Detroit Sinks Deeper Into Hell As It Faces Wingnut Utopian Fantasies

Lunatic Fringe 

This week, David Atkins and Lynn Parramore, writing at Alternet, each told the story of the downfall of Sears. Once an American institution with over a century of successfully providing goods and services to the nation, Sears has fallen into a state of business failure free fall. The company has been hemorrhaging customers, seeing its profits plummet, and its reputation nosedive. If there is anyone who deserves credit for the company’s demise, it is the Ayn-Rand loving, libertarian Eddie Lampert, recently ranked #2 on the Forbe’s list of America’s worst CEOs. Mr. Lampert’s decision to embrace the economic philosophy of Friedrich von Hayek, beloved among libertarian conservatives, means that he scorns investment in infrastructure, education, or the labor force. Instead, his concerns are always with austerity, budget reduction, and the bottom line. He believes in the free-market, corporate largesse, and greedy self-interest. These beliefs led him to implement an organization of his company whereby he broke it into over 30 smaller components and then basically told them that they needed to compete with each other in a cutthroat atmosphere to earn more profits. The result? Individual units within the corporation began undermining each other. Parramore notes, “Units competed for ad space in Sears’ circulars, and since the unit with the most money got the most ad space, one Mother’s Day circular ended up being released featuring a mini bike for boys on its cover.” Yes, that sounds like excellent business acumen; mini-bikes are famously popular gifts for mothers. Employees became disheartened to the point where Sears was ranked the 6^th worst place to work in America by AOL Jobs.

Meanwhile, this week also brought news that the City of Detroit tried to file for bankruptcy under the direction of its state-appointed, anti-democratic “emergency manager,” only to be rebuffed by a judge’s ruling. How does Detroit’s situation relate to Sears’s sad demise? Both are facing the specter of Randian objectivism, free market fanaticism, dehumanization of ordinary people, and an abdication of corporate responsibility. As the workers at Sears have been forced into cutthroat competition, so too, have Detroit’s residents been asked to compete over insufficient and scant resources.

There is no question that Detroit has been struggling for decades. As a rust-belt city dependent on manufacturing, it has faced the same woes as many other cities in the region as our country’s manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas. However, the historical dependence of Detroit on the auto industry has meant that its well-being has been tethered to the whims and welfare of the American auto corporations. As the business infrastructure of the city aged, rather than investing in and developing new factories, these corporations opened up plants in other parts of Michigan, Ohio, Canada, etc. They left behind massive, abandoned factories that not only pepper the city with dangerous, broken-down eyesores, but also left the city with a dramatic loss of jobs. With little other choice remaining, residents of the city departed by the millions seeking employment. Many of those who remained were simply too poor to relocate. The city government was left with an ever-decreasing tax base to maintain its functioning, falling more and more into debt. Instead of taxing the remaining corporations and businesses within the city, Detroit was essentially blackmailed into giving them colossal tax breaks under threat of seeing the businesses pick up and move. The State of Michigan has also been withholding funds that it is supposed to give Detroit through revenue-sharing, restricting their access even further to necessary resources.

The commonalities between what is happening to Sears and what is happening to Detroit are that both are now being subjected to right wing ideology, Ayn Rand philosophy, and von Hayek’s austerity economics. The results for each are similar. People will unnecessarily suffer. Damage will eventually need to be undone. And people will have to learn the hard way what a failure these poisonous schools of thought really are.

According to reports, the emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, and his cohorts, wealthy businessmen and corporations, have big plans for Detroit. They can’t wait to implement their conservative fantasies of privatizing and cutting city services, busting unions, selling off public assets, and laying off public employees. The citizens of Detroit have already seen 20% of their city’s workforce cut by their Democratic, multi-millionaire mayor, David Bing. In a place that suffers from a severe lack of jobs (there is one job for every four residents), more layoffs is just what the community needs. Among the upcoming plans approved by Orr are service shut-offs to neighborhoods determined to be too poor or under-populated for private investment to be profitable. The city’s unsung assets, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, Belle Isle Park, and even the animals at the Detroit Zoo, have all been appraised and are ready for sale to private interests. Public services ranging from transportation to garbage collection and water treatment will soon be privatized and in the hands of for-profit corporations.

The winners in the bankruptcy filing will be Detroit’s creditors on Wall Street. Orr has already made arrangements to pay Bank of America, UBS, and Merrill Lynch 75 cents on the dollar, allowing them to take in $340 million. If you are a bank or other financial institution that has done business with Detroit, this bankruptcy will not nullify Detroit’s obligation to pay you. Arrangements have been made. The same level of concern for ordinary citizen creditors who are owed money via their pensions is non-existent. The bankruptcy is expected to include a dismissal of obligations to pension holders. Other winners in Detroit’s bankruptcy include the wealthy investors bribing a limping city for its last penny. Detroit is actually going to subsidize businesses that want to build upscale housing and chip in $286 million to the building of a sports arena for the Little Caesar’s owner, Mike Ilitch, whose net worth is nearly $3 billion. Meanwhile, there is no demand by the city to fine corporations for the miles and miles of land soaked in industrial pollution (Detroit’s 48217 zip code is the third most polluted in the country).

Detroit’s situation is ugly. It has had corrupt leaders in the past. It has dealt with exorbitantly high unemployment rates. The infrastructure is crumbling. Any potential tax revenues it might have been able to collect to fill empty coffers are unavailable, because unconcerned and exploitative businesses jockey for subsidies rather than being willing to actually chip in to benefit the city. Wealthy vultures circle the city’s many assets. And instead of hope, the city has Governor Rick Snyder, an emergency manager, suspended democracy, corporate scavengers, widespread unemployment and poverty, and Wall-Street friendly bankruptcy efforts. Alarmingly, as we noted, Detroit is just a test-case for the right wing to begin spreading this ideology far and wide.

The Evolution of American Barbecue

Culinary DeLites

The particularly American form of cooking we call the barbecue has a long history -in fact, it was well established long before Europeans arrived. Since the early explorers passed the technique around to colonists, different styles sprang up, now loosely categorized as Carolina, Texas, Memphis, and Kansas City. The differences can be traced to what was available and what flavors one's ancestors liked. For example, Southerners often insist that real barbecue is made of pork. It's tradition.

Unlike cows, which required large amounts of feed and enclosed spaces, pigs could be set loose in forests to eat when food supplies were running low. The pigs, left to fend for themselves in the wild, were much leaner upon slaughter, leading Southerns to use the slow-and-low nature of barbecue to tenderize the meat. And use it they did. During the pre-Civil War years, Southerners ate an average of five pounds of pork for every one pound of cattle. Their dependence on this cheap food supply eventually became a point of patriotism, and Southerners took greater care raising their pigs, refusing to export their meat to the northern states. By this time, however, the relationship between the barbecue and pork had been deeply forged.

