Global

The United States sends people to kill and die in war that it doesn't trust with a beer.

It trains police in war skills to assault young people it suspects of going near beer.

Here's an idea: Drink At 18, Don't Kill Till 21.

Alcohol prohibition is not working, and creates unsafe drinking by people old enough to vote, drive, and work. A case can be made, and is being made, for returning the drinking age to 18.

But allowing 18-year-olds to join the military has created illegal and immoral recruitment of minors, not to mention deep moral regret, post-traumatic stress, and suicide in young veterans.

“Deeply sensible of their solemn duty to promote the welfare of mankind . . .”

What? Were they serious?

I kneel in a sort of gasping awe as I read the words of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, a treaty signed in 1928 – by the United States, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan and ultimately by every country that then existed. The treaty . . . outlaws war.

“Persuaded that the time has come when a frank renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy should be made . . .”

ARTICLE I: “The High Contracting Parties solemnly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another.”

ARTICLE II: “The High Contracting Parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means.”

On April 2, 1998, doctors informed Paul and Kristin Thatcher their son Cameron had been born with a congenital heart defect and probably would never be active in athletics.

Nintendo has finally gotten around to releasing the latest iteration of its hand-held gaming systems in the US, under the very literal name of “New Nintendo 3DS.” While GameStop employees nationwide are already bracing for a holiday season of trying to clarify to clueless gift-givers whether they want a new New 3DS, a used New 3DS, a used old 3DS, a used old 3DS XL, a new 2DS, etc., Nintendo hand-held fans are wondering if they really need to upgrade.
  One could be forgiven for being unsure what’s even so new about this New 3DS. At a glance, the new system has an extra pair of shoulder buttons and a small nipple-like stick over the right buttons that operates like the nipple-like “TrackPoint” for which IBM/Lenovo laptops are notorious. This gives it the same built-in functionality as the Circle Pad Pro accessory for the old 3DS. And…that’s about it. It has a shinier finish and moves the volume toggle from under your left hand so you’re not constantly bumping it. So what?

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose
government was toppled by a military coup in May, faces a possible 10
years in prison after the Supreme Court on Thursday (March 19) ordered
her trial for alleged negligence when she administered rice subsidies.

"I am innocent," Ms. Yingluck said on her Facebook page, hours after
the court's announcement.

The crop subsidies "enhanced the living standards of the rice
farmers," she said.

"The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political
Positions has authority to consider the case," the court ruled on
Thursday (March 19).

The Attorney General's office had charged her with "dereliction of
duty" for not correcting alleged problems within her government
subsidy program.

Ms. Yingluck's trial, scheduled to start on May 19, is expected to
increase divisions in this troubled and repressed Southeast Asian
country.

She remains popular despite the coup-installed junta's use of martial
law, military courts for civilian dissidents, "attitude adjustment"

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The angry, frustrated, talkative general who
seized Thailand in a military coup last May, said on Monday (March 23)
if he had "complete power" he would have "a firing squad" execute
people, but now he suffers insomnia because Thais are demanding
democracy.

In 2003, Thailand stopped roping convicts to a cross with arms
outstretched, to be shot in the back by a lone executioner, and
instead began lethal injections.

"I can't even stop people from opposing me at this moment," Gen.
Prayuth Chan-ocha said in a speech at a Federation of Thai Industries
convention here in Bangkok.

"If I genuinely had complete power, I would have imprisoned [critics]
or handed them to a firing squad. It would be over, I wouldn't have to
wake up at night like this.

"Today there are some people who love me, but there are also many
people who hate me," he said from a podium in front of a gigantic
screen which vividly projected Gen. Prayuth speaking,
larger-than-life.

The general, who also played a role in a bloodless 2006 coup, has

“There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”

The words are those of Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine, speaking to Edward R. Murrow in 1955, as quoted recently in an essay by Paul Buchheit. What was he thinking? Six decades later, the words have such a counter-resonance with prevailing thought. They exude an old-fashioned humility and innocence, like . . . striking it rich isn’t necessarily the ultimate point of life?

I read these words and sense so much spilled wisdom in them, so much wasted hope. The world we’ve created is governed these days by two unquestioned principles: commodify and dominate. And it’s chewing up the resources that used to belong to every occupant of the planet.

10. This sort of argument for debunking Islam in the media as the best way to "defeat" ISIS/ISIL misses the fact that ISIS recruits from the United States make up almost certainly much less than 1% of recruits, so that 99% of the problem, even on its own terms, remains completely unsolved.

STOP THE CARBON-NUKE BAILOUTS!!!

Mini Conference on the PUCO’s Upcoming Energy Decisions

Win a Carbon/Nuke Free Ohio

Move to Renewables and Efficiency

SUNDAY APRIL 12, 2015; 1pm to 5:45 pm

Columbus State Community College
Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation
339 Cleveland Avenue at the southwest corner of Grove Street Parking is in the lot by the building.

1:00 pm: Welcome by Emcees Harvey Wasserman, author/activist Bob Fitrakis, Prof. Political Science, Columbus State Community College

SPEAKERS

1:10 pm: Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Beyond Nuclear, Takoma Park, MD.
Davis-Besse nuclear reactor, a threat to Ohio and the Great Lakes.

1:50 pm: Carolyn Harding, Organizer, Radioactive Waste Alert & the Columbus Community Bill of Rights.
Challenging fracking in Columbus and Ohio – from injection wells to

2: 30 pm: Break

community rights.

2:45 pm: Ned Ford, Veteran Ohio energy activist and consultant.
EPA’s Clean Power Plan; Ohio’s Senate Bill 310; the big picture on Clean

For the last few years, DC Comics has seemed to be smack in the middle of a big nostalgia trip to the 90s, and not the kind that involves pogs, Pokémon and Power Rangers. Despite decades of success with adult-quality but kid-friendly fare on television, the company that owns Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest of the Justice League has been doubling down on the bleakness, violence and gratuitous female thong-shots that defined the worst of 90s comics.
  The overhaul of their entire line as the “New 52,” launched in September 2011, put far more emphasis on catering to the old straight white male market than expanding their audience. Ever since then, the company has been mired in a series of tone-deaf fumbles. There was the gross over-sexualization of Catwoman, Starfire and Harley Quinn, all of whom had been popular with women readers. There was the restoration of former Batgirl Barbara Gordon’s ability to walk, despite her role as one of the only significantly disabled superheroes in a major comic. And there was the editorial cancellation of lesbian Batwoman’s marriage, which led to the creative team leaving the book.