UN report: Human cloning ban needed Sat Nov 10, 2:52 PM ET
LONDON - The international community faces a stark choice: outlaw human cloning or prepare for the creation of cloned humans, U.N. researchers said Saturday.
Previous attempts to reach a binding worldwide treaty foundered over divisions on whether to outlaw all cloning or permit cloning of cells for research.
The best solution may be to ban human cloning, but to allow countries to conduct strictly controlled therapeutic research, including stem cell research, according to the report from the Japan-based United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies.
Almost all countries oppose human cloning and more than 50 nations have introduced laws banning it. But lack of binding global legislation gives scientists an opening to create human clones in countries where bans do not exist.
"Failure to outlaw reproductive cloning means it is just a matter of time until cloned individuals share the planet," said Brendan Tobin, a human rights lawyer who co-authored the report.
"If failure to compromise continues, the world community must accept responsibility and ensure that any cloned individual receives full human rights protection," he said.
Cloning research proponents argue it offers great hope for producing replacement tissue and the potential for a cure for diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes.
The report recommends permitting cloning cells for research — but not cloning aimed at duplicating a person or animal . It also calls for strict controls to prevent the uncontrolled production and destruction of embryos.
These UK "Ladybirds" (aka Ladybugs - a colorful flying beetle) are another example of what our inadvertent geographic re-distribution of creatures (ballast mussels, killer bees) and plants (how about kudzu or water hyacinth) go beyond the natural system's capability of quickly or easily containing the invaders.
The human "experiment" on the biosphere has been undertaken without understanding of base conditions and variables.
The human "experiment" on the biosphere injects new chemistry into the food chain (pharma drugs in the water supply, worldwide, estrogen-like insecticides, etc.).
The human "experiment" on the biosphere increases the surface temperature of the planet (via greenhouse gases and paving over the ground for example).
The human "experiment" on the biosphere provides more plastic than plankton in many thousands (millions?) of square miles of ocean water. Just the shadow and reflection of light caused by that plastic has unknown (and not good) affects on plants and animals.
The human "experiment" continues, unabated by any social or legal construct, as humans overpopulate, deforest, overfish, pollute, introduce new chemicals, etc. etc. etc.
"Human civilization is so much built on the idea of growth and expansion."
Human "culture" has always been growth oriented.
Culture does everything to "foster life" (human life) and to thwart any natural governors on our behavior.
Human nature cannot trump mother nature, in the long run.
A few twitches of Gaia's tail and we'll be dusted right off the planet.
The irony is that our meddling (thanks to our culture, gotta have light and heat and cars and . . .) with the chemistry of the planet's climate is the impetus for our demise.
Beauty pageant titleholder and sometime "Entertainment Tonight" and "Access Hollywood" reporter Maria Menounos can sum up sexy in three words: "Victoria's Secret lingerie."
First...I was interviewed by an LA Times reporter today discussing what it means to me to identify as a Jew and a Bright, why I "joined" The Brights, why I believe or don't believe what I believe, etc., so I shared loads of fun stuff (including that I, Fearless Leader of the LA Brights, was speaking as an individual...hope she heard that part!).
For example:
There is NO REASON for god or anything supernatural to explain life, the universe or anything else.
I don't know how life started, no one does, but once it did only natural laws controlled it.
I don't understand how the universe could start from nothing, but I maintain that some scientists either did already or would someday.
We're nothing more than mobile minerals, a natural result of the conditions that were local to our part of the universe, and cannot affect the universe via thought alone.
What the "intelligent design" crowd have exactly backwards is they see everything seemingly purpose built for our existence! However, we evolved in this milieu, that's why we're fit to survive altogether, evolution allowed us to survive in whatever environment presented itself.
Everything we are is contained within our chemistry, there is nothing else. There is no "soul".
Grandma doesn't come back to us in a dream to share stories of the afterlife.
Faith and belief are fine, as long as those in positions of power aren't basing their decisions on Revelations, that would be a clear and present danger.
Brights ought to organize for social (fun) and political (protecting our freedom of thought) reasons.
"Atheists have NOTHING in common" (Copyright Frish!)
Why answering to a "higher power" is due to evolution, not existence of god.
Why morality is built into our primate behavior, and is necessarily built in or we'd kill each
other and eat the children.
From a logical perspective the whole concept of an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient being is fascinating. God's thoughts have to travel far faster than the speed of light. So, on what particle reside the thoughts of god?
How Nazi concentration camp films shown to us interminably during Jewish weekend religious school, had a lot to do with me being god free. If people could treat each other like that, not only is there no "just" or other kind of god, but I promised myself to never have kids, so that wouldn't/couldn't happen to them.
Not bad...on the road between sales calls!
Some article will be published sometime (next three weeks?) so we shall see.
SECONDLY:
On another note - GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT THIS ONE!
Looks like a great way to spend 12/25/07, for the matinee!
This was from some Christian Group's email intercepted by a friendly.
Subject: WE MUST BE INFORMED PLEASE FORWARD TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHO HAS CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN!
THE GOLDEN COMPASS, a new movie targeted at children, will be released December 7, 2007. This movie is based on a the first book of a trilogy by atheist Philip Pullman. In the final book a boy and girl kill God so they can do as they please.
Pullman left little doubt about his intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that "My books are about killing God."
The movie is a watered down version of the first book and is designed to be very attractive in the hope unsuspecting parents will take their children to see the movie and that the children will want the books for Christmas.
The movie has a well known cast, including Nicole Kidman, Kevin Bacon, and Sam Elliott. It will probably be advertised extensively, so it is crucial that we get the word out to warn parents to avoid this movie.
Funny? Yes, I am. Charismatic Pheromones And I write haiku
(Only Copied YOU...What do you think of the above? )
(Pick your stanza and let me know since YOU know who YOU are...this is a multi-purpose note and blog entry! Being an environMENTAList (and more than a bit mental as well YOU know) I think it is time to conserve bits and have multi-purpose emails and other electronic delivery mechanisms.))
Last night's experiences with JDate got even uglier, but that's another story.
Today, getting back on the horse that threw me, I again visited JDate to attempt to find a friend.
Read an interesting profile, and she happened to be online. We chatted amicably, and even decided to meet, but she suddenly remembered she had a hair cut appointment at 4PM.
Not "brushed off" easily, I suddenly remembered I wanted to watch her get her hair cut.
She said (to my utter astonishment) "Sure!"
I mean, how many women will let you see their "Sunday Morning Face" BEFORE their "Saturday Night Face"? Wow, what confidence eh?!
So we met at a Starbucks, went to her salon (her first time with this hair dresser, so she was on a double first date) then went out to dinner, picked up my dad at the nursing home, came back to our condo to meet mom, and then I drove her back to her car.
Even after all that, she wrote:
"Thank you again for dinner and an amazing first date. Loved every moment."
Phew, I haven't lost "the touch" after all! And, she saw my living arrangements and is still talking to me. That's definitely points ahead...
(P.S. She actually liked the duct tape wallet, now I'm getting nervous...)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael (Frish) Frishberg <
Date: Nov 3, 2007 8:37 PM
Subject: What she said after our JDate...
To:
We had a nice breakfast together.
She asked if I owned the print shop, or if I held any patents. And, wanted to know if my father held any patents.
Then she had to run to the gym (so to speak).
I sent her a thank you note.
I received this response.
