On That King James Version of the Bible

Food for thought on a Sunday morning.

Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

Way to go, America

Check out the latest ranking of all the nations of the world and who does--and who doesn't--come in at the top. This is precisely what Republican and Right Wing policies and legislators and government and governments get us.

In a global ranking of 'best countries,' the United States drops to No. 7

The top 6 nations? 

Socialist. 

 All Socialist. 

This is what working together gets them. 

A little from the article.

A new ranking of the world's “best countries” is out — and the results don’t look good for America.

Switzerland takes top nation honors, according to the second annual “Best Countries” ranking from U.S. News & World Report, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and global brand consultants BAV Consulting. Just behind the Swiss are Canada and Britain, second and third, respectively.

The United States ends up in the seventh spot, just edging out Australia but also lagging Germany, Japan and Sweden.

Get that. Our neighbors to the North, the Canadians, are number two in the world. I expect most Americans would no way expect that.

Not only are we ranked in the 7th spot but we dropped 3 spots from the previous list. We are only seen as the “most powerful.” Given the absolutely foolish and fiscally irresponsible amount we spend on military and what we call defense, we ought to be most powerful.

Bet better, America. You're falling behind. And it's not because you're not spending boodles of money. It's just that you're foolishly spending far too much of it on what we consider "defense" and health care.

Link:

US Falls in US News Best Countries Rankings

How Actually Bad This Trump Presidency Is

The again, unprecedented Presidency of this Donald J. Trump. A foreign nation and actually close ally is, right at this moment--has to--debate whether you should even be allowed to visit.

UK Parliament debates Trump visit

Shame on you, America. This is where you are now. This is what he's done to you. This is what he's doing. This is how bad it is just now, all due to this one short-sighted, ugly, ignorant, racist, sexist, misogynist.

Not only is this unprecedented, that a close US ally, actually, easily arguably our closest ally, is, at this moment, debating a state visit by an American President is, by itself, new, negative, breaking ground and territory, of course. That it is also being done in the FIRST 5 WEEKS of this presidency, in his first 100 days when he would normally be, in any other administration, at his most popular is just stunning and again, never before experienced.

A sad, sad day for you, America.

Link:

Thousands expected to attend 'Not My Presidents Day' rallies across the country

Congratulations, Kansas City

Yes sir, congratulations, Kansas City. You hit the news. Heck, you even hit international news. Just for all the wrong reasons. This, from the UK:

Black teen in critical condition after store employee 'shoots him for stealing 79-cent pack of cookies'

A teenager, first. And yes, black. And shot and in critical condition for 79 cents of cookies. And in the middle of the day, no less.

Really?

Kansas City?  America? 

Aren't we better than this?

Can't we be?

Entertainment Overnight -- More from the group

Happy holidays

Bizarre, extremely elaborate military uniforms, sure but those Brits know how to class up the holidays:



Happy holidays to one and all.

The American Empire

America:  The World's Warmonger

The rest of the world sees this shutdown--and the Republicans--for what it is and they are

(click on picture for easier reading)

 

We need to stop the stupidity, at least, if not the insanity.

 

 

Contact your member of Congress: 

 

Contacting the Congress: A Citizen's Congressional Directory

 

Please.

 

 

Quote of the day--on America

“Your republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the 20th century as the Roman Empire in the 5th century; with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals that ravaged the Roman Empire came from without, and that your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered within your own country, by your own institutions.”

--Thomas Macaulay, British Historian, 1857

Work to end campaign contributions.

Let's get our country back.  Back for us. Back for the people.

Link: What Are You Doing to Change the System?

Breaking news

With thanks to friend, Bob.

On tonight's "Downton Abbey"

On tonight's PBS series of it's very popular "Downton Abbey", the story unfolds.

These extremely wealthy people, this extremely wealthy family, which has lived for decades in a mansion and extravagant luxury, supported by their extremely hard working, 24 hour staff, is fighting to keep said mansion and all the staff.  And all that luxury.

I can totally relate.

Link:   Downton Abbey

ERMAGERD!! Pope blasphemes Capitalism!

