Daily Topics - Tuesday August 24th, 2010
By shawnt56
Quote of the Day: I have never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as a cause for withdrawing from a friendship. -- Thomas Jefferson
Hour One: Total (egg) recall...what part of “government’s job is to keep us safe” don’t conservatives and libertarians understand? Thom has a rumble with Ron Bailey, science correspondent for Reason Magazine www.reason.com; Plus, will more regulation keep our food supply safe? Patty Lovera of Food and Water Watch will be here www.foodandwaterwatch.org
Hour Two: Why are people dying of horrific diseases in order to protect a few cells in a petrie dish? - Thom challenges Ron Soddart, Attorney/Executive Director of Nightlight Christian Adoptions www.nightlight.org
Hour Three: Who’s really behind the tea party and the right wing revolution? Faiz Shakur, VP of American Progress and Editor-in-Chief of Think Progress will be here www.thinkprogress.org
Comments
#2
I guess the joke is this: the NYT headline originally said: "Pole Gets Shot in Head, Notices 5 Years Later." In minutes, they dropped "Pole" and put "Man". The Pole designation now comes farther into the article.
#3
The reason that food sickness down over 10 years period? Perhaps it is because organic food purchases are up 75% over the last 5 years.
#4
I hate to say it, but maybe its due to more antibiotics and irradiation?
#5
Conservatives cannot ever adequately explain why food safety should not be regulated. Setting "performance standards" is meaningless if there are no consequences for failing to meet the standards and if there are no inspectors to inspect that the performance standards are met. I suppose we are to take companies at their word that their practices are safe.
The man from Reason Magazine used a fear tactic that he thought would appeal to liberals: if you regulate, it would be so prohibitively expensive that organic farmers would be put out of business! Which I doubt since they're usually smallish and follow better guidelines than the government would ever put out. They'd only fail if a conservative agency wanted them to fail and harassed them incessantly.
And whenever someone does get ill or dies, what do the conservatives cry: Why wasn't someone checking up on them? They want regulation when they themselves are at risk. But when it's for the greater good and might cost companies a little to ensure they're doing things right, then no. They should be ashamed of themselves.
#6
yeah, Reagan was coronated President (I hesitate to say elected) 'cause he promised to "Get Government off our backs!" Unfortunately, his definition of "our" is the richest few percent.
#7
Join a CSA or food coooperative! http://www.localharvest.org
Join the transition movement http://www.transitioncalifornia.ning.com
Transition network http://www.transitionnetwork.org/
Transition Towns Wiki http://www.transitiontowns.org/
#8
Mad City Chicken http://www.madcitychickens.com/
Google CLUCK sacramento http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=217539
Caller, Casey
backyard chicken movement
PDX backyard chickens now over 1000 families yahoo group system
Portland urban farm store
#9
My brother and his wife have 4 chickens in their backyard, the maximum allowable in San Francisco, so they can have fresh eggs. I used to think that only bizarre weirdos did that. But maybe they're on to something.
#10
"Good GLUCK?" - oh, how fowl!
#11
@Harry- you rascal
#12
google raw milk advocates ! Get really radical! Do it!
#13
My grandfather had chickens, and my brothers and I used to go collect the eggs in the morning. I was fascinated by the fake glass eggs that were in the nests to kill the snakes. this was mid -'50's.
#14
Re: The destruction of Embrios
It seems to me that it comes back to a patriarchal society where the men rule, and women are their property.
#15
Yes, fertilzed eggs meets scientific defintion of life however too much life on the planet will kill us all!
#16
Um...If life begins at conception...aren't we all 9 months older than it says on our birth certificate? Comic Will Durst reports on a kid who successfully fought a minor in posession charge on that basis!
#17
DRichards: Women and children.
If one thinks that life begins at conception, then why wouldn't these people get outraged over 400,000 frozen embryos that will degrade to nothingness? I'd think they wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
#18
Why dump these eggs that no one will adopt down the drain?
#19
Is this guy saying the right wing will financially support all these eggs to infinity?
#20
Maybe the drain wants a baby?
#21
Does this guy want federal funding stopped so that private industry can own our natural parts?
#22
I read yesterday on the Stephanie Miller blog that Missouri made a law saying that life begins at conception. So yes, all Missourians, at least, are 9 months older than everyone else.
I wonder if the Census included embryos & fetuses as well.
And pregnant women can now ride, I'm guessing, in the carpool lane.
Almost enough to make me want to get pregnant again. Well, maybe not.
#23
Life is from conception through natural death!!!
#24
What about "unnatural death?"
#25
If human eggs were found to have salmonella in them, would Nightlight Christian Adoptions still want them? (Why not tie the first and second hour together?)
#26
WICKER DICKIE WICKER DICKIE RAH! RAH! RAH!