"I'm really too shallow and mean to date you. Even though you will probably think this is the kiss of death, I would want to be friends with you. You're a cute guy, but I have issues. I'm sure I'm already dissappointing you. Gotta run now. Late for dinner."
I gotta admit - I'm dissappointed (sic) with her subtlety but impressed with her honesty!
(P.S. She did comment about my duct tape wallet...the true litmus test of potential compatibility (or, the outer boundary of tolerance!))
She asked if I owned the print shop, or if I held any patents. And, wanted to know if my father held any patents.
Then she had to run to the gym (so to speak).
I sent her a thank you note.
I received this response.
"I'm really too shallow and mean to date you. Even though you will probably think this is the kiss of death, I would want to be friends with you. You're a cute guy, but I have issues. I'm sure I'm already dissappointing you. Gotta run now. Late for dinner."
I gotta admit - I'm dissappointed (sic) with her subtlety but impressed with her honesty!
(P.S. She did comment about my duct tape wallet...the true litmus test of potential compatibility (or, the outer boundary of tolerance!))
Scientists have bred "super mice" with some amazing amount of some chemical that allows them to breed longer and run forever basically. They eat a lot more than normal mice, but they don't gain weight.
Reminds me of a warning, in the form of a song from 1968 or so...
LOOK OUT THERE'S A MONSTER COMING Vivian Stanshall
Lonely, unmarried, looking for love, Life was passing me by. So I sent off my photo, hobbies and age; Magazine marriage I tried. They say for centuries lovely Japanese girls Have been trained in the art of pleasing men. Be lonely no more, open destiny's door. For one dollar they arrange a meeting.
My image was wrong, I didn't like me, So I changed my personality. I bought a delux Merseybeat wig But it was a size too big. What confidence in my new built-up shoes, So smart for winter or summer. Undetectable in normal everyday use.
Look out there's a monster coming!
Bye-bye binoculars and macintosh, Everything is just great. I take elocution, learn to speak posh But still I can't find a mate. Be popular, learn to play the guitar, In seven days you could be strumming. Be sociable, learn kissing technique.
Look out there's a monster coming!
Carnaby clothes, I reshaped my nose, Plastic surgery's best. To cut down my weight off comes my left leg. I pass a swimming costume test. Are my sideboards too long, Don't my aftershave pong? I know my new nose ain't runnin'. What's wrong with my tie? Am I getting too high?
Look out there's a monster coming!
Disfiguring and ugly, my facial hair I had removed electrically. I rejuvenated my energy cells And regained my virility (grunt grunt). (He put my hand on my heart?), (I am changing the part?). He had a machine for a mummy. Please be gentle with me: I come to pieces literally.
Look out there's a monster coming! Look out there's a monster coming! Look out there's a monster coming! (...fade)
LA Brights and camp followers - a message from Fearless Leader Frish:
Stuart found an article we can react to a Bright fashion (thanks Stu, yes the activity we have identified to fulfill our mission is writing letters to editors!). (On a very tangential note, it suggests to me that we ought to concentrate on local media outlets for our letters/action...let's talk about that at our next meeting (John, thanks)!)
Each of us is perfectly capable of writing in reaction to the article, or any other you happen to notice. No one in this org will tell you (before hand) what to say or not! (We may have discussions and construtive critiqueing later, but hey, that's how we get better!)
I am certainly available via phone or email should you care for consultation. I have a fairly good record of getting letters published considering how few I've written (I've written about 10 to the LA Times in the last 4 years and 3 have been published so far...)
I responded to the author, and to letters@latimes.com. I didn't mention Brights or LA Brights or atheists, but did use the "non-religious" (a rather neutral term I think!) Probably increases the publishing chances, but I was published within the last 90 days I think, so they won't take mine anyway.
Here are other topics I didn't cover that are possible letter themes:
Idolatry - isn't worshipping in public and display of this type of thing idol worship? Thought that went out with the Old Testament.
Is it simply idle worship, since the faithful seem to need reminding wherever they go?
"In God we trust" is simply a strange sign to display in any case. What does it really mean? If it is meaning free, as I suspect, then why display it?
Remain positive in your ultimate presentation, our mission remains to promote the naturalistic worldview.
Write a letter and don't send it...that's a great first step!
So, there is a lot to read, and speed is always of the essence, so respond if you wish to, but do it soon!
Thanks!
Also, I'm very serious about continuous improvement. If you see something that I wrote to the LA Times that could be improved, let's talk!
Finally, if you find something that LA Brights ought to respond to, please share!
My letter follows, then the article that spawned my spew!
-----------------------------------------------
Subject: mention the article you are writing to them about...
"'In God We Trust' is the perfect expression of what it takes to be a good American," she says, "because from my perspective as a believer, patriotism means love of God and love of country."
Dear Editor and Steve:
The essence of being American is TOLERANCE, therefore recognition that the "other" is also an American...and not excluded or included by some religious or jingoistic yardstick, or any other criteria.
Many patriotic and moral Americans believe that protecting the rights of minorities, in this case the non-religious amongst us, is more important than an expression of religion within the public commons.
"In God we trust" is an inappropriate expression by government of spirituality/religion. It should be removed from our public vocabulary, in the pledge, architecturally, on currency, or wherever it occurs.
Frish (full name and address and phone number follows) --------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Stuart
Did you say that the LA Brights were looking for letter-writing opportunities?
Five years after getting Bakersfield to place 'In God We Trust' in its council chambers, activist takes her motto campaign national.
By Steve Chawkins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 28, 2007
BAKERSFIELD -- Next time you see God in City Hall, you might have Jacquie Sullivan to thank -- or blame, depending on your point of view.
Five years ago, the Bakersfield City Council member lobbied hard to get "In God We Trust" displayed over the city's seal in the council's meeting room.
In the years since, she has persuaded 25 other California cities, from Kerman to Compton, to do the same, sometimes over strenuous protests from residents who see the mounting of the motto as a backdoor effort to foist a religious agenda on local governments.
At 67, Sullivan is undaunted by people she describes as "wanting to remove God from everything." Through her nonprofit, In God We Trust -- America, she aims to have the phrase prominently featured in all 478 of California's city halls and every other city hall in America.
That's just the beginning.
Not long ago, Sullivan suggested to an evangelical pastor named Chad Vegas that posters saying "In God We Trust" be placed in every classroom in the sprawling Kern County High School District. Vegas, a member of the district board, agreed -- opening a contentious debate that is to be settled by the board Nov. 5.
Board President Bob Hampton, a former teacher in the district, said he'll vote against the posters because they reflect a "spiritual agenda."
"The spiritual side of students belongs at home and at church, not in the educational system," said Hampton, who now runs a garbage disposal company.
But some Bakersfield residents see no harm in a tribute to God on classroom walls.
"Most kids in Bakersfield already have that seed planted, but for the others, it couldn't hurt," said 23-year-old Malia Casarez as she headed toward her shift at a haircutting salon. "My daughter is just 9 months old and I'm already scared of sending her to school, with all the things you hear about."
In a family room dotted with figurines of angels and flag-draped eagles, the diminutive, genteel Sullivan says she's always surprised by the hostility over a phrase that Congress chose as the nation's motto in 1956. To arguments that it was a product of the McCarthy-era "Red scare," she replies that it was a comfort for a troubled country then and should, more than ever, be one now.
