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GrassRoutes: People-Powered Art
GrassRoutes was a multidisciplinary arts event, held 5/21/06 in Seattle, which represented the paradox inherent in our transportation choices. It was held where in 1969, several thousand citizens marched to stop construction of an Expressway which would have cut through the beautiful Arboretum. Citizen protest won out, leaving "ghost ramps."
In "Tour of the Future: Come Visit the Historic Ruins of Highway 520," artist Nicole Kistler acted as our "tour guide of the future." Inspired by visits to archaeological ruins such as Tikal, Rome and Ankor Wat - whose societies collapsed - she decided to illustrate the eery parallel with the behaviors of our society. Signage was posed along the trail loop, with simulated binoculars and telescopes for viewing from historical and future periods. We passed installations such as a site of possible former car worship, the "tangled web" woven by the oil companies, and an opportunity to experience what it felt like to ride in a "single occupancy vehicle." Finally, we ended up at Ghost Ramp Field for a dance by backpackers and participatory percussion with instruments made from cars, the transportation mode of the past.
(more photos below the fold, including The Happy Monk)
Wonderful photos, DiAnne, as usual!
Thanks for inspiration.
Wow... Never knew of the plan to destroy the Arboretum with the 520. And certainly didn't notice the abandoned sections of the planned 520 path!
Good thing cities like Seattle and SF kept the freeway sprawl under control. Los Angeles didn't, and instead, chose to tear up its excellent trolley system to make way for freeways.
I'll never forgive the urban planner who made that decision.
Karen
You would have liked the dance. I'm really getting interested in dance & performance, even if mostly just as a spectator (those are needed!)
Last night we saw something different - The Atomic Bombshells with visiting Dita Von Teese, international queen of burlesque.She is an ex ballerina and costume designer and the Bombshells recently relocated here from New Orleans.There is a big resurgance here & in some other cities forvaudeville, burlesque & circus, with careful attention to period, costumes, technique and history but also lots of creativity. Minneapolis now has a burlesque club in the Warehouse District, I read.
It reminds me of the Art Nouveau period when things made by real people by hand became popular, especially with organic themes, as Industrialization spread.
I don't know what this is all a reaction to (if anything), but it's definitely Americana & pilgrimages are made to Exotic World, in the middle of Death Valley on a former goat farm. Gypsy Rose Lee, Lily St Cyr, Blaze Starr, Candy Barr - as long as it's pretty much woman-controlled I think it can be empowering.
I think Las Vegas was inspirational too because that's part of how I got reinterested in this - Yearly Kos was in the "hood" of Vegas which is being torn down soon - Ivana Trump is building condos and I think I read she may beat least part-owner of the Riviera where we stayed (as progressives usually travel on a budget) - it is very historic and may soon be gone.
The history of "sin" in a Puritan-based country is also very interesting to me - the hypocrisy, the industry, etc.The latest Seattle Weekly coincidentally is about a local guy who builds huge production sets for Vegas, Reno, Indian casinos,etc. He was talking about middle-brow tastes & howprofitable. Cirque du Soleil is spinach, his shows are roast beef, he says. A comedian said that if someone wet shit on a buckled paper plate, people would line up in droves for it. A madame here once said business booms during conservative administrations. I'll bet same is true in DC.
The drumbeat of violence continues in Iraq:
Bomb Attacks in Iraq Leave 60 Dead
Iraqi Prime Minister Heads to Washington for Talks
By ROBERT H. REID, AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq (July 23) - Bombs killed more than 60 people and wounded more than 200 Sunday in Baghdad and the northern oil center of Kirkuk - a dramatic escalation of violence as U.S. and Iraqi forces crack down on Iraq's most feared Shiite militia.
http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/bomb-attacks-in-iraq-leave-60-dead/20060723061809990004?_ccc=2&cid=842
The above incident deserves a call to the White House (202-456-1111) and to Pro War Senator Joe Lieberman's office (202-224-4041) tomorrow.
