Walk Like A Caveman
Posted: 30 April 2011 Filed under: History, News, Observations | Tags: Postaday2011, Science 25 Comments »Here we go again…it is the weekend and after all the politics and that damn boring wedding….I need these days of Zen…..flush the mind of the fecal matter it has accumulated over the week….and to thank my readers that braved the odds and visited my site as opposed to the wedding……speaking of cavemen! (how was that for a segway?)
First of all..I am NOT an anthropologist and my opinions are based on what may be a limited knowledge…….
For a couple years now my daughter and I have been having a running argument about our cave ancestors…..she was an anthropology major……as I understand it…..our original ancestor was located in Africa…you know what’s her name….Gilda……Bertha…..LUCY! (finally, that hurt trying to remember stuff like that)….anyway to continue….we as a species started in Africa and over the millennium we traveled up Africa around the Eastern end of the Mediterranean and across Europe until we made it to Southern France/Northern Spain…..where we then encountered Neanderthal….here is where we start a helluva argument……my take is if we were originally from Africa and did all that traveling…where did the Neanderthals come from?
Personally, I do not think that they were our ancestors and that they were a sub-species….maybe…..my daughter disagrees with me and we commence a yelling contest……where did the Neanderthals come from? Apparently not from Africa….so with that where did the Neanderthals originate?
I will bet that you, my reader, is sitting there scratching your head wondering what I am going on about…..right?
A new find!
Fossils of the bones of the young male and adult female suggests a controversial new species, that walked upright and shared many physical traits with the earliest known human Homo species.
Lee Berger from the University of the Witwatersrand and his team discovered the skeletal remains of the two specimens they determined to be a new species of human. The two partial skeletons may belong to a previously unclassified species of pre-human dating back almost 2 million years and may shed new light on human evolution.
The finding of the pre-human, or hominid, fossils — which scientists say are between 1.78 and 1.95 million years old — was published in the journal Science and where believed to possibly answer some key questions about where humans came from.The skeletons had characteristics of previous species of Australopithecus, but also of Homo, leading the researchers to believe they may have found an evolutionary connection between the two, which evolved into a classic academic battle, with many believing there was no connection to Homo and that what they had discovered was really an ancestor of later Homo species.
they also discovered that the frontal lobe of this small brain contained organization more similar to that of humans, showing that contrary to what was previously thought, organization and brain size with human characteristics may not have been a simultaneous change. The pelvis of the A. sediba is what researchers believe show the strongest link toward the beginning of an evolutionary change to the Homo.
This just makes my argument with my daughter even more heated……I still say that the Neanderthals are NOT our direct ancestors…..so where did they come from?
What Happened To The Nerd Fest?
Posted: 29 April 2011 Filed under: News, Observations, Society | Tags: Journalistic Garbage, Journalists, Postaday2011, Press Coverage 4 Comments »We know what I think of most of the media and the coverage of the stories of the day…that they drive the worthless conversation and seldom make politics answer questions but instead allow an endless diatribe on the day’s talking points……
The Nerd Fest? Yep that is what the Correspondents Dinner use to be called….why? I was just the journalists, their family, some minor celebrities and some low level government speakers….in other words it was just a dinner where the journalists slapped each other on the back and schmoozed a bit…..but all that changed!
Now the Correspondents Dinner is a gala affair….a must have ticket….the A list…..you get the point…..it is the place to be on that specific night…Dana Millbank observes…..
Dana Millbank points out the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner “was a minor annoyance for years, when it was a ‘nerd prom’ for journalists and a few minor celebrities. But, as with so much else in this town, the event has spun out of control… With the proliferation of A-list parties and the infusion of corporate and lobbyist cash, Washington journalists give Americans the impression we have shed our professional detachment and are aspiring to be like the celebrities and power players we cover. “
I have been bitching about the lack of real news offered up by those journalist that cover our politics….and this dinner is why we do NOT get the news we can use……power, money, celebrity…the media is just as bought as our politicians……another reason why I get better info from the papers of the UK…..
I mean come on….when you see a noted journalists having a dance with the chief of WH staff and rapping to each other…..then our news has become the joke that our political system has become…….professional political journalism is DEAD! All in all a pathetic lack of professionalism! Long live the Beck’s of the airwaves! (that was sarcasm)……..