When Sullivan learned that the new $1 presidential coin has "In God We Trust" inscribed on its rim instead of its face, she was shocked and fired off an op-ed piece to the Bakersfield Californian.
"That just doesn't reflect the will of the people," she said in an interview. "I'm amazed that this could have happened, especially on the president's watch."
Though her nonprofit's board includes well-known Republican political consultant Mark Abernathy and local Christian broadcaster Dan Schaffer, Sullivan casts her effort as neither political nor religious: " 'In God We Trust' is the perfect expression of what it takes to be a good American," she says, "because from my perspective as a believer, patriotism means love of God and love of country."
Vegas agrees completely. The 34-year-old minister said the classroom posters would "send a huge message to students: We'd tell them the schools in this district are not afraid of the word 'God' or the concept of God, and that they don't have to be either."
Shortly after he became a board member last year, Vegas succeeded in renaming the district's winter and spring breaks as Christmas recess and Easter recess. Hampton cast the only dissenting vote.
Vegas said he has received overwhelmingly positive reaction to his current proposal. In a radio interview, he described opponents, who include a couple of fellow board members and the local newspaper's editorial board, as "a group of liberal secular atheists who hate God, who are not patriotic."
He has since backed away from that description, but contends that the newspaper, which ran an editorial headlined "In Chad We Doubt," and other elements of Bakersfield's "aristocracy" do not understand the area's conservatism.
"A lot of people move here because it's a more conservative, family-oriented, faith-oriented place, and the aristocracy doesn't get it," he said.
If Vegas' proposal passes, Sullivan's organization will buy the posters from the American Family Assn., an influential conservative group that offers a step-by-step online guide to "getting the National Motto of the United States of America in local public school classrooms."
Vegas and Sullivan say that, beyond purchasing posters, they have no connection with the group.
In many city halls, the "In God We Trust" effort has proceeded smoothly. Some have mounted the motto on plaques, while others have placed the words over the council dais or even made the phrase a part of their city seal.
In a promotional packet sent to every city clerk in California, Sullivan includes a letter from attorney Brad Dacus of the conservative Pacific Justice Institute, offering free legal counsel in the unlikely event of a lawsuit.
No lawsuit has been filed. Numerous courts have held that "In God We Trust," a fixture on U.S. currency and in many public buildings, carries no unconstitutional religious baggage. A number of states have allowed or required its posting in schools.
In Oklahoma, Americans United for Separation of Church and State distributed "E Pluribus Unum" posters rather than "bring another acrimonious lawsuit into the courts that may not have much chance of winning," said spokesman Rob Boston.
In most of what Sullivan calls her "Yes! Cities," the decision was made swiftly -- although in Oceanside, it was an on-again, off-again campaign that took two years.
More typical was Hawthorne, where City Council member Ginny Lambert said there wasn't a single objection from the council or the community on spending donated funds for an "In God We Trust" plaque.
"I believe all of us have a god except those who may be atheists, so it shouldn't offend anyone," she said.
Sullivan drove down to Hawthorne, which calls itself the home of the Beach Boys, for the unveiling.
"She paved the way for all of us," Lambert said.
A Bakersfield native, Sullivan followed an unusual path into politics.
A divorced mother of four, she was forced to rely on welfare when she returned to Bakersfield after her marriage ended in the Lake Tahoe area. Over the years, she became a successful real estate broker and gained public attention for her activism after her 21-year-old daughter, Joyce, died of AIDS in 1993.
Even now, she visits student groups to show a moving 12-minute video on her daughter's struggle and urge young people to abstain from premarital sex.
"At the end of the presentation, I tell them to get themselves checked out if they think they've done some risky behavior," she said. "And if it turns out they're not infected, I tell them to get down on their knees and thank God."
As a council member, Sullivan is known for expressing consistently conservative views in sometimes rambling presentations.
Sue Benham, the lone council member to vote against "In God We Trust" in 2002, said Sullivan "truly believes in what she's doing" -- although, in Benham's view, the motto is "inappropriate for City Hall and even more so in the classroom. It's a forced expression of faith, not patriotism."
Sullivan has heard that before and is unfazed. There are more city halls out there to adorn with the motto, she said.
When asked whether she'd tried such liberal hotbeds as Berkeley or Santa Cruz, she paused.
READ IT AND WEEP. Or giggle uncontrollably. Just keep breathing evenly as you consume the following screed...
Malthus' Minions Ibd Fri Oct 26, 6:53 PM ET
Environment: Not content with its dubious fight over global warming, the United Nations now says humanity itself is causing irreversible environmental damage. Haven't we heard this kind of thing before?
Indeed, we have. In 1798, a country parson named Thomas Malthus published a book in which he calculated that human populations were growing faster than the world's ability to feed them. It wouldn't be long, he reasoned, before the world would be afflicted with " sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague." In short: mass death.
He was, of course, spectacularly wrong.
True, population did increase, geometrically even. But it didn't lead to misery. Far from it. Today, we are wealthier, healthier, better-housed, better educated than ever -- thanks not to U.N. bureaucrats, but to our ability as free men and women to think clearly about problems, and solve them.
Yet, according to the U.N.'s new "Geo-4 Report," our environmental problems, a result of unchecked population growth and wealth, are so extensive that, as the London Times put it, "they must be treated as a top priority if they are to be solved."
Check your wallets and your freedom at the door. For this is the old line used by environmental extremists of all types: Things are so bad we can no longer put off what must be done. Of course, you'll have to give up some income and freedom -- and maybe even your right to bear children -- but, hey, the environment's at stake.
Excuse us, but this seems like another attempt to foist centralized, global control over the prosperous, dynamic and fast-growing economies of the world -- an attempt to shake us down and radically alter Western lifestyles, to get us out of our deluxe cars and designer clothes and onto bicycles and into bearskins.
It's a bad idea that just won't go away. In the 1960s, biology professor Paul Ehrlich revived Malthus with his best-selling "The Population Bomb." "In the 1970s," he warned, "the world will undergo famines -- hundreds of million of people are going to starve." His solution: Immediate population control, mandated by law.
Ehrlich was followed by the Club of Rome's "Limits To Growth," and by President Carter's equally alarmist "Global 2000" report. They, too, were utterly wrong. Yet, they influenced a whole generation of green activists who came to think of humanity as a disease -- a "cancer," in Ehrlich's word -- that had to be cut out.
Unfortunately for them, far from despoiling the world and leading lives that are "nasty, brutish and short," we're thriving. As the late economist Julian Simon noted, people are the ultimate resource. More people means more brains -- more problem-solvers for humanity's ills. Population isn't a curse; it's an opportunity.
This is why the Malthusian view of the world is so wrong. And why Simon and his followers are right to say not only is the world not getting worse, but by virtually any measure it's getting better.
In "The Improving State of the World," for instance, scientist Indur Goklany notes that worldwide life expectancies have more than doubled -- from 31 years to 67 -- in just the past century. In poor countries, the share suffering from chronic hunger plunged from 37% in 1970 to 17% in 2001, even as population soared 83%.
Even the definition of "poor" has changed, because average annual incomes in poor countries have more than tripled in real terms since 1950. Just since 1981, the share of the world's population living in poverty has been halved, from 40% to 20%.
Yes, we have social and environmental problems. But the alarmists would have us don straitjackets and then force-feed us solutions under the rubric of "sustainable growth" -- a kind of friendly fascism that leads to greater poverty and loss of liberty.