Ralpheh
I just read that.
When I've called the White House, an operator tries to put me through to a message machine so sometimes I quickly tell the operator what I think. It's not their fault, but they must hear everything.
Why is everyone suddenly bombing instead of patrolling, training troops & police, building schools & spreading freedom?
Why is it almost 5 years later instead of 5 days, 5 weeks or 5 months? Rumsfeld lied, hundreds of thousands died.
Is this just bad writing or did he really hold a news conference with test tube babies? (I know he used them as backdrop/photo op but this really sounds surreal!)
Washington Post
First Bush Veto Maintains Limits on Stem Cell Use
New York Times - Jul 21, 2006
After President Bush rejected a stem cell bill, he held a news conference with babies born of in vitro fertilization. Jeff McCaffrey, who is paralyzed, was with Senator Harry Reid, who supports stem cell research. ...
Having failed to bring the world to heel by bluster and bombing, this administration doesn’t exactly have a lot of credibility. “Once you’ve tried and failed to intimidate someone, it’s very hard to go back and negotiate.”
http://www.theweekmagazine.com/article.aspx?ID=1574
Bush Administration Asserts Greater Control Over Civil Rights Division
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072306X.shtml
The Bush administration is quietly remaking the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, filling the permanent ranks with lawyers who have strong conservative credentials but little experience in civil rights, according to job application materials obtained by the Globe.
War on Lebanon Planned for at least a Year
The Bush Administration's Grand Strategy and the Birth Pangs of Terror
By Juan Cole
"More than a year ago, a senior Israeli army officer began giving PowerPoint presentations, on an off-the-record basis, to U.S. and other diplomats, journalists and think tanks, setting out the plan for the current operation in revealing detail."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14159.htm
Saddam in hospital over hunger strike:
"The US military are force-feeding the president to break his will and end his hunger strike to protest against the trial and its illegality," Khalil Dulaimi told Reuters
http://tinyurl.com/orjgv
Those of you who remember the late 60s, early 70s -
remember "Teach Ins"??
THey're back!!
Examples:
There are two local teach-in/discussion events scheduled for the following publication:
Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush (Melville Press)
(Then 2 locations are given)
About the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR):
Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights demonstrators in the South, the Center for Constitutional Rights is a non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
About CCR's Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush:
In March of 2005, the Center for Constitutional Rights published Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush (Melville House). The book sets out the legal arguments for impeachment in a clear, concise, and objective discussion. In four separate articles of impeachment, detailing four separate charges - warrantless surveillance, misleading Congress on the reasons for the Iraq war, violating laws against torture, and subverting the Constitution's separation of powers - the CCR makes the case for impeachment exactly as it would be presented by the House of Representatives to the U.S. Senate.
Grassroots Teach-Ins and House Parties
An interactive site http://www.articlesofimpeachment.net) allows concerned citizens to organize events in their own communities. July 19th was the target date for nation-wide events. We are a little late,hopefully, we can draw on others experience.
Please help spread the word.
I have been out.
I see that Saudi Arabia wants a ceasefire between Israel & Hezbollah. I see that Bolten was on FOX News and says anattack against Israel is an attack against the US. I see a mention of possible later use of force with terms to beworked out, involving Miss Rice.
None of this makes me have any appetite (& it's not just the heat).
Posted by: DiAnne at July 23, 2006 07:40 PM
I think I almost know what you mean.... that sick, hollow, about-to-retch, gawdawful "I can't stand it!" kind of thing?
I saw a few seconds of the opening segments of CBS evening snooze... pix of injured children all bandaged, huge eyes full of pain and confusion. It took every ounce of willpower to look at the pix and not collapse in an hysterical heap on the floor, screaming "WHY?!?"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060723/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_mideast
Saudis ask Bush to intervene in Mideast
{{{Headlines like this make me ROTFLMAO. Ask Bu$h or anyone in his administration to go against PNAC objectives? They're kidding, right? Are they out of their minds? Hahahahahaha! At the risk of repeating myself, the world needs to carry on without anyone from the current administration involved; they need to shun Bu$hCo entirely and do peace negotiations through someone else. They absolutely will not get any satisfactory help from Bu$hCo.}}}
NonnyO
I just read this one. Sounds like deal-making involving Egypt & Saudi Arabia (which won't be popular with their own people).
