THREE THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

THREE THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

1. COWS
2 THE CONSTITUTION
3. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

ON COWS:
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that our government
can track a cow born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the
stall where she sleeps in the state of Washington ? And, they tracked
her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million
illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give them
all a cow.

ON THE CONSTITUTION:
They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq , why don't we
just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it's
worked for over 200 years and we're not using it anymore.

ON THE TEN COMMANDMENTS:
The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments in a
courthouse..

...... You cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt
Not Commit Adultery", and "Thou! Shall Not Lie" in a building full of
lawyers, judges and politicians -- it creates a hostile work
environment.

May each day find you safe,healthy and your Heart content.

Are GM Crops Killing Bees

Oh and poison everything else too, not just the children!!!
I bet Monsanto has a patent on a GM Bee to sell after all the real ones are gone!

Are GM Crops Killing Bees: "Albert Einstein quote: 'If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.'

Mysterious events in recent months have suddenly made Einstein's apocalyptic vision seem all the more topical. For unknown reasons, bee populations throughout Germany are disappearing - something that is so far only harming beekeepers. But the situation is different in the United States, where bees are dying in such dramatic numbers that the economic consequences could soon be dire. No one knows what is causing the bees to perish, but some experts believe that the large-scale use of genetically modified plants in the US could be a factor.

Felix Kriechbaum, an official with a regional beekeepers' association in Bavaria, recently reported a decline of almost 12 percent in local bee populations. When 'bee populations disappear without a trace,' says Kriechbaum, it is difficult to investigate the causes, because 'most bees don't die in the beehive.' There are many diseases that can cause bees to lose their sense of orientation so they can no longer find their way back to their hives.

Manfred Hederer, the president of the German Beekeepers Association, almost simultaneously reported a 25 percent drop in bee populations throughout Germany. In isolated cases, says Hederer, declines of up to 80 percent have been reported. He speculates that "a particular toxin, some agent with which we are not familiar," is killing the bees.

Politicians, until now, have shown little concern for such warnings or the woes of beekeepers. Although apiarists have been given a chance to make their case - for example in the run-up to the German cabinet's approval of a genetic engineering policy document by Minister of Agriculture Horst Seehofer in February - their complaints are still largely ignored.

Even when beekeepers actually go to court, as they recently did in a joint effort with the German chapter of the organic farming organization Demeter International and other groups to oppose the use of genetically modified corn plants, they can only dream of the sort of media attention environmental organizations like Greenpeace attract with their protests at test sites.

But that could soon change. Since last November, the US has seen a decline in bee populations so dramatic that it eclipses all previous incidences of mass mortality. Beekeepers on the east coast of the United States complain that they have lost more than 70 percent of their stock since late last year, while the west coast has seen a decline of up to 60 percent. "

On plastic and kids

Yes pollute all our kids from birth so then you can sell us Ritalin and other crap later on .... use one poison to require the next and the next ... great at creating lots of profit!!! I know you want every living soul addicted to some drugs that pay you $100/month for their entire life!!!! The American Profit Machine at work

On plastic and kids | By Umbra Fisk | Grist | Ask Umbra | 02 Apr 2007: "Plastic is a lightweight, reusable material that gained dominance in the kids' consumer-goods market due to its low cost and durability. Today's plastics are manufactured using chemical compounds found in petroleum and natural gas, with other chemicals added to achieve desired properties such as flexibility, color, and solidity. Although plastics are undeniably handy and here to stay as part of modern life, they do have environmental drawbacks. Immediate threats to human health from plastic food containers include phthalate softeners and the resin bisphenol A. Dioxins, which result from the manufacture and disposal of polyvinyl plastic, have been identified as a major long-term threat to the environment and mammal health. Children, as you say, are small and grow rapidly, chewing everything in sight for part of their life, and are hence at a higher risk from plastic food containers than we ginormous adults.

