And as long as Coulthard doesn't turn it into a Red Bull wankfest, it should be grand, mighty even.
Martin Brundle & David Coulthard to be F1 commentators
Martin Brundle is to become BBC Sport's lead Formula 1 commentator in 2011, with David Coulthard moving alongside him as co-commentator.
Brundle, who replaces Jonathan Legard, has commentated on 231 grands prix since retiring as an F1 driver in 1996.
Brundle said he was "absolutely delighted and very motivated" by his new role alongside Coulthard.
The Scot, who joined the BBC after retiring from F1 in 2008, said: "F1 is all about challenging yourself."
Ben Gallop, BBC's head of F1, said: "We're always looking for ways to take our F1 coverage to another level - and for 2011 we have an exciting new combination in the commentary box.
"We're keen to make the most of Martin Brundle's wealth of broadcasting experience and his popularity with the audience by giving him the role of lead commentator and putting him alongside David Coulthard, one of the biggest names in British motorsport and a skilled race analyst.
"We want to tap into their combined on-track expertise - together they will provide our viewers with more immediate discussion, analysis and debate as the action happens."
Coulthard, who won 13 grands prix in a 15-year F1 career, added: "This will be a big challenge for me, but one that I am looking forward to. There is a great team on the BBC F1 show and we're looking forward to the year ahead and to bringing something new to our loyal viewers."
Brundle has commentated on 231 grands prix since he first joined ITV in 1997 after a 13-year F1 career, during which he drove for Tyrrell, Zakspeed, Williams, Brabham, Ligier, Benetton, McLaren and Jordan.
This will be the first time he has been the lead commentator.
Brundle and Coulthard have done screen tests in their new roles and Gallop said: "The results of screen tests have been very impressive and we are convinced this combination will deliver a fantastic commentary for our audience for what promises to be a thrilling 2011 season."
Brundle said: "I'm absolutely delighted and very motivated that BBC Sport has asked me to become the lead Formula 1 commentator alongside David Coulthard.
"We have been friends, rivals and colleagues for 18 years and combined we have driven more than 400 F1 grands prix and attended more than 700.
"I've never felt more passionate about F1 and I can't wait to get started."
Coulthard added: "I'm very excited to be joining forces with Martin in this new role of co-commentator. F1 is all about challenging yourself and this will be a big challenge for me, but one that I am looking forward to.
"There is a great team on the BBC F1 show and we're looking forward to the year ahead and to bringing something new to our loyal viewers."
The decision to team Brundle with Coulthard means there is no place for Legard in the BBC F1 commentary set-up.
Gallop added: "We'd like to take this opportunity to thank Jonathan for his great work over the last two seasons.
"He is a first-rate journalist and broadcaster who has been a core member of our team, helping to re-establish BBC Sport as the nation's F1 broadcaster. We wish him all the very best for the future." BBC F1
Not being a disbarred solicitor, I don't feel qualified to comment on biological questions of such complexity. So I shall leave it up to you to come to your own conclusion. I wouldn't have run with this story, but it was only yesterday that I watched this trailer (below) for a program I'm waiting to watch. A somewhat different equation I'll grant you, but near enough to grab my attention.
Methanotroph' bacteria feasted on blown BP rig's methane belch
Scientists believe they have solved the mystery over what happened to the hundreds of thousands of tons of methane that belched into the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion last April.
According to a study published in Science Xpress, the gas served as a feast for methanotrophs: bacteria able to use natural gas as food.
A team of US researchers found that the level of dissolved oxygen in a 36,000-square-mile are surrounding the rig had plummeted, a tell-tale sign of a boom in the methanotroph population. They made measurements that ruled out the possibility that the escaped methane had simply bubbled into the atmosphere.
"What we observed in June was a horizon of deep water laden with methane and other hydrocarbon gases," said UC Santa Barbara oceanographer David Valentine.
"When we returned in September and October and tracked these waters, we found the gases were gone. In their place were residual methane-eating bacteria, and a one million ton deficit in dissolved oxygen that we attribute to respiration of methane by these bacteria."
The scientists were particularly surprised at the speed with which the bacteria consumed their enormous meal. Earlier studies elsewhere in the world suggested methane levels around Deepwater Horizon would be well above normal for years ahead.
Valentine's co-author, John Kessler of Texas A&M, said the study has major implications for our understanding of how methane releases affect the climate. There are vast stores of the powerful greenhouse gas trapped on the sea floor, and it had been supposed that occasional large releases have a significant impact on global temperatures.
"What the Deepwater Horizon incident has taught us is that releases of methane with similar characteristics will not have the capacity to influence climate," Kessler said.
The question of what happened to the more than four million barrels of crude oil spilled after the blow out, which also dissipated sooner than expected, remains under debate. Factors including high winds, natural breakdown, evaporation and the clean-up operation have all been suggested. The Register
Army's "Spiritual Fitness" Test Comes Under Fire Wednesday 05 January 2011
Test Was Designed by Psychologist Who Inspired CIA's Torture Program
An experimental, Army mental-health, fitness initiative designed by the same psychologist whose work heavily influenced the psychological aspects of the Bush administration's torture program is under fire by civil rights groups and hundreds of active-duty soldiers. They say it unconstitutionally requires enlistees to believe in God or a "higher power" in order to be deemed "spiritually fit" to serve in the Army.
Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) is a $125 million "holistic fitness program" unveiled in late 2009 and aimed at reducing the number of suicides and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cases, which have reached epidemic proportions over the past year due to multiple deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the substandard care soldiers have received when they return from combat. The Army states that it can accomplish its goal by teaching its service members how to be psychologically resilient and resist "catastrophizing" traumatic events. Defense Department documents obtained by Truthout state CSF is Army Chief of Staff George Casey's "third highest priority."
CSF is comprised of the Soldier Fitness Tracker and Global Assessment Tool, which measures soldiers' "resilience" in five core areas: emotional, physical, family, social and spiritual. Soldiers fill out an online survey made up of more than 100 questions, and if the results fall into a red area, they are required to participate in remedial courses in a classroom or online setting to strengthen their resilience in the disciplines in which they received low scores. The test is administered every two years. More than 800,000 Army soldiers have taken it thus far.
But for the thousands of "Foxhole Atheists" like 27-year-old Sgt. Justin Griffith, the spiritual component of the test contains questions written predominantly for soldiers who believe in God or another deity, meaning nonbelievers are guaranteed to score poorly and will be forced to participate in exercises that use religious imagery to "train" soldiers up to a satisfactory level of spirituality.
Griffith, who is based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, took the test last month and scored well on the emotional, family and social components. But after completing the spiritual portion of the exam, which required him to respond to statements such as, "I am a spiritual person, my life has lasting meaning, I believe that in some way my life is closely connected to all humanity and all the world, " he was found to be spiritually unfit because he responded by choosing the "not like me at all" box.
His test results advised him, "spiritual fitness" is an area "of possible difficulty for you."
"You may lack a sense of meaning and purpose in your life," Griffith's test said. "At times, it is hard for you to make sense of what is happening to you and others around you. You may not feel connected to something larger than yourself. You may question your beliefs, principles and values. There are things to do to provide more meaning and purpose in your life. Improving your spiritual fitness should be an important goal."
In an interview, Griffith, who was not speaking on behalf of the Army, said he was "deeply offended" by the spiritual questions he was forced to answer.
"It seems like my destiny is all messed up and that I am unfit to serve in the United States Army, if you believe the results of this test," said Griffith, who has served in the Army for five years. "When I think of the word spirituality I go to the root of the word: spirit. I don't believe in that." More Truthout
Truthout's reporting on the Army's so-called "spiritual fitness" test was featured on Thursday by MSNBC host Keith Olbermann on Countdown. Video
Will someone take pity on this confused old soul, and explain it all to me? Please.
MPs' expenses: David Chaytor jailed over false claims
Ex-Labour MP David Chaytor has been jailed for 18 months for fraudulently claiming more than £20,000 in expenses.
Chaytor, 61, the former MP for Bury North, last month admitted three charges of false accounting.
He submitted bogus invoices for IT consultancy work and claimed rent he never paid on homes owned by his family, the court was told.
His lawyer James Sturman QC said he was a "broken man" who had paid a "devastating price" for the claims.
The former MP is now facing a large legal bill for both his defence and the costs of bringing the prosecution against him.
Chaytor made the false expenses claims in order to "siphon off" public money to which he was not entitled, the court heard.
Sentencing him Mr Justice Saunders said the 2009 MPs' expenses scandal had "shaken public confidence in the legislature and angered the public".
He said: "These false claims were made in breach of the high degree of trust placed in MPs to only make legitimate claims.
"These offences have wider and more important consequences than is to be found in other breach of trust cases. That is the effect they have had and will have in the confidence the public has in politicians."
The judge said MPs' behaviour must be "entirely honest if public confidence in the parliamentary system and rule of law is to be maintained".
He added that when fraudulent claims were discovered "significant penalties should follow so people realise how important it is for people to be honest in dealing with public funds".
Chaytor had been due to be the first MP to stand trial over expenses but changed his plea to guilty days before it started.
Two other former MPs, one current MP and two members of the House of Lords are due to face separate trials over their expenses claims. All have pleaded not guilty.
Chaytor, of Lumbutts, Todmorden, West Yorkshire, was paid £18,350 from the false claims.
A further £1,950 fraudulently claimed for IT support services was not paid out, because he had already exceeded his allowance for that type of expense.
The court heard that Chaytor was paid £12,925 for rent on a flat near Westminster between 2005 and 2006 which he owned, using a fake tenancy agreement with a "Sarah Elizabeth Rastrick" - his daughter's first and middle names.
He also claimed £5,425 for renting a cottage in Summerseat, near Bury in Lancashire between September 2007 and January 2008. A police investigation discovered it was actually owned by his mother, Olive Trickett, who had moved into a nursing home in May 2007 because she had dementia.
The claim for IT support services, made in May 2006, came as "something of a surprise" to the man named in the invoice - Paul France - the court heard, because he had not billed the former MP for any work. Mr France was a Labour member who did voluntary work at Chaytor's office. More and video of, I'm such a lying Tory twat, Jonathan Aitken, giving advice about life on the in. BBC
Blogging with attitude, blogging with a fuck you attitude, and unapologetic with it.
