Song(s) of the Day # 2,300 Langkamer
3 hours ago
Friday, 26 August 2011
Depleted Uranium Weapon Use Persists, Despite Deadly Side Effects
War and the Tragedy of the Commons, Part 5
By 2003, reports were surfacing of cancer clusters and birth disorders in conflict areas of the Balkans and Iraq, raising fears about human exposure to depleted uranium (DU) and its fate and transport in war environments. Gulf War Syndrome, a catchall for mysterious and disabling symptoms and conditions suffered by nearly 40 percent of 540,000 veterans of the three-week ground war (which killed fewer than 200 US soldiers), remained an unyielding conundrum. A colleague and I prepared a fact sheet on depleted uranium, given its first use in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and growing use by the United States and Britain in subsequent wars. We labored in a meager research environment and detected an unsettling complacency around the question of environmental health impacts of DU munitions.
Little governmental research on Gulf War veterans was being conducted other than a small study on 29 veterans with DU metal shrapnel fragments in their bodies, cancer cluster reports were dismissed as anecdotal and alarmist, and DU was pigeonholed as "weak" and "feeble" radiation with no predictable risk. Thus, the US decision to use DU in weapons was made in an environment of uncertainty and intentional ignorance about the health risks to those exposed in conflict and post-conflict situations. Accustomed to policing and polluting everyone's backyard, the Department of Defense (DoD) still maintains a shroud of secrecy around depleted uranium, as it has with abandoned hazardous waste contaminating military bases and countries in which our government has waged war...
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H. Patricia Hynes @'truthout'
Barbarian Flashmob Converts 'Marcus Bachmann' in Glitter Baptism at Clinic
Join the Horde! http://www.twitter.com/CGoHome
http://www.facebook.com/ColumbusGoHome
Stop taxpayer funds to Bachmann's anti-gay clinic: http://bit.ly/rkViU8
Producer: Sarah Webster Norton
Choreographer: John Agurkis
Edited by Dan Feidt & Gus Ganley
Earlier today in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, an army of gay barbarians marched on Michele and Marcus Bachmann's "clinic", condemning the couple's attempt to "pray away" their discredited gay conversion therapy.
The flashmob protest — inspired by Marcus's assertion that gays are "barbarians who need to be disciplined" — comes in the wake of the unlicensed therapist's peculiar reversal, now denying he or his "therapists" ever practiced the harmful therapy.
In an attempt to clear up the confusion, the group of "gay barbarians" approached the clinic earlier this morning in hopes to speak to Marcus. When the staff saw a horde of over 100 barbarians approaching, they locked the clinic doors.
Undaunted, the barbarians at the gates demanded to see Marcus. Significant medical evidence suggests the "therapy" is a farce.
The barbarians were locked out of the office, but remained undaunted and fabulous at the gates, along with newly converted "Marcus."
The barbarians then began chanting "you can't pray away the gay, baby I was born this way!". Finally, a visibly frustrated "Marcus" emerged in front of the clinic and confronted the horde yelling "you barbarians need discipline!" as he reprimanded the dancing barbarians with a black leather whip. They responded by showering him with glitter, and after the sparkling baptism "Marcus" gave in to his barbaric urges, joining the horde in their infectious flashmob dance.
The Marcus impersonator was a local actor.
"Let's be clear: Marcus Bachmann is the practitioner of an unhealthy, unscientific and dangerous practice," explained Nick Espinosa, one of the event organizers. "It seems all too convenient that the minute Michele Bachamann becomes a candidate for President Marcus starts making a desperate attempt to walk back his previous statements."
Marcus's inexplicable change of orientation on the use of "ex-gay" therapy comes a month after an interview in which he claimed to only use the therapy "at the patient's discretion." This statement also contradicts video evidence from an undercover investigation that shows employees of the clinic clearly encouraging the widely-discredited therapy.
"The American people have a right to know: does the Bachmann family profit from bogus "gay reparative therapy" or not," continued Espinosa. "The medical evidence against the practice aside, the Bachmann's subversive marginalization of the LGBT community is despicable."
Today's action was organized by the same young man who previously glittered Newt Gingrich, inspiring a national trend in political protest of anti-LGBT sentiments from political candidates and campaigns.
"It's clear that the Bachmanns are the real barbarians here, and their archaic views on LGBT equality will no longer be tolerated," Espinosa said.
BACKGROUND:
Michele Bachmann has a long history of controversial anti-gay politics, and has compared the gay lifestyle to "bondage and slavery."
Her anti-gay views have been a focal point of her career as a politician, but lately she has shied away from reporters' questions about her controversial comments and taxpayer-funded "reparative therapy" clinic. While Michele Bachmann has long railed against federal safety net programs like Medicaid, the Bachmann & Associates clinic has received over $137,000 in Medicaid funds and over $27,000 in other state and federal funds.
For years, the scientific and medical communities — including groups like the American Psychology Association — have dismissed "reparative therapy" (also known as "conversion therapy" or "ex-gay therapy") as dangerous and unethical.
abumuqawama Andrew Exum
I would like to congratulate Mu'ammar Qadhdhafi, the 2011 North Africa Hide & Go Seek Champion. Well done, Mu'ammar.
Town Produces 321% More Energy Than It Uses
A small Bavarian town in Germany called Wildpoldsried produces 321% more energy than it uses, from renewable and natural sources. It sells the excess energy for about $5.7 million each year. The point they are at now in terms of energy production and independence was reached by starting a plan about fourteen years ago to develop more clean energy sources and green building projects. The town with a population of about 2,500 started work on a huge community initiative involving the construction of new buildings and energy sources. The new buildings included a school, community hall and gym, and they employ solar panels, as do 190 private households. Five biogas digesters, nine windmills, three hydroelectric projects, ecological flood control and a natural waste water treatment system were part of the plan for energy independence. It all has worked well, and the town is debt-free. This is a community that previously was focused on farming for most incomes...
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Jake Richardson @'care2'
BETTY PAGE - No.1 (Fetish Comix)
A fine artist from Las Vegas, Nevada, Dirk Vermin, put out this (as well as issue 2 , Punk Comix! coming soon to this blog!), in 1992. Great fantasy pieces,with Betty and Dracula, Rod Serling, Frankenstein, Ed Gein and more! All done in fantastic black and white ! I have tons of Betty stuff and this is some of the rarest. Only 1000 copies in existence! Mine's hand signed by the artist and numbered 851/1000!
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HERE
Do check out the rest of the blog - some great stuff there...
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