Marsie Welch's Public Library

17 Dec 09

Amazon.com: The Hurt Locker: Ralph Fiennes, Anthony Mackie, Kathryn Bigelow: Movies & TV

www.amazon.com/...ref=sr_1_2 - Preview

The movie focuses on an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, the guys whose more or less daily job is to disarm the homemade bombs that have accounted for most U.S. casualties in Iraq. But even more, the film's extraordinary tension derives from the precision and intelligence of Bigelow's direction. She gets every sweaty detail and tactical nuance in the close-up confrontation of man and bomb, while keeping us alert to the volatile wraparound reality of an ineluctably foreign environment--hot streets and blank-walled buildings full of onlookers, some merely curious and some hostile, perhaps thumbing a cellphone that could become a trigger.

Breast Cancer Survivors - Soy Protective, Alcohol Harmful

drfuhrman.com/...-soy_good_alcohol_harmful.aspx - Preview

Joel Fuhrman cancer soy alcohol

15 Dec 09

About Allen West | Allen West for Congress 2010

allenwestforcongress.com/about - Preview

Allen West knows that for our children to live their dreams, they need to be safe.

How Colonel Risked His Career by Menacing Detainee and Lost - NYTimes.com

www.nytimes.com/...27WEST.html - Preview

Allen West Iraq

Intent on foiling a reported plot to ambush him and his men, Colonel West, a battalion commander, made a calculated decision to intimidate the Iraqi officer with a show of force. An interrogation under way was going nowhere, Colonel West said in an interview, and he chose to take the matter into his own hands.

12 Dec 09

Equal Rights Amendment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/...Equal_Rights_Amendment - Preview

Twenty-one states have a version of the ERA in their state constitutions. Sixteen of those states ratified the federal amendment, while five did not.^[24]

Conservapedia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/...Andy_Schlafly - Preview

Conservapedia is an English-language wiki-based Web encyclopedia project written from an Americentric, Christian conservative, and young earth creationist point of view.^[3] It was started in 2006 by lawyer and social studies teacher Andy Schlafly, son of conservative activist and Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly.^[4]^[5] He stated that he founded the project because he felt that Wikipedia has a "liberal, anti-Christian, and anti-American" bias.^[6]
Schlafly, a social studies teacher for the Eagle Forum University educational program,^[12] created Conservapedia as an instruction tool for homeschooled, high-school-level students whom he taught.^[5]^[13]
2 more annotations...
- The "Eagle Forum University" online education program, which is associated with Phyllis Schlafly's organization Eagle Forum, uses material for various online courses, including U.S. history, stored on Conservapedia.^[17]^[18]^[19]
- Conservapedia asserts, based on selective evidence, that there is a proven link between abortion and breast cancer,^[11] while the scientific consensus is that the best studies indicate that there is no such association for first trimester abortion.^[39]^[40]

11 Dec 09

President Obama: 'We Can Build A Just And Lasting Peace' | TPM LiveWire

tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/...d-a-just-and-lasting-peace.php - Preview

