Thursday, January 31, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Bush Admin Allows Yellowstone Area Wolf Slaughter - Act Now!
***Got this email today and thought I should pass it on!! If this is an issure thats important to you please, please cut and paste the link provided and sign the pention that will hopfully say to the Congress, Presidents and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne that this rule change is unacceptable!! Thanks..dB***
Ignoring tens of thousands of citizens like you, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has just made it much easier to kill wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Rockies region -- wolves that still remain protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Take action now! Tell Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne that this rule change is just not right!
Wildlife officials will soon be able to shoot, trap and kill endangered wolves. Even those that wander from the safety of Yellowstone National Park and other protected areas could be killed.
This rule change allows officials to start killing wolves as soon as March. Please speak out today!
Here's what happened: Federal officials changed the so-called "10j" rule yesterday, lowering the bar for killing wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. This terrible rule change opens the door to the slaughter of hundreds of endangered wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Rockies region.
The states would only need to prove that wolves are a "major cause" of the inability of elk and deer to meet state management goals. Wolves could be killed even if they only have an effect on how elk herds move or behave -- not just if they reduce herd numbers.
Write to Secretary Kempthorne to express your outrage today!
These wolves are still listed as "endangered" animals -- federal officials still have yet to decide whether to remove protections under the Endangered Species Act for wolves in the Greater Yellowstone region.
Our partners at Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund are leading the efforts to oppose this outrageous decision. We need your voice. Tell Secretary Kempthorne that you are outraged by this rule change!
Thank you for acting today to save wolves,
Rebecca Young,
Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team
thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/374176612?z00m=13071424
Ignoring tens of thousands of citizens like you, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has just made it much easier to kill wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Rockies region -- wolves that still remain protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Take action now! Tell Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne that this rule change is just not right!
Wildlife officials will soon be able to shoot, trap and kill endangered wolves. Even those that wander from the safety of Yellowstone National Park and other protected areas could be killed.
This rule change allows officials to start killing wolves as soon as March. Please speak out today!
Here's what happened: Federal officials changed the so-called "10j" rule yesterday, lowering the bar for killing wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. This terrible rule change opens the door to the slaughter of hundreds of endangered wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Rockies region.
The states would only need to prove that wolves are a "major cause" of the inability of elk and deer to meet state management goals. Wolves could be killed even if they only have an effect on how elk herds move or behave -- not just if they reduce herd numbers.
Write to Secretary Kempthorne to express your outrage today!
These wolves are still listed as "endangered" animals -- federal officials still have yet to decide whether to remove protections under the Endangered Species Act for wolves in the Greater Yellowstone region.
Our partners at Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund are leading the efforts to oppose this outrageous decision. We need your voice. Tell Secretary Kempthorne that you are outraged by this rule change!
Thank you for acting today to save wolves,
Rebecca Young,
Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team
thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/374176612?z00m=13071424
Friday, January 25, 2008
Buddhist thought for the Week
Renunciation is not getting rid of the things of this world, but accepting that they pass away.
Aitken Roshi
Aitken Roshi
ƒeeling go0d hAs retuRneD.
The last few days had me feeling a bit sore emotionally.
I thought I had made a friend in Seth but things soured a couple days ago after I read a conversation he was having with a former buddy of mine we had hung out with a few nights previous.
My feelings were really hurt by the whole ordeal but today I'm feeling better about it all.
Losing two friends in the same day can suck but it's better I learned about they're behaviour now rather than months from now.
Sometimes gay men really suck (and not in the good, wet and fun way) and other time they really come through for one another. Last night that was my buddy Geoffrey. I wasn't happy at all and he came through with the Mary Jane Medicine Fund, burritto and ice cream!!! Thanks Geoffery!
Today is wet and rainy here in Fog City but my mood is bright this Friday morning. My lips have a slight smile again and feeling good has returned.
I thought I had made a friend in Seth but things soured a couple days ago after I read a conversation he was having with a former buddy of mine we had hung out with a few nights previous.
My feelings were really hurt by the whole ordeal but today I'm feeling better about it all.
Losing two friends in the same day can suck but it's better I learned about they're behaviour now rather than months from now.
Sometimes gay men really suck (and not in the good, wet and fun way) and other time they really come through for one another. Last night that was my buddy Geoffrey. I wasn't happy at all and he came through with the Mary Jane Medicine Fund, burritto and ice cream!!! Thanks Geoffery!
Today is wet and rainy here in Fog City but my mood is bright this Friday morning. My lips have a slight smile again and feeling good has returned.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
New Frontier
SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian girl spontaneously switched blood groups and adopted her donor's immune system following a liver transplant in the first known case of its type, doctors treating her said Thursday.
Demi-Lee Brennan was aged nine and seriously ill with liver failure when she received the transplant, doctors at a top Sydney children's hospital told AFP.