We prefer what's worked before: free markets, free minds and free people, working democratically under the rule of law.
--
Yes, let's keep doing what we've done, because we are rich and have no conception of what misery is actually created in the world due to our insanely unsustainable economy (don't ask about tin miners), as we lie to ourselves with statistics (since many people are poor and hungry, perhaps more than ever before!) and what we measure as progress and success (like a bigger house or car or meat on the table every night) is actually a siren call that draws us ever toward the rocks of disaster, and we remain especially and intentionally ignorant about what will happen in the not distant future, because of the profligate population, wanton waste, and myopic mindset of people like the author, who happen to also control the very causes of the catastrophe, and every fibre of their being and their huge (and GROWING) financial clout will deny any slow down or change in course, since their ox will be gored. Al Gored.
The author doesn't understand the lesson of the casino. He only plays No Limit Poker. The table has been busted except one other player. The cards are dealt. Everything was going great. He won every bet he made. Then, his 4 aces puts his fortune "all-in"... only to get beat by Mother Nature's Straight Flush (flushing him right out of the biosphere!)
I'll leave it to others to dissect the insanity above, each sentence of which I could discuss and dispute but I'll take one swing at the fact that our liberties are being threatened (and not by environmentalists).
MY FAVORITE LINE: "Of course, you'll have to give up ... your right to bear children -- hey, the environment's at stake.
HANOVER, Germany (AFP) - A 19-year-old woman appears to have escaped from a juvenile detention centre in northwest Germany by hiding in the suitcase of a fellow inmate who was released, police said on Monday.
Guards at the facility in Neustadt remarked that the suitcase of the 18-year-old who walked free on Friday was particularly heavy but failed to search it, the police said.
The fact that the other woman was missing was only noticed several hours later during the routine evening check of cells at the centre.
The police are still looking for the two young women.
(My friend Karin decided not to have children, and didn't. Considering Karin knows nothing about www.vhemt.org, I thought you all would find her observations interesting...there are a LOT of (anonymous) VOLUNTEERS out there (some more "out there" than others!!!))
Karin writes:
Samuel & I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in Crete.
From there we went to Athens, Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, and Paris. It was an unusually good trip. I wouldn't go back to Spain but I always wanted to see it and we had a good time there.
Now I'm back at the office and feeling like I could use a good laugh. Fortunately, Bush doesn't disappoint. And if we don't laugh we will have to cry.
By the way, the Europeans now hate us. This is the first time ever that they actually said it's not your president, it's you. You voted for this idiot.
Everyone was very nice to me but they made it very clear that they hold Americans personally responsible for the situation.
Another interesting thing that was very clear from the minute we arrived in London: In 25 years the world will be 50% Muslim. This is a fact. I don't think Americans understand this. If you spend a day anywhere in Europe it is plain to see that they are overtaking the local populations.
Also in 25 years we won't have to worry about this because we will be under water! Global warming will keep us so busy we won't have time to fight about religion. We will be selling our real estate to buy clean drinking water.
There is good news in all this. due to the increased diseases from bugs that fly here due to the climate change we may die sooner. – But I'm not bitter.
"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." - Allen Konigsberg
As a Thought Experiment many years ago, I considered the following problem...
Pour a glass of ice tea. Put in a spoon and give it a swirl...how far do the molecules travel in the aggregate?
So...to determine this, I have many times tried to figure it out in my head. I have always felt (for over 25 years) that the molecules of water given a spin in this way travel many LIGHT YEARS, and I've had a few fun conversations about it, but have never actually figured it out until now...
(The density of water is roughly 1 g/cm3 or about 500 billion billion billion hydrogen atoms per cubic meter)
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 is the number of water molecules in 1 cup of water (500 cups in a cubic meter)
the distance each travels is 100 inches (33 rotations of 3 inches average (who cares, but this is like an 8 inch by 2 inch cylindrical glass full of water spinning 33 times!))
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 inches is how many light years?!?!? (if any!)
light year in inches:
180,000 miles/sec x 5280 ft/mile x 12 inches/ft x 60 seconds/minute x 60 minutes/hour x 24 hours/day x 365 days per year =
359,661,772,800,000,000 inches per light year.
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 inches / 359,661,772,800,000,000 inches per light year = BEAUCOUP LIGHT YEARS
278,039,000,979.97848716604001569332 light years.
Call it an even 250,000,000,000 light years in each coffee cup baby! Or maybe a lot less if you don't rotate it so much!!!
So each rotation causes the aggregate distance traveled by the molecules to be 1,000,000,000 light years!
The point of this story - molecules are really really tiny!
LOL hope your brain is bending around this, it is much easier written down, and I really appreciate my 11th grade Chemistry instructor Mrs. Usher (whom I found out later was a lesbian (while I was on an acid trip at my high school graduation ceremony the year after I graduated, don't ask what I was doing there, but I didn't have anything to do with the bomb that blew up during the ceremony!!! But, that's another story!)) for teaching me all about how to keep track of the units one is manipulating formulas, it has served me well.
My friend Fred has a weekly newsletter, that started this week with the following quotation...
"The gender police have already ruined college sports for many men, forcing the senseless elimination of 171 wrestling teams to reduce the overall proportion of men to women on college athletic teams. Fresh from that attack on masculinity, the new targets are math and science departments.
Somehow this is an "Attack on Masculinity"!!! Oh man, what will they think of next! Wrestlers, guys who dress in almost nothing and rub up against each other and make the other man submit (and I'm sure, in the distant past, submission was more than just slapping the floor!)...how very masculine!
Here are two disturbing quotes from the article, that is about chemicals and kids, and their unknown exposure and effects...
"A study led by Shanna Swan of the University of Rochester in New York shows that prenatal exposure to phthalates in males may be associated with impaired testicular function and with a defect that shortens the space between the genitals and anus."
(Sounds a little too convenient, eh?)
Sorry, please ignore/disregard/take personally/or otherwise be offended - (choose one) it isn't every day you find a quote like that!
If we can't even laugh, the breeders have won! (Oh that is really good, quote me Les!)
By the way, thanks to the alignment of the planets, GOOGLE Spelling doesn't know the word phthalates - the chemical in question, and the spell checker asked me if I really meant FATALITIES - oooh the humanity!
"[Rowan's] been on this planet for 18 months, and he's loaded with a chemical I've never heard of," Holland, 37, said. "He had two to three times the level of flame retardants in his body that's been known to cause thyroid dysfunction in lab rats."
(Gee dad, do you feel guilty for bringing life into this world of KNOWN RISKS, let alone these unknown ones...or are you just planning on suing some chemical/furniture factory.)
Does anyone else find it surprising/ASTONISHING that this type of research has NEVER been accomplished before?
Today in Southern California a series of wildfires either deliberately set, or caused by other "natural causes" (if, as one reporter proclaimed, a "downed power line" is a natural cause...)
(Very strong "Santa Ana" winds, a reverse weather phenomenom that causes adiabatically heated and dried air to be sent at hurricane speeds down canyons) are a huge contributor to the fires, and do cause power lines to fall as well!)
Republicans, such as Arnold and President Bush, are concerned about the people getting all that they need during the disaster.
"Emergency Management - Bring It On!"
(Sounds like socialism to me, like government roads, schools, MediCal, MediCare, Social Security, secure borders, etc.)
Once upon a time I wrote a disaster scenario to represent everything that could happen to a populace in one paragraph.