WICKER DICKIE WICKER DICKIE ZIS! BOOM! BAH!
goooo.............TEAM!
#27
Jeanie, yes! The progeny would be great swimmers!
#28
@harry ashburn, a unnatural death is from our insane policies of wrong and immoral wars that are started by our lunatics who are running our asylums in D.C.
A srtategic lost war!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Iraq-Pullout-Mission-Acco-by-Stephen-Lendman-100824-490.html
#29
@harry, here are other unnatural deaths that our federal government condones with our policies and practices.
#30
Just when I thought we would now be making more progress in stem cell research, this injunction is issued. I wish to GOD these republicans would just secede and form their own theocratic country, and leave the rest of us alone... It seems we take one step forward, and 3 steps backward... *sigh*
#31
If you're truly of the opinion that fertilized eggs are people too and you don't want excess fertilized eggs used for research, then to be consistent you need to also be anti-fertilization clinic. Because you can't be ok with 400,000 LIVE HUMAN BABIES are sitting in freezers degrading to death, now can you?
I read a while ago that in Italy, they only allow 2 embryos to be created or implanted (can't remember). This way, there aren't excess embryos and also women wouldn't become Octomoms. That's logical to me if you're really a life-begins-at-conception kind of person.
#32
@harry, here are other unnatural deaths that have been planned to enslave us as a people.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Death-of-The-American-Drea-by-Steven-Forrest-100823-879.html
#33
#34
Not "pro-life"; actually it's "pro-placental life". Once you're out of the placenta, you're on your own.
So-called "pro-life" people call pro-choice people "pro-abortion". Always. So I personally don't feel the necessity of calling them "pro-life".
#35
BIG MONEY in chronic illness --
for BIG PHARMA --
was the case brought about funding?
#36
@harry, here is another example of unnatural deaths that are mortal sins and damning the souls of Americans.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/08/23/us-drone-strike-destroys-house-full-of-children-in-pakistan/
#37
YEAH --
aren't a women's eggs actually that precious --
"gift of life" --
now-a-days a woman has a choice --
to share the gift she has been given -- MM
#38
Stepping on an acorn, is not chopping the tree, sentient beings- zygotes are not- good caller google the Quality of Life movement' - caller Bernard.
#39
More BS from a war criminal who advocates wars from the Obama administration. I also include Obama as a war criminal.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/08/23/biden-too-soon-to-declare-afghan-war-a-failure/
#40
I agree... I call them "anti-choice" ...epithets... most of the time
#41
I think, even though I'm a very pro-choice liberal female, that men can have opinions on abortion and can express them. We don't get pregnant by ourselves. I don't like men forcing pregnancies on females, but it is wrong for us to not allow men (and this goes for women too) to express their thoughtful opinion (and not scream "baby killers!") on abortion and other mostly-female issues.
Are women not allowed to have an opinion on something that only affects men? So women shouldn't have any say or utter any opinions in anything related to male ED.
FYI, female caller, lots and lots of men are pro-choice.
#42
The wad of cells from which stem cells are typically harvested from is at the zygote and blastulas stages of embryo development . . . For these wads of cells to become a human . . . Timely passage of time, hormones and environment must be added. Even fetuses are still potential human life.
Hell, until they graduate from college and move out . . . They aren’t human beings.
#43
Re : Stem Cells
Is the objection based upon a religious law? If so, then it seems to me that our secular government should have no say regarding religious matters.
#44
My reply was to Jeanie's comment, btw... It didn't show up under her window... ??
#45
Hi I am Laura Dudgeon from Dearborn MI and I would like to share my sister's plan for the good old boy's network that wants to control our body. If a man is the father of an unwanted child he should have one testicle removed and if he does it again that would be the last time he could do it.
#46
What if life began when it actually began . . . BILLIONS of farging years ago?
What if there is a soul and it enters the human body when my folk say . . . With the first breath of life?
What if we take a group of cells that are not even potentially a human being until they have been subjected seven plus months of a highly specific cocktail of human hormones in a specific and timely manner in a human uterus AND allow them to save an actual human life with an actual postulated human soul instead of being disposed of into the toilet or sink their destiny is leading them to unless they are used to save a life?
And why wait around to inject a soul at the moment of conception . . . How many half souls get spent by teen age boys each and every day?
What if this is an earthly matter and human's do as the supposed deity’s handbook says (twice) and not carry god's name before us when entering an earthly pursuit of endeavor?
What if the framers/founders were correct in their assessment that we should not sully religion by infecting it with matters of state AND the state should provide for the common welfare of the people who empower it?
What if the folk who created the concept of original sin acknowledge that it is the concept of souls at conception that damn fetuses to places worse than South Dakota AND stop abandoning the soul once it birthed?
What if your inquiry is correct and souls ARE injected at the moment of conception AND the zygote is flushed, is that murder?