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Mideast_Fighting_Arab_End_Game.html
It's hard to keep up with who the players are, but this is kind of predictable. Notice also that in exchange, these countries are kind of telling the neocons to butt out of the middle east as far as pressing for democratic reforms. (Democratic reforms is something we need in this country, actually!!)
They are going to try to get Egypt & Saudi Arabia to kind of break up the alliance between Iran and Syria - good luck.
Jeez - Syria wants a ceasefire. Hezbollah agrees to a prison swap. The UN Humanitarian head charges crimes against humanity. Why not a ceasefire now, not a week from now!
Who will feed all the refugees, how can economies run with everyone stuck in bunkers, who will rebuild the infrastructure, and what about the people who are trapped with bombings imminent?! I can't believe this is real.
NonnyO
Check out the photo.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/israel-ready-for-ground-war/2006/07/23/1153593211293.html
Posted by: DiAnne at July 23, 2006 08:22 PM
Mob mentality....
Daydream of mine: Take all the warmongers of every age and put them on a desert island with no weapons but clubs, no way to communicate with the rest of the world... and let 'em go at each other to their hearts' content....
... and leave the rest of the people of the world to live in peaceful co-existence with their neighbors....
PS... yes, I know. It's too simple. That's why it's a daydream of mine....
I found this little snippet in one of CNN's web articles. Certainly, it does not make up for all the horror that Lebanese citizens have endured. What I find really disturbing is the Israeli's prohibition against the U.N. distributing supplies in southern Lebanon.
Israel to distribute relief supplies
The Israeli military announced Sunday it will distribute relief supplies to Lebanese citizens under the supervision of the Red Cross.
The statement from the Israel Defense Forces said the mission was "in accordance with IDF policy to maintain the daily life of Lebanese civilian population not involved in terror activity."
The humanitarian aid, to arrive on ships into Beirut's port, will be transferred to aid centers across Lebanon, the IDF said.
Israel has barred the United Nations from sending relief supplies into southern Lebanon, where most of the country's estimated 500,000 internally displaced people are located, according to U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland.
The United Nations is able to take its convoys of humanitarian relief to Beirut, where some 150,000 people are displaced, Egeland told CNN's Nic Robertson. (Watch Syrians open homes to Lebanese -- 2:14)
Egeland toured the rubble-littered streets of southern Beirut on Sunday and complained about the lack of safe routes for humanitarian relief supplies.
"We do not have free access at the moment," he said. "We do not have security for our trucks. We do not have security for our relief people."
The United Nations has bought 50 trucks and a ship that can travel from Cyprus to Beirut, then to the port city of Tyre, he said.
On Monday, the United Nations will launch a $100 million fundraising campaign to help the Lebanese people, he said.
Egeland will also negotiate the establishment of humanitarian corridors on Monday in hopes that trucks can head south quickly to bring people supplies.
"There are people dying in hospitals because they do not have enough supplies, and it's our obligation to help now," he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/23/mideast/index.html
the above post is mine not dwahzon's......too complicated to explain.
A British opinion:
We'd be better off linking our foreign policy to Europe
A liberal European government shouldn't be subject to one-sided US diplomacy driven by extreme theology
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1827502,00.html
PS You guys are using each other's computers, right?!
I see that Bolten was on FOX News and says anattack against Israel is an attack against the US.
Posted by: DiAnne at July 23, 2006 07:40 PM
I take that to mean that Israel is not, and has never been, a sovereign state, but a puppet of the United States' politicians (neocons as of late). Correct me if I'm wrong.