But Texas is a different story. And barbecue sauce reflects the traditions that immigrants brought from the Old World. Read how these factors came together at Smithsonian's  Food and Think blog.

Vermont and 8 other states allow hemp growth

Just the News

 

Some Vermont farmers want to plant hemp now that the state has a law setting up rules to grow the plant, a cousin of marijuana that's more suitable for making sandals than getting high.

But federal law forbids growing hemp without a permit, so farmers could be risking the farm if they decide to grow the plant that the Drug Enforcement Agency basically considers marijuana.

Hemp and marijuana share the same species — cannabis sativa — but hemp has a negligible content of THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana. Under federal law, all cannabis plants fall under the marijuana label, regardless of THC content.

To grow marijuana for industrial purposes or research, a grower must register with the DEA and meet specific security requirements, such as installing costly fencing for a field of hemp.

A national nonprofit group is pushing to change current law and move regulation of hemp farming from the DEA to the state. In the meantime, the group, Vote Hemp, does not recommend growing hemp while state and federal laws conflict.
"It's literally betting the farm," said Tom Murphy, national outreach coordinator for the group. Farmers who grow it, or even conspire to grow it and import the seeds face jail time and the forfeiture of their land, he said. But it's unclear how seriously the DEA will enforce it.
Murphy said he's heard that people have planted hemp on leased land in Colorado.
"Now if somebody chooses to do it as civil disobedience, knowing full well what's going to happen, then that's on them," he said.
So far, 19 states have passed hemp legislation, including nine that allow its production. Eight states have passed bills calling for the study of hemp, while three states passed bills setting up commissions or authorizing the study of it, according to Vote Hemp.

The states hope to nudge the federal government to change its law.

John Vitko would like to grow hemp on his Vermont farm to use as feed for his chickens now that Vermont has passed a law setting up rules to grow it. He doesn't know where to find any seed and knows he would be breaking federal law if he finds some and grows a small amount of the plant.
With the cost of feed continually rising, he said hemp provides an economical way to feed and provide bedding for his 100 birds, whose eggs are used in the custard-based ice cream he sells to restaurants and in a dessert shop in Waitsfield.
"It's one of the few things that are manageable for a small farmer to handle," he said of hemp, which doesn't require large equipment to plant and harvest like corn does.
"It's complete protein," he said. "It has all their amino acids. It's a seed which birds like."
Hemp has been grown in the U.S. in the past to make rope, fabric and even the paper that used to draft the Declaration of Independence. The country even launched a "Hemp for Victory" campaign during World War II as supplies for other overseas fibers dwindled.
Now most hemp products in the U.S. are imported from Canada, China and Europe and some farmers think the U.S. is missing out on a lucrative crop.
U.S. Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado was granted a request to fly an American flag made of hemp over the capitol in Washington on the Fourth of July. He held the flag during the U.S. House debate in over a hemp amendment to the farm bill that he introduced with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon. The measure would have allowed colleges and universities to grow hemp for research in states where its cultivation is permitted. The amendment passed but the farm bill failed.
"Support for our recent farm bill amendment demonstrated that there is growing consensus to revisit the antiquated drug laws that now keep U.S. farmers from participating in the $300 million hemp retail market," Blumenauer said. "A hemp flag flown over the Capitol on the Fourth of July is a powerful symbol of this reform movement."
The figure Blumenauer referenced comes from a Congressional Research Service report that says the industry estimates that U.S. retail sales of hemp-based products may exceed $300 million per year.

The bill that Democratic Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed into law last month is intended to push the federal government to change its law after Canada reintroduced industrial hemp in the late 1990s.

"The reason we want to push for a change is that hemp is potentially a valuable crop," said Democratic Rep. Caroline Partridge, chairwoman of the Vermont House Committee on Agriculture and Forest Products. "People want to grow it. Hemp oil is a valuable product, and there's so much of the hemp plant that can be used for very, very productive purposes,"

The Vermont law sets up procedures and policies for growing hemp. A grower must register with the state agriculture secretary and provide a statement that seeds used do not exceed a certain concentration of THC.

The grower also must allow the hemp crops to be inspected and tested at the discretion of the Agriculture Agency, which warns growers that cultivating and possessing hemp in Vermont is a violation of federal law.
It's too late this growing season in Vermont for Vitko to grow hemp, but he hopes to plant just an acre of the plant next spring if the rules are worked out.
"I'm going to be a little farmer that's growing hemp, they've got bigger problems than me," he said of the DEA.

Man arrested after punching himself in the face

Now that's just Bizarre

A Fairbanks man has been hit with charges by Alaska State Troopers, after he allegedly tried to incriminate a neighbor by punching himself in the face. According to AST, troopers responded to a reported assault at about 10:30pm last Sunday on Happyjack Street in Fairbanks, where they found 50-year-old Tony Gesin.

“(Gesin) called 911, reported being assaulted by a neighbor and began punching himself in the face to cause injury,” troopers wrote in a dispatch. “(Gesin) reported being assaulted to responding Troopers as well but ultimately admitted to punching himself in the face and reporting it in an attempt to get his neighbor arrested for assault.”

AST spokesperson Megan Peters says the call was the latest development in a matter where the neighbors were seemingly unable to reach resolution. “Apparently the two neighbors have an ongoing dispute in regard to property,” Peters said. According to Peters, troopers and other police agencies investigate fake calls just as diligently as they do real ones.

“I think what that report highlights to people is that if you file a false report, there are repercussions,” Peters said. “And then you have to face the embarrassment of punching yourself in the face and people finding out about it.” Gesin was arrested and charged with making a false report to law enforcement.

Police put an end to hubcap-adorned man’s early morning office chair ride

Now that's just Bizarre

At around 2:30 on Thursday morning, Seattle police got a call about a man rolling down the western side of Capitol Hill in an office chair.

When officers contacted the man, who was carrying a set of drum sticks, had a hubcap tied to his arm, and was wearing motorcycle goggles and several scarves and purses, he sat down in his chair and told police he was “late for a gig.”

The 29-year-old man initially gave police a fake name and then told officers to handcuff him. After obliging the man’s request, officers sat the man back down in the chair and rolled him over to the kerb. The man then rolled himself back into traffic and fell out of his chair but was caught by one of the officers.

As police helped the man over to the curb and sat him down again, he spat at an officer. The man missed the officer, but warned his salvo of spittle was simply a “warning” shot. Officers then searched the man and found he was carrying a 12″ crowbar, and had stuffed a belt buckle and necklace into his gloves. Officers took the man to Harborview for a mental health evaluation.

