Excellent report by Dan Rather on the Catholic Church

...and how it is trying to avoid paying sexual abuse victims by declaring bankruptcy in dioceses where there is actually an abundance of money and assets. In addition, need anyone be reminded of the vast treasures in the Vatican that are kept unreachable and untouchable to the victims -- while the hierarchy lives in glittering splendor? The lies and hypocrisy of those who rule in this Church certainly qualify them as leaders of a Great Cult. Religions may have started with pure intentions--but they all turn into cults as soon as power and greed rule the rulers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-rather/spiritually-bankrupt_b_629424.html

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Elena Kagen's humorous answer to senator

Watch this video:  http://www.thepoliticalcarnival.net/2010/06/video-elena-kagan-%E2%80%9Cyou-know-like-all-jews-i-was-probably-at-a-chinese-restaurant-%E2%80%9D/

It's nice to know she will be a Supreme Court justice with a sense of humor.  She'll need it on that court.

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VA Hospital may have infected 1800 veterans with HIV

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/30/va.hospital.hiv/index.html

It is totally unacceptable that ANYone should be exposed in this way when they go for treatment at hospitals!  But for veterans to have to worry about their care, after all they have given to the service of their country, this is BEYOND forgiving!  It seems that the more "advanced" we claim to be in our world, the farther back we slide.  Stories like this are enough to make you want to go back to the "Here, take this herb" days of medicine -- and many of us are doing just that. 

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Interesting Essay Contains Truth about Earth's "Humanity Virus"

Humans Are An Intentional Design 
By Clark McClelland
6-27-10

 

On each of our own days of birth, we are taught that a human appearing God is the creative life source governing each of our lives. We are taken to a church to bestow honor on that God. It is a false religion.   Whether we are a born Catholic, Protestant, Islam, Mormon, Anglo-Saxon, Zionist Jew, Rabbinic Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Taoism, Zulu, Voudun, Native American, Wicca, etc. All are teaching their own beliefs in order to capture the youthful minds within each shown nation.   What is called the Holy Bible has many passages mentioning the Giants mating with earth woman and having children of great renown. These Giants came from above, from the heavens. These same exact events are presented in all of ancient human history. The historic Gods of Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Maya, Inca, Israel, China, have each a similar history of creation.  None are the singular chosen "people" of the ONLY GOD of humanity. There have been many. The Jewish beliefs restrict any Gods from the stars. Why? Think about this.   Astronomy may have taught the factual religion that humanity has known since earliest cave races roamed earth. It has come from the stars overhead. The Zillions of stars are such as that we here have named the SUN. Without our star, the Sun, the earth and all the planets in our Solar system cannot survive. No human God created from those described above has the power to save earth from a catastrophe of a cosmic proportion.   The pocked marked earth, moon, Mercury, Mars, the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus Neptune, etc., are all proof of immense, disastrous cosmic collisions. No "God" stepped forth to stop those impacts. And if the earth is in the future hit again as it has been in the ancient past, with such an asteroid, comet, etc., no humanly created God will help to stop the extinction of life on earth. Why??   The solar system and human life are an existence within the vast body of the UNIVERSAL GOD. Yes, we live within the living body of GOD!! The planet earth, Mars, and all known planets are living cosmic life forms within the cosmic physical BODY of the Universal God.   The Gulf of Mexico disaster has proven this Cosmic God theory. The oil drilling exceeded the natural limits that allowed such drilling to proceed. BP drilled far deeper than what the living life form earth would accept. BP may have severed what could be called a jugular vein of the living earth. Russia has done so in the past.   Humanity is a destructive virus, a dangerous disease invading the cosmic living "tissues" of earth. We can be called "biting fleas" or a cancer upon the surface of this living planet. As a dog does, earth is scratching those pesky fleas to rid it of pain and suffering of what humanity has done for centuries.   The planet earth is rare in space. It has all required natural materials for supporting life forms and providing sustenance to all living things.   The earth is a nursery of many Star Races that have been delivered here for colonization. These various differences have brought many physical appearances, skin color, life styles, religious beliefs, and WARS to earth for millennia. We are a dangerous disease on the surface of earth. Will we all be removed from the living earth by a cosmic order from the UNIVERSAL GOD??     Clark C. McClelland   Former ScO, Space Shuttle Fleet   Kennedy Space Center, Florida, 1958 to 1992   PO Box 233, Tavares, Florida 32778

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Americans are treated--and overtreated--to death

An important article:  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h26y0ad8mTU-Zs0tkIlBF3Abu_YwD9GKC1DO0

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Avandia--drug for diabetes causes heart problems

Something important to know:  http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diabetes/studies-find-suggest-avandia-heart-risk/story?id=11014422

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Chickens coming home to roost for Catholic Church

Amazing/amusing hypocrisy that the Pope is "outraged" over these raids -- just look at the history of this church with all the raids, abuses, murders, etc. under their belt--continuing up to the present day with the sexual abuse of children.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/27/pope-sex-abuse-raids-belgium_n_627060.html

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Consciousness and the end of the War between Science and Religion

Interesting article from the Washington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/consciousness-and-the-end_b_620133.html

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A SUPERB ESSAY THAT EXPRESSES TRUTH ABOUT POLITICS

EXCERPT: (So very True!)
I approach politics and politicians with one simple rule in mind: if I have heard of a politician, count on that politician being deeply and perhaps irredeemably compromised. In order to achieve the kind of notoriety and financing required to be successful in politics, politicians have to sign their names on a number of dotted lines that are not in any way in the best interests of the people. There are exceptions to this, of course - Sen. Paul Wellstone was one, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich is another - but for the most part, a politician who has reached the lofty heights of genuine power and influence does so by donating themselves to the crooked interests that donated to them on the way up.  President Obama is no different. He took money from BP, which is killing the Gulf as we speak. He took money from the big banks and investment houses that raped our future even as they laughed their way into massive and undeserved bonuses. He is a creature of the "defense" industry, just like every president before him going back to Truman. He is an American politician who reached the highest possible position, and I knew going in that he would be, in the main, another compromised disappointment. Better, but not by much.

