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Same sex marriage

This letter is in response to the articles covering the case before the United States Supreme Court concerning same sex marriage.
A homosexual person is one who is sexually attracted to others of the same sex. Except for a genetic variation of nature, they are virtually identical to their heterosexual counter parts. They feel the very same kind of attraction to the same sex as heterosexuals feel about the opposite sex.

Now, granted, there are those people who freely choose this behavior as a form of "life style" but that accounts for a very small population of homosexuals. In fact, if one is not genetically predispositioned for this behavior then by definition they are not truly homosexual but rather some deviant variation of perverted behavior.

Some would argue that the Bible condemns homosexuality but I believe (through the persistence of science) this behavior will be proven to result from natural genetic variation.

One can draw on the example of the developmentally challenged {no offense intended toward either group} who by no action of their own are born comparatively slow or deficient in mental, physical, or emotional growth.

I am hurting too: The hurt of militarized authoritarianism in Singapore, Afghanistan and the world

It’s hard for me, an ordinary citizen of Singapore, a medical doctor engaged in social enterprise work in Afghanistan and a human being wishing for a better world, to write this from Kabul.
But people are dying.
And children and women are feeling hopeless.
“What’s the point in telling you our stories?” asked Freba, one of the seamstresses working with the Afghan Peace Volunteers to set up a tailoring co-operative for Afghan women. “Does anyone hear? Does anyone believe us?” Silently within, I answered Freba with shame,” You’re right. No one is listening.”

So, I write this in protest against my government’s presence in the humanitarian and war tragedy of Afghanistan, as a way to lend my voice to Freba and all my Afghan friends.

I do so in dissent, against the global security of imprisoned minds. I thought, “If no one listens as humans should, we should at least speak like free men and women.”

Singapore’s complicity in the humanitarian and war tragedy of Afghanistan

The body sock for an autistic kid: Trickle down torture in Columbus City Schools

First, we were desensitized to water-boarding at Gitmo and electrical shocks to the genitalia at Abu Ghraib. Now torture has trickled down to elementary schools in the U.S. with the “body sock” for autistic kids.

Recently, Naqis Cochran, a ten-year-old autistic child, was restrained with a device known as a “body sock” at Columbus’s South Mifflin Elementary School. The Sock served as Naqis’ punishment for laughing during class. This restraining device is made of stretchy, purple lycra material that is zipped to cover a child’s arms, legs and head. While zipped inside the Sock, the autistic boy fell on his face and knocked out a permanent front tooth, requiring two emergency root canal surgeries.

The teacher told WCMH-TV in Columbus that she instructed Naqis not to move with the Sock on. Again, Naqis is autistic and asthmatic, a point stressed repeatedly by his parents Asad Shabazz and Amatullah Shields on my Talktainmentradio.com radio show last Wednesday. Just like with water-boarding, any person would tend to panic when their head, arms, and legs are encased and zipped into a physical restraining device.

Last chances to reign in catastrophic climate change

About 97% of climate scientists have endorsed or substantiated that concentrations of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere have increased at an accelerating rate over the last few decades or more along with a rising temperatures. The research on which these findings are based comes from evidence that has been systematically gathered and analyzed by numerous independent teams of researchers from countries around the world.

Academies of science from many nations identify and give legitimacy to studies that meet the most rigorous criteria. And there are international scientific organizations that scrutinize thousands of peer-reviewed studies and choose for examples of the best science only the studies that meet the high standards of scientific method and analysis. Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia provides a comprehensive overview of national and international organizations and the positions that have taken in its pages on “Scientific Opinion on Climate Change.

How Congress let Monsanto off the hook

Not many people like the messes Congress makes but everybody should see how they’re made.

This article takes a close look at the legislation just passed by Congress and signed by President Obama allowing the Secretary of Agriculture to issue executive orders that bypass regulations, safety, and science for the purpose of speeding genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically engineered seeds (GE) and crops to market. The way the law is written, Secretary Tom Vilsack can lift restrictions on GMOs for a set period and, it appears, do so without hindrance from the courts.

Are genetically modified organisms (GMOs), seeds, and crops safe for human consumption? How has the scientific testing of these seeds been conducted and what are the results? Is there undue influence of the government and legislative process to fast track the delivery of GMOs to market? Who benefits from that influence, if it is present, and how are the benefits derived?