obama_speech Nobel_Peace_Prize favorite peace

The concept of a "just war" emerged, suggesting that war is justified only when certain conditions were met: if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense; if the force used is proportional; and if, whenever possible, civilians are spared from violence.
Terrorism has long been a tactic, but modern technology allows a few small men with outsized rage to murder innocents on a horrific scale.
22 more annotations...
- In today's wars, many more civilians are killed than soldiers; the seeds of future conflict are sown, economies are wrecked, civil societies torn asunder, refugees amassed, children scarred.
- "Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones."
- I know there's nothing weak -- nothing passive -- nothing naïve -- in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.
- For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism -- it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.
- Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest -- because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if others' children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity.
- So part of our challenge is reconciling these two seemingly inreconcilable truths -- that war is sometimes necessary, and war at some level is an expression of human folly. Concretely, we must direct our effort to the task that President Kennedy called for long ago. "Let us focus," he said, "on a more practical, more attainable peace, based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions." A gradual evolution of human institutions.
- To begin with, I believe that all nations -- strong and weak alike -- must adhere to standards that govern the use of force. I -- like any head of state -- reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend my nation. Nevertheless, I am convinced that adhering to standards, international standards, strengthens those who do, and isolates and weakens those who don't.
- Furthermore, America -- in fact, no nation -- can insist that others follow the rules of the road if we refuse to follow them ourselves. For when we don't, our actions appear arbitrary and undercut the legitimacy of future interventions, no matter how justified.
- Inaction tears at our conscience and can lead to more costly intervention later. That's why all responsible nations must embrace the role that militaries with a clear mandate can play to keep the peace.
- I understand why war is not popular, but I also know this: The belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it. Peace requires responsibility. Peace entails sacrifice. That's why NATO continues to be indispensable. That's why we must strengthen U.N. and regional peacekeeping, and not leave the task to a few countries. That's why we honor those who return home from peacekeeping and training abroad to Oslo and Rome; to Ottawa and Sydney; to Dhaka and Kigali -- we honor them not as makers of war, but of wagers -- but as wagers of peace.
- Where force is necessary, we have a moral and strategic interest in binding ourselves to certain rules of conduct. And even as we confront a vicious adversary that abides by no rules, I believe the United States of America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war. That is what makes us different from those whom we fight. That is a source of our strength. That is why I prohibited torture. That is why I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed. And that is why I have reaffirmed America's commitment to abide by the Geneva Conventions. We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend. (Applause.) And we honor -- we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it's easy, but when it is hard.
- First, in dealing with those nations that break rules and laws, I believe that we must develop alternatives to violence that are tough enough to actually change behavior
- Intransigence must be met with increased pressure -- and such pressure exists only when the world stands together as one.
- In the middle of the last century, nations agreed to be bound by a treaty whose bargain is clear
- This brings me to a second point -- the nature of the peace that we seek. For peace is not merely the absence of visible conflict. Only a just peace based on the inherent rights and dignity of every individual can truly be lasting.
- It is telling that the leaders of these governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any other nation. And it is the responsibility of all free people and free nations to make clear that these movements -- these movements of hope and history -- they have us on their side.
- Third, a just peace includes not only civil and political rights -- it must encompass economic security and opportunity. For true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want.
- It is undoubtedly true that development rarely takes root without security; it is also true that security does not exist where human beings do not have access to enough food, or clean water, or the medicine and shelter they need to survive. It does not exist where children can't aspire to a decent education or a job that supports a family. The absence of hope can rot a society from within.
- There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, more famine, more mass displacement -- all of which will fuel more conflict for decades.
- And yet, I do not believe that we will have the will, the determination, the staying power, to complete this work without something more -- and that's the continued expansion of our moral imagination; an insistence that there's something irreducible that we all share.
- And most dangerously, we see it in the way that religion is used to justify the murder of innocents by those who have distorted and defiled the great religion of Islam, and who attacked my country from Afghanistan.
- Let us reach for the world that ought to be -- that spark of the divine that still stirs within each of our souls.

American Justice System Too Weak For Terrorists, GOPers Say | TPMDC

tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...-for-terrorists-gopers-say.php - Preview

"More importantly, it's the place that keeps activist federal judges from making activist decisions that could end up turning [terror suspects] loose on the streets of America."
"We wouldn't even be thinking about trying these detainees on U.S. soil if it hadn't been for activist judges who decided they were going to confer constitutional rights on people that have never seen the United States of America," he said, referring to the 2006 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld Supreme Court decision that said military commissions as set up by the Bush administration violated the Geneva conventions.

Fish Oil for Dogs? - Dr. Weil

www.drweil.com/...fish-oil-for-dogs.html - Preview

fish oil cats

10 Dec 09

Senator Byron Dorgan Reads Scripts Of Televised Pharmaceutical Ads On Senate Floor (VIDEO)

www.huffingtonpost.com/...rgan-filibusters_n_386119.html - Preview

pharmacy drugs prescription marketing

Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

www.salon.com/...index.html - Preview

politician

They have a personal connection with her that makes them place their faith in her.
The similarity between that mentality and the one driving the Obama defenses posted by Sullivan is too self-evident to require any elaboration.
2 more annotations...
- Those who venerated Bush because he was a morally upright and strong evangelical-warrior-family man and revere Palin as a common-sense Christian hockey mom are similar in kind to those whose reaction to Obama is dominated by their view of him as an inspiring, kind, sophisticated, soothing and mature intellectual.
- Loyalty grounded in admiration for character will inspire support regardless of policy, and will produce and sustain the fantasy that this is not a mere politician, but a person of deep importance to one's life who -- like a loved one or close friend or religious leader -- must be protected and defended at all costs.