It was part of a software demonstration from Cliffside Software, a company my brother and I started (and finished!).
I'll replicate it herewith, after you read the real life scenario as it appeared today!
Here are a series of sentences that sum it up...weird stuff happens in a disaster...
-----------------------------------------------
A 1,049-inmate jail in Orange County was evacuated because of heavy smoke. The prisoners were bused to other lockups.
In San Diego County, where at least four fires burned, more than 200,000 reverse 911 calls — calls from county officials to residents — alerted residents to evacuations, said County Supervisor Roberts.
About 10,000 of them ended up at Qualcomm Stadium, home to the NFL's Chargers, where thousands of people huddled in eerie silence during the day Monday, staring at muted TV news reports of the wildfires. A lone concession stand served coffee and doughnuts. Many gathered in the
parking lot with their pets, which were banned from the stadium.
"The flames were like 100 feet high and it moved up the hill in seconds. It was at the bottom, it was in the middle, and then it was at the top," said Steve Jarrett, who helped a friend evacuate his home in nearby Escondido.
Fire near the San Diego Wild Animal Park led authorities to move condors, a cheetah, snakes and other animals to the fire-resistant veterinary hospital on the grounds of the park. The large animals, such as elephants, rhinos and antelope, were left in irrigated enclosures.
Flames forced the evacuation of the San Diego community of Ramona, which has a population of about 36,000.
As flames, thick smoke and choking ash filled the air around San Diego County's Lake Hodges, Stan Smith ignored orders to evacuate and stayed behind to help rescue the horses of his neighbor Ken Morris.
"It's hard to leave all your belongings and take off, and the bad thing is you can't get back in once you leave," Smith said. "I heard the cops come by, and I just ducked," Morris said.
Besides, said Smith, "Lots of time the fire doesn't ever come. It's come really close before. I've seen it so bad you couldn't even hear yourself talk over the flames and ash blowing everywhere."
---------------------------------------
I'll wager Smith has seen his share of "ash blowing everywhere"!
Here's what I wrote (circa 1996).
PlanAHEAD remains the world's only generalized contingency exercise development tool and is used to script training sessions to allow decision makers to learn how to overcome all of this and more:
Mutual Aid Pacts were activated by the time the torrential rain started and the tornado had just about roped out when the school bus stalled over the railroad tracks right next to the gasoline tank farm and the children's cries drowned out the noise of the flash flood, which washed away the cemetary, sending caskets into the river, threatening the dam and not playing havoc with the computer systems like the electro-magnetic pulse from the nuclear explosion which put a crimp in the power to the city, and the computer data network was badly affected by the sun spots, while the civil disturbance went into its second week with the nursing home hostages being released just one at a time, and only if they help save the health care workers from their plane's wreckage, which is still smoldering at the recently crowded stadium (now a temporary morgue), and the fuel which hadn't already burned is pouring into the storm drains, barely affecting the President and First Lady who made a surprise visit, so almost nobody noticed the earthquake, except those EOC members still trapped in the grain silo with the virus wielding band of bio-hazard terrorists.
The media, with live TV feeds just outside the EOC, blames your organization.
This is from a friend of mine who is displaced due to the fires as well.
Dear Michael,
We were evacuated yesterday from Lores Canyon and are presently staying in Newport Beach. Our home is at risk and right in the line of the fire, based on what we can see on television. We got out with a few pieces of clothing, our laptops, and about one precious item each--my mother's pearls, my son's baby blanket, my daughter's doll. I have 3 children with me: Kevin, my 13 year old; Caitlin, my 11 year old, and Sarah, my colleague Tony Sowch's daughter, who is 10. She was spending the night Saturday and by Sunday morning, the canyons had been closed, and us with NO electricity. We only found out about the fires because the electricity came on for 10 minutes and someone reached us by landline, since our mobile phones do not work up there. We came to Irvine to escape the fires, and then ended up at a friend's house that was evacuated last night, too. Needless to say, it has been a terribly traumatic 24+ hours and I do not even know where we are going tomorrow. We might need to take you up on your offer of a place to sleep, as we cannot stay forever in this hotel in Newport.
Glad they are safe and away from the smoke (I hope). I haven't left my condo and live in an apartment canyon, but the air seems awfully orange at the moment (from where I sit).
Yeah, the hose thingy is an classic TV photo op.
Valient home-owner vs. Mother Nature...
She's only has 100 foot tall non-native, invasive and water-table-robbing-Eucalyptus that burn off near the ground (thanks to the unmanaged "engineered-to-burn" chapparel), and become airborne when their leaves catch the fire generated plus Santa Ana wind turning into flaming arrows in the neighborhood.
Keep watching TV, you'll see some very likely!
Homeowner only has that little hose.
oh well...My uncle's house went down to the ground in a fire in 1963 I think - the LA Brentwood Fire, right up a canyon. His car was melted in the driveway and the chimney was still standing. They managed to salvage the silver service, it was melted into a glob, so they stuck it on a board and called it art.
Across the street, the house was untouched, except for a 2 inch burn hole about 6 foot up on one of the garage doors!
I'll go on the roof and take a peek later. We're in the middle of the city, if we get evacuated there is no where to go!
Good Luck, stay cool and don't be outside playing tennis or jogging...I know WAY too much about what is on that chapparel, I used to cruise through it for hours and hours as an archaeologist.
The smoke from a natural chapparel fire is plenty toxic.
The smoke from a current chapperel fire is doubly or trebly so, thanks to the smog that has been deposited upon the vegetation. Think of years of heavy soot hydrocarbons now coating the already waxy leaves of chapparel. They can tolerate that stuff great! But now, it is burning, so it is like YEARS of car exhaust all in one week...in your lungs.
Wonder why I don't have kids? I'd make a great dad...lol.
Enjoy your sister's kid(s) and don't have any, trust me, they, (your non-kids) will thank you!
When I was with IBM Rochester, (in Minnesota - 1983!) my parents came down from Minneapolis to visit (about 80 miles). They returned home just in front of a huge storm, and came back to our house 15 minutes later.
We ended up in a downstairs (basement split level, but up against the soil wall) bathroom as the tornadoes and hail and sleet and snow and torrential rain and shit went through town.
It was a mandatory evacuation. She is here too. He was on the roof earlier LOL. You called that!
-----Original Message-----
From: "Michael (Frish) Frishberg" <frish@gl.com>
To: "Ryan <r@reeee.com>
Sent: 10/22/07 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: Hi, how's the weather
Wholly shit batman.
What, did he dump your mother somewhere?
He's not on the roof with his hose? Hmmm
>
> Hey dads here..he just got mandatory evacuated. Its bad!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Michael (Frish) Frishberg" <frishberg@gmail.com>
> To: "To: "Ryan < r@reeee.com>
Subject: Hi, how's the weather
>
> I see Arnold on the TV sniffing smoke in San Diego...
>
> Are you downwind, upwind or winding down?!
>
> --
> Cheers,
>
> Frish
Ten Reasons to Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney
Ask Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney for (at least) the following reasons:
1. Violating the United Nations Charter by launching an illegal "War of Aggression" against Iraq without cause, using fraud to sell the war to Congress and the public, misusing government funds to begin bombing without Congressional authorization, and subjecting our military personnel to unnecessary harm, debilitating injuries, and deaths.