He’s Guilty!
Posted: 29 April 2011 Filed under: Civil Rights, Government, Military, News, Observations, Society, War | Tags: Constitutional Law, Crime & Punishment, Military Justice, Postaday2011 3 Comments »Daily Agitator
WikiLeaks! By now we all have heard of the release of “classifies” documents by alleged hacker PFC Manning Bradley……matters not what we think of the person or what he is accused of doing…..what matters is one of those darn pesky rights we have….that being “innocent” until PROVEN “Guilty”……..
Bradley is accused of releasing secret documents to an outfit known as WikiLeaks….some think him a hero and others see him as a traitor….whatever your choice is is your decision….however, regardless of what you feel….the man deserves a fair trial….and at this point I do not think he can get one….why?
First of all, he has been convicted already in the court of public opinion and the news outlets have seen to it that his “fair” trial will give only one verdict…..GUILTY!
And now our President has weighed in on the issue…..when giving a speech recently he was interrupted by protesters in support of Manning and the Prez responded……
“I have to abide by certain classified information,” Obama said on a video that quickly began to circulate among media outlets Friday. “If I was to release stuff, information that I’m not authorized to release, I’m breaking the law. … We’re a nation of laws. We don’t individually make our own decisions about how the laws operate. … He broke the law.”
I would say that Manning is pretty much screwed and that chance of a “fair” trial is pretty much out the door…..in making that statement Pres. Obama has violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice and after all he is the Commander in Chief of the military…..but how did he violate the UMCJ?
ART. 37. UNLAWFULLY INFLUENCING ACTION OF COURT
(a) No authority convening a general, special, or summary court-martial, nor any other commanding officer, may censure, reprimand, or admonish the court or any member, military judge, or counsel thereof, with respect to the findings or sentence adjudged by the court, or with respect to any other exercises of its or his functions in the conduct of the proceedings. No person subject to this chapter may attempt to coerce or, by any unauthorized means, influence the action of a court-martial or any other military tribunal or any member thereof, in reaching the findings or sentence in any case, or the action of any convening, approving, or reviewing authority with respect to his judicial acts. The foregoing provisions of the subsection shall not apply with respect to
(1) general instructional or informational courses in military justice if such courses are designed solely for the purpose of instructing members of a command in the substantive and procedural aspects of courts-martial, or
(2) to statements and instructions given in open court by the military judge, president of a special court-martial, or counsel.
(b) In the preparation of an effectiveness, fitness, or efficiency report on any other report or document used in whole or in part for the purpose of determining whether a member of the armed forces is qualified to be advanced, in grade, or in determining the assignment or transfer of a member of the armed forces or in determining whether a member of the armed forces should be retained on active duty, no person subject to this chapter may, in preparing any such report (1) consider or evaluate the performance of duty of any such member, as counsel, represented any accused before a court-martial.
In making his statement he may have unwittingly given his defense team a chance for some action on Manning’s behalf…..sorry….but EVERYBODY deserves a fair and unbiased trial….regardless of the crime one is accused of committing……
Change The Subject, Please
Posted: 29 April 2011 Filed under: Fiscal Policy, Government, Observations, Politics, Society | Tags: Budget Cuts, Budgetary Debate, Postaday2011, Republicans, US Congress 4 Comments »Nope! Not a post on the royal wedding thing….thought I would let that slide into the history books…..
Yes, the war of words is still being fought on the budget and its cuts even though the House has been on a break (seems like they are always on a break of some sort) ……but the problem is Rep. Ryan and his people are catch lots of grief in their town halls, especially when the Social Security and Medicare are mentioned when they try to explain what is in Ryan’s (actually the Heritage Foundation) budget proposals…..
“Come On!” (to quote Speaker Boehner)…….we keep hearing the same line over and over….and it comes from both sides…..”Just be honest with the American people”……..and every time I hear a politician use this term I get all flush and damn near have a stroke with laughter…….
There is NOTHING honest about Washington….