A can of pork and beans leads at arrest in Hawaii

Dumb Crooks

A can of pork and beans thrown at the truck of masked burglars as they fled a robbery led police in Hawaii to arrest two suspects. The can was hurled at the truck's window by victim Claudine Prados, but bounced off and landed in the back bed of the vehicle. Less than half an hour later police found a truck matching the description provided by Claudine, with the can of pork and beans still in the back.
Police arrested suspects Jack Vaughn, of Kailua-Kona, and Dustin Jose, of Kealakekua, for assault, burglary and robbery. They are still seeking a third suspect. Claudine had been watching TV at her home when the burglars burst in wearing ski masks. She grabbed a meat cleaver from the kitchen to protect her son, but two of the intruders attacked the boy's father.
Claudine told a local newspaper: "It was like a total waste of time for them. All they left with was a purse with no money and a kid's backpack with clothes.

Woman trapped between walls mistaken for ghost

Now that's just Bizarre

A Chinese woman has been rescued after spending the night stuck between two walls because she tried to take a shortcut on her way home.

Locals heard the unnamed woman's screams in Anhui Province but assumed it was the voice of a ghost and steered clear.

It wasn't until seven hours later that a passer-by realized the voice was not from the dead and called for help. Firefighters spent half an hour breaking down one of the walls to free her.

YouTube link.

The woman had reportedly tried to squeeze through the gap but didn't realize the passage between the walls became narrower and narrower as it went on.

How A Shipyard Worker Hammered Artillery Shells Into Art

Miscellanea

Dirk van Erp was born in 1860 in the Netherlands. His father and other family members were coppersmiths. He immigrated to the United States in 1886, and came to San Francisco in 1890. Considered today the leading Arts and Crafts coppersmith of the early 20th century, Dirk van Erp produced everything from coal buckets and fireplace sets to candlesticks, vases, and lamps, all hand-hammered in studios on both sides of San Francisco Bay.

During his 25-year career, Dirk van Erp taught several generations of coppersmiths the tricks of the trade, helping to make the San Francisco Bay Area a center for copper objects and design.

High-End Stores Use Facial Recognition Tools To Spot VIPs

Tech Savvy

by Brenda Salinas
   
Hey, isn't that ...?
New facial recognition software is designed to help store employees recognize celebrities like Mindy Kaling — and other bold-faced names.

When a young Indian-American woman walked into the funky L.A. jewelry boutique , store manager Lauren Twisselman thought she was just like any other customer. She didn't realize the woman was actress and writer .
"I hadn't watched The Office," Twisselman says. Kaling both wrote and appeared in the NBC hit.
That is precisely the kind of situation the VIP identification technology designed by is supposed to prevent.
The UK-based company already supplies similar software to security services to help identify terrorists and criminals. It works by analyzing footage of people's faces as they walk through a door, taking measurements to create a numerical code known as a "face template," and checking it against a database.
In the retail setting, the database of customers' faces is comprised of celebrities and valued customers, according to London's . If a face is a match, the program sends an alert to staff via computer, iPad or smartphone, providing details like dress size, favorite buys or shopping history.
The software works even when people are wearing sunglasses, hats and scarves. Recent tests have found that facial hair, aging, or changes in weight or hair color do not affect the accuracy of the system.
The technology is being tested in a dozen undisclosed top stores and hotels in the U.S, the U.K, and the Far East. NEC hasn't responded to our requests for an interview, so it hasn't addressed why the stores that are testing the software are staying quiet about it.
Privacy Questions
A consultant for retail agency TPN Inc., says the technology isn't new, it is just a more sophisticated version of , which allows users to find photos that are similar to other images. But he says facial recognition verges on dangerous territory — Google had to from Google Glass over privacy concerns.

When Nordstrom disclosed that customers were being tracked through Wi-Fi signals on their smartphones, and had to stop. Brick-and-mortar stores are juggling with wanting to increase their revenue through analytic-based marketing.
Chris de Silva, NEC IT Solutions vice president, told the Sunday Times that the company had addressed privacy concerns and found that most high-profile customers are "quite happy to have their information available because they want a quicker service, a better-tailored service or a more personally tailored service."
Too Gimmicky?
But Almagro says the service is gimmicky — and not very cost effective.
"There are so many easier ways to use things like a mobile phone, which everyone already has, in a retail location and do the same thing and actually get more information," he says.
Stores like Family Dollar, Benetton and Warby Parker are using data from customers' smartphones to analyze store layouts and offer customized coupons. Retailers argue that they are doing no more tracking than what's .
"The level of convenience may outweigh the privacy concerns," Almagro says. "But I think there is going to have to be some legislation that has to catch up to it." He says that ideally, tracking technology would have to be something customers opt in to.
He says he's less concerned about stores keeping his information than who gets that information after the retailers do.
Back at the jewelry boutique, store manager Twisselman says she could never see it happening at her store, since there is nothing like old-fashioned customer service — for everyone.
"I like to think that we treat all our customers like VIPs," Twisselman says.

Gold rush-era discards could fuel cellphones, TVs

Tech Savvy

• In this December 2012 photo provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, Ames Laboratory, materials scientist Ryan Ott, left, and research technician Ross Anderson examine an ingot of magnesium and rare-earth metals as part of a project to optimize the process to reclaim rare earths from scraps of rare-earth-containing magnets in Ames, Iowa. Across the West, early miners digging for gold, silver and copper had no idea that one day something even more valuable would be hidden in the piles of dirt and rocks they tossed aside. Now there ís a rush in the U.S. to find key components of cellphones, televisions, weapons systems, wind turbines, MRI machines and the regenerative brakes in hybrid cars, a group of versatile minerals on the periodic table called rare earth elements and old mining tailings piles just might be the answer.
• In this 1905 photo provided by the U.S. Geological Survey is a channel in bedrock worn by tailings of the Cherokee hydraulic mine in Butte County, Calif. Across the West, early miners digging for gold, silver and copper had no idea that one day something even more valuable would be hidden in the piles of dirt and rocks they tossed aside. Now there’s a rush in the U.S. to find key components of cellphones, televisions, weapons systems, wind turbines, MRI machines and the regenerative brakes in hybrid cars, a group of versatile minerals on the periodic table called rare earth elements and old mining tailings piles just might be the answer.
• In this undated photo provided by the U.S. Geological Survey is a rock sample being analyzed in a Denver laboratory consisting of quartz, fine grain (microscopic) pyrite, galena and sphalerite. The USGS Mineral Resources program is looking at samples from previously mined ore that may contain critical minerals including rare earth elements. Across the West, early miners digging for gold, silver and copper had no idea that one day something even more valuable would be hidden in the piles of dirt and rocks they tossed aside. Now there's a rush in the U.S. to find key components of cellphones, televisions, weapons systems, wind turbines, MRI machines and the regenerative brakes in hybrid cars, a group of versatile minerals on the periodic table called rare earth elements and old mining tailings piles just might be the answer.
• In this 1905 photo provided by the U.S. Geological Survey are tailings from hydraulic mines on Spring Creek in Nevada County, Calif. Across the West, early miners digging for gold, silver and copper had no idea that one day something even more valuable would be hidden in the piles of dirt and rocks they tossed aside. Now there’s a rush in the U.S. to find key components of cellphones, televisions, weapons systems, wind turbines, MRI machines and the regenerative brakes in hybrid cars, a group of versatile minerals on the periodic table called rare earth elements and old mining tailings piles just might be the answer.
• In this undated photo released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture are rare-earth oxides, clockwise from top center: praseodymium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium, and gadolinium. Across the West, early miners digging for gold, silver and copper had no idea that one day something even more valuable would be hidden in the piles of dirt and rocks they tossed aside. Now there’s a rush in the U.S. to find key components of cellphones, televisions, weapons systems, wind turbines, MRI machines and the regenerative brakes in hybrid cars, a group of versatile minerals on the periodic table called rare earth elements and old mining tailings piles just might be the answer.