Nine months later it was discovered that she had changed blood types and her immune system had switched over to that of the donor after stem cells from the new liver migrated to her bone marrow.
She is now a healthy 15-year-old, Michael Stormon, a hepatologist treating her, told AFP. Stormon said he had given several presentations on the case around the world and had heard of none like it.
"It is extremely unusual -- in fact we don't know of any other instance in which this happened," Stormon told AFP from the Children's Hospital.
"In effect she had had a bone marrow transplant. The majority of her immune system had also switched over to that of the donor."
An article on the case was published in Thursday's edition of the leading US medical journal The New England Journal of Medicine.
Doctors who treated Brennan say she is now only under treatment as an outpatient and are interested to know if the case could have other applications in transplant surgery, where rejection of donor organs by the recipient's immune system is a major hurdle.
Stormon said it appeared that Brennan may have been fortunate because a "sequence of serendipitous events", including a post-transplantation infection, may have given the stem cells from her donor's liver the chance to proliferate.
The task now was to establish whether the same sort of outcome could be replicated in other transplant patients, he said.
Demi-Lee Brennan was aged nine and seriously ill with liver failure when she received the transplant, doctors at a top Sydney children's hospital told AFP.
Nine months later it was discovered that she had changed blood types and her immune system had switched over to that of the donor after stem cells from the new liver migrated to her bone marrow.
She is now a healthy 15-year-old, Michael Stormon, a hepatologist treating her, told AFP. Stormon said he had given several presentations on the case around the world and had heard of none like it.
"It is extremely unusual -- in fact we don't know of any other instance in which this happened," Stormon told AFP from the Children's Hospital.
"In effect she had had a bone marrow transplant. The majority of her immune system had also switched over to that of the donor."
An article on the case was published in Thursday's edition of the leading US medical journal The New England Journal of Medicine.
Doctors who treated Brennan say she is now only under treatment as an outpatient and are interested to know if the case could have other applications in transplant surgery, where rejection of donor organs by the recipient's immune system is a major hurdle.
Stormon said it appeared that Brennan may have been fortunate because a "sequence of serendipitous events", including a post-transplantation infection, may have given the stem cells from her donor's liver the chance to proliferate.
The task now was to establish whether the same sort of outcome could be replicated in other transplant patients, he said.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Anymore Honor?
Is there no honor even among friends anymore?
Are we all truly just living islands getting in each others way?
I know in cities that have large populations of gay men that eventually friends, lovers and fuck buddies will meet up for sex, friendship and even possible relationships.
SF is not that large of place and I know my friends will fuck my other friends. Exboyfriends will fuck other ex's of mine. Current tricks of mine will fuck former tricks of mine. I've seen it too many times to be shocked anymore and it never bothers me when it's done by accident or circumstance (ie: sex party, 3ways.. etc).
However, there does seem to be that special sort of gay guy who thinks doing things like this on purpose is OK and totally acceptable.
What's up with that shit?
I don't get it ...Nor do I wanna.
Does the word honor even have meaning any longer?
Are we all truly just living islands getting in each others way?
I know in cities that have large populations of gay men that eventually friends, lovers and fuck buddies will meet up for sex, friendship and even possible relationships.
SF is not that large of place and I know my friends will fuck my other friends. Exboyfriends will fuck other ex's of mine. Current tricks of mine will fuck former tricks of mine. I've seen it too many times to be shocked anymore and it never bothers me when it's done by accident or circumstance (ie: sex party, 3ways.. etc).
However, there does seem to be that special sort of gay guy who thinks doing things like this on purpose is OK and totally acceptable.
What's up with that shit?
I don't get it ...Nor do I wanna.
Does the word honor even have meaning any longer?
How UFOs and Bigfoot Could Save Earth
Benjamin Radford
LiveScience's Bad Science Columnist
LiveScience.com
Wed Jan 23, 8:40 AM ET
These days green is big. The environmental movement has been around for decades, but issues such as global warming, recycling, and saving the planet have never been so much in the spotlight. Though many corporations have arrived late in the game (cynics might suspect they saw another type of green in "green marketing"), many New Agers and believers in the mysterious and paranormal have long incorporated environmentalism into their beliefs.
Among people who claim to have been abducted or contacted by space aliens, messages about world peace and warnings of impending environmental disaster are common.
One popular belief is that UFO sightings are simply glimpses of the benevolent aliens watching over us, monitoring our destructive ways. We should work to save the planet, the thinking goes, but if we can't, our savior space brothers will intervene just before the world destroys itself, either through environmental pollution or global nuclear war. Once that happens, we Earthlings will see the error of our ways, ushering in a new era of peace, love, and global consciousness.
Unknown creatures
This environmental concern is echoed in the "cryptozoology" community as well.
For many people who believe in mysterious creatures such as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster, the search for these animals is urgent. We must find them to save their habitats from impending ecological doom.