THESE EMPTY SPACES
by William Rivers Pitt

My purpose in this life is to chronicle the events of our time, to shine a light on events and actions that damage us all, to reveal good works whenever they actually happen, and when possible, to show people places and times where they can make a difference should they choose to get involved. In the ten years I've been at it, I have seen everything: wars and rumors of wars; economic collapse and environmental calamity; state-sanctioned murder and torture and rape; theft, graft, fraud, deception and greed vast and dense enough to bend the light.

I have also seen millions upon millions of people pour into the streets to raise their voices as one against all these terrible things. I have seen people hurl themselves into political campaigns that have no hope of succeeding because they believed in the candidate, because the campaign message mattered as much as winning, and was made of so much truth that it required their labor. I have seen previously disconnected people get plugged in somewhere, anywhere, because they could no longer abide the silence of the sidelines.

I have seen a man, a veteran of the ongoing Iraq war, walk past me on the street on two prosthetic legs. I have looked into the eyes of too many people whose futures were charred to ash by the flagrant criminality that continues on Wall Street even to this very moment. I have watched helplessly as friends lost their jobs, their homes, and their hopes. I have seen people rise above all this, and I have seen people subsumed by it.

In 2006, I watched as the George W. Bush Big Top Circus finally, finally, finally crashed and burned under the weight of its own incalculable wretchedness. The American people finally stopped buying what he and his people were selling, and on one memorable November night, I watched as those people removed what had been total congressional power from the GOP and hand it to the Democrats. Then I watched as those Democrats failed to do anything even remotely close to stopping the wars, as they failed to thwart the noxious aspirations of the Bush administration, failed to properly investigate and expose the crimes of that administration, failed to impeach, failed to do anything but enjoy the new offices they got for holding majority power.

In 2008, I watched history unfold. The Democrats expanded their control in congress, and more importantly, a black man and a white woman grappled for the White House against a demonstrably unfit Republican from Arizona, a man whose final epitaph will someday credit him for further poisoning our political culture by elevating Sarah Palin to national prominence. On the night Barack Obama sealed his victory in the general election, the reaction across the country was two-thirds jubilation and one-third doomed dismay; in Boston, thousands of people took to the streets beating drums and banging pots as they shouted with joy, while others made hasty arrangements to buy as many guns as possible. That January, the world watched as the United States shrugged off two centuries of rancid history by inaugurating a president who, just fifty years earlier, would have been required to use a separate water fountain if he wanted to quench his thirst.

I was not lured into believing the 2008 presidential election was going to mark the beginning of a sea change in American politics. I approach politics and politicians with one simple rule in mind: if I have heard of a politician, count on that politician being deeply and perhaps irredeemably compromised. In order to achieve the kind of notoriety and financing required to be successful in politics, politicians have to sign their names on a number of dotted lines that are not in any way in the best interests of the people. There are exceptions to this, of course - Sen. Paul Wellstone was one, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich is another - but for the most part, a politician who has reached the lofty heights of genuine power and influence does so by donating themselves to the crooked interests that donated to them on the way up.

President Obama is no different. He took money from BP, which is killing the Gulf as we speak. He took money from the big banks and investment houses that raped our future even as they laughed their way into massive and undeserved bonuses. He is a creature of the "defense" industry, just like every president before him going back to Truman. He is an American politician who reached the highest possible position, and I knew going in that he would be, in the main, another compromised disappointment. Better, but not by much.

I thought I was prepared for this, but a year and a half into this brave new world, I feel...I don't know exactly what. I am glad Obama is the president, I am glad McCain is not, I am glad the derangement of Republican rule has been upended, I am pleased with a number of policy initiatives that have been undertaken, and yet there are these empty spaces in my mind and heart that actually, literally, ache. A few things are better, a lot of things are worse, and most things remain exactly the same. I knew it would be like this, but still, the emptiness is there.

My role is to chronicle these times. During all the years I have done so, I have been clinging to a belief that has managed to sustain me even on the darkest of days, a belief that has always filled some of that emptiness. It is a belief I fear our president has allowed himself to forget amid the cacophony of corporate power, military mayhem and runaway greed which binds him to a familiar course that, if left unchecked, will come to be the end of us all.

This belief is simple: America is an idea. We have borders, roads, cities, farms, armies, but that is not America. The idea that is America was forged in the crucible of Europe, when kings could mandate a state religion and incarcerate or kill whoever disagreed, when rights only existed if the powerful deemed them so. The idea that is America was forged upon the premise that these things were wrong on their face, that people are endowed with rights that cannot be taken away by fiat. At no time in history had any nation premised its existence on the bedrock truth that all of us are created equal until the Founders did so in Philadelphia, and in doing so, they created a self-improving process of national growth and redemption that functions through the will of the people alone.

We are an idea, and all of us are bound to it through the ink that explains us on old pieces of parchment. We are an idea, and in that idea, we can locate our nobility, our strength, and the better angels of our nature. Too many of us, including our president and congressional representatives, have forgotten this. Perhaps, if we remind them in strong enough terms, if we make We The People a true force for right instead of a catch-phrase, things would get better. Until then, the idea that is America will continue to wither, and the empty spaces within will endure.