Finally, finally, he takes an intelligent stand on a current day issue:

BBC News - Pope's new year address deplores rampant capitalism

While I applaud this stance of his, certainly, it kills me he doesn't see his own, gaping hypocrisy.

 

And then there's the whole problem with this it creates for most Americans but that's another issue.

 

 

Quote of the day

"The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future."

--President John F. Kennedy

Go here, REALLY do something to help cancer victims and research

Instead of posting some inane note on Facebook or Twitter or some such, however heartfelt or well-intended, you can actually go to a British research organization's website and help do some research for them and for cancer victims across the world. I saw it in the Star today but, as usual, couldn't find it on their online website. (I swear, the Kansas City Star has the worst internal search engine quite possibly in the world):

Charity creates world's first citizen science project to speed up cancer research

Cancer Research UK Press Release

TeenagersCancer Research UK has launched the first ever interactive website - http://www.clicktocure.net - that will allow the public to delve into real-life cancer data from research archives and speed up lifesaving research, outside of the laboratory.

At the moment, cancer samples are given special stains that highlight certain molecules as part of research. These molecules could reveal how a patient will respond to treatment. But this process is slow and analysis is mostly done by trained pathologists, who are often also cancer researchers.

The new website – Cell SliderTM – is the first time real cancer data has been turned into a format that can be analysed by the public. By getting as many people as possible to take part, more samples will be analysed faster and more effectively, freeing up scientists to carry out other cancer research.



More from the article:

Cell SliderTM presents real images of tumour samples to the world for analysis in the form of a simple game of snap. Users will be guided through a tutorial that explains which cells to analyse and which ones to ignore.

Once cancer cells have been spotted by their irregular shape, users will be asked to record how many have been stained yellow and how bright that yellow is by simply clicking on another image that closely matches the sample they are viewing.

This information will be fed back to researchers who will look for trends between types of cells and a patient’s response to treatment.

So go to the website and help cancer research. Then, go again and again, as many times as you can, whenever you can to really help in the fight against cancer.

Link to full press release: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/news/archive/pressrelease/2012-10-23-worlds-first-citizen-science?view=rss

Our own government sprayed St. Louis with radioactive particles--and for years

Wow.

Is it any wonder people don't think our government is or can be against us? I just saw this article online:

Revealed: Army scientists secretly sprayed St Louis with 'radioactive' particles for YEARS to test chemical warfare technology

The United States Military conducted top secret experiments on the citizens of St. Louis, Missouri, for years, exposing them to radioactive compounds, a researcher has claimed.

While it was known that the government sprayed 'harmless' zinc cadmium silfide particles over the general population in St Louis, Professor Lisa Martino-Taylor, a sociologist at St. Louis Community College, claims that a radioactive additive was also mixed with the compound.

She has accrued detailed descriptions as well as photographs of the spraying which exposed the unwitting public, predominantly in low-income and minority communities, to radioactive particles.

It's bad enough the government did it, period, but then to also do it to "low-income and minority communities"?

What the hell are we supposed to think about our own government?

And who's to say what causes cancer in the US?

This is just stunning and extremely disappointing to me. Not completely surprising but still a bit of a shock.

So what are they doing to us now? Nothing? Hopefully? And are we supposed to believe that?

Is it any wonder people think the contrails of jet planes are poisoning us, even now? I just hope the ones who believe that are mistaken.

And then, to add yet more indignation to this whole mess, look where it's coming from. The story here is reported from the UK, not a media source here in the States. That's not to say some national or local news source didn't report it but this is the first I've seen of it.

Check out just this one bit of information from the article:

"...the greatest concentration of spraying in St Louis was at the Pruit-Igoe public housing complex, which was home to 10,000 low income residents. She said that 70 per cent of those residents were children under the age of 12."

How disgusting, how revolting is that?

With a bit of further digging, I found the military and government did this over not just St. Louis, either, but over Corpus Christi, Texas, too. (See 2nd link, below).

What are we to think or trust of our government?