Across the West, early miners digging for gold, silver and copper had no idea that one day something else very valuable would be buried in the piles of dirt and rocks they tossed aside.

There's a rush in the U.S. to find key components of cellphones, televisions, weapons systems, wind turbines, MRI machines and the regenerative brakes in hybrid cars, and old mine tailings piles just might be the answer. They may contain a group of versatile minerals the periodic table called rare earth elements.

"Uncle Sam could be sitting on a gold mine," said Larry Meinert, director of the mineral resource program for the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va.
The USGS and Department of Energy are on a nationwide scramble for deposits of the elements that make magnets lighter, bring balanced hues to fluorescent lighting and color to the touch screens of smartphones in order to break the Chinese stranglehold on those supplies.
They were surprised to find that the critical elements could be in plain sight in piles of rubble otherwise considered eyesores and toxic waste. One era's junk could turn out to be this era's treasure.
"Those were almost never analyzed for anything other than what they were mining for," Meinert said. "If they turn out to be valuable that is a win-win on several fronts — getting us off our dependence on China and having a resource we didn't know about."
The 15 rare earth elements were discovered long after the gold rush began to wane, but demand for them only took off over the past 10 years as electronics became smaller and more sophisticated. They begin with number 57 Lanthanum and end with 71 Lutetium, a group of metallic chemical elements that are not rare as much as they are just difficult to mine because they occur in tiny amounts and are often stuck to each other.
Unlike metals higher up on the table such as silver and gold, there's no good agent for dissolving elements so closely linked in atomic structure without destroying the target. It makes mining for them tedious and expensive.
"The reason they haven't been explored for in the U.S. was because as long as China was prepared to export enough rare earths to fill the demand, everything was fine — like with the oil cartels. When China began to use them as a political tool, people began to see the vulnerability to the U.S. economy to having one source of rare earth elements," said Ian Ridley, director of the USGS Central Mineral and Environmental Resources Science Center in Colorado.
Two years ago, China raised prices — in the case of Neodymium, used to make Prius electric motors stronger and lighter, from $15 a kilogram in 2009 to $500 in 2011, while Dysprosium oxide used in lasers and halide lamps went from $114 a kilogram in 2010 to $2,830 in 2011. It's also about the time China cut off supplies to Japan, maker of the Prius, in a dispute over international fishing territory.
That's when the U.S. government went into emergency mode and sent geologists to hunt for new domestic sources.
"What we have is a clash of supply and demand. It's a global problem. A growing middle class around the world means more and more people want things like cellphones," said Alex King, director of the Critical Materials Institute of the Department of Energy's Ames Research Lab in Iowa. "Our job is to solve the problem any way we can."
At the University of Nevada-Reno and University of Colorado school of mines, USGS scientists used lasers to examine extensive samples of rocks and ore collected across the West during the gold rush days by geologists from Stanford University and Cal Tech.
"If we could recycle some of this waste and get something out of it that was waste years ago that isn't waste today, that certainly is a goal," said Alan Koenig, the USGS scientist in charge of the tailings project.
One sample collected in 1870 from an area near Sparks, Nev., where miners had searched for a viable copper vein, has shown promise and has given researchers clues in the search for more. They have found that some rare earths exist with minerals they had not previously known occur together.
"The copper mine never went into production, but now after all of this time we've analyzed it and it came back high with Indium, which is used in photovoltaic panels. It never economically produced copper, but it gives us insight into some associations we didn't previously recognize," Koenig said.
Indium also has been found in the defunct copper mine that dominates the artsy southern Arizona town of Bisbee.
Koenig and his colleagues are working to understand the composition of all of the nation's major deposits sampled over the past 150 years. In some cases, the mines were depleted of gold or copper, but the rocks left piled alongside mines and pits could hold a modern mother lode.
"We're revisiting history," he said.
They are compiling data from 2,500 samples to better understand whether it's possible to predict where rare earths might be hiding based on the presence of other elements there, too.
"If I had to venture a number, I'd say we have found several dozen new locations that are elevated in one or more critical metals," Koenig said. "With this project the goal would be to have this large data base available that would allow us to predict and to form new associations."
Currently there is only one U.S. mine producing rare earths— at Mountain Pass in the Southern California desert. Molycorp Inc.'s goal in reopening the defunct mine is 20,000 metric tons of rare earth elements by this summer, including cerium oxide used to polish telescope lenses and other glass.
The USGS is counting on companies like Molycorp to use the information they've gleaned to uncover other easy-to-reach deposits sitting on federal land and elsewhere.
"Without rare earths we'd be back to having black-and-white cellphones again," said the USGS's Ridley.

A White Night in Norway

Planet Earth

A White Night is when the sun only dips a bit below the horizon and then comes back up. This happens in midsummer in places that are near the Arctic Circle. Redditor uspn took this photograph at 1AM local time, and explained that dusk and dawn are at the same time, so the night never got completely dark. The lake is named Lysvatnet, on the Norwegian island of Senja. The original photograph is much larger: Here.