Both phthalates and bisphenol A are considered hormone disruptors. Bisphenol A may be acting as an estrogen substitute within our bodies and those of our children, causing abnormal development of various organs including the brain and reproductive system. Bisphenol A has been in the news recently as regards baby bottles because of a study released by Environment California that found BPA in the five most popular polycarbonate baby bottles. (Reading that report is probably the best way to absorb all the various impacts potentially attributed to bisphenol A in plastics.) Then the National Institutes of Health picked the whole thing up to examine what's happening, and that seems to be ongoing. Phthalates I've discussed before on numerous occasions; they are also chemicals that are added to and leach out of plastics and can then perhaps disrupt our reproductive systems. Bad, the whole thing is bad."

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Time for True Market Reform

Leaving the Gready American Machine .. in the dust!!!!

"China has long rejected the Washington Consensus model and modified it to create its path of a social market economy where markets are seen as 'good servants but bad masters.' Europeans favor the mixed social market economy and now most Latin American countries are rejecting the US formulas in favor of the Chinese and European models. In earlier years, the economies of Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore grew on the Asian model of markets steered and regulated by governments.

Socially–responsible pension fund trustees and mutual fund managers launched the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investing representing over $6 trillion in assets. The Carbon Disclosure Project, representing $31 trillion held by global asset managers demands disclosure of carbon emissions. These financiers are giving new meaning to market reform. (see www.ethicalmarkets.com). They demand that companies in their portfolios also focus on making markets more ethical. They employ the new accounting protocols of the "Triple Bottom Line" that go beyond the traditional single bottom line of profit and also improve their governance, social and environmental performance. This is not surprising since today, bad behavior entails new kinds of risk to companies' stock prices: social, environmental and reputational risk, measured by financial services firms such as Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, Truecost and others.

The Information Age has also morphed in to a new Age of Truth, where a company's reputation, precious brands and stock can be broken in real time by negative postings by global watchdog groups such as Corpwatch.org and Global Exchange. Individual investors, making common cause with labor unions, environmentalists and social justice groups have fueled this new definition of market reform, representing $2.3 trillion in assets in the USA alone. Even the Nobel Committee gave its Peace Prize to Mohammad Yunus, banker to the poor.
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Market reform is coming to mean reforming markets and capitalism itself. Would Adam Smith be surprised? Probably not, since he lauded the dynamism of capitalism. Schumpeter later saw the evolution of markets as "creative destruction," as seen today in the new "disruptive" technologies of cleaner, greener energy and resource-use now challenging coal, oil, and nuclear power. The new values and ethical concerns driving the further evolution of capitalism reflect the new imperatives of the 21st century on our small, endangered planet. Smith's famous "invisible hand" turned out to be our own…not some metaphysical force. Guided by our growing human awareness of what we have wrought on this planet and our potential for further development, all our long-term self-interests are now indivisible . Ethics and morality are becoming the new pragmatism.

HAZEL HENDERSON, futurist,syndicated columnist,author of many books including Ethical Markets: Growing The Green Economy (2007), also co-created the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators, updated."

Bill Moyers What Free Government

Who knows the History, real History? Morality of what? National Security Act of 1947. Arms sales for oil. What's new? What happened to Senator Frank Church??

Snakes in Suits

In a study of high-performing businesspeople, as many as one of every 30 was found to be a psychopath, a rate several times higher than that of the general population. A psychopath has no conscience and no ability to develop one. We think of psychopaths as serial killers, but in reality, many psychopaths just want money or power. They think nothing of ruining someone else's career if it helps them get ahead.

Example: Frank had a wonderful relationship with his company's CEO until Dave, a recently hired psychopath in his department, started telling the CEO that Frank was criticizing the CEO's leadership behind his back. The CEO believed Dave's lies, fired Frank and gave Dave his job.

IDENTIFYING A PSYCHOPATH

When we first meet psychopaths, we might sense that something isn't quite right, even if they seem friendly. This vague sense of unease could be the primitive part of our brain warning us that we're in the presence of a predator. If at some level you feel there is something wrong with a new coworker, keep an eye out for lies and more subtle deceptions. Psychopaths will...

Find reasons to blame other people whenever anything goes wrong.

Take credit for others' work.

Spread damaging rumors, and try to break down existing friendships.

Quickly deduce coworkers' weaknesses and exploit them.

Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Paul Babiak, PhD, industrial and organizational psychologist and president of HRBackOffice, an executive coaching and consulting firm, Dutchess County, New York. He is coauthor, with Robert D. Hare, PhD, of Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work (ReganBooks).