I wouldn't be surprised a bit though, because our neocons run too many puppet states worldwide (and mess up the regions they are in) anyway. That includes every right-leaning regime in Latin America (especially Colombia), the Philippines and South Korea in Asia, and arguably the UK in Europe. And back in the Middle East, don't forget Iraq...
Ralpheh
I just read that.
When I've called the White House, an operator tries to put me through to a message machine so sometimes I quickly tell the operator what I think. It's not their fault, but they must hear everything.
Posted by: DiAnne at July 23, 2006 04:43 PM
@@@@@@
About calling the White House Comment Line:
that number is 202-456-1111 - your call is automatically answered by a voice recording and then you are put on hold for a couple of minutes until a real staff person (but I go a little bit easy on these people because they are volunteers) answers. The Comment line is only staffed during business hours - 9-5 p.m. and not on holidays.
The White House switchboard is 202-456-1414 - this people are "just" operators in the sense they are there to screen calls or transfer call and not take messages.
Posted by: NonnyO at July 23, 2006 08:30 PM
Love the thought, Nonny.
I am literally dumbfounded by the absolute disregard and callousness that Bushco has for Americans who are suffering civil right abuses. This is absolutely incredible and highlights how the Bushco regime has brazenly harmed each and every one of us. Is it any surprise that the FISA laws are just an inconvenience for Bush that he found best to ignore?
Civil rights hiring shifted in Bush era
Conservative leanings stressed
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | July 23, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is quietly remaking the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, filling the permanent ranks with lawyers who have strong conservative credentials but little experience in civil rights, according to job application materials obtained by the Globe.
SNIP
At the same time, the kinds of cases the Civil Rights Division is bringing have undergone a shift. The division is bringing fewer voting rights and employment cases involving systematic discrimination against African-Americans, and more alleging reverse discrimination against whites and religious discrimination against Christians.
SNIP
Other defenders of the Bush administration say there is nothing improper about the winner of a presidential election staffing government positions with like-minded officials. And, they say, the old career staff at the division was partisan in its own way -- an entrenched bureaucracy of liberals who did not support the president's view of civil rights policy.
Robert Driscoll , a deputy assistant attorney general over the division from 2001 to 2003, said many of the longtime career civil rights attorneys wanted to bring big cases on behalf of racial groups based on statistical disparities in hiring, even without evidence of intentional discrimination. Conservatives, he said, prefer to focus on cases that protect individuals from government abuses of power.
Hiring only lawyers from civil rights groups would ``set the table for a permanent left-wing career class," Driscoll said.
But Jim Turner , who worked for the division from 1965 to 1994 and was the top-ranked professional in the division for the last 25 years of his career, said that hiring people who are interested in enforcing civil rights laws is not the same thing as trying to achieve a political result through hiring.
SNIP
`The clear emphasis has been to hire individuals with conservative credentials," he said. ``If anything, a civil rights background is considered a liability."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/07/23/civil_rights_hiring_shifted_in_bush_era?mode=PF
Posted by: Ally McLesbian at July 23, 2006 09:50 PM
You know Ally, I have thought that Israel is not the one calling the shots in the Middle East. I have thought that is actually the United States telling Israel what to do especially when it comes to military initiatives. The U.S. is totally satisfied to have its pawn - Israel - fighting this battle against Hezbollah - Iran's pawn. Didn't many of us predict that Sharon would invade Iran at the United States urging? Right now that is impossible for several reasons, so the next best thing for the United States is for Israel to battle Iran in
another country.
PS You guys are using each other's computers, right?!
Posted by: DiAnne at July 23, 2006 09:42 PM
That's right. Horror of horrors, Dwazhon had to use a mac.
Posted by: oncall at July 23, 2006 10:15 PM
I feel that there are two camps of nations in the world.
The first camp: when attacked by the enemy, arise and support the leader, even if it's the leader's ineptitude that invited the attack.
The second camp: when attacked by the enemy, re-evaluate the current flow of policies, and change directions to defuse the situation if necessary.