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Surf on Pensacola Beach boiling like acid (video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO193f8xAls

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Unemployment benefits end today for 1.2 million Americans

Thanks to Republican politicians, who refused to continue the benefits.  I hate to say this, but I think many Americans are not tuned in enough to recognize why they will be out of benefits and possibly out on the street. In November, they will vote against their own interests, blaming Obama because they will be told to by Rush Limbaugh. He didn't give them the name "dittoheads" for nothing.  Most of Limbaugh's followers like being called his dittoheads. They take pride in it.  And they will vote however he tells them to.  Go figure.

Rachel Maddow does an excellent job laying out just how badly Republicans hate the unemployed and she summed it up pretty nicely on her news show.

MADDOW: We've got the worst long-term unemployment since the Great Depression. This is going to have repercussions in our country and in our culture for generations. The political leadership we’re seeing on the right in response to that called the unemployed animals, drug test them, call them bums, say they're only out of jobs because they're lazy and want to be. Insult, insult, insult. To add real injury to all of that insult today every Republican in the Senate plus our friend Ben Nelson, blocked a vote on a bill to provide badly needed help to the long-term unemployed in this country.

And as a result, starting tomorrow, more than a million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits. This might sound like something you've heard before. This is the sort of thing that's been knocking around in and out of the headlines for months now. And it's true. It’s because Republicans have blocked extensions of unemployment benefits before. It’s kind of been a Republican hobbyhorse lately.

But in the past, the measure has always been saved at the last minute. That didn't happen this time. Senate Republicans and Ben Nelson really are cutting off the benefits for 1.2 million unemployed people and probably tossing at least some of them out on the street. And as an added bonus, they're giving up the opportunity to stimulate the economy in the most efficient way we know how. Ta da.

We'll see how they behave once they start hearing from their constituents now that the Republicans have actually followed through and stopped the benefits. I'm sure they're counting on as Debbie Stabenow noted voters blaming the party in power for their economic woes and hoping they benefit politically from this, which is truly disgusting. I hope they're wrong because although voters don't always pay a lot of attention to politics, they do tend to pay attention when something directly affects them, and this is going to affect a whole lot of people, both directly and indirectly. All of those people's friends and families are going to feel the brunt of this decision as well. Time will tell if this costs them at the voting booth. This is class warfare and the have-nots are losing it, badly.

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America's Greatness is Slipping Away

True words in this article by Bob Herbert.  We have no great leaders anymore, just lackeys for the royalty, the corporations who own us and have created the "elites" while the rest of us sink into poverty.  This is what Reagan's "trickle-down" economics looks like. How are you liking it so far?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/opinion/22herbert.html?hp

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Some of my favorite songs by Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen is a Canadian songwriter/performer born in 1934 -- my own generation.  He is a poetic genius who has an incredible ability to reach into his heart and express his own life experiences -- and make his listeners experience them with him.  His voice has a resonance that is soothing and almost hypnotic as it pulls you into its mastery of words that resonate with your own deepest emotions.  After a life of performing during the drug days of rock n' roll, and experiencing a failed marriage and further failed relationships, he met a Zen roshi, entered a Zen monastery--and became a monk.  He said he became a monk because it was "part of the tradition" and he considered the roshi as a dear friend from whom he learned much about life. He no longer lives in the monastery and still performs worldwide.  Here is Leonard performing some of his most beautiful songs, each one of which tells a story.  You might notice how the melody of Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye is very like his song Suzanne, which has been recorded by so many artists, it is probably his most famous song.  My favorite of all his songs is IF IT BE YOUR WILL -- the most beautiful prayer I have ever heard. It brings tears to my eyes each time I listen to it:

IF IT BE YOUR WILL:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkEYkUxdhcU&feature=related 

EVERYBODY KNOWS:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q63plx5NClI&feature=related

I'M YOUR MAN:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r24_T-HOcyg&feature=related

A THOUSAND KISSES DEEP:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0j14GrB-u8&feature=related

HEY THAT'S NO WAY TO SAY GOODBYE:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jexNsBjz1r8&feature=related

FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT: (A song in the form of a letter that includes some touching lyrics): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh9l_DzRwlg&feature=related

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Snake befriends hamster, instead of eating it vudei

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/snake-plus-hamster-brunch-or-buddies-video.html

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Warnings on frozen yogurt, cell phones, Fosamax

Soon there won't be anything left for us to eat that is good tasting...
Some informative articles are included here for those who want alternate medical information.

NaturalNews Insider Alert ( www.NaturalNews.com ) email newsletter

Dear NaturalNews readers,

Astonishingly, many people still think frozen yogurt is actually good for you. They don't know it's usually just ice cream with some probiotic powder thrown in.

Today, I reveal what's really in popular brands of frozen yogurt and why people are so quick to fool themselves into believing unhealthy foods are somehow good for them.

Read the full story here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/029038_frozen_yogurt_health_food.html

Medical research subjects, meanwhile, are being subjected to legalese gobbledygook when they sign papers to be experimented on:
http://www.naturalnews.com/029037_medical_research_consent_forms.html

New evidence also links cell phones and brain tumors:
http://www.naturalnews.com/029036_cell_phones_brain_tumors.html

Lots more news below on the dangers of Fosamax, the greed of the cancer industry, and why nutrition may be more important than exercise for achieving a healthy weight...

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Today's Feature Stories:

Frozen yogurt is not health food (NaturalNews) It did not even occur to me that people thought frozen yogurt was a "health food" until I spent some time in the USA. There, people line up in droves at frozen yogurt stores to buy a junk food that they're convinced is good for them. And...

Consent form gobbledygook: Are medical research subjects adequately informed? (NaturalNews) When a person signs up to participate in medical research, he or she is given a form to sign that is supposed to state the goal of the study as well as all the known possible risks of the drug or procedure being tested. But a new report...

