Baghdad Burning: "Difficult Days...
They've been bombing houses in Tikrit and other areas! Unbelievable� I'm so angry it makes me want to break something!!!! What the hell is going on?! What do the Americans think Tikrit is?! Some sort of city of monsters or beasts? The people there are simple people. Most of them make a living off of their land and their livestock- the rest are teachers, professors and merchants- they have lives and families� Tikrit is nothing more than a bunch of low buildings and a palace that was as inaccessible to the Tikritis as it was to everyone else! "

World Toilet Organization - World Toilet Support Centre (WTSC): "World Toilet Support Centre (WTSC)

The support centre assists toilet Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) around
the world "

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "The two-year-old World Toilet Organisation (www.worldtoilet.org), which aims to raise global awareness of toilet and sanitation standards, marked its annual World Toilet Day on Wednesday with a call for people to speak out against poorly designed or filthy latrines."

The Miami Herald | 11/16/2003 | Manatees remain threatened: "But listen to this: ``The reality is the manatees are flourishing. They're doing great.''
This sunny and surprising announcement comes from a fellow named John Rood, quoted in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. Rood is not a biologist; he's a developer and broker of apartment buildings in Jacksonville.
And his definition of ''flourishing'' is somewhat peculiar. Last year, 95 manatees in Florida were killed by watercraft -- the most ever, and the toll is rising proportionally faster than the mammals' population."

Reason: Defending Tolerance: Values, liberty, and democracy: "Why, then, should the state deny itself the power to drain bogs and fence off precipices so as to save the unwise and unwary from themselves?
Here is one answer: People have different concepts of the good life, and any attempt to impose one favored view will be contentious. Contention leads to war, and war is the antithesis of civil peace. So better to leave people to their own ways, wayward though they be.
Here is another response: We are fallible beings who do not always judge correctly concerning matters of right and wrong. Therefore we do well to let people go their own ways rather than take the risk of imposing on them what might be mistaken moral concepts."

Reason: Defending Tolerance: Values, liberty, and democracy: "Why, then, should the state deny itself the power to drain bogs and fence off precipices so as to save the unwise and unwary from themselves?
Here is one answer: People have different concepts of the good life, and any attempt to impose one favored view will be contentious. Contention leads to war, and war is the antithesis of civil peace. So better to leave people to their own ways, wayward though they be.
Here is another response: We are fallible beings who do not always judge correctly concerning matters of right and wrong. Therefore we do well to let people go their own ways rather than take the risk of imposing on them what might be mistaken moral concepts."

A Shortage of Energy: "resident Bush seems to have been the recipient of poor intelligence again. Last weekend, he claimed that the energy bill approved by Republican leaders would make the country 'more secure.' Senator John McCain's description of the bill as a 'leave no lobbyist behind' barrel of pork for selected industries and campaign contributors was closer to the truth. So was Senator Robert Byrd's unsparing judgment that the bill would 'do about as much to improve the nation's energy security as the administration's invasion of Iraq has done to stem the tide of global terrorism.'"

Forums - The Real US Jobs Numbers: "This slump saw the longest duration of job loss?28 months.
This slump is the first time in which there was not a full recovery of jobs 31 months after the recession began.
This slump is the worst in terms of the rise of the unemployment rate (after adjustment for the 'missing' labor force) 31 months after the recession began?up 3.2 percentage points.
The current slump has also been the most severe in terms of the loss of aggregate real wage and salary income 30 months after the recession began?down 1.2 percent. "

Op-Ed Contributor: Regulation Begins at Home: "With two decisions in the last two weeks, the Bush administration has sent its clearest message yet that it values corporate interests over the interests of average Americans. In the Securities and Exchange Commission's settlement with Putnam Investments, the public comes away short-changed. In the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to forgo enforcement of the Clean Air Act, the public comes away completely empty-handed."

High Risks in Afghanistan: "A revived Taliban army, flush with new recruits from Pakistan, is staging a frightening comeback. Major cities remain in the hands of the corrupt and brutal warlords. Much of the countryside is too dangerous for aid workers. The postwar pro-American government led by Hamid Karzai rules Kabul and little else. Opium poppies are once again a major export crop. And Osama bin Laden remains at large.
This alarming state of affairs is not mainly the result of hidden conspiracies or bad luck. It flows from a succession of bad American policy decisions. These began with the Bush administration's reluctance to commit enough American troops to Afghanistan. Then it prematurely declared victory in its rush to a war of choice with Iraq."

ibiblio - It's North Carolina month!: "When we consider the Latitude and convenient Situation of Carolina, had we no farther Confirmation thereof, our Reason would inform us, that such a Place lay fairly to be a delicious Country, being placed in that Girdle of the World which affords Wine, Oil, Fruit, Grain, and Silk, with other rich Commodities, besides a sweet Air, moderate Climate, and fertile Soil; these are the Blessings (under Heaven's Protection) that spin out the Thread of Life to its utmost Extent, and crown our Days with the Sweets of Health and Plenty, which, when join'd with Content, renders the Possessors the happiest Race of Men upon Earth.

John Lawson, 1714 "

TheStar.com - Sometimes `quiet diplomacy' just isn't effective: "But even democratic governments that claim to honour the rule of law and international conventions on prisoners' rights can ignore them when it serves their purposes. The Bush administration demonstrated that following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, blatantly violating the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war by holding prisoners in total isolation under primitive conditions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, despite an international outcry.
Among those imprisoned was 16-year-old Canadian-born Omar Khadr. Despite a longstanding consular agreement between the U.S. and Canada guaranteeing access to detained Canadian citizens, the Bush administration flatly refused to grant Canadian representatives access to the young prisoner. "

Sea Shepherd: "President Bush Declares War on the Whales and Dolphins.
Only weeks after new scientific studies revealed that U.S. Navy sonar testing is lethal to whales, the Bush administration won approval on November 7 to authorize the use of military sonar whenever and wherever Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfied wishes to deploy it.
The Bill moves to the Senate next week and it is expected to pass.
'Whales and dolphins are now to be sacrificed to George Bush's ridiculous strategies to combat terrorism.' Said Captain Paul Watson. 'The President says that the security of the United States from terrorism justifies these extreme measures but I can't think of one terrorist organization deploying nuclear submarines and that is the only thing that justifies low frequency sonar detection. This is simply another pork barrel windfall for the defense industry.'
Earlier this year Navy sonar testing near the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the Pacific Northwest stressed Orca populations and killed several harbor porpoises."

TalkLeft: Bush Seeks to Expand Patriot Act Powers: "'They that can give up essential liberty for a little safety deservue neither liberty nor safety' -Benjamin Franklin
'The chain reaction of evil-hate begetting hate, wars producing wars-must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.' -Martin Luther King Jr."

Op-Ed Columnist: This Can’t Go On: "Stein's Law, a principle enunciated by the late Herbert Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Nixon administration. The law comes with various wordings; my favorite is: 'Things that can't go on forever, don't.' Believe it or not, that's a useful reminder."

CFBCI - Faith-Based Organization Booklet: "U.S. Department of Labor
Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives"
Your tax dollars at work....