I've been wanting to up a link to this site for a few days now, particularly after availing myself of a link or two that I found there. But I knew if I upped the thing without first putting my hand in my pocket, then the odds of Sea Shepherd Org. actually seeing a donation might have got a bit longer. (See new banner)
When you take a look at this site and read yer man's words, in truth I couldn't for shame not have sent a few bob, to what is after all, a cause close to my heart.
This is a mighty resource for anyone with a social conscience, and undoubtedly the result of an equally mighty effort. Activism on this scale makes me feel quite humble, my hat off to you Sir.
Click to open.
Radical Video Library
(EN) Radical Video Library is a non-profit D.I.Y. project, that has put as its goal to spread the word in form of "the video". We will try to bring here various genres from different perspectives and subcultures. We try to focus especially on anarchy, protests, riots, ecology, animal liberation, peak oil, antifascist struggle, human rights and other liberation struggles - in the form of film, documentaries, music, presentations, pictures, zines,...for Download.
Do you like something you downloaded from this library? It can happen that the DLL links get deleted so I encourage you to UPLOAD these films or documentaries to other servers, so it will be available for download as long as possible.
Remember! The main purpose of this library is not to keep you in front of the computer screen!! The struggle is out there in the streets and forests of this lovely Earth!!!
Hey folks, write me if you have something on your heart:) E-mail: anticopyright@moose-mail.com
I just love stories like this from the land of darkness. It doesn't give the gender of of the thing, but I hope it ain't female. At least it ain't one of these fellows below, that would be curtains.
Israel's secret agent
Our allies the Saudis have demonstrated once again how deeply connected they are to reality. Ha’aretz reports:
A vulture tagged by scientists at Tel Aviv University has strayed into Saudi Arabian territory, where it was promptly arrested on suspicion of being a Mossad spy, Israeli and Saudi media reported Tuesday.
The bird was found in a rural area of the country wearing a transmitter and a leg bracelet bearing the words ‘Tel Aviv University’... Although these tags indicate that the bird was part of a long-term research project into migration patterns, residents and local reporters told Saudi Arabia's Al-Weeam newspaper that the matter seemed to be a ‘Zionist plot.’
The accusations went viral, with hundreds of posts on Arabic-language websites and forums claiming that the Zionists’ had trained these birds for espionage.
The Sinai regional governor last month suggested that a shark that killed and maimed tourists on its Red Sea port may have been intentionally released by Israeli agents in order to sabotage the country’s tourist industry.
Ah yes – to the Saudis and the rest of the Islamic world, not content with manipulating American foreign policy, being behind everything to do with modernity from the French Revolution onwards and flying planes into the World Trade Centre screaming ‘Allahu akhbar’, those devilish Jews are now recruiting the animal kingdom as intelligence agents – doubtless with their handlers posing as potted plants.
Isn’t it reassuring to know how closely the British and the Americans work with our Saudi friends! Spectator
In late November, Venezuela was hammered by torrential rains and flooding that left 35 people dead and roughly 130,000 homeless. If George Bush had been president, instead of Hugo Chavez, the displaced people would have been shunted off at gunpoint to makeshift prison camps--like the Superdome--as they were following Hurricane Katrina. But that's not the way Chavez works. The Venezuelan president quickly passed "enabling" laws which gave him special powers to provide emergency aid and housing to flood victims. Chavez then cleared out the presidential palace and turned it into living quarters for 60 people, which is the equivalent of turning the White House into a homeless shelter. The disaster victims are now being fed and taken care of by the state until they can get back on their feet and return to work.
The details of Chavez's efforts have been largely omitted in the US media where he is regularly demonized as a "leftist strongman" or a dictator. The media refuses to acknowledge that Chavez has narrowed the income gap, eliminated illiteracy, provided health care for all Venezuelans, reduced inequality, and raised living standards across he board. While Bush and Obama were expanding their foreign wars and pushing through tax cuts for the rich, Chavez was busy improving the lives of the poor and needy while fending off the latest wave of US aggression.
Washington despises Chavez because he is unwilling to hand over Venezuela's vast resources to corporate elites and bankers. That's why the Bush administration tried to depose Chavez in a failed coup attempt in 2002, and that's why the smooth-talking Obama continues to launch covert attacks on Chavez today. Washington wants regime change so it can install a puppet who will hand over Venezuela's reserves to big oil while making life hell for working people.
Recently released documents from Wikileaks show that the Obama administration has stepped up its meddling in Venezuela's internal affairs. Here's an excerpt from a recent post by attorney and author, Eva Golinger:
"In a secret document authored by current Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Craig Kelly, and sent by the US Embassy in Santiago in June 2007 to the Secretary of State, CIA and Southern Command of the Pentagon, along with a series of other US embassies in the region, Kelly proposed "six main areas of action for the US government (USG) to limit Chavez's influence" and "reassert US leadership in the region".
Kelly, who played a primary role as "mediator" during last year's coup d'etat in Honduras against President Manuel Zelaya, classifies President Hugo Chavez as an "enemy" in his report.more
Because it shows a degree of selective concern that is as hypocritical as it is nauseating.