Evidence mounts on links between cell phones and brain tumors (NaturalNews) A growing body of evidence, dating back to the 1960s, suggests that brain tumors may be only one of the many health problems produced by our new wireless society will produce. Cell-phone technology "could lead to a health crisis similar...

Australian courts rule that Vioxx should never have been approved for sale (NaturalNews) Australian courts recently ruled that Vioxx, a popular prescription painkiller, should never have been approved and allowed on the market. The case represents the world's first successful class action lawsuit against a drug company for damage...

Acid gel could replace dentists' drills (NaturalNews) A painless alternative to dental drills is already on the market in some parts of Europe, suggesting that drills may become altogether obsolete within the next few years. Dentists currently use drills to grind away at sections of a tooth...

Fosamax: Bone up on drug dangers and alternatives (NaturalNews) The breaking news is that Fosamax, the popular drug for supposed bone strength, may cause "spontaneous fractures." That means you could end up like Sandy Potter, 59, of Queens, New York on ABC News who claims she was in excruciating...

Dying Cancer Patients are Milked for Every Last Dollar Recent studies and reports have revealed that terminal cancer patients are frequently given harsh chemotherapy drugs and radiation treatments long after they have been diagnosed as hopeless. In many instances such treatments continue until...

Nutrition More Important than Exercise for Weight Loss, Suggests Study Women who rely on exercise to lose weight are destined to fail, so says a study that appears in the Journal of American Medical Association. Researchers found that exercise alone was useful in maintaining the weight for women, but...

17 big questions about the handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill (NaturalNews) What's clear about the BP oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is that the independent journalists are doing a better job of asking the really tough questions than the mainstream media. Sure, CNN, Fox and others are bringing some...

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More depravity in the Catholic Church is revealed

TOP PRIEST ACCUSED OF SEXUALLY ABUSING HIS OWN SONS-- AND MANY OTHER CHILDREN
It was all kept secret -- Pope Paul was part of the wholesale cover up, as was Pope John Paul II and the present Pope Benedict.  Behind pretended "holiness" lurked great cruelty, perversion, and collusion.  For all the sins committed by the hierarchy of this Church over centuries, the whole organization should collapse into well-deserved oblivion.  Just like in The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which Gray's real depraved character was etched on his portrait while his physical body kept the pretense of youth and beauty, we are now being shown the true picture of the Catholic Church, with its patriarchal corruption revealed for all to see.  Here is the latest story to come out -- and there is little doubt we are still only seeing the tip of a gigantic, long-hidden iceberg in the Church that has controlled and deceived its followers for far too long:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/top-vatican-priest-accused-sexually-abusing-sons/story?id=10968647

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Ever Wonder Why the "Elites" Don't Want Change?

Cenk Uygur points to the fact that history just keeps repeating itself because the consciousness of the well-contented "haves" stays the same, century after century -- and the condition of the poor therefore stays the same as well:

Why Our "Nobles" Betray Us by Cenk Uygur

I understand that it's a little goofy to draw lessons from a fictional movie, but I am going to proceed nonetheless. My wife and I were just watching Braveheart and there was one interesting element in there. In the movie, the nobles of Scotland keep betraying William Wallace who is fighting for the people of Scotland. And my wife asked me why the nobles continually stab Wallace in the back if he is fighting for their country.

As Robert the Bruce explains to Wallace in the movie, "They have much to lose." You see, those nobles profited from the status quo of that time. Wallace means to up end that status quo. It's naïve to think that they will help him because they love their country. Of course, they will work against him because they don't want to lose their status, power and riches. That status quo might suck for everyone else, but it's great for them.

And so it is with our nobles today. We keep expecting the politicians and the mainstream press to do the right thing. That is profoundly naive. Why is a television anchor making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year going to look to change the system? He loves the system. The system pays the bills.

That's even truer of our politicians. The status quo got them elected. The status quo will get them - and their staffers - great salaries when they retire and become lobbyists. They'd have to be crazy to change the system that put them up on top.

That's why change must come from outside the system. We keep waiting for the Obama administration to bring us the change they promised. What are we, children? The current system got Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Tim Geithner, etc. where they are. They have gotten to the pinnacle of power by playing within that system. They've made millions in that system. That's why they have no intention of actually upending it. They just want to tweak it and do exactly what Obama said he wouldn't do if he got elected - play the Washington game just a little better.

This doesn't mean you give up all hope. There are some good guys in DC. I recently talked to a House staffer who said that Senator Franken's staff is excellent. The staff is so important because they are the ones who actually write the bills. I asked him why Franken's staff was better than the others. And he had a simple answer - they don't plan to work as lobbyists in DC when they're done serving in his office.

It's not just the honest senators that should give you hope. What should give you the most hope is that the motivations of people are actually quite simple. So, we can change the results by changing the incentives.

For example, if we pay the campaign expenses of politicians instead of letting the lobbyists pay them, then the politicians might actually work for us. If we ban the politicians and their staff from working as lobbyists, they might not have as much incentive to sell us out.

I know the people inside DC think that last proposal is absolute heresy. How would they get rich if they can't work as lobbyists? And that's precisely what the problem is. They're getting rich at our expense. We're crazy to allow this system to continue.

The nobles will never change it. This is how they got to where they are. This is how they maintain their power and salaries. We have to make them change it. And as William Wallace found out, you can only do that from the outside and by not listening to the establishment that has different (and almost exact opposite) motivations as you do.

