This week marks the 63rd anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 9th, 1945 at 11:01am the United States of America dropped a nuclear bomb on a pre-designated city in Japan killing 80,000 people in the second of two nuclear attacks. This attack was the only time that nuclear weapons have been used as an instrument of war, and it could be the last, if we generate the political will to dismantle our weapons of mass destruction, abide by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and create a federal level department of peace. At the time of the bombing the United States only had two nuclear weapons in its arsenal but since that time our stockpile of nuclear weapons has mushroomed to nearly six thousand weapons. Fortunately we have not used these weapons since then, but the only guarantee that they will never be used is if they do not exist. As tempting as it is to believe that we are a moral nation that would never use such terrible instruments of destruction, the fact is that we have used them and we can use them again if our military or elected leaders believe the situation justifies it. That is why it is more important than ever to dismantle weapons of mass destruction.

This year's Chocolate Rain?

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While doing my morning browsing, I saw this:

In a 1998 interview, Osama bin Laden ... listed as one of his many grievances against the U.S...
...The real price of a barrel of oil should be $144, bin Laden demanded.

Are he and W perfect soul mates or what? Or maybe he and Cheney, who in 1986 said:

''Let us rid ourselves of the fiction that low oil prices are somehow good for the United States,'' Mr. Cheney, who is now vice president, said...

Well, another Mission Accomplished, I guess.

One of my favorite charities is Heifer International, which was once known as Heifer Project. The provide a boost to farmers around the world by giving them such things as cows, water buffalo, bunnies, bees, and goats. The idea is that the family can get food from the animals and can also sell some of the products in the marketplace, thus bringing in some cash. In today's NYTimes, Nicholas Kristoff has a lovely story about how a Heifer Project goat given to a family in Uganda eventually made it possible for the daughter to come to America for college. It makes you proud to be alive and know that such good things can happen.

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So I'm sipping my coffee and minding my own bidness this morning, reading my e-mail and listening to classical music out on my back deck. It's sunny and a light breeze is wafting the fragrance of my Casablanca lily across the yard. Then I come upon this mass-forwarded email from somebody named Lowdog:

Meet Dr. Barack and Fast Eddie Obama

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I quit being idealistic about politics about 30 years ago, so I'm glad to see that Obama is a street fighter. Yet again I say -- Obambi?
Not hardly.

Again, I'm glad. Job One is getting elected, and the stakes are too damn high to fail.

'Obambi' may be the most inaccurate political nickname of all time. This is one tough mofo. I love the way the Repubs are whining about gun control in response to this.

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Here's a good article that gives hope that large scale solar power is quickly taking root due to the high cost of fossil fuels and the rapidly decreasing costs of generating solar power. Excerpts:

It's pure economics, not a green dream anymore.
...
The industry likes to point out that between 1996 and 2005, U.S. utilities built 250 gigawatts of natural-gas-fired plants, now producing a quarter of the nation's total. There's now nothing standing in the way of building another 250 gigawatts of power using pollution-free solar thermal.

And we didn't have to wait for Cheney to leave office or a Congress with backbone to mandate anything. This is faster and cheaper than new fossil fuel or newkular plants.

Imagine how much wider the difference in costs will be by the time the older, dirtier technology plants would get on line, many years in the future.

OK, so I'll admit I'm in a foul mood today, and it goes back to the Roshomon-esque experience of seeing uncritical praise for Hillary's speech here last night. That speech made me want to run my fist through the wall.

I really wanted to get back to liking her and Bill, and I'd hoped she'd give me reason to do so. But it was just another stump speech -- a really good stump speech, but as a stump speech, it was wildly out of place and full of stuff that just wasn't true, from the introduction as the "Next President of the United States" to the familiar "Most votes ever" Blahblah to the "Won the popular vote" Blahblah to the "Won South Dakota, the last primary*" Blahblah.

She needed to do something to start binding up the wounds, and except for the "I like Barack" disclaimer at the beginning, she just didn't.

Hilary Rosen, a staunch Clinton supporter who has taken a lot of bullets for HRC on CNN said it extremely well (although I don't think it's fair to credit Bill and Hillary's civil rights work for Obama's success).