It appears that most nations of the world are in the second camp, except for the US and Israel, which have used "terra, terra, terra" as the war cry for more neocon leadership, and therefore belong to the first camp.
I hope the Israelis realize that the current American support for them is NOT to really support the Jewish state, but to support a Dominionist Christian takeover of the Holy Land. That, to the average Israeli, is as harmful as the Muslims wiping Israel off the face of the earth.
That's right. Horror of horrors, Dwazhon had to use a mac.
Posted by: oncall at July 23, 2006 10:17 PM
And so did I, when I was at DiAnne's place three weeks ago. :)
I do like Macs - intuitive and made by a blue company. They don't see much use in my industry - construction - though!
Posted by: DiAnne at July 23, 2006 04:47 PM
In the past two days I have had talks with two different people who don't understand the stem cell debate. One thought there should not be a ban on stem cell research because the cells the debate surrounded were adult stem cells. I filled this person in on a quick overview of the embryonic stem cell harvesting process. The other person, a woman from church, thought the stem cells the debate is over were taking from the brain stem of an aborted fetus. I filled her in, too. Both of them are pro-life, but cannot understand why it would be illegal to do research on embryonic stem cells when the embryos are going to be discarded anyway. One of them asked me why it was not illegal to throw them away, if it was illegal to destroy them in order to do research. FYI. Kinda interesting.
over were taking from the brain stem of an aborted fetus.
Please make that were taken from the etc.
Also, DiAnne, the point I wanted to make was that the woman I talked to about this subject earlier today seemed to think it was a positive thing to use the embryos to do the research rather than discarding them.
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at July 23, 2006 10:39 PM
Tony Snow the Presidential spokesman said that the President doesn't believe in "murder". Russert went after Chief of Staff, Bolton today on Meet the Press over that statement. It seems that murder is perfectly legitimate if it is private company doing the murdering. However, we can't have our tax dollars spent to murder those embryos for the sake of research, and we should do everything we can to keep those frozen embryos from being discarded - all 400,000 of them.
Sheeesh. Those nimrods can't ever be accused of being logical or ethical.
Watch the brief video:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/posts/2006/07/23/josh-bolten-squirms-during-stem-cell-questions/
Thanks, O.C.
It's hypocritical to say the least.
Hey, you don't suppose they are going to use all those saved up hundreds of thousands of embryos to start their own merchant army......they don't seem to have alot of qualms about murdering hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children.
(Tongue in cheek) That's what it is.....they are saving them up to use their war toys.
******
It's like I told a fundie a couple of weeks ago:
Well, we won't have any funding at all to help the poor and those in need. People will continue to live in boxes and out of shopping carts. You won't be able to afford your medication and eat at the same time.......BUT BY GOD there won't be any abortions, and there won't be any stem cell research either.
That's what I love about this place.
You can have a question or a comment, and post it, and someone usually has pertinent timely information on that subject!!!
O.C.,
My speakers are packed away.
Private companies can do embryonic stem cell research, Bush just vetoed the government funding for that research, right?
I am going to go read the transcript on the MTP interview with Bolton.
********
Okay, gang, this is why this site is so important, why the information we share is so important........
Because it isn't meant to, and doesn't, stay with the lurkers and contributors. We meet and interact with people all the time. And I have found that NOTHING impresses and convinces like facts.
Oncall, you know this well as a doctor.
In spite of having a few hassles a couple of years ago with people who had opposite points of views, I have found that the more educated I become, the more influence I have.
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at July 23, 2006 11:11 PM
Yes, private companies are allowed to use embryonic stem cells, but that isn't "murder". Only when the Federal government intends- and spends our tax dollars - to use embroynic stem cells does Bushco consider it murder. Typical Bushco use of an emotianally charged word that has absolutely no basis in fact.