What if God judges us far more harshly for failing to love our neighbors as ourselves than using life to sustain life?
I recognize and honor those whose belief system informs them to protect life from conception to grave; who are anti-abortion and anti-death penalty and anti-in vitro conception. It is an honest interpretation of a weighty topic. I value the consistency of the Catholic Church in its stance . . . No abortion, no death penalty and no in vitro . . . It is about honoring LIFE (BUT only because of what happens upon death strangely enough). There is consistency AND that is good. They also focus upon good education of the young and feeding the poor and sheltering/providing sanctuary to the living; also, good and consistent. I refuse the judge the consistent harshly . . . But I have a real issue with the protect the fetus, pre-born soldiers to be spent for war or murder, abandon the child once it is born, kill it if its bad seed (but provide for sex with the spousal unit until the state whacks it) mentality.
I know my interpretation of the universe is largely based on the concept that a human fetus is handled as a property rights issue (Strike a women and she looses the fetus = payment of restitution) . . . Life would be easier if the same folk trying to deny folk the advancement of science or say right to marriage would read more than 80 or so lines of book they profess as their foundation of belief AND understand that they lack the cultural references to full appreciate my peoples book. My understanding leads from an interpretation of a religion not focused on a place I have zero access to until I slough off the mortal coil . . . Judaism is about the life of the living and breathing.
If the courts want to reverse a Presidential action, they should pick one like striking President Reagan's Executive Order that suspended enforcement of the Sherman Anti-trust Acts. THAT would provide for ACTUAL public good and beat some soulless corporations back into the legal liability shields that they we the people designed them to be.
#47
Laura D: regarding your sister's plan for testicular removal:
What would you do to the woman who also has one or more unwanted children? Unless she's being raped, she's at least half responsible for preventing pregnancy too. Should she have an ovary removed? And then both if there's more than one pregnancy she doesn't want?
Or, we could push birth control, make it free and highly accessible to even the poor and teens (since for some reason, conservative people want to prevent them from accessing it) and really and truly change our national dialoge and thought processes to put an emphasis on preventing unwanted pregnancies, because it can be done. A million abortions occuring in this country alone is kind of absurd. We can do better.
#48
I will be away from the computer for a respite in some much needed R and R. Plus, my arthritis is acting up in my right wrist. Please keep up the good work! I felt a strong need to again comment on this message.
Messenger
I am only a messenger that is reporting to you the message from several sources. The message hurts but it must be spoken loud and clear.
Silence Speaks
American soldiers have been killed in Iraq for the Bush lies. I want to remind my Church that she cannot remain silent on the many moral issues. SILENCE ON MORAL ISSUES SPEAKS LOUD AND CLEAR AND THE MESSAGE IT SENDS TO PEOPLE SPEAKS OF INDIFFERENCE TO THE PLIGHT OF MANY AMERICANS WHO CURRENTLY LIVE UNDER AN OPPRESSIVE REGIME.
The former sheriff of Wayne County, Michigan, William Lucas gave a talk that my wife and I attended. He said that when we do nothing, we are doing something. He also said that to say nothing we are talking loud and clear. What he was saying, that inaction, silence, or both conveys a message that we are condoning the behavior of people that may very well be hurting other people. Social injustice and immorality hurts other people and we cannot remain silent or sit idly by and do nothing.
What we must do is to keep in mind the words of Jesus in Matthew 25: 31-46. The central theme of this biblical verse says, “When you do it for the least of My brethren, you do it for Me”.
Silence Speaks Volumes
Martin Luther King Jr. from his jail in 1963 said, “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of bad people, but for the appalling silence of good people.”
Cindy Sheehan regrets that she did not scream out at Congress and say, Congress, don’t you dare abrogate your constitutional rights and responsibilities! Do not under any circumstances give the keys to our country to power-drunk, irresponsible, and reckless maniacs.
When George said, “If you’re not for us, you’re against us”, Cindy Sheehan will forever regret that she did not phone and scream, “I am so against you and your repulsive policies, you self-important man. I am against killing innocent people and I am against you telling me it’s unpatriotic to be against you and your murderous philosophy!”
YES, AMERICA, ENGLAND, AND ISRAEL ARE THE TRIAD OF EVIL NATIONS!
The messages that I offer are from a variety of sources. But, the colonoscopy, pulling of the finger, a marinated four bean salad, and Kim Chee are truisms with an added flare and wit. Religious comments are my beliefs and from various religiosity studies.
#49
Regarding zygotes and embryos: What you have with the embryo is a blue print. If I had a blueprint of a building, I couldn't get on the elevator and go to the basement or top floor - the blueprint is not a building. Same for a ship - I can't go to sea in a blueprint.
#50
@Vent4fun: This website ain't based on moveable type and lacks that level of spiffiness. Responses are not stacked and conversations are blended.
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