Manning in Shackles
(2011) Six by Twelve For over six months Bradley Manning has spent twenty three hours a day in solitary confinement in a six by 12 foot cell, under unrelenting lights, with neither pillow nor sheet, waiting to be tried. Is the U.S. government attempting to compel Manning to make possible false confessions that would implicate Julian Assange and WikiLeaks? Truthout
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(2006)Video Is a Window Into a Terror Suspect’s Isolation
“Today is May 21,” a naval official declared to a camera videotaping the event. “Right now we’re ready to do a root canal treatment on Jose Padilla, our enemy combatant.”
Several guards in camouflage and riot gear approached cell No. 103. They unlocked a rectangular panel at the bottom of the door and Mr. Padilla’s bare feet slid through, eerily disembodied. As one guard held down a foot with his black boot, the others shackled Mr. Padilla’s legs. Next, his hands emerged through another hole to be manacled.
Wordlessly, the guards, pushing into the cell, chained Mr. Padilla’s cuffed hands to a metal belt. Briefly, his expressionless eyes met the camera before he lowered his head submissively in expectation of what came next: noise-blocking headphones over his ears and blacked-out goggles over his eyes. Then the guards, whose faces were hidden behind plastic visors, marched their masked, clanking prisoner down the hall to his root canal.
The videotape of that trip to the dentist, which was recently released to Mr. Padilla’s lawyers and viewed by The New York Times, offers the first concrete glimpse inside the secretive military incarceration of an American citizen whose detention without charges became a test case of President Bush’s powers in the fight against terror. Still frames from the videotape were posted in Mr. Padilla’s electronic court file late Friday. More NYT
Eastern State Penitentiary was the world's first true Penitentiary. In order to encourage penitence - or true regret - in the hearts of criminals, inmates would spend their entire sentence in solitary confinement. On the rare occasion when an inmate left his cell, a hood was placed over his head to ensure his identity would remain anonymous. Ideally, no inmate would ever see the face of another inmate.
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(2008)Torture in Our Own Backyards: The Fight Against Supermax Prisons Imagine living in an 8-by-12 prison cell, in solitary confinement, for eight years straight. Your entire world consists of a dank, cinder block room with a narrow *window* only three inches high, opening up to an outdoor cement cage, cynically dubbed, "the yard." If you're lucky, you spend one hour five days a week in that outdoor cage, where you gaze up through a wire mesh roof and hope for a glimpse of the sun. If you talk back to the guards or act out in any way, you might only venture outside one precious hour per week.
You go eight years without shaking a hand or experiencing any physical human contact. The prison guards bark orders and touch you only while wearing leather gloves, and then it's only to put you in full cuffs and shackles before escorting you to the cold showers, where they watch your every move. Hard Hard Time: Supermax Linked
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Timothy Earl, Jan 3, 2011 (Comment Truthout)
The mind boggling thing (which has yet to be written about with much fervor for change is the general use of solitary confinement as punishment in American jails and prisons. It's commonplace. Every inmate entering every county facility in the United States is immediately placed in solitary cofinement, whenever the county is wealthy enough to own facilities, or unlucky enough to have politicians who support these mainstream capital initiatives on thecounty level.
When you get to the state penitentiary, it's just the same. Solitary confinement while they decide where to send you. If it is brutal for a month, it is brutal for a day. Its use is unconsidered. Because solitary is so expensive, they typicallly double bunk any intake cell you occupy, but just because you're in the county lockup doesn't mean you won't spend all of that time in administrative segregation -- the phrase used for the practice of solitary confinement.
Just be a problem of any kind at all. Object to having to recite your prescriptions for the jail nurse while in full hearing of every random inmate in the lockup with you. What stalker knows all that shit about you now? So they double bunk. Whenever "possible." That often means you're alone in a cell 23 hours a day with a cellie who pisses and shits feet from your body whenver he must, making your relationship difficult to begin with. Give further the fact that one of the two of you at least is likely to have some sort of chemical dependency, and you've got a truly dangerous and unhelpful situation happening in social isolation.
One pervert and one check dropper in an 8 by 10. Try it. That's how we do ALL the untried people we incarcerate in the United States, often times including children adjudicated as adults or not. It's awful, and the terrible truth is that while privatization also blooms on the deadly jailhouse flower, we hear no outstanding voices on the issue at all. Manning's circumstances are hardly exclusive to him. Thanks
Footnote: The first step to resolving many of the problems that beset the department of corrections, would be to stop throwing people into jail for smallest of misdemeanours. Effectively reducing the prison population by half I wouldn't wonder. Then to use some of the forty billion dollar budget to educate both inmates and guards.
The two, needless to say, never met. Foucault may have visited Texas on one of his lecture tours, but Junior, as far as it is known, never took his S&M revelry beyond the Ivy League – novelists will have to invent a chance encounter in a basement club in Austin. Moreover, Junior’s general ignorance of all things, except for professional sports, naturally extended to the nation known as France. On his first trip to Paris in 2002, Junior, now president of the United States, stood beside Jacques Chirac at a press conference and said: ‘He’s always saying that the food here is fantastic and I’m going to give him a chance to show me tonight.’
