “Credo” (define environmental citizenship in your own terms, reflect on experiences that have shaped your attitudes toward environmental citizenship and your knowledge of environmental issues, and evaluate how you enact your own conception of environmental citizenship) and a “green paper” (put forward propositions for discussion and debate, outline options available for addressing an environmental issue of their choosing, the background information needed to evaluate those options, and the values relevant to choosing among those options).

The Obama Doctrine: Kill don't capture?

Without the ground work of the Bush years, there would have been no Navy Seal operation taking out Osama on May 1, however, John Yoo's point in the WSJ is interesting, isn't it? Osama bin Laden could have easily been taken alive. But if you kill the opponent, then you don't have to mess with those pesky ethical issues of interogation and imprisonment--those things about which Obama so vehemently criticized President Bush.

"Over the past two years, congressional pressure and the demands of the real world have forced Mr. Obama to give up his law-enforcement approach to terrorism. Thanks to congressional funding riders, Gitmo remains open and terrorist detainees there cannot be brought to the United States. Attorney General Holder has finally dropped his ill-conceived plan to prosecute al Qaeda leaders in Manhattan, and he has now restarted the military commissions devised by the Bush administration.

The repatriation of Gitmo detainees has also ceased, again due to congressional pressure. Mr. Obama's advisers have even publicly reaffirmed his authority to capture or kill terrorists as enemy combatants. Drone attacks have more than tripled.

Mr. Obama's policies now differ from their Bush counterparts mainly on the issue of interrogation. As Sunday's operation put so vividly on display, Mr. Obama would rather kill al Qaeda leaders—whether by drones or special ops teams—than wade through the difficult questions raised by their detention. This may have dissuaded Mr. Obama from sending a more robust force to attempt a capture."

John Yoo: From Guantanamo to Abbottabad - WSJ.com

The Obamacare slush fund for CBS and Washington Post

We were probably in California when this story came out and I was on my Spring blogging break. While checking to see if WaPo or NYT covered the Obama transparency hearings (couldn't find that they did), I came across one more hole in the credibility bucket of the mainstream media.

Two mainstream news organizations are receiving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from Obamacare’s Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP) — a $5 billion grant program that’s doling out cash to companies, states and labor unions in what the Obama administration considers an effort to pay for health insurance for early retirees. The Washington Post Company raked in $573,217 in taxpayer subsidies and CBS Corporation secured $722,388 worth of Americans’ money.

“It is fine with me if they continue covering the ObamaCare debate,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, in an e-mail to The Daily Caller. “When NBC used to cover energy issues, they identified themselves as a subsidiary of General Electric. CBS and Washington Post just have to disclose that they are subsidiaries of the Obama Administration.”

The ERRP, which Republicans call a slush fund, provides taxpayer money to Obama administration-selected states, companies and labor unions with already-in-place early retiree health insurance programs, and aims to make certain that their employees who retire early still have health insurance coverage before they reach Medicare eligibility age. Almost $2 billion of the $5 billion fund, which was supposed to last until 2014, has already been distributed to corporations. New projections expect the funding to run out before the end of 2012, if not sooner.

The source is Common American Journal, a news aggregate which seems to carry stories from all political points of view, but I haven't investigated it in depth, so I'm not necessarily recommending it as a regular read. Looks like ERRP is worth keeping an eye on; I don't recall that early retirements have been covered in the past by federal tax dollars. But then, we're in a new ballgame with this administration. His dirty tricks make Nixon look like the PTA president and his spending makes George W. Bush look like Calvin Coolidge.

Free Medical Books for doctors

Here's sort of an interesting site. I looked at the 2010 The Word Brain which is free and downloadable information on how to learn a foreign language. I didn't print it, and he's not too hopeful about older people learning, but he does say that the reason it is easy for children is because that's all they're doing--acquiring language. He also says that alcohol and drugs are death for learning languages (this book is intended for young doctors, remember), and that some day future studies might show that participation in social networks is inversely correlated with success at school and university!

Free Medical Books | by Amedeo.com

Obama is Hard on Drug Execs, Soft on Dictators

How unamerican but soft on real crime and terror is Obama? Very.

". . . Team O is tougher on drug company CEOs than it is on brutal dictators and a movement [Muslim Brotherhood] whose goal is wiping out Israel. The administration is applying a little used government approach to knee-capping executives it doesn't like by threatening that HHS won't allow Forest Laboratories to sell medications to Medicare, Medicaid, and other government health programs (which means every health plan under Obamacare) unless it tosses the company's CEO, Howard Solomon. According to news accounts, the action is being taken because government lawyers claim that just fining the company billions isn't stopping illegal behavior. But neither Mr. Solomon nor Forest has been found guilty of any wrongdoing.