Fwd: What Happy People Know That You Don't

What Happy People Know That You Don't
I once worked with a woman who vacuumed her house every single morning -- before she left for work. Now I knew this about my colleague only because her young daughter dropped it one day in casual conversation... her attitude being one of "Doesn't everybody?" Well, no, everybody doesn't... but neither does it matter. Still, my colleague considered her cleaning addiction crazy enough that she kept it her little secret. The truth is, every one of us has crazy behaviors and beliefs.

These are what one character in the movie "The Family Stone" referred to as a freak flag. And how much easier it would be, the movie implies, if we all carried around "freak flags" that announced our personal craziness for the world to see.

WHAT IS YOUR FREAK FLAG?
Life coach Lauren Zander of the Handel Group (www.handelgrouppc.com) agrees completely with the concept of flying personal freak flags. Being upfront about our crazy quirks is not only truthful, she says, it also acknowledges that everyone has a variety of them. They belong to and brand us and are the interesting things we do that make us human. She notes that a giant realm of personal craziness includes the category of food and eating -- from chowing down behind closed doors to never co-mingling foods on a plate.

Sexuality is another big area of personal quirks and preferences. Although universal, most people feel too weird about their sexual attitudes and ideas to speak honestly about them. Professional athletes have their crazy secret beliefs about what will help them win a tournament. Children have rituals, objects or imaginary friends they use to help them feel safe. Grown-ups have a wide variety of behaviors or harmless biases they cling to for a bevy of reasons. Example: Ask pack rats why they insist on keeping all that "stuff" with no obvious worth or value.

THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN

As human beings, we are all in the same interesting and weird boat, Lauren observes, trying to grow up and deal with our small vices -- but at the same time wanting to be "normal" and look good to others. Let it go, she says. Claim the joy to be found in admitting to your quirks. Fessing up to the crazy quirks is funny and freeing and endows people with a new sense of control about their behavior.
Accepting your own quirks also provides an opportunity for a whole new understanding of the quirks and freakiness of your spouse, kids, parents and friends. A huge percentage of marital squabbles involve one spouse's intolerance of the other spouse's quirks -- remember the classic toothpaste tube argument? Everyone around you has his/her own set of quirks that you can either learn to love as part of who that person is... or you can let them drive you crazy. I have a friend who never sends thank you notes -- not even for her wedding or baby gifts. I know that she is a loving and generous and devoted friend. So, I accept that she is not wired to send thank you notes. Some people might sever a relationship over not being thanked and sacrifice all the great things that are part of that lifelong relationship.

FINDING YOUR OWN

It is possible that crazy quirks are so well hidden they are hard even for the individual to find. To find yours, Lauren advises looking first for any behavior or attitude you don't want other people to know about. That is certain to be a freak flag candidate. Another place to look: At your grievances and annoyances about other people. If certain things about others really bug you, chances are strong that there is a little personal freak flag in there. As an example, Lauren notes that arrogance in others makes some people furious, but probably they carry around arrogance themselves, just better disguised. Because people are not generally bothered by behaviors that don't exist somewhere in themselves, being upset is a big signal to go looking at that.

Identifying it and accepting that bit of freakiness will loosen the steam you have built about your grievance and annoyance about others, Lauren says.

It may feel scary to fly a freak flag at first, but be brave. It won't take long to start experiencing the rewards. By admitting to your own craziness you bring a fresh openness in your dialog with others. By acknowledging, for example, that my husband is right in telling me that I sometimes forget things if I don't write them down allows us to have fun with my "forgetful-ism" and also creates a structure in our relationship that supports my need to write things down. It's now a big family loving joke about the notes I leave for myself for fear of forgetting.

Being honest about yourself, stripped of spinning and lying, gives people around you permission to put up their flags as well. Flying the flags breaks down the boundaries between you and the barriers to real human nature -- at last, everyone starts to be who they really are.


What Happy People Know That You Don't
* Meredith Haberfeld, co-founder and CEO, and Lauren Zander, principal, Handel Group Private Coaching (www.handelgrouppc.com).