Democracy Blast

Quran Burning--and Reading

A good thing about America is that people can say and do anything within legal limits.  But of course we know that this good thing can be used to do bad things. This Sept. 11, a small denomination in Gainsville Florida, intends to burn a book that is regarded as holy by another group of people.

The Dove World Outreach Center’s website lists “Ten Reasons to Burn a Koran.” The site explains “We are using this act to warn about the teaching and ideology of Islam, which we do hate as it is hateful. We do not hate any people, however. We love, as God loves, all the people in the world and we want them to come to a knowledge of the truth. To warn of danger and harm is a loving act.” 

Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, commander of the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan told CNN "It's their Holy Book, so when somebody says that they're going to destroy that and cause a desecration to something that's very sacred to them, it's already stirred up a lot of discussion and concern amongst the people." General David Petraeus, the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has warned that the action could trigger retaliation against U.S. forces serving in Afghanistan.

This threat fuels much of the media response to this planned action, but at least 16 other churches in Gainsville are instead focused on showing respect toward the Quran and tolerance for different religions.   The will read scripture from the Quran during their services on Sunday, Sept 12.  Rev. Larry Reimer of the United Church of Gainesville says, “I’m not trying to make this a national or international event, but I feel that those who understand that allowing [the Qur'an burning] to pass silently by allows Dove Outreach to win in the fight against tolerance and religious compassion will stand up and share scripture from the Qur’an.”

“If they can burn it, then we can read it,” said Reimer. 

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A site for sore eyes

 

At first it looks something like the natural pattern you find in central disk of a sunflower. But at 24’ x 24’ that would be one mighty big flower. If you look closer--very closely--you’ll see the pattern dissolve into the crisscrossing names of over a million organizations that are working to make the world a better place.  

Artist Chris Jordan’s latest piece depicts the names of “organizations around the world that are devoted to peace, environmental stewardship, social justice, and the preservation of diverse and indigenous culture.” His website states that “The actual number of such organizations is unknown, but estimates range between one and two million, and growing.”

The piece is called “E Pluribus Unum” and if you need a reason to feel good about the world and the people in it, it’s a sight for sore eyes.

  

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Mosque on Hallowed Ground?

 

Daryl Lang has a point.  The New York City blogger posted photos of establishments that are the same distance from Ground Zero as the proposed the Park51 community center, which he calls the “inaccurately nicknamed” Ground Zero Mosque. The photos show the usual NYC fare: a McDonalds, street vendors, Dunkin’ Donuts, and, most notably, a “Gentleman’s Club.” 

On her Facebook page, Sarah Palin wrote of the community center, “it would be an intolerable and tragic mistake to allow such a project sponsored by such an individual to go forward on such hallowed ground.”

Lang is not disputing the tragedy and importance of 9/11.  He is pointing out that “This neighborhood is not hallowed. The people who live and work here are not obsessed with 9/11. The blocks around Ground Zero are like every other hard-working neighborhood in New York, where Muslims are just another thread of the city fabric.

At this point the only argument against this project is fear, specifically fear of Muslims, and that’s a bigoted, cowardly and completely indefensible position.”

 Do you agree with Lang? Or with Palin?

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Fossil fuel subsidies

Wait a minute--subsidies for fossil fuels?  Aren’t green energy subsidies all the rage?  Not according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Oh, to be sure there is monetary support for solar and wind power and biofuels. But worldwide, subsidies for fossil fuels are 12 times those for renewables.  

The research group compared the $557 billion spent to subsidize fossil fuels in 2008 with the comparatively paltry $43 to $46 billion given to renewables. 

Bloomberg.com quotes chief executive of New Energy Finance, Michael Liebreich, as saying that “One of the reasons the clean energy sector is starved of funding is because mainstream investors worry that renewable energy only works with direct government support.” 

We all know the good reasons to support renewable energy efforts--wouldn’t it be great if we put more of our money where our mouths are?

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WikiLeaks VS Pentagon Papers

The media is buzzing over whether the WikiLeaks Afghanistan leaks are equivalent to the Vietnam War era’s Pentagon Papers.  There are certain similarities, as this Wall Street Journal blog points out:

“A trove of classified Pentagon materials about a troubled war was made public with a splash. Much of the information was dated—even outdated—and illuminated tactics and strategies that already had been changed. Still, the documents had an immediate impact, serving to crystallize underlying public doubts about the war.

That may sound like a description of the big story that broke late Sunday, when some 76,000 internal military documents spanning six years of fighting in Afghanistan were made public by the WikiLeaks website. In fact, it’s a description of a strangely similar release of classified military documents 39 years earlier—the publication of the so-called Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War.”