The American Spectator : Hard on Drug Execs, Soft on Dictators

Ask Amy: This is a no-brainer in my opinion

Trust your gut, lady. You love your sister and you don't trust her boyfriend. And why would you expose your young child to an illicit, shack-up, temporary relationship anyway?

She [sister] has now met a “new” guy, and much to our dismay he quit his job and she has been supporting him for about a year. He has since gotten a part-time job and is taking courses to better himself.

However, he is temperamental and often loses it in our presence. My sister says his temper is short-lived and that he is working on it. A few times he has verbalized little digs at my kids when he does not approve of their behavior and I’ve let it pass because we don’t see them very often

.
Ask Amy: Sketchy boyfriend worries family members - The Washington Post

American Indians object to ‘Geronimo’ as code name for bin Laden raid

When I first heard the name of the raid to kill bin Laden, I was shocked. So much for required sensitivity training since kindergarten. WaPo says the name came from the military. "Indian as enemy" is a motif from the Hollywood moguls--time to retire it from the cutsy moniker list.

American Indians object to ‘Geronimo’ as code name for bin Laden raid - The Washington Post

Why the Left Needs Racism

The dislike of Obama with paranoid theories about his birth and religion is no worse than that for Clinton or Bush, who had no birth, race or religion issues, so why are his detractors racist?

Baselessly accusing their political foes of racism is a way in which today's liberals attempt to incite fear and loathing of "the other." As we argued last year, this serves a political purpose in that it helps persuade blacks not to consider voting Republican. But it serves a psychological purpose as well. It reinforces white liberals' sense of their own superiority.

Why the Left Needs Racism--II - WSJ.com

From the day he announced his candidacy, those of us who criticized him were accused of racism. Really, the man has qualities, values and beliefs beyond his parentage, all completely unlikeable and unamerican, and to say otherwise is, in my opinion, racist.

Abby Johnson: I Regret Selling Abortions at Planned Parenthood

Her sins have gone to the cross with Jesus.

I am sorry to the women I coerced into abortion. I am sorry to every woman who has ever had an abortion; you may never hear those words from the person who performed your abortion, but I want you to hear it from me on behalf of that doctor or clinic worker.

I am sorry they betrayed you. I am sorry they broke your spirit and your trust. I am sorry they hurt you. I am sorry they didn’t have the courage to stand up for you and what you really deserved…a chance to be a mother to your child. We abused and disrespected you in the worst possible way. I am sorry. So many people probably disappointed you…your friends, your family, your church community, your coworkers, maybe others. I apologize on behalf of them, as well. I am guilty of selling abortion to my family, friends, coworkers, and even people I worship with. We should have stood up for you and your child. I am so sorry we let you down in the worst possible way. You deserved better than what we gave you.

The extent of my remorse, sorrow and grief runs very deep. I could never even begin to share it all with you on a blog. I’m not even sure I am aware of how deep it runs. But it is there…reminding me of the life I once had and how hard I must now work.

I am only able to handle the pain of my past with the help of Christ. I couldn’t do any of this without His grace and His steady hand guiding me every day. He has never given me more than I can bear. I have never felt overwhelmed. I see His love and compassion for me every day. It is the most amazing feeling of peace and wholeness. I don’t have to wonder if He’s with me…I know He is…guiding my every step.

Abby Johnson: I Regret Selling Abortions at Planned Parenthood | LifeNews.com

Will you believe Jesus or Bell on Hell?

Who will you believe. Bell or Jesus on the topic of Hell?

No one in all the Scriptures had more to say about hell than Jesus. No stern messenger of doom from the era of the Judges, no fiery Old Testament prophet, no writer of imprecatory psalms, and no impassioned apostle (including the Boanerges brothers)—not even all of them combined—mentioned hell more frequently or described it in more terrifying terms than Jesus.

And the hell Jesus spoke of was not merely some earthly ordeal, some sour state of mind, or some temporary purgatorial prison. Jesus described hell as a “place of torment” in the afterlife (Luke 16:28)—a place of “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43), “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (v. 48). It is a “place [where] there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30)—a place of “eternal punishment” (v. 46).

Rob Bell is clearly unhappy with Jesus’ teaching about hell. . .

Bell’s Inferno

Al-Qaeda background report from Global Terrorism Database

"Al-Qa’ida’s operations were especially deadly even in comparison to other notorious, long term terrorist organizations:

ETA, the Basque nationalist terrorist group in Spain, has been responsible for approximately 820 deaths from 1972 to 2008.

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was responsible for 1829 fatalities dating back to 1970—less than half of the number of people killed by al-Qa’ida.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has been responsible for 4,835 terrorism fatalities in its history. While FARC has imposed this bloodshed over the course of more than 30 years, Al-Qa’ida’s 4,299 deaths were concentrated in just a 10-year period.