The newest thing that is being played out is the the Speaker of the House is all over Obama for NOT adopting any of the policies that the Deficit Commission recommended…..would that be the same report that the Repubs on the Commission would NOT vote for? But now it is important to bring up the fact that Obama did not act on the proposals….why would this be the game being played now?
Could it be that the GOP is desperate to change the subject from the Ryan Budget? They seem to be getting the crap beat out of them back home and desperately need the conversation to change ….but unfortunately for them (the GOP) the Dems will not change the subject and if anything are doing their level best to keep the subject of the elimination of Medicare and SS in the headlines and on the minds of seniors…after all seniors are the most active of ALL voters…….
Does not Boehner realize how transparent his attempt is? They will even go so far as to embrace a commission report that none of them voted for recently…..does it not appear a bit pathetic? Their desperation is almost hard to watch….I did say ALMOST!
Pleading The 4th
Posted: 28 April 2011 Filed under: Government, Mississippi, Observations, Politics, Society | Tags: Conservatism, GOP, Mississippi, Postaday2011, Republicans, Right Wing Nuts, Tea Party 4 Comments »As most of my regular readers know I live in the state of confusion…..my bad…that should be the state of Mississippi….and I realize that unless you live here then much of what I read about means nothing to you….sorry for that….but there are some things that I need to write about and the 4th congressional district of Mississippi…..
In the last election a long time Dem representative, Gene Taylor, lost his bid for re-election….I could go into the election in detail but to save time click on the link for the post on that election…
lobotero.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/blu…..
I post this because with all the debate on the budget I wanted to see where the present Rep, Steven Palazzo, was having his town halls and wanted to see what he had to say about the battle being waged…..
This guy was seldom in debates or even in large groups….his campaign tried to keep him away from voters until after the election…instead of pressing the flesh, his campaigned depended instead on attack ads and the link between Taylor and Pelosi…the strategy worked…Taylor was defeated and now we have this guy…Palazzo…
I am not sure what to make of this guy…..three of his inner circle have resigned since January….with NO real explanations……sorry, I digress…….While searching Palazzo’s website I could NOT find any mention of town halls only that he would talk to my group if I set it up……I did find that he voted for the Ryan budget….and that is a direct fly into the face of the seniors in my area, which are many, it is a retirement spot…..I see voters remorse……..
If I had to guess this guy may be a one termer….he will most likely have a Dem challenger and a Repub one also…he is an idiot and NOT long for the Congress…….unlike Taylor…he is NOT and I repeat NOT voting in the best interests of his constituents……and he avoids face to face with crowds that he knows will be hostile…there is a word for that……
And then there is the state’s junior senator, Wicker……he was interviewed on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown, about the storms that ravaged north Mississippi and he spent most of the time giving GOP talking points on the budget, debt and basically blaming Obama for the damage of the storms….he ignored the destruction and suffering of his constituents in the aftermath of terrible storms……so he could repeat some lame ass talking points……and this is the PEOPLE, and I use the term loosely, that Mississippians traditionally vote into office…….maybe NOW they will wake up and get over the Civil Rights crap of the 60′s, maybe now they will get over the fact that Dems gave blacks equal standing and start thinking before they vote!
To be honest….I doubt it….but it makes for a good post (at least in my mind)…….
Who Is The REAL Base For Democrats?
Posted: 28 April 2011 Filed under: Government, Observations, Political Theory, Society | Tags: Political Base, Postaday2011, Voters 13 Comments »College of Political Knowledge
Subject: Government/Political Theory
We have heard this term used widely in the past couple of years….Blacks are the Obama base….or corporations are the Repub base……progressives or Radical Right are the base they play to with every speech…..I keep reminding my readers that what they voted for and what they got were two different things……it was so in the ’08 election and the landslide election of 2010……and no matter how much I and others try to make the American voter see what will likely happen….we were ignored and now every body is up in arms over the lack of concern for the BASE.
Let us talk about the base for the Dems and Obama……Are progressives truly the base for Obama? I good answer to that question is to look at their signature works…health reform….Wall St. reform…..was the base ever considered when these laws were made? Hell NO! If they were we would have a public option and we would have REAL regulation of the too big too fail….NOTHING in those bills were progressive other than the original thought.
If the progressives are not the base for Obama and the Dems….then who?