Foucault found his theories embodied, sometimes unconvincingly, in writers such as Proust or Flaubert. He died in 1984, while Junior was still an ageing frat boy, and didn’t live to see this far more applicable text. For the questions that he, even then, declared hopelessly obsolete are the very ones that should not be asked about Decision Points ‘by’ George W. Bush (or by ‘George W. Bush’): ‘Who really spoke? Is it really he and not someone else? With what authenticity or originality? And what part of his deepest self did he express in his discourse?’ Decision Points holds the same relation to George W. Bush as a line of fashion accessories or a perfume does to the movie star that bears its name...... More London Review
. But his treatment is no different to that of tens of thousands of Americans incarcerated by the Department of Corrections Retribution each and every day. Bradley Manning's only difference is, he hasn't been convicted yet.
Check out Prison Nation in the sidebar if you want to read the manner in which, the Greatest Country on earth, treats the horrific number of its citizens that it incarcerates each year.
As UN Probes Whether His Confinement is Torture, Bradley Manning Speaks Friday 24 December 2010
He allegedly leaked a video of U.S. soldiers killing civilians overseas.
Now he's kept in a miserable solitary confinement due to an alleged "suicide watch"--despite passing psychological examinations.
As the U.N. "special rapporteur on torture" begins to probe whether the brutal solitary confinement of Bradley Manning constitutes torture, the imprisoned "leaker" spoke to David House, one of the few people allowed to visit him.
House, who has been very concerned about Manning's "deteriorating physical and mental well-being" wrote on Firedoglake about the conditions under which Manning has been placed, offering strong first-person evidence against the Pentagon's positive spin.
It's a long and detailed post that deserves to be read in full, but some of the key findings include Manning laughing at the idea that he gets ample time to watch the news and exercise, and revealing the drudgery and discomfort of his daily life. Here are House's words.
On the availability of news:
Manning related to me on December 18 2010 that he is not allowed to view international news during his television period. He mentioned that he might theoretically be able to view local news, but his television period is typically from 7pm – 8pm such that no local news is playing in the Quantico, VA area.
Manning told me explicitly on December 18 2010 that he is not, nor has he ever been, allowed newspapers while in confinement. When I said “The Pentagon has stated that you are allowed newspapers”, his immediate reaction was surprised laughter.
On having time for exercise and recreation:
Manning stated to me on December 18 2010 that he has not been outside or into the brig yard for either recreation nor exercise in four full weeks. He related that visits to the outdoors have been infrequent and sporadic for the past several months.
...
Manning related to me on December 18 2010 that he does not receive any substantive exercise and cannot perform even basic exercises in his cell. When told of the Pentagon’s statement that he did indeed receive exercise, Manning’s reply was that he is able to exercise insofar as walking in chains is a form of exercise.
On the conditions of his bedding.
Manning related to me on December 19 2010 that his blankets are similar in weight and heft to lead aprons used in X-ray laboratories, and similar in texture to coarse and stiff carpet. He stated explicitly that the blankets are not soft in the least and expressed concern that he had to lie very still at night to avoid receiving carpet burns. The problem of carpet burns was exacerbated, he related, by the stipulation that he must sleep only in his boxer shorts as part of the longstanding POI order. Manning also stated on December 19 2010 that hallway-mounted lights shine through his window at night. This constant illumination is consistent with reports from attorney David Coombs’ blog that marines must visually inspect Manning as he sleeps.
The momentum to get better conditions for Manning is growing, thanks to the efforts of Glenn Greenwald and other media outlets.
Firedoglake has an action page for concerned citizens. Source and links.
Family Escalates Fight Against Air Force Academy for Allowing On-Campus Proselytizing
Wednesday 22 December 2010
New evidence has surfaced that the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) may have endorsed on-campus proselytizing by fundamentalist and evangelical organizations, particularly the Cadets for Christ ministry.
The Baas family, whose daughter Lauren was converted after entering the school to become a pilot, has been fighting with watchdog group Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) for the USAFA to address the accusations against the academy and Cadets for Christ. The Baas family has alleged that the ministry, which was given free rein by the USAFA to operate on campus, convinced Lauren to abandon her career aspirations and focus solely on an arranged, subservient marriage.
Last week, Lauren's mother Jean Baas said USAFA head chaplain Col. Robert Bruno asked her to provide evidence of unconstitutional proselytizing. Bruno then told the family that the USAFA had received 35 letters in support of Cadets for Christ, addressed to chaplain Lt. Col. J. Daniel Brantingham and written by academy students and graduates. The letters were sent in response to an email from Cadets for Christ founder Don Warrick entitled, "Want To Do A Favor For Cadets For Christ?"
Those letters, Baas said, are the evidence of unconstitutional proselytizing for which the USAFA is asking.
"At this point, somebody's in hot water," Baas said. "Either Warrick is using the academy as a tool and saying it's okay and the academy doesn't know ... or the academy is in cahoots with them."
Warrick sent out multiple emails soliciting letters from Cadets for Christ members prior to the USAFA's Religious Respect Conference in November.
"The Wing Chaplain at the Air Force Academy and our Board thought it would be helpful if we had on file at the Chaplain's office letters from present and past cadets, parents, board members, and other friends of Cadets for Christ," Warrick wrote in the emails. "We are trying to build a stronger relationship with the Chaplain's office so we would be immensely grateful if you took a few minutes to write to the Wing Chaplain and share what Cadets for Christ has meant to you. Would you be willing to help?"
While the request itself is innocuous, Baas said, "I don't think they were just used for the sake of putting them on file. They needed to build artillery in case this came to a head."