Links to original article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210415/Revealed-Army-scientists-secretly-sprayed-St-Louis-radioactive-particles-YEARS-test-chemical-warfare-technology.html

http://rt.com/usa/news/us-radioactive-louis-martino-taylor-443/

Some video from the original article, above:

Open letter to Princess Kate

Dear Princess Kate,

Excuse me.

You're a freaking Princess of the British Royal family.

Hello?

That and you're young and beautiful and wealthy and, don't forget, have a beautiful body, let's not forget or ignore.

Do you not know that virtually ANY man wants to see your breasts, sadly, but that because you're young and beautiful and rich and yes, finally, that you're BRITISH ROYALTY, everyone wants to see you naked, if possible?

Sure, it's stupid but come on, the human being is far too puerile and there are a great deal of voyeurs out there in the world, down through history.

So if you go topless on a yacht and it's remotely close to a public space, do you not think some idiot of some kind is going to take a zoom lens and try to get a picture--or some pictures--of you? They'll try to do that, period, just for the heck of it but here's the topper--it also pays a great deal, too, to those low-class, scummy rag tabloids.

What part of any of this do you not get?

And while we're at it, please ask the rest of the Royal Family the same thing, would you, please?

Oh, and if you and the Royals want a rather "moral leg to stand on", so to speak, maybe you and the family should stop taking national, public money from the nation since you're, oh, I don't know, ONE OF THE WEALTHIEST FAMILIES ON THE PLANET? If you don't want people taking pictures of you in your private time, stop taking this public money. I know then, if you and they did, then I know I'd back your claim of a right to privacy. Until that time, however, I think the citizens of England rather own you, since they already buy and pay for you. This money could go to help the lower- and middle-classes of your country, instead.

So now the Royal family files suit against the tabloids. Wow. Apparently they have no better use of their time and money but to file suit against tabloids across Europe that are doing exactly what they've always done, as though it's a surprise somehow.

Y'all can do better than this. Go help some people instead.

Most sincerely,

Kevin Evans
Kansas City, Missouri

Links: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/09/14/royal-family-considers-legal-action-after-magazine-publishes-topless-pictures/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/15/us-britain-royals-kate-italy-idUSBRE88E0AU20120915

Best Bond ever?

This series, with Daniel Craig and Dame Judy Dench sure gets my vote.



Unequivocally, the best Bond ever.

The best.

And I'm not a big fan or follower of the Bond series.

Advice to the less-well off, from one of the richest

Here's chutzpah for you, from the news last week. Maybe you saw it already:

World’s Richest Woman Says Poor Should Have Less Fun, Work Harder

Advice by the world’s wealthiest woman, Gina Rinehart, on how to become a millionaire has been slammed by an Australian MP, Bob Katter, who says she "left out the bit about daddy being a major cattle station owner”.

Mr Katter, an outspoken independent MP from north Queensland, joined a chorus of criticism across the country of Ms Rinehart’s claim that people jealous of the wealthy should "spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising”.
“[She] left out the bit about daddy being a major cattle station owner and the biggest mining magnate in Australia", Mr Katter said. “That "helps as well. She says here that the minimum average wage of $600 a week should be cut. This is coming from the world's richest woman.”

Mrs Rinehart, a mining heiress who capitalised on surging commodity prices and growing demand from China and India to build an iron ore empire worth an estimated £19 billion, wrote in her regular column in a resources magazine that Australia has lost its hard-working roots.

Reminds me of the old song:



Links: http://www.infowars.com/worlds-richest-woman-says-poor-should-have-less-fun-work-harder/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/9511505/Gina-Rinehart-criticised-for-jealous-poor-remarks.html

Quote of the day

“Terrorism is the war of the poor and war is the terrorism of the rich”.

--Sir Peter Ustinov, English actor, writer and dramatist, filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ustinov

On humankind

We're great at spectacle, we humans.

Aren't we?

We'll spend thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on big, beautiful, dazzling, even decadent ceremonies and celebrations.

We aren't worth a damn at clothing, feeding, housing or seeing to the health of the poor, though, are we?

Tragic.

Damn shame.

It would be nice if we cared.