The Democratic Party’s real constituency is the American rich. And it’s not just that the Democrats are funded by the rich. At the highest echelons of the party, they are the rich. The apparent “weakness” of the Democrats in the face of Republican attacks is not “spinelessness” or lack of negotiating savvy, but a logical consequence of the reality that they serve the interests of the wealthy, while struggling to maintain the appearance of doing the opposite.
Many people suffered under the illusion that the horrors of the Bush years (illegal war, torture, attacks on immigrants) flowed somehow from Bush’s personal nature–ignorant, nasty, etc. Surely, if he were replaced with someone different, then the policies of the White House would change.
Snooze!
But instead of profound change, we have experienced profound continuity. The wars continue and are even expanded. The detention and deportation of immigrants continues and are likewise expanded. High-stakes testing in our schools has continued, and the stakes are raised higher.
I love being proven RIGHT! In 2008, when Obama was a candidate for the presidency, I wrote on Daily Kos, a progressive site that was heavily invested in the Obama candidacy, that if he were elected and his rhetoric about change….would be hollow!
The Dems have done little to change anything in Washington….especially the way the country is governed…..
To Kill A Dictator
Posted: 27 April 2011 Filed under: Foreign policy, Government, International Situations, News, Observations, War | Tags: Armed Conflict, Assassination, Libya, Middle East, North Africa, Postaday2011, Senators 2 Comments »On the website of a loyal reader, Spinny Liberal (go to blogroll and click on her opinionated site…excellent reads) she had a post about the senators calling for the assassination of Qadhafi and it got me to remembering the days when there were hearings on the US and its numerous attempts to assassinate other leaders in various countries…….
Libya is still raging…in case you have missed it with all the hype and boring details of some royal wedding……..it is still a yo-yo fight, back and forth, back and forth……..and just recently Qadhafi’s compound was attacked (yet again) and the speculation is that the Norwegian (I believe) planes were after Qadhafi himself…….basically an assassination attempt.
On Easter Sunday and over the whole weekend Repub congress people we going on the airwaves and calling for the assassination of Qadhafi…..
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told CNN: “Right now there’s just not enough momentum by the rebels… So my recommendation to NATO and the administration is to cut the head of the snake off. Go to Tripoli, start bombing Gaddafi’s inner circle, their compounds, their military headquarters.”In response to Graham’s call for assassination, McCain expressed general agreement with targeting the Libyan leader, but declared US strategy had to be based on “winning the battle on the ground” not on “a chance of taking him out with a lucky air strike.”
Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman—the one-time vice presidential candidate of the Democratic Party—joined the campaign for escalation and echoed Graham’s call to assassinate Gaddafi. NATO, he declared, “has got to start thinking about whether they want to more directly target Gaddafi and his family.” Lieberman cynically declared that the UN resolution justified a policy of assassination on the grounds it would “protect the civilian population.”
Political assassination?
In 1974 the Congress established a committee to investigate possible U.S. involvement in plots to assassinate foreign leaders deemed hostile to U.S. interests.
The committee reported its findings in 1975 to a dismayed Congress. Public outcry was loud and immediate. At the urging of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, President Gerald R. Ford signed an Executive Order banning all federal employees from committing assassination as a tool of U.S foreign policy or for any other reason. Exec. Order No. 11905. The order was extended by President Ronald Reagan 15 years later to also preclude hired assassins.
It is basically illegal for anyone in the government to expressly go out and kill…..but since 9/11 that sort of illegality has been lessened in a rush to kill those who killed Americans…..the question now is….will the US use a proxy to do the deed? The French seem to be in a rabid war footing, maybe they will do it for us……….
What Is The UK Doing?
Posted: 27 April 2011 Filed under: Foreign policy, International Situations, News, Observations, War | Tags: Armed Conflict, France, Libya, NATO, Postaday2011, United Kingdom 4 Comments »Inkwell Institute
Middles East Desk
NO! This is NOT a post about some royal wedding!
Once again, if I am mistaken I hope that my friend and reader Quin of Quintessential Havoc (my blogroll will take you to his site….visit often!) will help me and others understand the complexity of this situation…..
Has the world learned nothing from the US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan?