2. Violating U.S. and international law by authorizing the torture of thousands of captives, resulting in dozens of deaths, and keeping prisoners hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
3. Violating the Constitution by arbitrarily detaining Americans, legal residents, and non-Americans, without due process, without charge, and without access to counsel.
4. Violating the Geneva Conventions by targeting civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, and using illegal weapons, including white phosphorous, depleted uranium, and a new type of napalm.
5. Violating U.S. law and the Constitution through widespread wiretapping of the phone calls and emails of Americans without a warrant.
6. Violating the Constitution by using "signing statements" to defy hundreds of laws passed by Congress.
7. Violating U.S. and state law by obstructing honest elections in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006.
8. Violating U.S. law by using paid propaganda and disinformation, selectively and misleadingly leaking classified information, and exposing the identity of a covert CIA operative working on sensitive WMD proliferation for political retribution.
9. Subverting the Constitution and abusing Presidential power by asserting a "Unitary Executive Theory" giving unlimited powers to the President, by obstructing efforts by Congress and the Courts to review and restrict Presidential actions, and by promoting and signing legislation negating the Bill of Rights and the Writ of Habeas Corpus.
10. Gross negligence in failing to assist New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina, in ignoring urgent warnings of an Al Qaeda attack prior to Sept. 11, 2001, and in increasing air pollution causing global warming.
I DON'T CLAIM TO HAVE WRITTEN THIS, I SIMPLY AGREE WITH IT...Frish
All kinds of claims are levied against candidates during the course of a campaign for president of America , but it'll be a frosty Friday before New Yorkers see one as ridiculous at that raised against Mayor Giuliani by Time magazine. A story by Amanda Ripley reports that "an analysis of 80 of Giuliani's major speeches from 1993 to 2001 shows that he mentioned the danger of terrorism only once." Well, backwards ran sentences until reeled the mind. Anyone who watched Mr. Giuliani through the period of his mayoralty remembers his vocal opposition of terrorism — so vocal, it was, that it was sometimes expressed at his own expense.
----------
The more I read about Amanda Ripley, the better I like her!
"Americans are broad-minded people. They'll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater, and even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn't drive there's something wrong with him." - Art Buchwald
By MARTHA IRVINE and ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writers
The young teacher hung his head, avoiding eye contact. Yes, he had touched a fifth-grader's breast during recess. "I guess it was just lust of the flesh," he told his boss.
That got Gary C. Lindsey fired from his first teaching job in Oelwein, Iowa. But it didn't end his career. He taught for decades in Illinois and Iowa, fending off at least a half-dozen more abuse accusations.
When he finally surrendered his teaching license in 2004 — 40 years after that first little girl came forward — it wasn't a principal or a state agency that ended his career. It was one persistent victim and her parents.
Lindsey's case is just a small example of a widespread problem in American schools: sexual misconduct by the very teachers who are supposed to be nurturing the nation's children.
Students in America's schools are groped. They're raped. They're pursued, seduced and think they're in love.
An Associated Press investigation found more than 2,500 cases over five years in which educators were punished for actions from bizarre to sadistic.
There are 3 million public school teachers nationwide, most devoted to their work. Yet the number of abusive educators — nearly three for every school day — speaks to a much larger problem in a system that is stacked against victims.
Most of the abuse never gets reported. Those cases reported often end with no action. Cases investigated sometimes can't be proven, and many abusers have several victims.
And no one — not the schools, not the courts, not the state or federal governments — has found a surefire way to keep molesting teachers out of classrooms.
Those are the findings of an AP investigation in which reporters sought disciplinary records in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The result is an unprecedented national look at the scope of sex offenses by educators — the very definition of breach of trust.
The seven-month investigation found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct.
Young people were the victims in at least 1,801 of the cases, and more than 80 percent of those were students. At least half the educators who were punished by their states also were convicted of crimes related to their misconduct.
The findings draw obvious comparisons to sex abuse scandals in other institutions, among them the Roman Catholic Church. A review by America's Catholic bishops found that about 4,400 of 110,000 priests were accused of molesting minors from 1950 through 2002.
Clergy abuse is part of the national consciousness after a string of highly publicized cases. But until now, there's been little sense of the extent of educator abuse.
Beyond the horror of individual crimes, the larger shame is that the institutions that govern education have only sporadically addressed a problem that's been apparent for years.
"From my own experience — this could get me in trouble — I think every single school district in the nation has at least one perpetrator. At least one," says Mary Jo McGrath, a California lawyer who has spent 30 years investigating abuse and misconduct in schools. "It doesn't matter if it's urban or rural or suburban."
One report mandated by Congress estimated that as many as 4.5 million students, out of roughly 50 million in American schools, are subject to sexual misconduct by an employee of a school sometime between kindergarten and 12th grade. That figure includes verbal harassment that's sexual in nature.
Jennah Bramow, one of Lindsey's accusers in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, wonders why there isn't more outrage.
"You're supposed to be able to send your kids to school knowing that they're going to be safe," says Bramow, now 20. While other victims accepted settlement deals and signed confidentiality agreements, she sued her city's schools for failing to protect her and others from Lindsey — and won. Only then was Lindsey's teaching license finally revoked.
As an 8-year-old elementary-school student, Bramow told how Lindsey forced her hand on what she called his "pee-pee."
"How did you know it was his pee-pee?" an interviewer at St. Luke's Child Protection Center in Cedar Rapids asked Jennah in a videotape, taken in 1995.
"'Cause I felt something?" said Jennah, then a fidgety girl with long, dark hair.
"How did it feel?" the investigator asked.
"Bumpy," Jennah replied. She drew a picture that showed how Lindsey made her touch him on the zipper area of his pants.
Lindsey, now 68, refused multiple requests for an interview. "It never occurs to you people that some people don't want their past opened back up," he said when an AP reporter approached him at his home outside Cedar Rapids and asked questions.
That past, according to evidence presented in the Bramow's civil case, included accusations from students and parents along with reprimands from principals that were filed away, explained away and ultimately ignored until 1995, when accusations from Bramow and two other girls forced his early retirement. Even then, he kept his teaching license until the Bramows took the case public and filed a complaint with the state.
Like Lindsey, the perpetrators that the AP found are everyday educators — teachers, school psychologists, principals and superintendents among them. They're often popular and recognized for excellence and, in nearly nine out of 10 cases, they're male. While some abused students in school, others were cited for sexual misconduct after hours that didn't necessarily involve a kid from their classes, such as viewing or distributing child pornography.
They include:
• Joseph E. Hayes, a former principal in East St. Louis, Ill. DNA evidence in a civil case determined that he impregnated a 14-year-old student. Never charged criminally, his license was suspended in 2003. He has ignored an order to surrender it permanently.
• Donald M. Landrum, a high school teacher in Polk County, N.C. His bosses warned him not to meet with female students behind closed doors. They put a glass window in his office door, but Landrum papered over it. Police later found pornography and condoms in his office and alleged that he was about to have sex with a female student. His license was revoked in 2005.
• Rebecca A. Boicelli, a former teacher in Redwood City, Calif. She conceived a child with a 16-year-old former student then went on maternity leave in 2004 while police investigated. She was hired to teach in a nearby school district; board members said police hadn't told them about the investigation.
The overwhelming majority of cases the AP examined involved teachers in public schools. Private school teachers rarely turn up because many are not required to have a teaching license and, even when they have one, disciplinary actions are typically handled within the school.