Of course they also point out the differences, such as this observation at cbsnews.com:  

“More fundamentally, the Wikileaks documents do not radically alter our understanding of the war. They document what we've known for years - not enough troops, too many civilian casualties, a corrupt and inefficient Afghan government and an uncertain ally in Pakistan. The Pentagon Papers revealed that much of what the public had been told about the war in Vietnam was flat wrong and in many cases deliberately so.”

Ultimately, the greatest determining factor in whether the WikiLeaks will have an impact similar to the Pentagon Papers is pointed out by Glen Greenwald: the Afghan war does not employ a draft, and a relatively small portion of our population actually knows someone who is a soldier.  As Greenwald states in his Salon.com column:

“It's relatively easy to support and/or acquiesce to a war when neither you nor your loved ones are risking their lives to fight it.”

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Portland bans the bag

 

It’s not the first city to do so, and it won’t be the last: Portland Oregon is banning the plastic bag.  Yes, those ubiquitous grocery checkout bags that wind up clogging recycling equipment and sewers, and floating in the giant gyre in the Pacific Ocean.

Who could oppose such a thing?  You know who: the plastics industry. According to SeattlePI blog, last year lobbyists for the industry spent about 1.4 million to defeat a measure proposing a 20-cent fee on bags in Seattle. 

Of course there’s a website and a Facebook page working to drum up support for the measure. 

And there’s a larger ban in the works--Oregon legislators will make an effort to enact the first statewide ban.

About 40 US communities have taken similar action.  Has yours?

 

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The problem with facts

Here’s the problem with facts: if they don’t match the reality we already believe, we discount them.  Worse than that, they cause us to become more entrenched in our factually-mistaken positions.

Okay, the problem isn’t really facts, it’s our brains. So say studies quoted in “How facts backfire” in Boston.com. The article reports that “In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.”

The article points out that this bodes ill for our democracy, especially in this this era of loud pundits who spew personal opinions as objective truth.  As one of the article’s commentators stated, “...this explains a lot.”

 

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From office memo to toilet paper

 

Finally! The machine we’ve all been waiting for: one that turns office paper into toilet paper.

It’s no joke--it’s a real device, named White Goat, which shreds your confidential documents, mixes them with water, and a half-hour later produces a roll of toilet paper.  

The manufacturer, Oriental Company, reports that each toilet paper roll requires 40 sheets of A4 paper, and that the machine will save 60 cedar trees annually.  With a hefty price tag of $100,000, the White Goat may not be the next big fad--but you have to admire Oriental for innovation.

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BP spill in perspective

If you don’t live in the Gulf, it might be difficult for you to picture the size of the BP oil disaster.  Ifitwasmyhome.com has figured out a way to bring perspective closer to home....your home.

You can move the spill to any location in the world by typing in the name of the town, state (if applicable), and country, and see that place become equivalent to the Deepwater Horizon site.  

* If you live in Phoenix, you’ll find that that the spill would extend north to Flagstaff and west nearly to Yuma.

* If you live in Providence, the oil would ooze past Connecticut and Massachusetts, into New York state, and north into New Hampshire.

* If you live in Portland, Oregon, the spill would extend north to Tacoma, west into the Pacific and east well past Yakima.

Since the spill continues to spread, the site is updated regularly.  

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BP & Environmentalists

Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, this recent article on Politico is likely to give you pause: “Enviros give Obama a pass on spill.”

Whether you are inclined to favor national environmental groups or oppose their work, you'll want to check it out. The article states “Several analysts said the low profile of the large environmental groups since the disaster is due in large part to uncertainty about the impact of the spill on the strategy for passing pending climate legislation. Environmental groups are leery of alienating Obama as he weighs how hard to push a sweeping cap-and-trade energy bill to rein in carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

Obama implicitly blessed a drilling-for-climate-votes swap back in March when he announced plans to open additional areas in the Gulf, along the Atlantic coast, and in Alaska for offshore drilling leases. Most environmental groups publicly opposed that move, but some accepted the White House’s analysis that allowing more drilling was the best way to win the Republican support needed to pass a climate change bill this year.

‘Obama made his ... pledge to lift the offshore drilling ban because he was trying to rustle up votes for Kerry-Lieberman, and that’s what most of the environmental community has been about,’ Bill McKibben, a prominent environmental writer and leader of climate change group 350.org, said this week.”

Huffington Post takes this complaint a step further in its article “Why the Sierra Club No Longer Deserves your Trust.”  

What do you think?  Are national environmental groups weighing the odds and making smart choices? Do you think subsidies from BP render some groups impotent?

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