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April 2007

Feed-in Tariffs

Energy, Ethics and Feed-in Tariffs.

A brief explanation of FIT laws for the uninitiated: they place a legal obligation on utilities to purchase electricity from renewable energy installations. The tariff rate is guaranteed, and in the best examples, for a long period -- say 20 years. The tariff rate is scientifically determined for each technology, to ensure profitable operation of the installation.

We are NOT paying in "treasure"

Someone must have put out a memo telling the Republicans "blood and treasure" was the new lingo to use regarding Iraq. What is this, the 18th century? We dont' have "treasure". We didn't just find a chest full of gold. The Bush administration is spending $1 trillion of hard-earned American taxpayer money in Iraq.

The media should stop letting the Bush Administration use the word "treasure".

It is American taxes that pay for the war in Iraq.

Leopard's iChat Theater

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).

iChat Theater is a new feature that will allow the broadcast of, and collaboration on, just about anything we do on our Mac.

Tenet: No 'serious debate' on Iraq war

MSNBC.com.

"There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat," Tenet writes, adding that there was never "a significant discussion" about containing Iraq without an invasion...

Uttered during a 2002 White House meeting, "slam dunk" was referring broadly to the case that could be made against Saddam Hussein, according to Tenet, not the dictator's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

"We can put a better case together for a public case. That's what I meant," Tenet said, explaining his remark for the first time in the CBS interview.


U.S. National Debt

United Stated National Debt.

Prior to the Neo-Conservative take over of the Republican Party there was not much difference between the two parties debt philosophy, they both worked together to minimize it.  However the debt has been on a steady incline ever since the Reagan Presidency. The only exception to the steep increase over the last 25 years was during the Clinton Presidency, where he brought spending under control and the debt growth down to almost zero.  

One VA Tech massacre every 4 days

Bob Herbert.

I had coffee the other day with Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, and she mentioned that since the murders of Robert Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, well over a million Americans have been killed by firearms in the United States.

That’s more than the combined U.S. combat deaths in all the wars in all of American history.“We’re losing eight children and teenagers a day to gun violence,” she said. “As far as young people are concerned, we lose the equivalent of the massacre at Virginia Tech about every four days.”


BeliefWatch: God Is Green

MSNBC.com.

Have you ever stopped to consider how much it costs to heat—or cool—a church? These huge and sometimes ancient and drafty structures sit empty for most of the week—but the Wednesday-evening Bible-study group needs lights and probably a few cups of coffee, and so does the Saturday-morning marriage-prep class. Often it's easiest to keep the lights on, even when there's nobody home. As factions in the evangelical world duke it out over whether environmentalism should be a theological priority, a number of churches, synagogues and mosques nationwide are undertaking serious efforts to make their buildings "green."

A Woman's Story

Wow. A heart-wrenching story from Newsweek:

I Had That Now-Banned Abortion.

It was Friday afternoon at nursery school and Simone just couldn't wait until Mother's Day to give me her present—a tote bag printed with a photo of the two of us.  When we got home, Toby greeted me with the card he'd made for me in kindergarten.  We all looked forward to dad coming home from a business trip.  It was the start of a perfect Mother's Day weekend.  I was 40, and I was joyfully pregnant.  "It'll be three kids by next Mother's Day," I remember thinking.

How We Learn

How We Learn via 37signals.

10% of what we READ
20% of what we HEAR
30% of what we SEE
50% of what we SEE and HEAR
70% of what is DISCUSSED with OTHERS
80% of what is EXPERIENCED PERSONALLY
95% of what we TEACH TO SOMEONE ELSE

How U.S. farm policy makes us fatter

Why are Twinkies and sodas cheaper than fruits and vegetables? Commodity farmers get checks based on how many bushels they can grow. The result is a food system awash in added sugars and added fats.

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