Physicist Explains Why Scientists Won't Discuss Their UFO Interests

Scientific Miscellanea

 

For a very long time, the scientific community has been wary of studying UFOs, and the scientists themselves hesitate to talk about their beliefs of unexplained aerial phenomena.
But that attitude is changing, and many scientists are joining the discussion without fear of ridicule.
"UFOs are real phenomena. They are artificial objects under intelligent control. They're definitely the craft of a supremely advanced technology," says physicist Eric Davis, a researcher of light-speed travel.
Davis, a research physicist at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin, studies propulsion physics, which he hopes will one day allow humans to travel easily and quickly through our galactic neighborhood.
He's aware of the public perception -- mostly from skeptics and debunkers -- that no legitimate scientists would ever touch the subject of UFOs.
"They're wrong, naive, stubborn, narrow-minded, afraid and fearful. It's a dirty word and a forbidden topic. Science is about open-minded inquiry. You shouldn't be laughing off people. You should show more deference and respect to them ... Scientists need to get back to using the scientific method to study things that are unknown and unusual, and the UFO subject is one of them."
Davis is one of several scientists who are presenting their views this weekend on a variety of UFO-related topics at the 2013 MUFON Symposium in Las Vegas.
The physicist, who recently won an award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for his study, "Faster-Than-Light Space Warps, Status and Next Steps," knows many colleagues who quietly study UFOs.
"There are scientists who are aware of evidence and observational data that is not refutable. It is absolutely corroborated, using forensic techniques and methodology. But they won't come out and publicize that because they fear it. Not the subject -- they fear the backlash from their professional colleagues. The impact on their career might be detrimental and they'd get bad publicity.
"It's not an acceptable, funded line of research. The National Science Foundation does not accept UFOs as a subject for scientific study."
It may come as a surprise that many scientists have been interested in UFOs for decades.
For 20 years, astronomer J. Allen Hynek was the U.S. Air Force scientific consultant on UFOs during its famous Project Blue Book UFO study that ended in 1969.
Davis believes that the domain for UFO investigations doesn't really belong in the hands of scientists.
"It's the domain of military intelligence," he suggests. "The fact that [unknown] craft are flying around Earth is not a subject for science -- it's a subject for intelligence-gathering, collection and analysis. That's because UFOs are not a natural phenomenon, and that's what science studies."

World's Oldest Calendar Discovered in Scotland

Scientific Minds Want To Know

A series of large pits were dug by Mesolithic people to track the cycle of the moon.

Archaeologists working in Scotland have uncovered what they believe to be the world's oldest lunar calendar—a series of 12 large, specially shaped pits that were designed to mimic the various phases of the moon. The pits aligned perfectly on the midwinter solstice in a way that would have helped the hunter-gathers of Mesolithic Britain keep accurate track of the passage of the seasons and the lunar cycle.

At nearly 10,000 years old, these curious lunar-cycle-marking pits in Aberdeenshire are by far the oldest "calendar" ever discovered, pre-dating by several thousand years the Bronze Age monuments in Mesopotamia that until now had had that distinction.

"What we are looking at here is a very important step in humanity's earliest formal construction of time, even the start of history itself," said Vincent Gaffney, professor of landscape archaeology at Birmingham University, who led the team that analyzed the pits and revealed their purpose.

The pits were dug in the shapes of various phases of the moon. "Waxing, waning, crescents, and gibbous, they're all there and arranged in a 50-meter-long (164-foot) arc," said Gaffney.

"The one representing the full moon is big and circular, about two meters (roughly seven feet) across and right in the center."

Intriguingly, this arc is aligned perfectly with a notch in the landscape where the sun would have risen on the day of the midwinter solstice 10,000 years ago. This was important, says Gaffney, because not only does this give further compelling evidence for the purpose of the moon-shaped pits, but also because without some form of calibration with the solar year a calendar based on 12 lunar months would soon be out of sync with the sun and become meaningless.

"Positioning their calendar in the landscape the way they did would have allowed the people who built it to 'recalibrate' the lunar months every winter to bring their calendar in line with the solar year."

And this is something they appear to have done, since the geophysical evidence suggests the pits had been maintained and periodically reshaped many dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of times over the succeeding millennia until at last the calendar-monument seemed to fall out of use around 4,000 years ago.

Keeping track of time and the seasons would have had enormous significance for the hunter-gatherer societies of Mesolithic Britain for both cultural and economic reasons, whether it was enhancing the perceived power of shamans and their ability to predict or "make happen" certain astronomical events, or knowing when the game would start to migrate or the salmon begin their run up the Dee River.

"The Dee Valley, where these pits are located, was an important crossroads and meeting area for a very long time," said Simon Fitch, a Mesolithic archaeologist who was involved with the discovery.

The pits themselves were first discovered by aerial photography in 2004, but it was only recently—using the latest-generation remote-sensing technology and specially developed software that worked out the positions of sunrises and sunsets in the landscape 10,000 years ago—that their significance was recognized.

"It shows that Stone Age society was far more sophisticated than we have previously believed, particularly up north, which until lately has been kind of a blank page for us," said Richard Bates, a geophysicist from University of St. Andrews who did much of the remote-sensing work for the project.

"This shows us that the people up here had the means and the need to be able to track time across the years and the seasons, and the knowledge that they would need to correct their lunar calendar with the solar year," said Bates. "It is an important step in the history of time."

Excavations underway at ancient city of Xanthos

Scientific Minds Want To Know

The famous archeological site in the Antalya district of Kaş, Xanthos, is currently undergoing a new excavation project. The excavations have started at the site for the summer and the aim is to unravel the hidden artifacts in Xanthos this year.

Archaelogists are hoping to find new artifacts in Xanthos this season [Credit: DHA]

Xanthos dates back to the 4th century B.C, and was important for both the ancient Lycians and Greeks. It entered the UNESCO list in 1988. Its most important artifacts are its symbol and frescoes, and also its “Harpy statues” that are currently on display at the British Museum in London.

Currently the Lycia tombs, which are at the ancient city’s church and kept in private, are the other important parts of the city. As the center of ancient Lycia and the site of its most extensive antiquities, Xanthos, has been a Mecca for students of Anatolian civilizations since the early 19th century. Many important artifacts were found at the city. Two tombs, the Nereid Monument and the Tomb of Payava, are now exhibited in the British Museum. The Harpy Tomb is still located in the ruins of the city. A sanctuary of Leto, called the Letoon, is located on the outskirts of the city to the southwest.

The excavations of Xanthos have continued since 1950. The excavations were conducted by the French Archeology Institute. However, in 2010 Turkish archeologists took over the excavation work. Since 2011, the Akdeniz University Archaeology department and the academic Burhan Varkıvanç have been leading the excavations. This year, the excavations will continue for 2.5 months.

Varkıvanç said there were many artifacts still hidden in Xanthos. “Xanthos ancient city is one of the most important city groups of Lycia and is famous for its size,” he said.