I have started reading John Dean's new book, Conservatives without a Conscience. Truth, you will find it fascinating. It is an excellent explanation of what motivates followers to be such staunch supporters. He also very clearly describes why some of our "leaders" are so rigid and dogmatic. I don't want to put it down.
What I meant to say earlier is, too, that when questions like that arise, as I have a chance to share information with people, I also then have the chance to tell them and share with them and show them how they and millions of others like them are being used as pawns by the neocons for their vote. I love that part.
Now, here's that link to the transcript of the Bolten interview with Tim Russert on the embryonic stem cell bill on MTP. I had to laugh.
"MR. RUSSERT: So you agree with Mr. Rove.
MR. BOLTEN: I - like I said, I'm not - I'm not a scientist, and I don't....
MR. RUSSERT: Well, I don't think Karl Rove is, either."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13904922/page/5/
(We have to watch Tony Snow. I hate the way he framed that stem cell funding issue as "The President hates murder".) Should have said The President loves politics. That would have been more like it.
Can't we come up with some slam dunk counter frames?
Posted by: oncall at July 23, 2006 11:45 PM
Oncall, it sounds very good. I will pick up a copy a.s.a.p.
OnCall
I agree with you about pawn v pawn. In fact, the Master Puppeteer is in charge!
Something about bunker busters being expedited made me even more suspicious than usual.Then the matter of waiting a week before considering a ceasefire. War by proxy.
Ally
The religious angle makes sense too, especially for convincing folks. Just tell them the end is near.
Truth Shall Prevail
I'm not really surprised to hear about your conversation with the woman - she's using logic. I think people tend to do that when they think for themselves rather than listening to the spin.
Sometimes I've wondered even about the ethics of the extreme length some women go to for getting pregnant, such as the fertility clinics. Maybe they could adopt. It doesn't seem
natural to have quads and quints that wouldn't have occurred without drugs. Instead of taking a life it's like making extra lives that weren't needed. Many of those families don't really seem to have the money.
My husband is asking about what I thought about the 62 year old in UK having a baby. She used fertility drugs. Is it fairfor the child to have a mom that age - does every woman
have to be a mother. She was even called "undignified."
I thought it depended on her health, her finances - after all, there are alot of women that age who raise their daughter'sor son's kids (for whatever reason - drugs, whatever). It is common where there is poverty. The important thing is that the child gets good care.
There are so many multifaceted moral issues. What I find is that this crew (BushCo) oversimplify constantly and use double standards. Think how many pregnant women have already been killed by bombs & IEDs - those are unborn babies they are carrying too. Think of all the gravely wounded children with missing limbs, etc. Orphans.
I even heard Santorum talking about "suspended" life. (Frozen? Like Walt Disney wanted to be?) Had never heard of"Snowflake children" - that was wierd. I guess Santorum's wife had a miscarriage once and he brought the fetus home so his children could see it. (At least my husband is telling me that). That seems so wierd.
It's true - http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A61804-2005Apr17?language=printer - This guy is high up in our government. Get him out! He's too wierd!! Bolten is another one. Please tell me I'm dreaming - that these people hold high public office and that people actually voted for them (or appointed them).
DiAnne,
The point that torks me off is that they are throwing those embryos away anyway! They don't have enough women who want to use them, so they are going to either remain frozen, or be or are being discarded, and it is so PHONEY to sit there and call destroying them to improve life murder, while showing off children created from the in- vitro process. People are so uneducated about the research they don't know that to create those children - to create life - they had to DESTROY embryos - so it's okay to "murder" embryos to CREATE life......it's just not okay to "murder" embryos to IMPROVE life - not with government monies, anyway......
Why doesn't somebody ask these thugs in frames the American public (especially red America) can understand, why they think it is okay to murder embryos to create life, but not okay to murder them to improve life?
What a bunch of hypocrits, and liars.
Here's a REALLY GOOD QUESTION: Anybody know the answer? Are we using government funding to assist in the invitro process????
(DiAnne, I know you know all this, and I haven't been good and mad at these theiving lying scoundrels for quite a few weeks, but this makes me angry.)