"The timing [was] wonderful for the religious conference."
When the Baas family attended Lauren's graduation in 2010, Jean said she witnessed incidents of proselytizing by older cadets who attended the ceremony. "They went around asking the seniors who they were responsible for bringing to the fold," Baas said. At the time, the USAFA dismissed the account as hearsay - but the letters in support of Cadets for Christ show that "it's not hearsay anymore," Baas said. "It's been a hard struggle. They cannot continue it."
Chaplain Bruno also reportedly told the family that the USAFA had received nine negative responses about Cadets for Christ.
"Thirty-five to nine, like it's a score," Baas said.
MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein called the USAFA's move "a new level of deception and malfeasance."
"They're using tabulated numbers to convince our clients that there is no problem," Weinstein said, invoking Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's words that Americans "do not count heads before enforcing the First Amendment."
The emails demonstrate unconstitutional proselytizing, Weinstein said, because Warrick and the Cadets for Christ are shown to be working with the USAFA in an attempt to justify their position. "This act is collusion," Weinstein said. "It's being used to mollify someone who's fighting a constitutional cause ... they're not asking for letters for other organizations." Warrick's solicitation of current cadets is compounded by the fact that the USAFA is federally funded, labeling his actions an attempt to "engage the power of the state."
If Warrick and the USAFA are found to have allowed unconstitutional proselytizing, Weinstein said, the academy will need "a complete change in leadership."
"This won't be solved by the same minds who got us into this disaster," Weinstein said. The USAFA should "replace senior leadership immediately."
The USAFA did not respond to requests for comment. Truthout
I should write a little more on Noah and his boat, it is after all my pet subject, but I guess I don't feel very creative today.
Just a couple of indisputable facts though about this mythological boat, leaving all the other nonsense aside.
1 It wouldn't float, it would fall apart, it's too big to be constructed out wood, there ain't enough strength in timber to support a vessel anywhere near this size.
The first ripple, let alone hundred foot waves for forty days and forty nights, would have seen the thing in bits. And if if could have floated; leaks, what about all the leaks? ask any man who has ever owned a wooden boat about leaks and see what his answer would be.
And how many were crewing this here boat? eight I believe. They say no one bails faster than a drowning man with a bucket, but let's be sensible about things.
2 By the Creationist timeline, it was the stone age when Noah knocked this thing together. By a rationalist timeline, it was the bronze age.
In either case, what did Noah use for a saw? Add to that a saturated atmosphere that would drown you as you stood, if you hadn't already been crushed to death by the increase in atmospheric pressure. I won't go into the fact that water is a finite resource, I shall save that for the other blog.
The seaworthiness of the ark has been recently checked using sophisticated computer programmes. It was found to be as good as, if not better than, modern ships, and was able to withstand waves up to 100 feet high".
See below main text for more startling revelations of this nature.
In Kentucky, Noah’s Ark Theme Park Is Planned
Facing a rising tide of joblessness, the governor of Kentucky has found one solution: build an ark.
The state has promised generous tax incentives to a group of entrepreneurs who plan to construct a full-size replica of Noah’s ark, load it with animals and actors, and make it the centerpiece of a Bible-based tourist attraction called Ark Encounter.
A rendering of a park centered on Noah’s ark, seen below in a 19th-century woodcut, planned for Grant County, Ky. Besides the ark, it would include a Tower of Babel, a first-century village and a journey through the Old Testament.
Since Gov. Steven L. Beshear announced the plan on Wednesday, some constitutional experts have raised alarms over whether government backing for an enterprise that promotes religion violates the First Amendment’s requirement of separation of church and state. But Mr. Beshear, a Democrat, said the arrangement posed no constitutional problem, and brushed off questions about his stand on creationism.
“The people of Kentucky didn’t elect me governor to debate religion,” he said at a news conference. “They elected me governor to create jobs.”
The theme park was conceived by the same Christian ministry that built the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., where dioramas designed to debunk evolution show humans and dinosaurs coexisting peacefully on an earth created by God in six days. The ministry, Answers in Genesis, believes that the earth is only 6,000 years old — a controversial assertion even among many Bible-believing Christians.
Although the Creation Museum has been a target of ridicule by some, it has drawn 1.2 million visitors in its first three years — proving that there is a sizable paying audience for entertainment rooted in a literal interpretation of the Bible.
On Friday, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky’s second-largest newspaper, criticized Mr. Beshear in an editorial for a plan that it said would result in low-wage jobs and a poor image for the state.
“Anyone who wants to believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible has that right,” the editorial said. “However, the way the Beshear administration handled this makes it appear Kentucky either embraces such thinking or is desperate to take advantage of those who do.”
The developers of Ark Encounter, who have incorporated as a profit-making company, say they expect to spend $150 million, employ 900 people and attract 1.6 million visitors from around the world in the first year. With the Creation Museum only 45 miles away, they envision a Christian tourism corridor that would draw busloads from churches and Christian schools for two- and three-day visits.
“It’s our opportunity to present accurate, factual biblical information to people about a subject that they’re really interested in,” said Mike Zovath, a senior vice president of Answers in Genesis.