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Andy Borowitz (humor): Hawking says aliens 'no longer interested' in invading Earth

This humor comes VERY close to the truth. We earth humans are doing a great job at making our planet uninhabitable for anyone, including ourselves:

June 21, 2010

Hawking: Aliens ‘No Longer Interested’ in Invading Earth

Planet Already ‘Pre-destroyed,’ Scientist Says

LONDON (The Borowitz Report) – Reversing his recent position on the dangers of an extraterrestrial invasion, eminent theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking said today that the planet is in no such peril anymore because aliens are “no longer interested” in invading Earth.

“Assuming that aliens have been monitoring Earth for the past month in preparation for an invasion, they’ve probably figured out it’s no longer worth the trip,” Dr. Hawking said.

Speaking at a conference of the International Society of Eminent Theoretical Physicists, Dr. Hawking added, “Most extraterrestrials would want to come to Earth to destroy it, and let’s face it, this planet has been pretty much pre-destroyed.”

Even if aliens planned to travel to Earth to warn humans against destroying their own planet, Dr. Hawking said, “If they showed up now and took a look around they’d be like, ‘Oops, too late.’”

The physicist said that the rocket fuel aliens would have to expend to launch an Earth invasion was significant, “and you don’t spend that kind of money to invade a shithole.”

In recognition of his role in deterring an alien invasion, Queen Elizabeth II of England today knighted Tony Hayward, the CEO of oil giant BP.

In remarks to reporters after the knighting ceremony at Buckingham Palace, Sir Tony said he would be working tirelessly this week to study the impact of the Gulf oil spill on the beaches of the South of France.  More here.

The Los Angeles Times says Andy Borowitz has “one of the funniest Twitter feeds around.”  Follow Andy on Twitter here.

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Paul Krugman's advice -- I hope Obama takes it

We are heading into territory where the middle class will no longer exist. There will only be the rich (lest we forget: Duhmbya Bush calls them "the haves and the have-mores"*) and the poor (that would be us, you and me).  In answer to those who want to cut national spending now, Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has this to say in today's NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/opinion/21krugman.html?hp

*Bush's remarks to his supporters at a fund-raising dinner:  This is an impressive crowd: the haves, and the have-mores. [crowd laughs] Some people call you the elite, I call you my base.

EXCERPT: But if we need to raise taxes and cut spending eventually, shouldn’t we start now? No, we shouldn’t.

Right now, we have a severely depressed economy — and that depressed economy is inflicting long-run damage. Every year that goes by with extremely high unemployment increases the chance that many of the long-term unemployed will never come back to the work force, and become a permanent underclass. Every year that there are five times as many people seeking work as there are job openings means that hundreds of thousands of Americans graduating from school are denied the chance to get started on their working lives. And with each passing month we drift closer to a Japanese-style deflationary trap.

Penny-pinching at a time like this isn’t just cruel; it endangers the nation’s future. And it doesn’t even do much to reduce our future debt burden, because stinting on spending now threatens the economic recovery, and with it the hope for rising revenues.

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Apology to BP Shows How Republicans Would Govern

...as if we needed a reminder after the 8 looong years of Cheney/Bush!   But Joe Barton's defense of BP and tirade against Obama (for guaranteeing BP's setting aside $20 billion to pay damages of the oil spill) has made it perfectly clear what the Republicans believe, and how they would govern, given the chance once again. Halliburton is making out from this oil spill like the bandits they are--and you know that means more $$ into the pockets of Dick Cheney et al. I do believe karma will eventually catch up with the Cheney and Bush clans -- but do we EVER REALLY WANT them and their ideological conmen pals back running the country?  It's bad enough that Obama has become Bush Lite.  Do we want Bush/Cheney HEAVY back again, after the 8 years of disaster they caused us all?  I'm grateful that Barton has come forward and reminded us all who the Republicans really serve -- and it ain't "we the people."

READ: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0620/emanuel-barton-shows-gop-govern/
EXCERPT:

"That [Joe Barton's scripted remarks] is an approach -- they see the aggrieved party here as BP, not the fishermen. Remember, this is not just one person. Rand Paul running for Senate in Kentucky. What did he say? He said, the way BP was being treated was un-American. Other members of the Republican leadership have come to the defense of BP and attacked the administration for forcing them to set up an escrow account and fund it to the level of $20 billion. These aren't political gaffes," Emanuel continued.

"I think what Joe Barton did is remind the American people, in case they forgot, this is how Republicans would govern," he said.

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About Time for Obama to tell it like it is!

I felt exactly the same way as the author of this article when Obama, in his Tuesday speech, reached out to the right wing YET AGAIN!  (Quote: When Obama said yet again on Tuesday that he would be “happy to look at other ideas and approaches from either party,” you wanted to shout back, Enough already! His energy would be far better spent calling out in no uncertain terms what the other party’s “ideas and approaches” are. The more the Fox-Palin right has strengthened its hold on the G.O.P. during primary season, the sharper and more risky its ideology has become. Unquote)  ENOUGH ALREADY!  It is futile to reach out to those who are owned by the corporations and must vote and mouth the words given to them to say by those corporations.  If Obama hasn't learned that by now, he is a worse dunce than Duhmbya  (and I never thought I would ever have to make such a horrifying statement!  Obama has been a GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT to those of us who really believed he would bring the CHANGE he promised.)

READ: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/opinion/20rich.html?hp

CLEAN THEIR CLOCK
By Frank Rich

EXCERPT: 

When Joe Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, revived Rand Paul’s defense of BP last week by apologizing on camera to Hayward for the “tragedy” of the White House’s “$20 billion shakedown,” the G.O.P. establishment had to shut him down because he was revealing the party’s true loyalties, not because it disagreed with him. Barton was merely echoing Michele Bachmann, who labeled the $20 billion for gulf victims a “redistribution-of-wealth fund,” and the 100-plus other House members whose Republican Study Committee had labeled the $20 billion a “Chicago-style shakedown” only a day before Barton did.