Lest we forget:
Santorum:
In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality —
AP: I'm sorry, I didn't think I was going to talk about "man on dog" with a United States senator, it's sort of freaking me out.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-04-23-santorum-excerpt_x.htm
Here's a REALLY GOOD QUESTION: Anybody know the answer? Are we using government funding to assist in the invitro process????
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at July 24, 2006 12:11 AM
That is a really good question, and if the answer to that is yes, we might have an argument. Except, you see, Joe American thinks it is quite alright to support invitro fertilization, and condemn embryonic stem cell research.
Whoever thinks this crap up is brilliant - and has a very corrupted value system. What thugs.
Oncall, DiAnne,
Great minds think alike. I was wondering about that too.
Keep your eye on Iran. I think this is foreplay.
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at July 24, 2006 12:11 AM
Good question. I don't know if the government will pay for in vitro fertilization, but I do know that in Illinois, medical insurance companies have to pay for the procedure if it deemed necessary by a doctor.
I think the Federal government's positon on paying for abortions is illustrative The last I heard abortions are still legal in the U.S., but our government has decided that it will not provide payment for a perfectly legal procedure.
I have an idea, why not ask Cogress to declare that they wont pay the President's and Vice-President's salaries? Maybe they will get the message and quit (one can always fantasize).
Just read that Santorum interview with AP.
Good grief! Why don't these guys do something positive with their lives and power other than staring at their "holy" navels?
Like passing legislation that will ensure that corporations will not prosper at the expense of live "unmurdered" (as of this moment) human beings?
Truth Shall Prevail
Yes that - and not getting us into wars where innocent children are killed & orphans are created, abroad and here at home.
That certainly does not show respect for life. Healthcare and education for all children (at a decent level) would show commitment to life as well. I have always thought the whole issue is much bigger than the way they define it and that their real agenda is keeping power out of the hands of women.
Does the Government Pay for In Vitro Fertilization?
Chris Suellentrop
Posted Monday, Aug. 13, 2001, at 6:16 PM ET
http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=1008119
DiAnne,
Yes I agree with your statement that and keeping us out of wars where lives are taken and orphans left etc.. Actually, my comment included that thought.
Oncall,
Thanks for that link. For as much as those guys love in vitro, I would have thought it would be govt. funded. Maybe it is hiding in a piece of legislation somewhere.... Suppose it doesn't matter anyway, they will use their propaganda to sway the public the way they want.
That's why I love Jesus General. He has such humorous satirical pictures and articles about this sort of nonsense.
Ran across this on the internets...
Gift of Hope grants will be given to couples who have been trying to conceive for more than one year and have no other children.
http://www.couplescompany.com/Advice/Jason/Sexuality/InfirtilityHelp.htm
While it doesn't state WHERE the grant monies come from (my understanding is that grants can be either from private funds, or state funds (public), or a mixture of both,)this could be a start to our search.
Truth Shall Prevail
I think the bottom line is they want society to go backward a few thousand years.
I'm trying to watch "House of Sand & Fog" - Ben Kingsley plays an Iranian who used to be close to the Shah. I can't watch the end though - too scary. Real life is brutal but can't even take much in fiction/drama - way too overloaded with reality (even if just mostly reading what's going on in other parts of the world and imagining the fear and strife others are going through - much of which would not have to be happeing)
God, Bush blew Bandar off. Rice claims we have diplomatic channels with Syria. Since when? Prince Abdullah rightfully thinks US is the one who has clout with Israel and could be getting them to participate in a ceasefire. Syria wants a ceasefire. What is the problem?!!!
I guess Santorum's wife had a miscarriage once and he brought the fetus home so his children could see it. (At least my husband is telling me that). That seems so wierd.
Posted by: DiAnne at July 23, 2006 11:54 PM
That story was widely reported. He apparently still tells people he meets that he has 7 children, but 1 is in heaven.