Since 1998, there have been 408 incidents of mass-casualty terrorism—single events in which more than 25 people were killed. Al-Qa’ida was responsible for 16 mass-casualty terrorism attacks—more than any other group during this same period.

Al-Qa’ida has also become a crucial “node” of a network of deadly terrorist organizations—some created in the hopes of replicating al-Qa’ida, others aligning with al-Qa’ida for ideological or practical reasons. Research by Victor Asal and R. Karl Rethemeyer at the University of Albany (SUNY) has identified 33 different terrorist organizations with direct links and alliances to al-Qa’ida."

START background report, May 2011

Sister Toldjah--always worth a read

Like many conservatives, she started out as a starry-eyed, poorly informed Democrat. Now a somewhat sassy, always well-researched blogger on the right. . . Sister Toldjah

Being a native North Carolinian, you’d think that by nature I’d have always been a conservative. Well, I haven’t been. I was a liberal from age 17 to right around the time I was 22. I got most of my info from the news outlets, rather than reading anymore in depth into the issues than that, which I think is one of the reasons I would have found myself voting for Mike Dukakis in 1988 – but I was 2 months shy of being able to vote that election year. Hadn’t quite hit my 18th birthday. Not to turn this into a liberal bias piece, but at that time when every single ‘mainstream’ source out there was liberally biased, how could I not have been a liberal? I complain a lot about liberal bias in the media for that very reason: because I know how influential it can be to those who don’t research the issues much outside of what they hear in the media. Mind you, I’m not saying that liberals aren’t grounded in their beliefs, just saying that some do form their political beliefs based on what they see in the mainstream media and I was one of those people.

The first vote I cast for president was for Bill Clinton in 1992. I even worked with the Democratic party in ’92 to help get him elected. Just a few days before his defeat of President G.H.W. Bush, Clinton swung into town and I worked that event, helping to get it set up. It was a cold November evening, and because I’d been there to help set up all day, I had a front row spot as he entered and exited the event, which was held outdoors at an uptown park. I couldn’t have been more excited – Clinton did that to people. He had a lot of charm, being a southerner, and he was “every man” to everyone, which is a big reason why he got elected. My parents were furious with me for voting for him! In any event, I made the switch to being a Republican back around 1994-1995. The change had been happening for several months – no one pushed me into it, it was a choice I gladly made. No one thing or person can be credited with helping me change – it was just a lot of things. There was a guy in college who really helped me see the light, though, who deserves some credit. Simply put, I just realized over time that I had more in common with Republicans than Democrats.

Sister Toldjah
I was a liberal much longer than she was (and am much older since she's about the age of my children). Mainly, I just wasn't paying attention. Well, that's just an excuse. I never looked beyond my liberal sources, plus I'd spent my working life in a cocoon--the university campus. But it was Clinton's second term where the worm turned and grew a brain and spine, but it wasn't until the primary of 2000 that I actually changed registration.

Being a Republican holds many frustrations, particularly their lack of cohesiveness and in-fighting. Foot-shooting and back-stabbing seem to be common sports. Strange, unelectable candidates (Newt, Trump, etc.) would be next on my list. Sex scandals galore while preaching nonsense about personal responsibility would be a third aggrevation. But they haven't created any internment camps for minorities, or created Jim Crow laws, or kept the lower classes down and out through perpetual poverty pimping, or played a recession into a decade long depression, to name just a few.

Liberals, or maybe just pea brains, mocking Trig Palin

These liberal pea brains are mocking other liberal low lifes mocking Trig Palin. Truly disgusting slugs. Maybe we need a license to post on the internet? These people are dangerous to their cause.

Fat, fat goes away

but comes back elsewhere to play. The body grows back new fat cells.

When liposuctioned from the thighs, fat doesn't return. . . to that location, but does come back to the abdomen and arms.
Fat Redistribution Following Suction Lipectomy: Defense of Body Fat and Patterns of Restoration

Here's the story in NYT-speak.

A Race-And-Economics --Sowell on Williams

"In recent times, we have gotten so used to young blacks having sky-high unemployment rates that it will be a shock to many readers of Williams' "Race and Economics" to discover that the unemployment rate of young blacks was once only a fraction of what it has been in recent decades. And, in earlier times, it was not very different from the unemployment rate of young whites."

A Race-And-Economics Eye-Opener - Investors.com

The trials of Lutheranism

We joined Upper Arlington Lutheran Church on Palm Sunday 1976--35 years ago, and 26 years after my baptism on Palm Sunday 1950. At that time its synod was the American Lutheran Church, but polity meant little to us. (For us it was confirmation. Those who are already Lutheran join by letter of transfer.) At the journal First Things there is a good summary (and book review) of what has been happening the last 40 years in both Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA, created by a merger of the Lutheran Church in America and American Lutheran Church in 1988).