This year a part of the excavations will be at the Lyca Acropolis, the Rome Agora, and Nereid. There will also be cleaning works, he said, adding that Xanthos was a center of culture and commerce for the Lycians, and later for the Persians, Greeks, Macedonians, and Romans who in turn conquered the city and occupied the adjacent territory. By the time of the fall of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century, the ancient city had long since been abandoned.

Varkıvanç said the archeological excavations and surface investigations at Xanthos had yielded many texts in Lycian and Greek, including bilingual texts that are useful in the understanding of Lycian. One monument, the Xanthian Obelisk, is a trilingual recording of an older Anatolian language conventionally called Milyan.

The river of the city

Strabo reports the original name of the river as Sibros or Sirbis. During the Persian invasion the river is called Sirbe which means “yellow” like the Greek word “xanthos,” which also means yellow. The river usually has a yellow hue because of the soil in the alluvial base of the valley. Today the site of Xanthos overlooks the modern Turkish village of Kınık. Once over 500 meters long, the Roman Kemer Bridge crossed the upper reaches of the river near the present-day village of Kemer.

Greek fort of Aigosthena to be fully restored

Scientific Minds Want To Know

The Central Archaeological Council has decided to completely restore the ancient fortress of Aigosthena in Porto Germeno, overlooking the Gulf of Corinth as well as the Alkyonides Gulf.

The southeast tower of the citadel from the NW [Credit: WikiCommons]

The southeastern tower of the ancient fortress, which is now being fully restored, is not an isolated monument of the 4th century BC but represents one of the oldest stone-built fortifications in Greece.

Fallen blocks of the southeast tower being lifted to their original positions [Credit: To Vima]

Xonstructed along the contours of a small hill, the fortified citadel of Aigosthena consists of two fortification walls with eight artillery towers connecting the acropolis to the sea .

The strategic location of Aigosthena, historically the northernmost city of the Megaris, saw the town pass from the Megarians to the Athenians and briefly the Boeotians. The town was occupied well into the Byzantine era.

No, Stonehenge Wasn't Built by Druids

Scientific Miscellanea

The Myth:

Stonehenge, the mysterious giant monument in England that looks like a drunken domino game played by God, is a work of the druids -- the priestly caste of an ancient Celtic tribe -- for use in their mysterious ceremonies. This Stonehenge/druid connection pops up everywhere, from the Spinal Tap movie to real-life seasonal druidic ceremonies at Stonehenge, which have been going on since the early 20th century and offer a slightly more socially acceptable way to dress up in white robes and call yourself a wizard.

They're also not afraid to cut any Harry Potter fans who encroach on their turf.

But Actually ...
The fact is, no one knows much about the people who built Stonehenge. The builders didn't leave any written documents or little self-portraits carved into the rocks or anything. We do know one thing, though: It wasn't the druids. Carbon dating puts the finished monument centuries before the Celtic tribe with druid priests even arrived in Britain, and since it took over 1,000 years to build, we're pretty sure that means they weren't around during the initial building consultations.
This isn't exactly surprising, though, because everything we know about druids has them worshiping in oak groves, not in open plains more suitable for picnicking.

Real druids weren't much into the whole "dancing naked under rocks" thing. They hadn't invented Ecstasy.

So how did the monument become so connected with druidism? We can thank 18th century archaeologist William Stukeley, who popularized the theory. Stukeley was a member of a historical re-enactment club in which he played a druid called Chyndonax, and in his spare time was fond of re-enacting druidic ceremonies with his wife (as weird as you think it is, trust us, it's weirder).
So, given that this druid-obsessed dude was basically the 18th century version of the Ancient Aliens Guy, it wasn't surprising that when it came to Stonehenge, his opinion was "Screw it, probably druids." He was the kind of guy who probably thought druids were behind everything.

"I'm telling you, it was the druids who left an upper-decker in your toilet, Steve."

Two Mammoths Beating Each Other to Death (Over a Woman)

Scientific Miscellanea

In 1962, a surveyor working on a Nebraska range discovered some gigantic bones sticking out of the ground. The Dinosaur Police were called to the scene, and they found the skeleton of a 12,000-year-old mammoth. At first it was all standard procedure, but as the investigators kept digging, they noticed that something was a little off. Namely, that the mammoth seemed to have way too many tusks.

"We're dealing with a mutant double-mammoth, or possibly some kind of land Cthulhu."

Digging deeper, they made a bizarre discovery that no one had ever seen before: The extra set of tusks belonged to a second mammoth, and the two had died with their tusks tangled up around each other's heads.

The detectives had an idea about how these behemoths might have ended up in such an awkward position: Males of modern animals such as elephants, moose, and frat-house jackasses often engage in savage head-butting contests to impress women, and they reasoned that these mammoths had (literally) joined in battle the same way. But they couldn't prove their hypothesis until 40 years later, when they ran the skeletons through a battery of modern tests.

 "Our core samples show conclusively that they were attempting to combine into a Megazord."

Dental exams revealed that the mammoths were both mature enough to enter their seasonal hormone rage, and that they died during the time of year when their murder-boners were pulsing at full power. After getting their faces tied up in a ridiculous knot, they fell and pinned each other down, exhausting themselves in their desperate struggle to escape.

Believe it or not, this painting isn't on the side of a van.

It was a truly grueling death for our two hormone-fueled mammoth teenagers, but as miserable as it sounds, they were still probably better off than the wolf they squished as they went down.

How the Hexagonal Honeycomb Happens

Scientific Minds Want To Know

Honeybees are pretty talented, but they didn't come up with the hexagonal design of the honeycomb. That's just physics. What bees do is build cells in a cylindrical shape and stack them together. The wax then just naturally formed a hexagon.

A regular geometric array of identical cells with simple polygonal cross sections can take only one of three forms: triangular, square or hexagonal. Of these, hexagons divide up the space using the smallest wall area, and thus, for a honeycomb, the least wax.

This economy was noted in the fourth century ad by the mathematician Pappus of Alexandria, who contended that the bees had “a certain geometrical forethought”. But in the seventeenth century, the Danish mathematician Erasmus Bartholin suggested that the insects need no such forethought. He said that hexagons would result automatically from the pressure of each bee trying to make its cell as large as possible, much as the pressure of bubbles packed in a single layer creates a hexagonal foam.

Engineer Bhushan Karihaloo of the University of Cardiff managed to catch honeybees in the act of cell building wax cells. The newest cells were circular, and as they got older, they settled into hexagons, aided by the slight warmth of the worker bees bodies. Read more about how that happens at Nature.

New Dinosaur Species Found That Looks Like A Cow

Dinosaur News

Scientists have announced the discovery of a new species of dinosaur, called Nasutoceratops titusi, and it's looking a little bovine. A University of Utah grad student discovered the first specimen in 2006 in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in the high desert of southern Utah.

