Month: July 2007

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Free museum admissions?

I was looking for a list of free admissions hours to museums in the city. I found out that some museums are always free, some allow people to pay “whatever they wish to pay” [which can be a one penny donation] and some are free on certain days, or during certain hours.

In a New York Times article, Roberta Smith intended to propose a challenge to museums to gradually lower their fees until they were always open to the public at no charge. “. . . it is through [artwork] that we discover and explore important aspects of our humanness. [Museums] should be equally available to all, for the good of the individual and society as a whole.” read more

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Which wolf will win?

Which Wolf Will Win?

A Cherokee elder sitting with his grandchildren told them, “In every life there is a terrible fight – a fight between two wolves.

“One wolf is evil: he is fear, anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and deceit.

“The other is good: joy, serenity, humility, confidence, generosity, truth, gentleness, and compassion.”

A child asked, “Grandfather, which wolf will win?”

The elder looked him in the eye. “The one you feed.” read more

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Ms. Pratibha Patil, President, India

The country of India now has in its 60th year of independence, as of last Saturday, July 21, a woman president, and people in her hometown of Jalgaong are dancing in the streets! Social activists look to Ms. Patil for relief for women from centuries-old struggles related to gender issues such as dowry-related violence, murder, rape and domestic abuse.

In her new position, Ms. Pratibha Patil has the power to structure both state and local governments. Her government counterpart, the prime minister, is the holder of executive power for the state. Reuters article tells more. read more

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Former Treasury officer: constitution is under threat!

Roberts said that because of Bush’s unpopularity, the Republicans face a total wipeout in 2008, and this may be why “the Democrats have not brought a halt to Bush’s follies or the war, because they expect his unpopular policies to provide them with a landslide victory in next year’s election.”

[But] Roberts believes instead that Cheney and Rove intend to use a renewal of the War on Terror to rally the American people around the Republican Party. “Something’s in the works,” he said, adding that the Executive Orders need to create a police state are already in place. read more

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Democrat Billionaires think about the other 99%

Buffett, the third-richest man in the world, is supporting Democratic presidential hopeful in the upcoming elections, because he wants more equitable wealth distribution and taxataion systems in the US.

Buffet criticised the US tax system for allowing him to pay a lower rate than his secretary and his cleaner. Speaking at a fundraiser in New York for Senator Hillary Clinton, Mr Buffett, who is worth an estimated $52 billion (£26 billion), said . . . If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent. read more

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Tallest man meets shortest? man

Two Mongolian men meet and shake hands. Bao Xishun at 7 foot 9 inches and He Pingping, who stands tall at 2 foot 4 [73 centimeters]. Mr. Bao recently married a woman whose head reaches the height of his elbow; Mr. He’s father says his son was the size of a man’s palm at birth. The UK’s Daily Mail tells more.

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End of the Constitution?

Maybe Bush’s outrageous commutation of Scooter Libby’s will help some folks recognize that this president and his cronies have more than normal self-interest or operative pragmatic scheming in mind.

The oft-used term “neo-conservatives,” or “neo-cons,” is thrown around the identify the circles that helped lift this current administration to power . . . these are not just new conservatives . . . At the top, these people have a total overhaul of U.S. Constitutional government in mind. Bush and friends are the first administration that has achieved a level of power high enough to exhibit this. Their goal is the end of democracy as defined by the U.S. Constitution. read more

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Nobel laureate calls for removal of Bush

Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams came from Ireland to Texas to declare that President Bush should be impeached.

In a keynote speech at the International Women’s Peace Conference on Wednesday night, Ms. Williams told a crowd of about 1,000 that the Bush administration has been treacherous and wrong and acted unconstitutionally.

“Right now, I could kill George Bush,” she said at the Adam’s Mark Hotel and Conference Center in Dallas. “No, I don’t mean that. How could you nonviolently kill somebody? I would love to be able to do that.” read more

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The Doctor Will See You—In 3 Months

The health-care reform debate is in full roar with the arrival of Michael Moore’s documentary Sicko, which compares the U.S. system unfavorably with single-payer systems around the world. Critics of the film are quick to trot out a common defense of the American way: For all its problems, they say, U.S. patients at least don’t have to endure the endless waits for medical care endemic to government-run systems.

In reality, both data and anecdotes show that the American people are already waiting as long or longer than patients living with universal health-care systems. read more