In the interest of verisimilitude, the ark is to be built with wooden pegs and timber framing by Amish builders, Mr. Zovath said. Animals including giraffes — but only small, young giraffes — will be kept in pens on board.
“We think that God would probably have sent healthy juvenile-sized animals that weren’t fully grown yet, so there would be plenty of room,” said Mr. Zovath, a retired Army lieutenant colonel heading the ark project. “We want to show how Noah would have taken care of them, taken care of waste management, taken care of water needs and food needs.”
Ark Encounter is designed to be a model of environmentally sensitive development, Mr. Zovath said, to minimize its carbon footprint. “I don’t believe in global warming,” he said, “but I do believe we’ve got to be good stewards of everything God’s given us.”
The park will include a 100-foot Tower of Babel, a first-century Middle Eastern village and a journey through the Old Testament, with special effects depicting Moses, the 10 plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. For children, there will be a petting zoo, live bird and animal shows and a play area with ziplines and climbing nets — all Bible-themed. Even the trainer, Dan Breeding, will present animal acts with a Gospel message about creation.
Under Kentucky’s Tourism Development Act, tourist attractions can get back up to 25 percent of their development costs over 10 years from sales tax generated at the facility. Ark Encounter stands to receive $37.5 million — a quarter of its investment.
The entry fee for adults would be somewhere in the middle- to upper-$30 range, said Cary Summers, the lead consultant, who has run large entertainment attractions in Branson, Mo., and helped expand the Bass Pro Shops into shopping and entertainment complexes.
Mr. Summers said the developers had options on 800 acres of land in Grant County, Ky. If all the approvals are granted, they expect to break ground next year and finish by 2014.
He said they had been offering the proposal quietly for two years, and also showed it to officials in Ohio and Indiana. But Kentucky was by far the most receptive and offered the most generous financial incentives, he said, because it sees tourism as a promising means of economic development.
Officials in Kentucky’s Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet said in a telephone interview that they examined the constitutional issues carefully before proceeding. They said that Ark Encounter is unlike the Creation Museum, which is run by the Answers in Genesis ministry and received no tax incentives.
Ark Encounter is owned by a profit-making company, of which Answers in Genesis is a part owner. The ministry will manage the park’s day-to-day operations.
“Our facts are quite similar, except that in our case it’s a tourism development by a for-profit corporation,” Mr. Dexter said.
But some advocates of separation of church and state say that by providing tax incentives to an explicitly Christian enterprise, Kentucky is violating the constitutional prohibition on government establishment of religion.
Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional scholar and founding dean of the School of Law at the University of California, Irvine, said: “If this is about bringing the Bible to life, and it’s the Bible’s account of history that they’re presenting, then the government is paying for the advancement of religion. And the Supreme Court has said that the government can’t advance religion.”
He added, “The fact that it’s an economic development plan doesn’t excuse it.” NY TIMES
Noah's Ark September 4 2002
The fact that all the animals on earth could have entered the ark and lived on it or a year is well demonstrated in John Woodmorappe's "Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study", Institute for Creation Research, 1995. The animals went in by twos or sevens (Genesis 7 v 2), and did not include sea creatures.
The following sentence appears in "True Science Agrees with the Bible", by Malcolm Bowden, Sovereign Publications, 1998 (p. 26):
"The ratio of length to breadth in the ark is 6:1 and it is only after years of trial and error and many experiments that ship designers have found this to be the most suitable ratio. The seaworthiness of the ark has been recently checked using sophisticated computer programmes. It was found to be as good as, if not better than, modern ships, and was able to withstand waves up to 100 feet high".
The folly of trying to convert the dimensions of the ark into metres is shown by the fact that in doing so, one of the Bible translations has thereby lost the exact 6:1 proportion referred to above.
Christ regarded the building of the ark as an historical event (as indeed He did the creation of Adam and Eve): "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered the ark" (Matthew 24 vv 37-38).
The after-effects of the flood can be seen in the layers of sedimentary rock which cover the globe, most of them laid down in precise horizontal layers, stretching up to dozens of miles in length in places (the Grand Canyon being a prime example). The flood entombed billions upon billions of animals as it progressed - leaving what are now known as fossils.
P.S. I am the joint author of "Evolution and Creation - Your Questions Answered". It answers 75 common questions on evolution and is written from a Biblical and 'recent creation' viewpoint. It's priced at £1.50 but I'm happy to send it free to anyone who asks.
Wikileaks: Documents Confirm US Plans Against Venezuela By Eva Golinger
December 16, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- A substantial portion of the more than 1600 State Department documents Wikileaks has published during the past two weeks refer to the ongoing efforts of US diplomacy to isolate and counter the Venezuelan government.
Since Hugo Chavez won the presidency for the first time in 1998, Washington has engaged in numerous efforts to overthrow him, including a failed coup d'etat in April 2002, an oil industry strike that same year, worldwide media campaigns and varios electoral interventions. The State Department has also used its funding agencies, USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), to channel millions of dollars annually to anti-Chavez NGOs, political parties, journalists and media organizations in Venezuela, who have been working to undermine the Chavez administration and force him from power.
When these interventionist policies have been denounced by the Chavez government and others, Washington has repeatedly denied any efforts to isolate or act against the Venezuelan head of state.