These tribunes of the antigovernment right and their Tea Party auxiliaries are clamoring for a new revolution to “take back America” — after which, we now can see, they would hand over America to the likes of BP.

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Halliburton to make money on Oil Spill

What else would we have expected?  Cheney will be making even more millions -- no wonder he's been keeping his mouth shut about the oil spill....
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0618/halliburton-making-money-oil-spill/

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BP Oil Spill was inevitable

OBAMA: PLEASE LISTEN AND TAKE ACTION!!!

TIME TO TAP T.R. and RENEW PROGRESSIVE TRADITION
by Jonathan Alter
http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/58-58/2239-obama-bp-and-theodore-roosevelt

EXCERPT:

If he can frame the message more memorably than he did in his Oval Office address, Obama may yet use the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history to speed the transition to a green economy, just as George W. Bush used terrorism to refashion foreign policy. To do so, “deregulation”—once a Reaganite call to arms—must be transformed into an epithet. If the president can’t put the antigovernment, Tea Party types in their place now, when will he? The legacy of the American progressive tradition is on the line.

More than 100 GOP members of Congress belong to a committee that attacked Obama’s plan to make BP set up a $20 billion escrow fund.

Conservatives are again trotting out the idea—slam-dunked by history—that energy and environmental regulations kill jobs. If we’d listened to them in the ’70s, we would be living in a cesspool of pollution. And if we listen to them now, and stay addicted to fossil fuels, we’ll miss out on the clean-energy technologies that are already changing the world. On the ballot this fall, it’s the 19th century vs. the 21st.

If you think I’m exaggerating, listen to the Republicans. Glenn Beck believes progressivism is “a cancer” and we should go back to the Gilded Age’s unfettered capitalism. Rush Limbaugh and his Capitol Hill stooges still oppose more stringent regulation and won’t renounce their “Drill, baby, drill!” platform.

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Rachel Maddow gives Obama speech that should-have-been

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/17/rachel-maddows-oval-offic_n_615515.html

Rachel says she will never run for office -- what a shame, because she is exactly what this country needs: no-nonsense, practical, dynamic, and no-holds-barred when it comes to action rather than rhetoric.  This faux-Presidential speech is exactly what Obama should have said, but never will.  He is not the leader he painted himself to be and will never be ranked with the top Presidents -- as of now, in my opinion, he is only slightly ahead of the Cheney/Bush presidency, one of the greatest tragedies our nation has yet endured.

With Rachel Maddow as President, we would already have a renewable energy policy in place or, (sadly, as has been the case with other presidents) she would already have been done away with, one way or another, by those who really hold the power in our country and our world).  In dire warning to us, Eisenhower's farewell speech as President warned of the takeover of our government by the "military/industrial complex."  See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY  What Eisenhower feared has now come to be. The greed-driven corporate self-defined "elite" are in control and our nation is by far the poorer for it.

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Overtreatment a serious problem in our medical system

An Excellent article.  http://www.dddmag.com/news-Overtreatment-A-Serious-Problem-in-the-US-6710.aspx

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EXCELLENT ESSAY -- Obama, the non-doer president

Full of truth about Obama and the corporations who really run our government...and our lives.

The Do-Nothing 44th President
By David Michael Green

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/david-michael-green/29417/the-do-nothing-44th-president

EXCERPT: Obama had all the cards stacked in his favor, ranging from a destroyed opposition party, to a series of crises, to a public demanding change, to massive majorities in Congress, to global good will. He's pissed it all away in his unrelenting dedication to mediocrity and inoffensiveness.

...It seems to me that there are four options for understanding Obama's self-defeating tendency when it comes to the economic disaster he inherited. One is that he simply isn't so smart, and doesn't get the ramifications of continued unemployment at the level it's currently running. The second option is that he's just a policy bungler, who has the right intentions but makes lousy choices for trying to get there. The third possibility is that Obama recognizes this latest recession as the capstone (we hope) of a three decade long process by the economic oligarchy seeking nothing less than the downsizing of the American middle class, and he simply lacks the courage to attempt any reversal of this tsunami of wealth redistribution. The final, and scariest - but by no means least probable - explanation for Obama's behavior is that he is ultimately no less a tool in that very piracy project than was George W. Bush or Bill Clinton.

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On-the-Mark Assessment of the Afghanistan War

If only Obama would listen to the SAGE ADVICE of this columnist!  But the corporations who really rule our country and our world will never let their golden goose of continuous war slip through their greedy fingers.  What would Halliburton, Blackwater and the others do without their multi-billion dollar contracts with the military?

The Courage to Leave
By Bob Herbert

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/opinion/12herbert.html?hp

EXCERPT: The U.S. doesn’t win wars anymore. We just funnel the stressed and underpaid troops in and out of the combat zones, while all the while showering taxpayer billions on the contractors and giant corporations that view the horrors of war as a heaven-sent bonanza. BP, as we’ve been told repeatedly recently, is one of the largest suppliers of fuel to the wartime U.S. military.

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Prepare yourself for the BP Bailout Proposal

By Brent Budowsky

Get ready for the BP bailout debate. As the most hated company in America led by the most despised CEO in business continues its systematic deceptions about the magnitude of the catastrophe, its systematic secrecy and threats of reprisal against employees who speak the truth in public and its systematic blockade against reporters seeking the basic facts, get ready for the mother of all political debates.

When the full damage of the oil is calculated, and the full payment of restitution is required and the full consequences of lawsuits are understood and the monetary consequences of such enormous personal and economic misery are realized, BP will tell us that we face the choice of BP going bankrupt and being unable to pay its debts or receiving a government bailout so it can meet its obligations from the damage it has done.