This is a great little video Link... on Melbourne, Australia, and how it has transformed itself into a "pedestrian paradise" over the past ten years. As some of the folks being interviewed point out, any city can do what they've done. It's just under ten minutes, and definitely worth the watch, IMO. I encourage anyone who's interested in such things to check it out.

I'm well beyond being surprised or outraged by my president calling me a limp-wristed Nazi fetishist. But even after all these years I can't get over the militant brainlessess that passes for mainstream postmodern conservative thought. It's beyond stupidity; it's a Nietzschean abyss that's as fascinating as it is horrifying.

Let's kick a country while they're down.

"Luu urged Myanmar to allow U.S. disaster experts into the country to make sure the aid gets to the people in need."

Are you kidding me????

All the US is wanting to do is to get at Myanmar's oil!!!

Guess I can't argue with them about being disaster experts tho, everything they touch turns to a disaster. To bad they didn't show their expertise after Katrina

Unlike last year, today I've heard no mention of Cinco De Mayo. Last year everyone was having Cinco De Mayo Parties. Or maybe I've just been out of touch today. Well anyway, Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Send your name (or a child's name) to the moon!

Join NASA's Return to the Moon! Names will be collected and placed onboard the LRO spacecraft for its historic mission bringing NASA back to the moon. You will also receive a certificate showcasing your support of the mission.

The deadline is June 27, 2008 for the submission of names.

LRO's objectives are to find safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology.

Add your name here

"The death raised to at least 19 the number of American troopers killed in Iraq since last Sunday." Link

The time has come for we the American people to stop being complacent and become vocal about ending this war in Iraq. Too many of our people (and Iraqi people) are dying and we have never been given a real reason to why we are there. But we are not blind, we know it's for oil. Our senators and congressmen need to either do something to end this tragic war or step down and allow someone else to end it. I can't understand how these so-called leaders can sleep knowing that they have the power to end it and they do nothing. Cowards!

It was inevitable, wasn't it?
Someone would code a tall tale generator for Hillary.
Hit refresh for a new one.
And remember, this is all in fun, no need to get too stirred up, just laugh and relax.

In the United States we take for granted freedoms and privileges which people around the world are struggling to attain for themselves. Among these freedoms is the right of assembly, the right to the exercise of free speech, the freedom of travel and the right to self-determination. These freedoms were hard won through the struggle for equal rights, which is continuing to this day

Both Dick Cheney and John McCain made "unannounced" visits to Iraq, neither for "political purposes."

Vice President Dick Cheney made an unannounced trip Monday to Baghdad, where he plans to push Iraqi political leaders toward opening the country’s vast oil fields to international companies, a senior Bush administration official said.

Mr. Cheney, who arrived in the Iraqi capital with his wife and daughter in the morning, is to meet with top officials including the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a Shiite, and the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd.

The vice president plans, among other things, to push Iraqi officials to pass petroleum legislation that would help bring international oil companies to Iraq, according to a pool report of comments by a senior administration official who was flying with Mr. Cheney.

The official described the petroleum issue as being about Iraqi leaders “figuring out how they really begin to exploit” the country’s resources, according to the pool report.Vice President Dick Cheney made an unannounced trip Monday to Baghdad, where he plans to push Iraqi political leaders toward opening the country’s vast oil fields to international companies, a senior Bush administration official said.

Mr. Cheney, who arrived in the Iraqi capital with his wife and daughter in the morning, is to meet with top officials including the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a Shiite, and the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd.

The vice president plans, among other things, to push Iraqi officials to pass petroleum legislation that would help bring international oil companies to Iraq, according to a pool report of comments by a senior administration official who was flying with Mr. Cheney.

The official described the petroleum issue as being about Iraqi leaders “figuring out how they really begin to exploit” the country’s resources, according to the pool report.

Well, we know where the sentiments of his mechanical heart lie.
Oil, baby!
And Fox News told me the trip was to promote peace in the Middle East. That may be so in regards to Cheney not getting his Exxon's way means there'll be more war.