Two of the nation's major teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, each denounced sex abuse while emphasizing that educators' rights also must be taken into account.
"Students must be protected from sexual predators and abuse, and teachers must be protected from false accusations," said NEA President Reg Weaver, who refused to be interviewed and instead released a two-paragraph statement.
Kathy Buzad of the AFT said that "if there's one incident of sexual misconduct between a teacher and a student that's one too many."
The United States has grown more sympathetic to victims of sex abuse over recent decades, particularly when it comes to young people. Laws that protect children from abusers bear the names of young victims. Police have made pursuing Internet predators a priority. People convicted of abuse typically face tough sentences and registry as sex offenders.
Even so, sexually abusive teachers continue to take advantage, and there are several reasons why.
For one, many Americans deny the problem, and even treat the abuse with misplaced fascination. Popular media reports trumpet relationships between attractive female teachers and male students.
"It's dealt with in a salacious manner with late-night comedians saying 'What 14-year-old boy wouldn't want to have sex with his teacher?' It trivializes the whole issue," says Robert Shoop, a professor of educational administration at Kansas State University who has written a book aimed at helping school districts identify and deal with sexual misconduct.
"In other cases, it's reported as if this is some deviant who crawled into the school district — 'and now that they're gone, everything's OK.' But it's much more prevalent than people would think."
The AP investigation found efforts to stop individual offenders but, overall, a deeply entrenched resistance toward recognizing and fighting abuse. It starts in school hallways, where fellow teachers look away or feel powerless to help. School administrators make behind-the-scenes deals to avoid lawsuits and other trouble. And in state capitals and Congress, lawmakers shy from tough state punishments or any cohesive national policy for fear of disparaging a vital profession.
That only enables rogue teachers, and puts kids who aren't likely to be believed in a tough spot.
In case after case the AP examined, accusations of inappropriate behavior were dismissed. One girl in Mansfield, Ohio , complained about a sexual assault by teacher Donald Coots and got expelled. It was only when a second girl, years later, brought a similar complaint against the same teacher that he was punished.
And that second girl also was ostracized by the school community and ultimately left town.
Unless there's a videotape of a teacher involved with a child, everyone wants to believe the authority figure, says Wayne Promisel, a retired Virginia detective who has investigated many sex abuse cases.
He and others who track the problem reiterated one point repeatedly during the AP investigation: Very few abusers get caught.
They point to several academic studies estimating that only about one in 10 victimized children report sexual abuse of any kind to someone who can do something about it.
Teachers, administrators and even parents frequently don't, or won't, recognize the signs that a crime is taking place.
"They can't see what's in front of their face. Not unlike a kid in an alcoholic family, who'll say 'My family is great,'" says McGrath, the California lawyer and investigator who now trains entire school systems how to recognize what she calls the unmistakable "red flags" of misconduct.
In Hamburg, Pa., in 2002, those "red flags" should have been clear. A student skipped classes every day to spend time with one teacher. He gave her gifts and rides in his car. She sat on his lap. The bond ran so deep that the student got chastised repeatedly — even suspended once for being late and absent so often. But there were no questions for the teacher.
Heather Kline was 12, a girl with a broad smile and blond hair pulled back tight. Teacher Troy Mansfield had cultivated her since she was in his third-grade class.
"Kids, like, idolized me because they thought I was, like, cool because he paid more attention to me," says Kline, now 18, sitting at her mother's kitchen table, sorting through a file of old poems and cards from Mansfield. "I was just like really comfortable. I could tell him anything."
He never pushed her, just raised the stakes, bit by bit — a comment about how good she looked, a gift, a hug.
She was sure she was in love.
By winter of seventh grade, he was sneaking her off in his car for an hour of sex, dropping in on her weekly baby-sitting duties, e-mailing about what clothes she should wear, about his sexual fantasies, about marriage and children.
Mansfield finally got caught by the girl's mother, and his own words convicted him. At his criminal trial in 2004, Heather read his e-mails and instant messages aloud, from declarations of true love to explicit references to past sex. He's serving up to 31 years in state prison.
The growing use of e-mails and text messages is leaving a trail that investigators and prosecutors can use to prove an intimate relationship when other evidence is hard to find.
Even then, many in the community find it difficult to accept that a predator is in their midst. When these cases break, defendants often portray the students as seducers or false accusers. However, every investigator questioned said that is largely a misconception.
"I've been involved in several hundred investigations," says Martin Bates, an assistant superintendent in a Salt Lake City school district. "I think I've seen that just a couple of times ... where a teacher is being pursued by a student."
Too often, problem teachers are allowed to leave quietly. That can mean future abuse for another student and another school district.
"They might deal with it internally, suspending the person or having the person move on. So their license is never investigated," says Charol Shakeshaft, a leading expert in teacher sex abuse who heads the educational leadership department at Virginia Commonwealth University.
It's a dynamic so common it has its own nicknames — "passing the trash" or the "mobile molester."
Laws in several states require that even an allegation of sexual misconduct be reported to the state departments that oversee teacher licenses. But there's no consistent enforcement, so such laws are easy to ignore.
School officials fear public embarrassment as much as the perpetrators do, Shakeshaft says. They want to avoid the fallout from going up against a popular teacher. They also don't want to get sued by teachers or victims, and they don't want to face a challenge from a strong union.
In the Iowa case, Lindsey agreed to leave without fighting when his bosses kept the reason for his departure confidential. The decades' worth of allegations against him would have stayed secret, if not for Bramow.
Across the country, such deals and lack of information-sharing allow abusive teachers to jump state lines, even when one school does put a stop to the abuse.
While some schools and states have been aggressive about investigating problem teachers and publicizing it when they're found, others were hesitant to share details of cases with the AP — Alabama and Mississippi among the more resistant. Maine, the only state that gave the AP no disciplinary information, has a law that keeps offending teachers' cases secret.
Meanwhile, the reasons given for punishing hundreds of educators, including many in California, were so vague there was no way to tell why they'd been punished, until further investigation by AP reporters revealed it was sexual misconduct.
And in Hawaii, no educators were disciplined by the state in the five years the AP examined, even though some teachers there were serving sentences for various sex crimes during that time. They technically remained teachers, even behind bars.
Elsewhere, there have been fitful steps toward catching errant teachers that may be having some effect. The AP found the number of state actions against sexually abusive teachers rose steadily, to a high of 649 in 2005.
More states now require background checks on teachers, fingerprinting and mandatory reporting of abuse, though there are still loopholes and a lack of coordination among districts and states.
U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the last 20 years on civil rights and sex discrimination have opened schools up to potentially huge financial punishments for abuses, which has driven some schools to act.
And the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification keeps a list of educators who've been punished for any reason, but only shares the names among state agencies.
The uncoordinated system that's developed means some teachers still fall through the cracks. Aaron M. Brevik is a case in point.
Brevik was a teacher at an elementary school in Warren, Mich., until he was accused of using a camera hidden in a gym bag to secretly film boys in locker rooms and showers. He also faced charges that he recorded himself molesting a boy while the child slept.
Found guilty of criminal sexual conduct, Brevik is now serving a five- to 20-year prison sentence and lost his Michigan license in 2005.
What Michigan officials apparently didn't know when they hired him was that Brevik's teaching license in Minnesota had been permanently suspended in 2001 after he allegedly invited two male minors to stay with him in a hotel room. He was principal of an elementary school in southeastern Minnesota at the time.