Nonetheless, the State Department cables published by Wikileaks clearly evidence that not only has Washington been actively funding anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela, but it also has engaged in serious efforts during the past few years to convince governments worldwide to assume an adversarial position against President Hugo Chavez.
"CONTENTION" PLAN AGAINST A "FORMIDABLE FOE"
In a secret document authored by current Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Craig Kelly, and sent by the US Embassy in Santiago in June 2007 to the Secretary of State, CIA and Southern Command of the Pentagon, along with a series of other US embassies in the region, Kelly proposed "six main areas of action for the US government (USG) to limit Chavez's influence" and "reassert US leadership in the region".
Kelly, who played a primary role as "mediator" during last year's coup d'etat in Honduras against President Manuel Zelaya, classifies President Hugo Chavez as an "enemy" in his report. "Know the enemy: We have to better understand how Chavez thinks and what he intends...To effectively counter the threat he represents, we need to know better his objectives and how he intends to pursue them. This requires better intelligence in all of our countries". Further on in the memo, Kelly confesses that President Chavez is a "formidable foe", but, he adds, "he certainly can be taken".
In 2006, Washington activated a Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Mission Manager for Venezuela and Cuba. The mission, headed by clandestine CIA veteran Timothy Langford, is one of only four such intelligence entities of its type. The others were created to handle intelligence matters relating to Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan/Pakistan, evidencing the clear priority that Washington has placed on Venezuela as a target of increased espionage and covert operations.
Another suggestion made by Kelly in the secret cable, is a recommendation to increase US presence in the region and improve relations with Latin American military forces. "We should continue to strengthen ties to those military leaders in the region who share our concern over Chavez".
Kelly also proposed a "psychological operations" program against the Venezuelan government to exploit its vulnerabilities. "We also need to make sure that the truth about Chavez - his hollow vision, his empty promises, his dangerous international relationships, starting with Iran - gets out, always exercising careful judgment about where and how we take on Chavez directly/publicly".
Kelly recommended US officials make more visits to the region to "show the flag and explain directly to populations our view of democracy and progress". Kelly also offered details on how Washington could better exploit the differences amongst South American governments to isolate Venezuela:
"Brazil...can be a powerful counterpoint to Chavez's project...Chile offers another excellent alternative to Chavez...We should look to find other ways to give Chile the lead on important initiatives, but without making them look like they are our puppets or surrogates. Argentina is more complex, but still presents distinct characteristics that should inform our approach to countering Chavez's influence there".
PRESSURING MERCOSUR
Kelly also revealed the pressure Washington has been applying to Mercosur (Market of the South) to not accept Venezuela as a full member in the regional trade bloc. "With regard to Mercosur, we should not be timid in stating that Venezuela's membership will torpedo US interest in even considering direct negotiations with the trading bloc".
MEXICO, BOGOTA & OTHERS ASK TO "FIGHT" CHAVEZ
The cables published by Wikileaks not only reveal US hostility towards Venezuela, but also the requests made by regional leaders and politicians to work against President Chavez.
One secret document from October 2009 referring to a meeting between Mexican President Felipe Calderon and US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair tells of how Calderon confessed he was "trying to isolate Venezuela through the Rio Group". The Mexican head of state also appealed to the US intelligence chief, "The region needs a visible US presence...the United States must be ready to engage the next Brazilian president. Brazil, he said, is key to restraining Chavez...The US needs to engage Brazil more and influence its outlook".
URIBE REQUESTS "MILITARY ACTION" AGAINST CHAVEZ
In several secret documents authored by the US Embassy in Colombia, efforts by ex President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, to convince Washington to take action against Venezuela are evidenced.
In one cable from December 2007, the US Ambassador in Colombia recounts a meeting between Uribe and a delegation of US congress members, including Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. According to the text, Uribe "likened the threat Chavez poses to Latin America to that posed by Hitler in Europe".
And in yet another report summarizing a January 2008 meeting between Uribe and the Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, Uribe is quoted as recommending military action against Venezuela.
"The best counter to Chavez, in Uribe's view, remains action - including use of the military".
Later in that same secret cable, Uribe urged Washington to "lead a public campaign against Venezuela...to counter Chavez..."
OPPOSITION BISHOP REQUESTS US ACTION
In addition to regional politicians and US diplomats urging plans against President Chavez, one cable reveals how during a meeting between a Venezuelan Archbishop and the US Ambassador, the religious leader asked for Washington to act against his own government. At the meeting, which took place in January 2005 according to the document, Archbishop Baltazar Porras told Ambassador William Brownfield that the "US government should be more clear and public in its criticism of the Chavez administration" and that the "international community also needs to work and speak out more to contain Chavez..."
The plans and strategies revealed through these official documents confirm what other evidence has already corroborated regarding Washington's increase in aggression towards Venezuela. The US continues to fund opposition groups that act to undermine Venezuelan democracy while escalating its hostile discourse and policies against the Chavez government.
This week's Senate affirmation of Larry Palmer as Ambassador to Venezuela will only make matters worse. Palmer was rejected by the Venezuelan government after he made negative statements about the Chavez administration in August. Washington's insistence of sending Palmer appears to be an effort to provoke a rupture in diplomatic relations. Information Clearing House
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2002 Hugo Chavez UN six minute version, Hugo smells sulphur. Full speech below.
