Calendar Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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Defending the Empire

Rattlesnakes Are Smarter Than 16% Of U.S. High-School Biology Teachers
It turns out that rattlesnakes in Arizona are starting to lose their rattles, apparently in reaction to human encroachment of their habitats. As people build houses in the desert, trample the earth to build golf courses, and roll their RVs into previously virgin territory, banging smack into wildlife, they – we - have a tendency to react badly to nature, which results in a lot of dead rattlesnakes. A handful of the rattlesnakes that haven’t ended up deceased are those that manage to keep quiet and slide on by – in other words, the rattlers that can’t rattle.
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Spanish Spoken Here

The U.S. Census Bureau recently coughed up a bunch of fascinating statistics, and not only fascinating, but also depending on how your mind words, frightening, depressing, and/or mind-boggling.

And we’ll start with one little fact: Nearly three quarters of the 727,070 residents of El Paso, Texas speak Spanish at home, even if they are fluent in English. The numbers also show that 1 of every 5 living in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and California, use Spanish, not English, at home.

Think about that.

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How Do You Solve A Problem Like Sarah

John McCain will lose come November, and he will lose by a lot. That’s the way it has been for a long time now, and nothing’s going to change it. And when John McCain loses, he will fade from the national scene, and not long after, disappear from the Arizona political landscape as well. And that will be that.

And then we will be left with Sarah.

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Dear God, Not Sarah Palin

Let us bow our heads, my friends, and make short work of Sarah Palin: I won’t bother to repeat the details of her “unusual” family history, which promises to dip into the truly bizarre and probably unpleasant before long. Nor will I raise her dubious political story, from her duplicitous tale about the Bridge to Nowhere, and her attempted banning of books, on and on; rest assured all that will be thoroughly vacuumed in short order.

 No, my issue is simple enough, and it is this: The United States of America cannot have a vice president who believes in creationism, intelligent design, or anything other than basic science.

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Oh, Expectations, How Low You Have Fallen
by talkradionews Hillary Clinton SpeechHilary Clinton gave her speech at the convention and she said everybody should vote for Barack Obama.  Okay, she said a little more than that, she said, I did this, I stand for that, I’m really terrific…and the other guy is okay, too – but that just about summed it up.

The reaction from the media was predictable. CNN loved it, MSNBC practically swooned, and Fox thought otherwise. (Actually, if Abraham Lincoln himself had been reanimated to say something nice, a Fox host would have dismissed him, claiming the Great Emancipator maybe wasn’t a real Republican, as he hadn’t been around to vote for Reagan.)
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California Officially in Water Crisis PDF Print E-mail
Written by Len Sherman   
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
California Officially in Water Crisis



In case you don’t know, California is facing a drought. You should know this, because it has been long in coming, as many have written, and it has descended upon the land with a vengeance.

As reported in The Times Online: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, raised the spectre of emergency water rationing throughout the state for the first time in its 160-year history amid a severe drought that some are blaming on global warming.

The drought is expected to push up food prices further as the farmers in Central Valley - the US's primary source for tomatoes and grapes, among other food products - write off their crops because of a lack of water to irrigate them. The US Bureau of Reclamation has already said that it will cut water supplies to some Central Valley areas to less than half the usual levels.

Governor Schwarzenegger declared that Californians had to start dealing with this crisis seriously, starting by cutting their water usage by a fifth.

Scientists have long claimed that a big fall in the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains caused by rising temperatures could leave parts of the state - including Los Angeles - uninhabitable by the end of this century. The run-off from this melting snow keeps many of California's rivers flowing and supplies the state with water during summer.

Measurements taken last month found that the Sierra Nevadas were holding 69 per cent of average winter's snowfall. Meanwhile, run-off into the state's rivers was at 55 per cent of a normal year, while the big reservoirs were at 50 to 60 per cent capacity at a time when they should be full.

Schwarzenegger wants to build more dams in response, the Democrats argue that conservation is instead the key. The governor is also demanding that residents and water manager cut water use or face rationing. Extreme damage to crops, harm to water quality, and increased fire risk are all in play.

And then there’s something more, looping us back to the immigration issue. To quote The Times again:

While the state's water supplies are dwindling its population is rising, largely thanks to immigrants from Mexico.

Water, immigration, the economy, politics, the environment – we have to deal with one and all, because they are one and all, all together.
Last Updated ( Sunday, 20 July 2008 )
 
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