And then there's the presumptive GOP presidential nominee's trip to consider.
McCain will NOT be going to "stroll freely through a Baghdad market", heavily protected by the US military on this trip due to "security considerations."
Hell, they won't even announce his schedule!
More evidence the surge is working and we need to occupy our 51st state for 100 more years, or until we drain all our oil from underneath their sand.

So what if the glories of deregulation are about to exhibit the magnificence of free market capitalism at it's finest (socialist Fed Reserve bailouts and all) 'cause you didn't need that 401k retirement money anyways.
(Good thing we went ahead privatized Social Security, eh Bush?)

Can't think about that right now, we've got a war to fight. Don't laugh Iran, you're next!

Memphis born and bred Cary Fowler is in charge of the “Doomsday Vault” seed bank in Svalbard, Norway. The Vault, which opened last week, will store seeds from every country on earth, and from every variety of food crop.

He will be in Memphis at the Pink Palace Museum, Monday, March 10, 2008, for a free public lecture entitled, “Seed Banks and Polar Bears: The Quest to Save Agriculture’s Past and Our Future.” This is one of a series of free public lectures in connection with our new exhibit, “Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics.” More details are available on the Pink Palace Museum page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...).

Fowler grew up in Memphis, graduated from White Station High School and spent his summers on his grandmother’s farm near Madison, Tennessee. That is where his interest in agriculture began. Fowler is the Executive Director Global Crop Diversity Trust based in Rome.

This is a tremendous opportunity to learn more about this fantastic project to protect one of the world's most basic resources, food, and perhaps our species. If you can, you should make an effort to go to this lecture and reception to meet Fowler. The importance of the seed bank makes all the political squabbling pale in comparison. It would be a nice break!

Sherrie

Per the KNS today...NASA is having a contest to name the new GLAST (Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope) telescope. Here's your chance to become part of space exploration history!

Before the latest chapter in the search begins for supermassive black holes, new laws of physics and the mysterious dark matter, you’ll have the historic chance to help name the satellite that makes it all possible. This unique opportunity is open to the public across the globe. Now, YOU may be the one to offer the name which will be given to the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) after its launch in 2008. GLAST is NASA’s next generation gamma-ray mission, designed to explore the most extreme phenomena in our Universe and probe energy regimes far beyond anything possible on Earth.

Go here to enter your own suggestion!

I did!...May the best namer win!

At the risk of being accused of self-promotion, Where in the World is Smokey? is one of the more interesting and enjoyable projects I've worked on at UT. We're mailing T-shirts to students, staff, faculty, and alumni and asking them to take photos of themselves wearing the T-Shirt during their travels. Since launching the site in October we've received photos from 17 states and 20 countries, and we're expecting to get a photo from Antarctica in the next week or two, which will give us posts from all 7 continents.

The promotion is a bit gimmicky, maybe, but it's been a fun way to raise awareness of the university's Ready for the World initiative.

This:
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Or THIS?

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Senator Obama wins the Democrats Abroad Primary:

Barack Obama 65.6%
Hillary Clinton 32.7%

Looks like Cindy might have been out-of-sorts yesterday and taken it out on Mrs. Obama.

The first link I posted has disappeared behind the subscribers' curtain, but this one seems to work:

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I hope everyone here realizes how much I enjoy KnoxViews, and I assure you I will be stopping by every single day to see what's going on.

I figured it would be best to create my own blog because I felt really embarassed that I was posting too much here, hogging the space maybe, and sometimes my front page content, the "psycho-babble" stuff for instance, seemed to really irritate people that I have a lot of respect for.

"Although Petraeus and other senior commanders in Iraq had been suggesting the possibility of a pause in the drawdown, the idea runs counter to those in the military — particularly in the Army and Marine Corps — who worry that strains on troops from long and multiple combat tours will grow worse unless the drawdown continues after July."
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Note that they are no longer using the word withdrawal. When Bush is taking troops out it is called a "drawdown"

I just hope all the Americans who have had their eyes opened about this war will remember to be more alert when it comes to the Washington/ Republican propaganda machine.

I hope the betrayed early supporters of this war will refuse to vote Republican in the general election.

This boy done went to Bean's brother's School of Humor!

This ought to be interesting...

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