There is even a longstanding and lively debate among Bigfoot researchers as to whether or not Bigfoot should be killed if the chance ever presents itself. Some claim that since the only thing that will finally prove the creatures' existence is a body, killing one is justified. Once the animal is proven to exist, measures can be taken to protect them. Others worry that the relative rarity of sightings suggests that the existing population (estimated in the tens or hundreds of thousands) can't afford to lose even one Bigfoot.
Regardless of how many Bigfoot can dance on the head of a pin, the issue will remain safely on the back burner until at least one Bigfoot, live or dead, is finally found. Many Bigfoot buffs would prefer that one is never discovered. As one contributor to Cryptomundo.com, a Web site about such creatures, wrote, "You almost feel you're jeopardizing these creatures if you reveal their locations. One thing we should have learned by now is that man destroys everything he touches."
This bleak notion that humans inherently (and inevitably) destroy everything is common in New Age circles.
However, though humans can destroy, we can also build and protect. The revival of animals from the brink of extinction (such as bald eagles in North America and elephants in Africa) are but two of many examples.
Mankind may or may not be marching blithely on the path to ecological self-destruction, but if Bigfoot or aliens help encourage people to reduce, reuse, and recycle, so much the better. That's why they call them "little green men."
LiveScience's Bad Science Columnist
LiveScience.com
Wed Jan 23, 8:40 AM ET
These days green is big. The environmental movement has been around for decades, but issues such as global warming, recycling, and saving the planet have never been so much in the spotlight. Though many corporations have arrived late in the game (cynics might suspect they saw another type of green in "green marketing"), many New Agers and believers in the mysterious and paranormal have long incorporated environmentalism into their beliefs.
Among people who claim to have been abducted or contacted by space aliens, messages about world peace and warnings of impending environmental disaster are common.
One popular belief is that UFO sightings are simply glimpses of the benevolent aliens watching over us, monitoring our destructive ways. We should work to save the planet, the thinking goes, but if we can't, our savior space brothers will intervene just before the world destroys itself, either through environmental pollution or global nuclear war. Once that happens, we Earthlings will see the error of our ways, ushering in a new era of peace, love, and global consciousness.
Unknown creatures
This environmental concern is echoed in the "cryptozoology" community as well.
For many people who believe in mysterious creatures such as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster, the search for these animals is urgent. We must find them to save their habitats from impending ecological doom.
There is even a longstanding and lively debate among Bigfoot researchers as to whether or not Bigfoot should be killed if the chance ever presents itself. Some claim that since the only thing that will finally prove the creatures' existence is a body, killing one is justified. Once the animal is proven to exist, measures can be taken to protect them. Others worry that the relative rarity of sightings suggests that the existing population (estimated in the tens or hundreds of thousands) can't afford to lose even one Bigfoot.
Regardless of how many Bigfoot can dance on the head of a pin, the issue will remain safely on the back burner until at least one Bigfoot, live or dead, is finally found. Many Bigfoot buffs would prefer that one is never discovered. As one contributor to Cryptomundo.com, a Web site about such creatures, wrote, "You almost feel you're jeopardizing these creatures if you reveal their locations. One thing we should have learned by now is that man destroys everything he touches."
This bleak notion that humans inherently (and inevitably) destroy everything is common in New Age circles.
However, though humans can destroy, we can also build and protect. The revival of animals from the brink of extinction (such as bald eagles in North America and elephants in Africa) are but two of many examples.
Mankind may or may not be marching blithely on the path to ecological self-destruction, but if Bigfoot or aliens help encourage people to reduce, reuse, and recycle, so much the better. That's why they call them "little green men."
Monday, January 21, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Buddhist thought for the Week
"We can never obtain peace in the world if we neglect the inner world and don't make peace with ourselves. World peace must develop out of inner peace."
- The Dalai Lama
- The Dalai Lama
Sunday, January 13, 2008
End Raids on Medical Marijuana Patients and Their Caregivers
Marijuana has been used therapeutically to control pain, alleviate nausea and vomiting in cancer patients due to chemotherapy, treat wasting due to HIV/AIDS, combat muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis and more.
But seriously ill patients and their caregivers risk going to prison for treating symptoms effectively with medical marijuana -- even in states that have passed medical marijuana laws. Tell Congress to protect medical marijuana patients and their caregivers!!
Currently, 12 states have passed medical marijuana laws that work to protect patients and caregivers from criminal charges associated with their medicine. But federal DEA agents continue to conduct raids on patients and caregivers who adhere to their state's laws.
Seriously ill patients have the right to effective therapies. To deny patients access to such a therapy is to deny them dignity and respect as persons. Urge Congress to allow health care patients access to the medicine they need!!!!