We will be told that BP is too big to fail.

Prediction: Before the rooster crows another 60 times, BP will be seeking a government bailout. If you thought the Wall Street bailout debate was nasty, wait until you see the BP bailout debate.

There should be NO bailout of BP paid for by ANY taxpayer, period, end of discussion, over and out. If necessary there should be a fund paid for by all of the oil companies doing offshore drilling, as the price of their doing business off our shores and as the incentive to make sure this does not happen again.

The economic damage and the political fallout have only begun. If the pictures of oil spewing from pipes are unsavory, and the pictures of angry citizens and dead pelicans are unsavory, watch what happens when we begin weeks of television news of the D-Day invasion of poison oil landing on the beaches of the American Normandy.

It would serve Washington right if the rivers of poison meet the loop current and the Gulf Stream and end up in the river of the Potomac so official Washington can see, taste and smell what has only begun for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Let us hope this does not happen, though it very well could.

Today, the president should demand, and BP should disclose, every video stream and internal memo that reveals the truth, whatever it is, about the size of the ocean of poison.

Today, the president should demand, and BP should disclose, the exact amount of chemical dispersants that are polluting our land, water and people.

Today, the president should demand, and BP should agree, that all restrictions against media be ended and all reprisals against media should be stopped, and if rights are being violated, those responsible should be prosecuted.

The sooner the truth comes out, the safer our people will be.

Today, the president should demand, and BP should disclose, the exact and complete chemical composition of the dispersants so Americans do not wake up on some future morning with news about deformed babies or cancerous disease.

Mark my words: The abuse of dispersants, the composition of which are being kept secret, in amounts that are probably infinitely larger than what is being disclosed, create the potential for a grave, extreme and mortal health catastrophe whose pain and cost are not even remotely understood today.

What does it tell us that these secrets are being kept from the people even today? It tells us that the damage is far more than realized, and that the cost is far greater than understood, and that the BP bailout is far more likely than realized.

With BP delaying so much payment to so many people already, heaven help the victims when the payments due mount from the millions that are currently unpaid today, to the billions of dollars that will be due tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

Ladies and gentlemen, mark my words, the BP bailout issue will soon reach the front pages and television screens, and our answer to the "bailout for BP" idea should be simple:

No, no, no, no, no.

Let the cash-rich oil industry pay the full cost, not the hard-hit taxpayers of an outraged nation who have been slammed too hard, far too often.

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Rare photo of slave children from the 1860s

Not a proud time in the history of this so-called "Christian" country...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=10880072

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In praise of Helen Thomas

http://www.truthout.org/i-come-praise-helen-thomas-not-bury-her60258

If only every journalist could ask the obvious questions as Helen did over her 60-year career!!!  She puts the rest of them to shame.

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Study shows how radiation (mammography) can cause cancer

http://www.naturalnews.com/028959_radiation_brst_cancer.html

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Interesting essay by a Baptist minister

I've often wondered about this paradox myself...

from consortiumnews.com

How 'Power' Christians Ignore Jesus

By the Rev. Howard Bess
June 4, 2010

Editor’s Note: Many American Christians are inclined to boast about the United States and its uni-polar power – a kind of geopolitical chant of “we’re number one” – even as they put bumper stickers on their cars asking “what would Jesus do?”

The contradiction between this muscular power projection of many Christians and the humble teachings of Jesus are so striking that retired Baptist minister Howard Bess wonders whether many of these believers understand what Jesus actually preached:

Are Christians destined to be rulers? Over the past 2,000 years, the vast majority of the followers of Jesus have answered that question with a resounding “yes.” With that answer, we have deserted the very leader we claim to follow.

Among the aphorisms of Jesus is a simple message that his initial followers found troubling: “If any among you would be great, let him be a servant of all.” This saying is found in both the Matthew gospel and the Mark gospel. 

The two gospels set the story a bit differently. However, in both versions, a dispute has arisen among Jesus’s disciples, vying for first place after Jesus was expected to become a powerful ruler. They were looking forward to the day when they would be top dogs in a powerful ruling kingdom.
 
But Jesus had a different vision. The people of God were to be a servant people.

Jesus pointed out to his disciples that other people aspired to greatness by exercising authority, adding: “It shall not be so among you!”

To buttress this point, Jesus quoted from the Isaiah writings of the Old Testament, a passage written during the period of the Babylonian captivity, arguably the lowest point in the ancient history of the Israelites.

Lower Palestine had been overrun by the Babylonians. Most of its inhabitants had been carried off and scattered to the far reaches of the Babylonian empire. The magnificent temple that had been built by King Solomon was leveled to the ground.

Except for a handful of Israelites, who were relocated to the city of Babylon, a once proud and powerful kingdom had disappeared from the earth.

This outcome was a terrible blow to the Israelite tradition which envisioned the children of Israel possessing authority and power, an attitude deeply imbedded in the psyche of a people who believed they were specially designated by God.

The symbols of that greatness had been their capital city, Jerusalem, and their temple. Both were gone, seemingly forever. 

Those who had been chosen to survive as slaves in Babylon were primarily of the priestly class and were educated.  During the 70 years of their life in Babylon, this small band of Israelite elite became prolific writers, rewriters and recorders of Jewish history and culture.

While some dreamed of a day when Jerusalem and the temple would be rebuilt, there was a small inner circle of writers who saw the people of God in a new role. They saw the people of God as servants of humanity, not rulers. These special writings became a part of the Isaiah material.

After 70 years, the descendents of this hardy bunch of slaves were allowed to return to their homeland. They rebuilt a walled city on the site of old Jerusalem and eventually built a new temple as a home for God, and in which they could make their animal sacrifices.