"I tell you what, they never go away. They just blend a little better," says Steve Janosko, a prosecutor in Ocean County, N.J., who handled the case of a former high school teacher and football coach, Nicholas J. Arminio.
Arminio surrendered his New Jersey teaching license in 1994 after two female students separately accused him of inappropriate touching. The state of Maryland didn't know that when he applied for teaching credentials and took a job at a high school in Baltimore County. He eventually resigned and lost that license, too.
Even so, until this month, he was coaching football at another Baltimore County high school in a job that does not require a teaching license. After the AP started asking questions, he was fired.
Victims also face consequences when teachers are punished.
In Pennsylvania, after news of teacher Troy Mansfield's arrest hit, girls called Kline, his 12-year-old victim, a "slut" to her face. A teacher called her a "vixen." Friends stopped talking to her. Kids no longer sat with her at lunch.
Her abuser, meanwhile, had been a popular teacher and football coach.
So, between rumors that she was pregnant or doing drugs and her own panic attacks and depression, Kline bounced between schools. At 16, she ran away to Nashville.
"I didn't have my childhood," says Kline, who's back home now, working at a grocery cash register and hoping to get her GED so she can go to nursing school. "He had me so matured at so young.
"I remember going from little baby dolls to just being an adult."
The courts dealt her a final insult. A federal judge dismissed her civil suit against the school, saying administrators had no obligation to protect her from a predatory teacher since officials were unaware of the abuse, despite what the court called widespread "unsubstantiated rumors" in the school. The family is appealing.
In Iowa, the state Supreme Court made the opposite ruling in the Bramow case, deciding she and her parents could sue the Cedar Rapids schools for failing to stop Lindsey.
Bramow, now a young mother who waits tables for a living, won a $20,000 judgment. But Lindsey was never criminally charged due to what the former county prosecutor deemed insufficient evidence.
Arthur Sensor, the former superintendent in Oelwein, Iowa, who vividly recalls pressuring Lindsey to quit on Feb. 18, 1964, regrets that he didn't do more to stop him back then.
Now, he says, he'd call the police.
"He promised me he wouldn't do it again — that he had learned. And he was a young man, a beginning teacher, had a young wife, a young child," Sensor, now 86 years old, said during testimony at the Bramows' civil trial.
I am even more vehement then the next person about the immorality of any decision that includes bringing another human life onto the planet.
I just don't "get it" when it comes to the "morality of veganism"!
...snip...(I had a whole lot of other stuff here about how there is no difference between plant and animal protein, morally, since the far greater problem was that WE (humanity) are still eating, altogether!
And, while I am correct, it is, as the subject line states "off topic"!)
Anyway, vegans, thanks!
You've elicited one original thought from me tonight!!!
Upon some serious self reflection, I conclude that here is something we can all agree upon:
I am just another reason VHE must be accomplished!
It was a pick up game, seven innings, late in the school year and I was pitching.
I only played pitcher or catcher, since I didn't run well and couldn't throw very far, as I never learned how! I casually picked off batters, three up and three down 5 innings in a row. The opponents called it a night, it was obvious they weren't going to hit me.
She was up in the stands, blonde and stacked and pretty cute. I knew who she was; she had just dumped my friend Cornie. I didn't pay much attention to his love life, they had been going out for a couple of years, but when he wasn't out with her he was partying with us.
What I found out later was that she had her girl friend drive her way out to the ball park we were using, just to meet me. I was somewhat clueless and somewhat sophisticated, a wonderful and normal combination for a 16 year old.
Cornie was a sensitive guy, and was also real broken up by this twat. Ah well. I actually think that Cornie was gay, but in the closet at that point, haven't seen him in over 30 years. I don't know what became of him.
Anyway, after the game she sauntered over to me and said hello.
I noticed her bodacious tata's.
It was obvious that just looking at me made her pee a little puddle, but I ignored her advances judiciously. Coy works a lot better than obvious, I had that part mastered already.
She gave me her number and, while I wasn't even that interested, I gave her a call, since I was in between girls that week.
My "standard" date was pretty awesome, to most girls, and usually got me what I wanted.
There was a pretty decent chinese place downtown called Fu King's Palace. All my girls had enjoyed that place, then I would take them back to the theatre near my house, where they had been showing Harold and Maude for three years running. My favorite movie, which was lucky, since I'd seen it 22 times with different dates already, somehow it got them in the mood, being a love story and all.
Afterwards, depending on the season, we'd enjoy each other's company in the back of a car, skinny dipping in a lake, lying out on my pool table in the basement (with my parents watching tv upstairs) or, if her parents weren't around, off to her house.
But, this date was different.
I picked her up on time and told her where we were going for dinner. She turned to me and said "Fuck NO!" since she had worked at the Palace for two years during summers and was sick as hell of the food there.
This almost derailed me.
Turned out she wasn't that interested in small talk and dinner anyway, and had already seen Harold and Maude and didn't want to see it again.
Where we ate, I can't recall, but the back of my car afterwards was an adventure I've never forgotten, over three decades years later!
The following week Cornie was present at the Winto's Friday get together at Cageman's house.
I think all the Wintos were there, the core group of Schultz, Cageman, Walleye, Richey, Turncoat and me, Cornie and Bennie, even Pollack and Burns, peripheral members got together with us when they could.
I tried to be casual with Cornie, since I knew he was sensitive, but he had already heard (from one of her bitch girlfriends) that his ex and I had gone out.
Well, it wasn't two minutes into my visit there that he began to chew my ass and the "what happened on the date" bullshit started. I was extremely reluctant to tell him, since I don't kiss and tell, but he was more than insistent.
What a fuckin' plonker. I hit the bong again and again, hoping to pass out instead of being abused by his confrontation. But Cornie didn't let up a minute. It was silly and not fun but I held my ground.
My defenses lowered slowly, the vodka and beer and pot took its toll, but still I held out. Finally after about two hours of his constant harassment, I told him what he didn't want to hear. He said he didn't believe me. I said I could prove it.
The rest of the Winto gang were pissed at Cornie, and at me for what they perceived as my teasing, yet they were also unnaturally interested in how I could prove it!
I kept my mouth shut again, but Cornie wouldn't let up. . . "Well prove it then, motherfucker!"
I tried hard, since I didn't want to hurt him, but, worn down and bored, and actually a little pissed at his insistence, I finally whispered the proof into his ear. I figured if she could tell her girlfriends about me, I could tell her Ex about what we'd done too.
That was not exactly brilliant, but nothing else was going to shut Cornie up!
His reaction was a good imitation of cardiac arrest. He turned white, then a brilliant shade of red. He ran right through a door, into Cageman's bedroom and dove onto the bed for the phone.
He almost broke a finger calling her, to discuss the facts, now that he knew that I could prove it.
The rest of the Gang were laughing at this point, and I was simply sad. "What did you tell him man? Why did he dive for the phone like that? What the fug was the "proof" you offered anyway?" were just a few of the questions I was reluctant to answer.
Finally, hearing the sobs from the bedroom as Cornie cried his guts out, I broke down and told them. I knew that the consequences would not be good for my future with that particular pussy, but I couldn't keep my mouth shut for some reason, just had to share.
Knowing what I said next would only get them to ask a whole bunch more questions, I blurted it out anyway..."She has Inverted Nipples dudes!"
She got me back a couple weeks later. That's a whole 'nuther story.