But seriously ill patients and their caregivers risk going to prison for treating symptoms effectively with medical marijuana -- even in states that have passed medical marijuana laws. Tell Congress to protect medical marijuana patients and their caregivers!!
Currently, 12 states have passed medical marijuana laws that work to protect patients and caregivers from criminal charges associated with their medicine. But federal DEA agents continue to conduct raids on patients and caregivers who adhere to their state's laws.
Seriously ill patients have the right to effective therapies. To deny patients access to such a therapy is to deny them dignity and respect as persons. Urge Congress to allow health care patients access to the medicine they need!!!!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Buddhist Thought
The fundamental idea of Buddhism is to pass beyond the world of opposites, a world built up by intellectual distinctions and emotional defilements. - D.T. Suzuki
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
New Hampshire Primary
I've been to New Hampshire and it is a beautiful and amazing state. The people of the that state have a chance to make Presidential history by electing Sen Obama in today's Presidential primary.
If the gentleman from Illinois wins today then history suggests that he will then move on to capture the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States of America! The candidate who has won both opening primaries have for 100% of the time eventually faced off in the general election as that parties nominee.
So I wish the Senator the best today and I hope today is one more stride towards history!!!
Go Barack!!!
If the gentleman from Illinois wins today then history suggests that he will then move on to capture the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States of America! The candidate who has won both opening primaries have for 100% of the time eventually faced off in the general election as that parties nominee.
So I wish the Senator the best today and I hope today is one more stride towards history!!!
Go Barack!!!
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Buddhist Thought
Play your part in the comedy, but don't identify yourself with your role!
- Why Lazurus Laughed by Wei Wu Wei
We all know people who act stupidly and absolutely foolishly! Sometimes, the fool is even ourselves.
I've seen the humor in my own negative and positive choices. Trust, there are many, many, many, many, many examples I could give but in all honesty that's way too much to cover in this short post! The lesson today seems to be that the person who plays the fool in these situations always ends up being myself. Yet and still, I'd like to think I've learned and grown from all of it.
Presently, I endeavor to make choices that allow me to chuckle with pride rather than blush with embarrassment!
This lion cub wants to be King of His own Forest one day!! Hopefully, I've grown up enough so that I can give up the roll of Court Jester/Clown/Fool/Servant.
But yet the question remains:
Even though I can see my Kingdom/How shall I earn my Crown???
- Why Lazurus Laughed by Wei Wu Wei
We all know people who act stupidly and absolutely foolishly! Sometimes, the fool is even ourselves.
I've seen the humor in my own negative and positive choices. Trust, there are many, many, many, many, many examples I could give but in all honesty that's way too much to cover in this short post! The lesson today seems to be that the person who plays the fool in these situations always ends up being myself. Yet and still, I'd like to think I've learned and grown from all of it.
Presently, I endeavor to make choices that allow me to chuckle with pride rather than blush with embarrassment!
This lion cub wants to be King of His own Forest one day!! Hopefully, I've grown up enough so that I can give up the roll of Court Jester/Clown/Fool/Servant.
But yet the question remains:
Even though I can see my Kingdom/How shall I earn my Crown???
Friday, January 4, 2008
Obama 2008
Last night Barack Obama won the Iowa Caucus by almost nine percent. Sounding a resounding note of change through politics in America.
He also did a few other things last night when thanking Iowans for voting him.
During his speech he touched on many possible changes during his administration. The one that stuck out to me was when he said he would "bring our troops home".
Recently, I personally have been waiting to hear those words come out a candidates mouth before FULLY committing my vote, time and effort to they're causes!
That changes today as I throw my non-considerable political weight behind Senator Obama. To listen to this man is to believe that positive change can happen in America. His words and vision seeks to overturn the damage done by this last President, our Countries wars and big business.
And with Oprah backing Barack how can he fail?
With ten months to go until the polls open I've already cast my vote!!!
For me it's Barack Obama in 2008!!!!!!!!
He also did a few other things last night when thanking Iowans for voting him.
During his speech he touched on many possible changes during his administration. The one that stuck out to me was when he said he would "bring our troops home".
Recently, I personally have been waiting to hear those words come out a candidates mouth before FULLY committing my vote, time and effort to they're causes!
That changes today as I throw my non-considerable political weight behind Senator Obama. To listen to this man is to believe that positive change can happen in America. His words and vision seeks to overturn the damage done by this last President, our Countries wars and big business.
And with Oprah backing Barack how can he fail?
With ten months to go until the polls open I've already cast my vote!!!
For me it's Barack Obama in 2008!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Buddhist Thought of the Week
To comprehend and to understand God above all similitudes, as He is in Himself, is to be God with God, without intermediary, and without any otherness that can become a hindrance or an intermediary. Whosoever wishes to understand this must have died to himself, and must live in God, and must turn his gaze to the eternal light in the ground of his spirit, where the Hidden Truth reveals Itself without means. - Ruysbroek
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