The battle for Libya is forming stupid responses around the world….and the UK and France are about to make one of their own…..I know….what am I going on about?
This from a report by Patrick O’Connor:
The British Conservative-Liberal government of Prime Minister David Cameron and the French administration of President Nicolas Sarkozy are moving closer to deploying ground forces in Libya, escalating the neocolonial war being waged against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.
In a televised interview, Cameron repeatedly refused to rule out launching operations involving ground troops. “What we’ve said is there is no question of an invasion or an occupation, this is not about Britain putting boots on the ground, this is not what we are about here,” he declared.
The European Union has prepared a force of 1,000 troops and drawn up a “concept of operations” for deployment to Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, located 200 kilometres from the capital Tripoli. The mission, named EUFOR Libya, has its operation headquarters in Italy, Libya’s former colonial ruler, and is under the command of an Italian rear admiral.
The EU’s 27 member-states decided to prepare the EUFOR Libya force at the beginning of the month—before the fighting in Misrata intensified—and they are now awaiting approval for deployment from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Guardian has reported: “With the situation in Libya, particularly Misrata, getting more critical, diplomats in Brussels say the pressure is mounting on the UN to authorise the EU force.”
Fierce rivalries between the powers are emerging ever more openly. The French government has reportedly exerted “strong pressure” on the EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, to secure UN approval for EUFOR Libya. However, the EU force is largely comprised of German troops. The German government of Angela Merkel abstained on Security Council resolution 1973, but has since shifted its position—keen to secure its share of Libya’s lucrative oil reserves in the event Gaddafi is ousted—and has backed the possible deployment of ground forces. The Sarkozy government’s concern at being outmanoeuvred by Berlin no doubt prompted Poniatowski’s demand for more French special forces to be sent into Libya.
What are they doing? Are they going to take out a dictator that is dangerous to his people? Does that sound familiar? What is the EU doing?
Hey guys! Take a good close look at what has happened to the US in its rush to remove Saddam…look at the consequences….you are about to bite off more than you can digest!
Cracks Forming In The European Union?
Posted: 27 April 2011 Filed under: Economics, International Situations, Observations | Tags: Europe, European Union, Finland, Postaday2011 4 Comments »Inkwell Institute
Europe Desk
First of all, let me say, that if I am mistaken I hope that Quin of Quintessential Havoc (go to my blogroll and visit a great site) will set us straight……
One of the good items in the EU is the open borders concept and that has been crapped on by France when it stopped an Italian train (I believe) with Tunisian refugees from entering the country…..and that is just one crack….oh there are more and they seem to be escalating….
There has been lots of rumblings within the members of the EU about the bailouts of the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain)……none of them are that stable at this time and all have some form of massive austerity programs to implement…all of which has cause a severe backlash in the said countries….protests, violence and an assortment of marches and protests…..
Not every member is happy with the outcomes of the decisions of the EU parliament….some of the more stable countries do not feel that they should have to help prop up the more unstable ones….Finland come to mind…..from an article in the UPI….
A nationalist party strongly opposed to helping debt-laden EU members made big gains in Finland’s parliamentary elections, a development that sowed fresh insecurity across Europe’s financial markets.Led by populist leader Timo Soini, the True Finns have in the past rallied against too much immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage. Their biggest opponent, however, seems to be Brussels.
Soini doesn’t want to hand Finnish money to debt-laden member states such as Portugal, Ireland and Greece. He’s also opposed to the European Stability Mechanism, a wide-ranging eurozone bailout fund, agreed to by EU leaders at a recent summit in Brussels.
This comes as Finland is enjoying relatively stable economic growth and sound finances. The Finnish budget deficit will shrink to 1.6 percent of gross domestic product this year, the European Commission has predicted — a comfortable debt rate compared to the body’s average of 5.1 percent.
Finland’s previous government backed the stability package but postponed its ratification until after Sunday’s election. As the EU decision requires unanimity, the True Finns could try to win support for blocking the package when Finland’s Parliament votes on it.
If the True Finns get there way….will this crack in the EU structure expand to other countries? And if does, will this lead to a larger problem for the EU? With this success in Finland, will it lead to successes by other populist parties in the other member nations?
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