Article | First Things

And here's a comment by a reader which summarizes what was going on at the congregational level. We've lost members at UALC, but our vote was about 99% to leave. The devastation would have been disastrous if it had been 80-20 or 70-30. Many congregations were never given an opportunity to vote--it's very risky for a pastor to not be "rostered" especially if he's still paying off his college loans, because where will his next job come from? New synods take awhile to grow and start calling pastors.

It took 20 years but the activists in the ELCA finally got their wish. By a slight margin two summers ago in Minneapolis they allowed for the installation of actively homosexual clergy, even though in many states they are not allowed to be married.

Many of us thought that with a change of that importance they should have called for a two-thirds majority, of course that is the requirement that they required of our congregation to leave the ELCA. If that would have been the only problem.

We were very concerned about their latest positions on abortion as well as statements that are clearly anti-Israel. Furthermore, we have no logical basis from which to exclude either members or clergy who wish to practice polygamy or take under-age brides. The structure of the ELCA from the first moment was too weak, there was not enough restraining power in the Bishops to slow down precipitous actions. The large group of lay persons and clergy were going about their business trying to bring Christ to the world. But a detemined minority were determined to gain power whatever the cost.

We were in trouble no matter what the decision. Our congregation voted 80%/20% to leave the ELCA, and many of that 20% have left. We would have had many more losses had the vote been reversed, as many would have left for a more traditional church, if any be left. We have joined the LCMC, for the moment along with hundreds of other former ELCA churches. I feel adrift, like someone has just pulled some really sneaky, nasty trick on me and my fellow church members. All this time we thought we were trying to make our church a joyful and welcoming place where folks could hear about Jesus and find some comfort from the troubles of the world. I could use some comforting right now.

One commenter on this entry mentioned he'd given up on the Lutherans and had become a Roman Catholic. Yes, there is a strong desire for leadership, especially for those who love tradition, liturgy and theology. However, now that he's there, he'll probably find out that all that Martin Luther objected to is still in place--the priesthood of ordained clergy over the priesthood of all believers, the insertion of church tradition between the believer and God as mediator instead of Christ as the mediator, veneration (worship) of saints, indulgences, a works not grace operation, and on and on.

Did You Know--women and pornography addiction

“The more pornography women use, the more likely they are to be victims of non-consensual sex,” said Mary Anne Layden, professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College in Boston. “The earlier the male starts using pornography, the more likely they are to be the perpetrators of non-consensual sex.”

More women lured to pornography addiction - Washington Times

May 1--Remember those who died

From Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy

May Day began as a holiday for socialists and labor union activists, not just communists. But over time, the date was taken over by the Soviet Union and other communist regimes and used as a propaganda tool to prop up their regimes. I suggest that we instead use it as a day to commemorate those regimes’ millions of victims. The authoritative Black Book of Communism estimates the total at 80 to 100 million dead, greater than that caused by all other twentieth century tyrannies combined. We appropriately have a Holocaust Memorial Day. It is equally appropriate to commemorate the victims of the twentieth century’s other great totalitarian tyranny. And May Day is the most fitting day to do so. I suggest that May Day be turned into Victims of Communism Day....

Somin wrote that on May 1, 2007, and here's today's entry.
The labor unions in the U.S. are really ratching up their violence and lies; we have a socialist/crony capitalist in the White House; we have a president who is cozy with Islamist extremists and then when he encourages their subjects to rebel, abandons them. It's playbook communism.

Did You Know--General Motors

"There are some 13,000 porn films made in the United States generating near $100 billion per year. General Motors owns DirectTV, which distributes over 40 million streams of porn into American homes every month. AT&T and GM rake in approximately 80 percent of all porn dollars."

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/charlie-sheen-or-the-empire-of1/page-2/#ixzz1L2nL23Gl

And now through the bail out, we the people own General Motors. The payback then, will be through porn profits?

Working up a tax storm in Illinois -- George F. Will

Illinois, Obama's home, continues to punish its residents.

A study by the Illinois Policy Institute, a market-oriented think tank, concludes that between 1991 and 2009, Illinois lost more than 1.2 million residents — more than one every 10 minutes — to other states. Between 1995 and 2007, the total net income leaving Illinois was $23.5 billion. The five states receiving most refugees from Illinois were Florida, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona and Texas. Two are Illinois’ neighbors, three have warm weather, two — Florida and Texas — have no income tax. In January, a lame-duck session of Illinois’ legislature — including 18 Democrats who were defeated in November — raised the personal income tax 67 percent and the corporate tax almost 50 percent. This and the increase — from 3 percent to 5 percent — in the tax on small businesses make Illinois, as the Wall Street Journal says, “one of the most expensive places in the world to conduct business.”

Working up a tax storm in Illinois - The Washington Post