The glory days of David and Solomon never returned, but the majority of the people did not give up their dream of being the ruling nation of the world. At the same time, largely hidden and barely noticed, this other vision of the people of God being a servant people persisted. That vision lurked in the shadows, waiting for the obscure rabbi from Nazareth.

The days of Jesus were not good days for a devout Jew. The temple in Jerusalem was an unholy farce that had been rebuilt for political purposes by a puppet king who owed his allegiance to the Roman emperor. The priests who cared for the day-to-day operation of the temple were corrupt and obeyed the puppet king rather than Jehovah God.

Jesus did not simply reject the temple system because of it corruption. Confronting its corruption was incidental to his more profound message. He proposed the establishment of a new kingdom on earth based on service rather than on authority and power.

There were other rebellious movements among Jews at the time of Jesus. The Zealots were an organized movement that advocated removing corrupt power by military might. Tradition presents the disciple Peter as one who had dabbled in the Zealot movement and who is pictured carrying a sword the night Jesus was arrested in Jerusalem.

Peter had not yet absorbed the servant ideal. A key dramatic moment occurred when Jesus told Peter “put up your sword.” Jesus may well have added: “My followers do not resort to swords.”

This core message from Jesus has left many Christians and Christian churches horribly conflicted. (Some Christians prefer to view Jesus in the militaristic image from the Book of Revelation, the last book added to the New Testament, rather than from his actual teachings recorded in the gospels.)

But the message of service also shines through. I am pleased -- and justly so -- with the services that Christians and Christian churches provide to many communities. I could tell endless true stories of the good that is done every day in the name of Jesus: hospitality, food, clothing, medical care, education, friendship and generous giving of funds.

At the same time, we seem unable or unwilling to lay down our swords and give up the desire for authority and power.

Speaking of himself, Jesus said “the son of man did not come into the world to be served but to be a servant.” His followers should do no less.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. 

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Good quotes

These all contain wonderful truths.   (~.~)

"One thing I know: The only ones among you who will be really happy are  those who will have sought and found how to serve." ~Albert Schweitzer  Bill Moyers on the PBS "/The Power of Myth/" asked Joseph Campbell, "Do  you ever have the sense of … being helped by hidden hands?" Campbell  replied, "All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition  that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the  time—namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind  of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the  life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can  see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and  they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid,  and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."  "You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don't  make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and  then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you." ~Maya Angelou   

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Helen is Back!

It's Great to see our real journalist Helen back in the front row at press conferences, embraced by a president who doesn't fear her bold, to-the-point questions (Thank you for asking them, Helen!) -- instead of behind the potted palm in the back row where Cheney/Bush had her banished during their way-too-long brutal reign.  Long may Helen live to ask her genuine WTF? questions we all want answered!!!  Now, if only we could finally get a president who would give her (and us) truthful answers instead of White House spin...

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Bush: Yeah, I waterboarded him and I'd do it again

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/03/bushs-glib-waterboarding_n_599893.html

This is the kind of consciousness we endured for 8 long years in the nation's White House.  The Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld years will go down in historical infamy.  How these evil men could have come to leadership positions in our country remains a mystery to me (and I will always wonder at how ANYone could have voted for them!).  They stole the presidency and hurled us backward to the dark ages.  Can we ever recover from the damage they inflicted on our country and on the world?  One can only hope ... and pray.

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Mark Twain in movie film taken by Thomas Edison 1909

The only known film footage of Mark Twain and his daughters Jean and Clara.  http://www.openculture.com/2010/03/mark_twain_captured_on_film_by_thomas_edison_1909.html

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Our Epic Foolishness by Bob Herbert

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/opinion/01herbert.html
Bob Herbert gives sensible, practical advice in this column! I hope Obama takes it -- and runs with it! Damn the conservative naysayers -- we can't wait for them to catch up to the 21st century. Their "No, No, NO's" are holding us back--and killing us in the process. Look at the damage that has been done to our country by this type of thinking -- by the Reagans, Bushes, Cheneys and Palins of our era. They have brought this country to its knees with their deregulation of corporations and banks. It's astounding that Republican right-wingers can still support the policies that have led us to disaster. It's as if they are deaf, dumb, and blind to the consequences of their votes. They vote against their own interests! (Read the book What's the Matter with Kansas?) Instead of looking at where the insanity of the Cheney/Bush years have brought us, many of the racists among them would rather concentrate their outrage against an African-American president, just for the color of his skin. Since we cannot raise the consciousness of these people, by our votes we will have to make sure they don't get any more of their backwards candidates into political leadership positions.

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Scientists studying man who doesn't eat or drink

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/International/man-eat-drink/story?id=10787036

There have been others (Teresa Neumann, a Catholic mystic) who also did not eat or drink for years -- they seemed to live on light or air. (See http://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/2009/12/therese-neumann-mystic-victim-soul.html ) I have to laugh at the oh-so-certain dietitian quoted in the article. She lives in her own practical world and hasn't a clue about mysticism.  There is so much we do not know, and I am glad these particular scientists have enough curiosity that they want to study this phenomenon.  So-called "scientists" through the centuries have more often proven themselves to be closed-minded about anything that didn't agree with their already-established belief systems.  I've just finished reading a book called The Ghost Hunters, which tells about William James (famous Harvard psychologist, brother of Henry James) and Arthur Conan Doyle and Sir Oliver Lodge, all of whom were curious about life after death and pursued answers to their questions, despite mockery from the "scientists" around them whose minds were shut tight against new information. I can't understand how one can call oneself a scientist and yet have no curiosity or willingness to pursue new information as it begins to reveal itself in our world. 

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