Ending violence in a decade

“The status quo in Chicago is no longer tolerable,” Andy Willis said, summoning the violent headlines of the past year and the past week.

This was Palm Sunday, in a church basement in a big-city neighborhood, and the time had come to stand for something enormous. My God, a six-month-old baby, Jonylah Watkins, was shot and killed this month in Chicago, as her father held her on his lap while sitting in a parked van. That was just the latest shocker. Violence is the norm, in this city and so many others. The death of children is the norm.

“We can’t live with a status quo like that,” Willis said. “We know things are breaking down . . .”

The event was called “A Remedy for Violence” and announcements for it proclaimed: “This will be a joyous and hopeful event as we aim to eliminate all violence in our community in 10 years! Zero in Ten.”

American photographer Al Rockoff testifies at Khmer Rouge Tribunal

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- An American combat photographer said his picture of captured U.S.-backed Cambodian officials, hours before they were "bludgeoned to death" by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in 1975, is the most important testimony he gave at an international tribunal.

Today, a new American Embassy covers the spot where the officials were executed 37 years ago, when Khmer Rouge guerrillas seized the capital Phnom Penh.

Photographer Al Rockoff also said the Khmer Rouge's defense lawyers appeared to be trying to get him to say that Pol Pot's victorious rebels were divided into "factions".

The defense may have wanted him to say that, so the Khmer Rouge leaders on trial could claim they were not responsible for any deaths or other criminal policies during their "killing fields" regime.

During Pol Pot's 1975-1979 back-to-the-jungle dictatorship, 1.7 million Cambodians died from executions, torture and other official policies which inflicted starvation and disease on the population.

Mr. Rockoff testified at the United Nations-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), on January 28 and 29, on

Digital grab: Corporate power has seized the internet

If your daily routine took you from one homegrown organic garden to another, bypassing vast fields choked with pesticides, you might feel pretty good about the current state of agriculture.

If your daily routine takes you from one noncommercial progressive website to another, you might feel pretty good about the current state of the Internet.

But while mass media have supplied endless raptures about a digital revolution, corporate power has seized the Internet -- and the anti-democratic grip is tightening every day.

“Most assessments of the Internet fail to ground it in political economy; they fail to understand the importance of capitalism in shaping and, for lack of a better term, domesticating the Internet,” says Robert W. McChesney in his illuminating new book, Digital Disconnect.

Job Opening - Petition Circulator

The Columbus Coalition for Responsive Government is looking for paid petition circulators to go door-to-door in Columbus neighborhoods seeking signatures from registered voters for our petitions. We are a citizens' group trying to get two pieces of legislation on the ballot for a vote: 1) we believe the people of Columbus should approve or reject the bailout of Nationwide Arena, and 2) we believe there should be campaign finance laws in place for local elections as the voters approved in 1994.

You pick the neighborhood you want to work in. We provide you a "walk list" with the names and addresses of the registered voters on each street, and two clipboards and some talking points. You pick the days and time you want to work (likely evenings and weekends, when people are most likely to be home), and go out and get signatures. You bring the signatures back to us on Monday, and we pay you on Friday afternoon.

Renowned experts will address fracking at conference

“UNCONVENTIONAL SHALE DRILLING: A FACT-BASED HEALTH, ENVIRONMENTAL, ECONOMIC AND POLICY DISCUSSION; WHAT WE KNOW, WHAT WE DON’T KNOW, WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW BEFORE MOVING FORWARD”
Grand Rapids, Ohio, March 27, 2013 - On April 5 and 6, 2013, a group of scientists, doctors, attorneys, researchers, environmental advocates and policy experts will assemble in Warren, Ohio to present and discuss the impacts of unconventional shale drilling, also called “fracking.” This conference is one of the first in the state to study and discuss facts, concerns and evolving science related to this new industry in Ohio. The conference will be held at the Wean Foundation, 147 West Market Street, Warren, Ohio.

The conference keynote speaker is Deborah Rogers of Energy Policy Forum in Dallas, Texas. (http://energypolicyforum.org/). Ms. Rogers will share her expert background in finance and banking and present: “Shale and Wall Street: Was the Decline in Natural Gas Prices Orchestrated?”

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