The Nightowl Newswrap

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 03 May 2012 01:00:00 AM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

By BG & YD

Gun laws are not the most evil legislation crafted by @ALEC. Wait 'til you get a load of their environment-raping laws that allow big oil and big coal free rein to do as they please, consequence-free.

Affordable Photo Voltaic cells are important, but unfortunately that is just one piece of the puzzle. Solar (and wind) will not be able to go much farther until we develop better storage capacity. The issue is politicized and bold, wince-worthy proclamations get made by people -- on both sides -- who haven't performed a single calculation and don't understand the math involved anyway, they're just parroting what they've been told that conforms to their own biases. Here's the bottom line...what matters is the science, and the science eventually reveals the truth, and the truth is the truth whether you believe it or not. Let's use that as our starting point, what do you say?

There needs to be consequences for this. The Inspector General for the National Labor Relations Board has uncovered evidence that a republican member of the body has leaked confidential information to a former NLRB member and helped edit op-eds on NLRB issues by the former member he passed information too without disclosing to the NLRB his activities.

Newt calls off his campaign, but the book tour continues apace. Basically, only one thing changed...the Secret Service guys went home.

"Bobby Thompson" arrested. The scam artist who first stole valor then stole money under the banner of a phony charity he set up to collect donations for Navy veterans -- then funneled the money to republican candidates -- is in custody of the US Marshalls Service.

The future Governor of Florida is undoubtedly one of the 107 individuals who have been charged with Medicare fraud for submitting a half-trillion dollars in phony charges for services that were never rendered.

We can't say we're the least bit shocked by this. JT Ready is was one of those infamous folks, known to immigration advocates and those who keep tabs on hate groups and follow the SPLC. He fancied himself a soldier in a war for white supremacy. Today, he committed an attrocity. He killed four others, including a toddler, before taking his own life in a bloody rampage in a suburban home near Phoenix. Our condolences to the families of his victims, but we would be lying if we denied that we said a silent "good" when we saw that he had killed himself, before we knew about the victims.

"Butter will make us fat. Guns will make us strong." Where have we heard that before? That's what cutting programs that feed the poor while preserving outrageous defense spending amounts to.

Seriously, stop the freakin' revolving door. "Michael Bromwich, the former Interior Department official who helped boost offshore drilling safety regulations in the aftermath of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, has joined Boston-based law firm Goodwin Procter. ... Bromwich will serve as a partner in the firm's Litigation Department, which is based in Washington and New York City. He will focus on corporate criminal investigations, among other things, according to a statement issued by the law firm Wednesday. ... "Mike will add even more strength to our active national and international investigations practice and also provide clients with unparalleled experience and expertise in the energy sector," Mark Tully, partner and chairman of Goodwin's Litigation Department, said in a statement."

C'mon, Madame Secretary: You can do better than this. "The blind Chinese dissident who fled house arrest and placed himself under the wing of US diplomats has balked at a deal worked out between the two countries to let him live in China, saying he now fears for his familys safety unless they are all spirited abroad. After six days holed up in the US embassy, as senior officials in Beijing and Washington tussled over his fate, Chen Guangcheng left the compound's protective confines on Wednesday for a nearby hospital for treatment of a leg injury suffered in his escape."

No. Not the military. You are not Syria, not yet. "Clashes have erupted between assailants and supporters of Egypt's Islamist political parties who had gathered near the defence ministry in Cairo, leaving 11 people dead and nearly 50 wounded, security and hospital officials said .... In response to the clashes, military and riot vehicles were deployed to the area later on Wednesday to quell the violence."

There is a point at which the amount of money paid for a work of art does not compliment that work, but rather diminishes it. "The only privately owned version of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" - one of the most recognisable images in history - set a world record when it sold for $119.9 million at Sotheby's in New York, far exceeding pre-sales estimates of about $80 million."

And finally...

Too many have already been lost. "Can the internet save a language? For the Ktunaxa nation, an indigenous people inhabiting parts of north-western America, the answer may just be 'yes'. The Ktunaxa language is related to no other on earth and only a handful of people speak it fluently. Most of them are members of the oldest generation, something that has spurred a race against time for a community that must record and preserve as much of the language spoken today as possible. In a few years, it might already be too late. The challenge is not only to record endless hours of material but how to make it available to those wishing to learn the language. Here is where the internet comes in to play. Dedicated young community members, such as Marisa Philips, are working hard to publish recordings, interactive games for children and written language material online. "We're just going to be losing a lot of who we are as the Ktunaxa nation, the Ktunaxa people, once those elders have passed on," Philips says. "Since the younger generation is so well adapted to using technology, it only makes sense to me." With the help of a high speed fibre network owned by the community, the material is accessible to everyone - wherever they are. There are even college level online courses available for those wishing to learn the language as adults. Perhaps the 2,000 people-strong Ktunaxa nation will succeed in reversing the process that has silenced many languages in north-western America, an especially distressing hot spot of language extinction. Don Maki, the Ktunaxa nation council director, says: "We're trying to think ahead, we're trying to be very progressive and think of all the possible things that we need to do now for the future." "