At 15 feet long and 2.5 tons, the quadrupedal herbivore belonged to a family called ceratopsids, a group of dinos from the Late Cretaceous period that had beaks, horns and frills, like the Triceratops.

 

Chimps, Orangutans Have Human-Like Memory

Animal News

by Mollie Bloudoff-Indelicato

 

Why we remember and forget is a big topic of study, and scientists at the Aarhus University Center on Autobiographical Memory Research in Denmark have turned to the animal kingdom for answers.
Now, a new study published today in Current Biology shows that captive chimpanzees and orangutans can quickly recall past events like people. Chimpanzees are our closest relatives.

A chimpanzee named Frodo seems to pose in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania.

“I think [the study] tells us that our memory systems are not unique,” said study co-author Gema Martin-Ordas, a postdoctoral researcher.  (Read more about memory in National Geographic magazine.)
“We’re showing that there are some features we share with other animals.”
“Shocking” Primate Memory 
Martin-Ordas and her team used specific cues to trigger memories of an experiment that the chimps and orangutans had learned three years prior.
During that previous experiment, researchers hid tools in strategically placed boxes and asked the primates to find them. When the scientists recreated the test, the primates had no trouble quickly remembering where the tools had been concealed.

This suggests that primates can quickly recollect past events, a feat that scientists previously thought only humans could do.
“I was shocked that the chimpanzees and orangutans found the tools,” Martin-Ordas said. “I was skeptical. I thought it wouldn’t work, and it did.”
“This is really impressive,” she added.
Memories Not Created Equal
If you have trouble remembering what you had for breakfast yesterday—let alone three years ago—don’t worry: Not all memories are created equal.
People remember general and specific events. General events are those that happen over and over, similar to our collective memory of attending school. Specific events are those that happen once, like our first day of school.
There are lots of triggers for memories. Martin-Ordas and colleagues used visual cues with the primates, using the same lab layout and technology to activate the animals’ remembrance of the experiment.
Other triggers like sound and smell can also prompt powerful memories.
“Every time I smell this perfume, it brings back memories of me going to school when I was five or six,” Martin-Ordas said. “It’s really intense.” (Test your memory with a National Geographic game.) 
Memory recall is important for humans because it allows us to plan for future events, she added. When we’re thinking about what we’re going to pack for our next trip, for example, we usually have in mind what happened during the last one.
Memories also allow people to build their sense of self across time in a coherent way, which plays a big role in our personal wellbeing.
“We usually share memories with others,” Martin-Ordas said. “That’s important to establish relationships.”
Memory Research Still Ongoing
Next, researchers will look at whether chimpanzees and orangutans are aware that they’re recalling a personal memory.
Autobiographical memories are like movies that you store in your brain: When something triggers a memory, the movie replays in your head. You know that it’s your memory, but do animals have the same realization?
Chimps and orangutans ”share some features of autobiographical memories that humans have, but we can’t be sure whether they’re aware of those memories, and that’s the debate,” Martin-Ordas said.
The science of memory storage and remembrance is still a field in its infancy: The brain is such a complex organ that it’s difficult to pinpoint exact memory-storage processes. (See a 3-D memory interactive.)
But further study of memory in the animal kingdom could provide valuable information that could someday prevent memory problems in people.

Strange fish found in Tennessee River

Animal News

 

Fish found at Ditto Landing

A North Alabama fisherman caught what he thought was a strange fish in the Tennessee River at Ditto Landing. "It was really no time at all," said Chris Brasher.  "The fish took off with it and really I thought it was just a big brim. I got it in and it was a strange looking fish."
Brasher said it has teeth and doesn't look like anything he's seen in the river since he's been fishing for at least 20 years. Other people he's asked don't have a clue what it is, either.
"Most people I've talked to said it might be a peacock bass, I've gotten black crappie, and just a few different ones," he said.  "I got to looking it up online and they are leading towards and Oscar fish."
Fish experts we spoke to at PetSmart agreed.  They quickly ruled out a piranha or a pacu but said they'd have to see it in person to be sure.
In 2008, a similar fish was caught in Lake Guntersville. It was identified as a pacu, a South American species that feeds on vegetation and is sometimes found in Lake Guntersville.
At first, anglers thought it was a piranha because the fish resembles the toothy fish. Pacu eats vegetation found in North Alabama waterways.
The Oscar fish is a species of fish also found in South America and is a popular aquarium fish in the United States. A marine biologist WAFF spoke to said that the mouth of the fish seemed inconsistent with that of the Oscar.
We're told if the fish is an Oscar, it can survive in the waters at Ditto Landing, but only in the summer months.  They said it will get too cold for the fish to survive in the winter.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Yeah, it's like that ...

Carolina Naturally is read in 192 countries around the world daily.

Let's all follow the Pied Piper, shall we?! ...

Today is Rat-catchers Day 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is

Today in History

1298		King Edward I defeats Scots under William Wallace at Falkirk.
1515		Emperor Maximillian and Vladislav of Bohemia forge an alliance between the Hapsburg and Jagiello dynasties in Vienna.
1652		Prince Conde's rebels narrowly defeat Chief Minister Mazarin's loyalist forces at St. Martin, near Paris.
1789		Thomas Jefferson becomes the first head of the U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs.
1812		A British army under the Duke of Wellington defeats the French at Salamanca, Spain.
1814		Five Indian tribes in Ohio make peace with the United States and declare war on Britain.
1881		The first volume of The War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, is published.
1894		The first automobile race takes place between Paris and Rouen, France.
1934		American gangster John Dillinger is shot dead by FBI officers outside a Chicago cinema.
1938		The Third Reich issues special identity cards for Jewish Germans.
1943		Palermo, Sicily surrenders to General George S. Patton's Seventh Army.
1966		B-52 bombers hit the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam for the first time.

Non Sequitur

Woman reported rape in Dubai: Sentenced to 16 months in prison

Criminal Sex

A NIGHTMARE: Marte Deborah Dalelv (24) is sentenced to prison in Dubai after she reported a rape. 

Four months after supposedly being raped, Marthe Deborah Dalelv (24) is stuck in Dubai. She is now warning other women on holiday in the Middle East.

Dubai is presented as a paradise, like everything is nice. But it's not like that, says the 24 year old woman from Tønsberg, Norway to the newspaper VG.

The 6th of March this year she reported a colleague for rape.
But Tuesday this week, Dalelv was sentenced to 16 months in prison after being convicted for having extramarital sex and for drinking alcohol without permission.

The nightmare started when she attended a work trip to Dubai with her colleagues in the Qatar based interior company she worked for.

Woke up being raped

The last night in Dubai she went out on the town with female colleagues from Norway. A couple of their Qatari male colleagues also joined them.

- The morning after I woke up being raped, my clothes were taken off and I was lying on my stomach, Dalelv explains.
When she went to the police to report the assault, they didn't believe her.

- Two hours after being raped the police asked me: "Did you come to us because you didn't like it?". I then realized that they did not believe me, she says.

Took her passport

For four days she was detained in a prison cell, charged for having extramarital sex.

- They took my money, my purse and my passport before locking me in the prison cell. It was freezing cold in there, without enough places to sleep for everyone.

Dalelv was lucky enough to borrow a phone to call her parents and tell them what happened.

- I told my father rapidly: "I have been raped. I am in prison. You have to call the embassy. I am at the Burj Dubai station".

Her appeal hearing is scheduled for the 5th of September, and until then she is stuck in Dubai with the status "wanted". This means she will be arrested if she gets in touch with the police again.

Giving her support

Gisle Meling, the minister to seamen at the Norwegain seamen's church in Dubai characterizes the Norwegian woman's situation as terrible.

- The legal system here has obviously taken the information she has given them and concluded she is guilty of something else, Meling says.

We live in a country with a legal system that has come to this conclusion through their Sharia legislation.

Last night VG was in touch with the police officer Bilal Gomaa at the police station in Dubai where the rape of Dalelv is being investigated.

- Until you have applied for access to the investigation, we cannot give you any information in this case, Gomaa said to VG.
The minister of foreign affairs in Norway, Espen Barth Eide said Thursday that the conviction of the 24 year old woman is against the Norwegian belief in justice:

The conviction in Dubai against a Norwegian woman who reported a rape is against our belief in justice.

- We are giving her support in the process towards the appeal, he writes on his Twitter account.

The Norwegian ministry of foreign affairs does not want to comment further on the conviction, as it was appealed and therefore not yet legally binding.

OB/GYN doctors 'blindsided' by NC abortion bill

Lunatic Fringe 

Abortion rights groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood have complained that a flurry of bills in the North Carolina legislature sharply restricting abortion was a “sneak attack.”  Now, leading doctors say OB/GYNs were caught flat-footed as well.
“We were blindsided just like everybody else,” said Dr. John Albert, an OB/GYN and past president of the North Carolina Obstetrical and Gynecological Society.  “And we really want the legislatures and the government to stay out of the exam room.”

Doctors groups did not testify when the anti-abortion bill was debated in committee.  But from the floor of the state House of Representatives, lawmakers made repeated statements about the risks of abortion.

“People are dying in abortion clinics,” said Rep. Ruth Samuelson of Mecklenburg County in the July 11 floor debate.  “Maybe they’re not dying in abortion clinics in North Carolina, but do we really want one person to die before we raise the standard?”

“I think it’s an emotional statement if you look at the bare facts,” said Dr. Frank Harrison, a long-time Charlotte OB/GYN.  “I have been in this state practicing now for 40 years and I have yet to see a woman die in an abortion clinic.”

Rep. Paul Stam of Wake County referenced the death of a woman following an abortion in North Carolina more than 20 years ago.  When asked for any examples in the last three to five years, Rep. Stam replied, “You wouldn’t know because they go to other places to die.”

“I don’t think they die at home and we don’t hear about it,” said Dr. Octavia Cannon, a Charlotte OB/GYN.  “Because certainly if (women) were to die, we would hear about it.”

Dr. Cannon said the state collects statistics of maternal mortality which measure the numbers and rate of women who die following childbirth or abortion.  Dr. Cannon supports tighter regulation of abortion clinics but disagrees with lawmakers rush to pass legislation.

“There do need to be some changes made but should we let the NC Medical Society of the Medical Board be the ones to handle that?” she asked.

Leaders of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists editorialized against the anti-abortion bills in the Charlotte Observer this week.  But with the legislature hurtling toward adjournment next week, most lawmakers seem to have made up their minds without getting a second opinion from the state’s leading doctors.

Rep. Laubenberg, will be a murderer, no different than some street punk who shoots up a liquor store

Lunatic Fringe 

 by Egberto Willies

---

A friend of mine sent me a link to an article by Texan, Kurt Eichenwald who was having health scare. His wife was just diagnosed with breast cancer during the rancorous debates over a draconian bill that not only takes women’s rights to their own bodies away, but put their health at risk.
The bill was submitted by Texas Representative Jodie Laubenberg. During debates, many of which I listened to live, it was evident she did not have a clue as to what was in the bill, the repercussions of the bill, or the grassroots movement that would grow from the attempt to pass and the passage of the bill.
This representative revealed her incompetence and ignorance when on the House floor she said that rape kits used by law enforcement to collect evidence can prevent pregnancy. She played the part of being unaware of the ultimate consequences of her bill. Mr. Eichenwald did not. He states categorically the following.

You, Rep. Laubenberg, will be a murderer, no different than some street punk who shoots up a liquor store. His weapon is a gun; yours, a smug satisfaction with your limited understanding of health policy. If Theresa and I were among the rural poor, she would now almost certainly be one the many people you would kill as a result of her inability to gain access to breast screenings. And for that, you deserve not only our contempt, but the contempt of every decent human being with the humility and intelligence to recognize the impact of the legislation you have “written,” yet aren’t bright enough to understand. [source]

For those who may think his statement is uncivil, they should read the bill. The bill is more than an ideological document for the uninformed. It tacitly creates the potential for high profit abortion centers even as it claims to want to stem abortions.

The following statement by Mr. Eichenwald is prescient.

Many Republicans, either out of self-delusion or deceit, deny they are causing any such thing. But there is no question that, in their obsession with zygotes, embryos, and non-viable fetuses as part of their supposed pro-life stance, they are effectively murdering real, walking, talking women – mothers and daughters, grandmothers and sisters, all sacrificed on an altar of Pecksniffian hypocrisy and contemptible disregard by people who have the insurance, connections, and available health care to feel certain their politics won’t kill their loved ones. Perhaps Theresa and I are re-directing our anger from the cancer, but so be it; our rage has focused on the financially comfortable, morally blind, and arrogantly self-righteous who tyrannically conspire to rob poor women of years of life they might otherwise have. It is for this reason that Theresa is willing to disclose her condition, in hopes that, in doing so, we will help highlight how politicians are blithely choosing to kill women who are not as fortunate as she is. [source]

He need however not despair. Much evil that has been placed into law in Texas; restrictions on women’s rights, restrictions on women’s reproductive rights, concessions to business over concessions to humans, and denial of healthcare for the poor and working poor by refusing to accept Medicaid expansion in the Affordable  Care Act (Obamacare). This has awakened the Texas progressive sleeping giant.  Sometimes a kick in the stomach is needed before a populace gets off its rear end and engages positively in the body politic.