Tag Archives: united-states

Chasing Frankenstein Above the Arctic Circle

Paul D. Miller on Chermsideouya Island. Image courtesy of Cape Farewell. This guest post was written by Paul D. Miller, also known as DJ Spooky, as part of the Cape Farewell project . “Nowadays everyone knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing.” – Oscar Wild Today I write to you from the Noorderlicht after we’ve left a deeply barren island that’s pretty much the most northern part of our journey. The island reminded me of a scene from the 1817 novel

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Chasing Frankenstein Above the Arctic Circle

That’s Not Amore: Italian Critics Trash Eat Pray Love

Film critics in Italy have taken a much harder line toward the globetrotting sumptuousness of Eat Pray Love than their American counterparts did, dismissing the film as Hollywood ethno-porn of the worst kind. “It rains spaghetti, the Italians are always gesticulating and following foreign girls shouting vulgarities but then getting engaged to a nice housewife to please their domineering mothers, all this under the sign of ‘dolce far niente’,” Curzio Maltese wrote in La Repubblica , echoed later by the Torino daily La Stampa : “That’s the way they like us in the United States, dark, boisterous, uninhibited; we’ve always known that, but this time the effect is beyond the limits.” Nobody tell them about Jersey Shore , cool? [ NYT ]

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That’s Not Amore: Italian Critics Trash Eat Pray Love

Retailers Launch First National Non-GMO Month

This October, more than 580 natural food stores nationwide will take part in the first ever Non‐GMO Month, celebrating consumers' right to choose food and products that do not contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Organized by the non‐profit Non‐GMO Project, the event coincides with the launch of the “Non‐GMO Project Verified” seal on retail products. The process of genetic modification, which takes place in a laboratory, typically merges DNA from different species, creating combinations of plant, animal, bacteria and viral genes that cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding. Virtually all commercial GMOs are bred to withstand direct application of herbicide and/or to produce an insecticide. None of the GMO traits currently on the market offer increase yield, drought tolerance, enhanced nutrition, or any other consumer benefit. Studies, meanwhile, increasingly show a correlation between consumption of GMOs and an array of health risks. With U.S. consumer confidence shaken by ongoing food safety failures, distrust of GMOs is growing. As a result, more and more consumers are seeking non‐GMO choices, and Nielson reported in February of this year that “GMO‐free” is now the fastest growing store brand label claim. The Grocery Manufacturers Association estimates that GMOs currently are in approximately 80% of conventional processed foods in the United States, but they are not labeled. This is in sharp contrast to most other developed nations around the world, where there are significant restrictions or outright bans on GMOs because they're not considered proven safe. To fill the information gap, a “Non‐GMO Project Verified” seal has been created. Manufacturers earn the seal through compliance with rigorous GMO avoidance standards, including ingredient testing, as part of the nation's first third party non‐GMO verification program. Nearly 900 products have been verified to date, with thousands more in the process of becoming verified and new products joining the program every day. Non‐GMO Month celebrations will draw consumer attention to Non‐ GMO Project products, as well as educate them about the GMO issue. “The Non‐GMO Project stays true to our mission to offer food in its most natural and unadulterated state, ” said Michael Besancon, Whole Foods Market senior global vice president of purchasing, distribution and marketing. “We're committed to offering non‐GMO food and products and to educating consumers so they can make informed choices.” Whole Foods Market stores nationwide will be participating in Non‐GMO Month, and Whole Foods also in the process of having its entire 365 private label brand verified to the Non‐GMO Project Standard. Close to 300 independent retailers and co‐ops also are participating in Non‐GMO Month. “Retailers started the Non‐GMO Project because of consumer concern and requests for non‐GMO foods,” said Corinne Shindelar, CEO of the Independent Natural Food Retailers Association (INFRA). “We have a responsibility to consumers to ensure the integrity of our food system, and among shoppers who value safe, healthy food, there is a strong desire to avoid GMOs. Non‐GMO Month is a fantastic opportunity to give people the information and non‐GMO choices they are looking for.” added by: JanforGore

Harry Reids Dream Act – Cap and Gown Amnesty for Votes

The so-called DREAM Act would create an official path to Democratic voter registration for an estimated two million college-age illegal aliens. Look past the public relations-savvy stories of “undocumented” valedictorians left out in the cold. This is not about protecting “children.” It's about preserving electoral power through cap-and-gown amnesty. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced this week that he's attaching the DREAM Act to the defense authorization bill. With ethnic activists breathing down his neck and President Obama pushing to fulfill his campaign promise to Hispanics, Reid wants his queasy colleagues to vote on the legislation next week. Open-borders lawmakers have tried and failed to pass the DREAM Act through regular channels for the past decade. That's because informed voters know giving green cards to illegal alien students undermines the rule of law, creates more illegal immigration incentives and grants preferential treatment to illegal alien students over law-abiding native and naturalized American students struggling to get an education in tough economic times. This bad idea is compounded by a companion proposal to recruit more illegal aliens into the military with the lure of citizenship (a fraud-ridden and reckless practice countenanced under the Bush administration). DREAM Act lobbyists are spotlighting heart-wrenching stories of high-achieving teens brought to this country when they were toddlers. But instead of arguing for case-by-case dispensations, the protesters want blanket pardons. The broadly drafted Senate bill would confer benefits on applicants up to age 35, and the House bill contains no age ceiling at all. The academic achievement requirements are minimal. Moreover, illegal aliens who didn't arrive in the country until they turned 15 — after they laid down significant roots in their home country — would be eligible for DREAM Act benefits and eventual U.S. citizenship. And like past amnesty packages, the Democratic plan is devoid of any concrete eligibility and enforcement mechanisms to deter already-rampant immigration benefit fraud. The DREAM Act sponsors have long fought to sabotage a clearly worded provision in the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) that states: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State (or a political subdivision) for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit (in no less an amount, duration, and scope) without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.” Ten states defied that federal law and offered DREAM Act-style tuition preference to illegal aliens: California, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Washington. The last time DREAM Act champions tried to tack their scheme onto a larger immigration proposal, they snuck in language that would absolve those 10 states of their law-breaking by repealing the 1996 law retroactively — and also offering the special path to green cards and citizenship for illegal alien students. Despite the obvious electoral advantage this plan would give Democrats, several pro-illegal alien amnesty Republicans crossed the aisle to support the DREAM Act, including double-talking Sens. John McCain, Richard Lugar, Bob Bennett, Sam Brownback, Norm Coleman, Susan Collins, Larry Craig, Chuck Hagel, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Mel Martinez and Olympia Snowe, as well as presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (who champions even greater illegal alien student benefits than those proposed by Democrats). After paying lip service to securing the borders, McCain promised DREAM Act demonstrators this week that he supported the bill and would work to “resolve their issues.” Out-of-touch polls might want to pay attention to the world outside their bubble. A recent Quinnipiac University poll shows that Americans across the political spectrum favor tougher enforcement of existing immigration laws over rolling out the amnesty welcome wagon. When asked, “Do you think immigration reform should primarily move in the direction of integrating illegal immigrants into American society or in the direction of stricter enforcement of laws against illegal immigration?” solid majorities of registered Republicans, Democrats and independents chose stricter enforcement over greater integration of the illegal alien population. Democrats outside the Beltway have grown increasingly averse to signing on to illegal alien incentives — especially as the Obama jobs death toll mounts and economic confidence plummets. Here in Colorado, a handful of Democrats joined Republican lawyers to kill a state-level DREAM Act amid massive higher education budget cuts and a bipartisan voter backlash. Asked why she opposed the illegal alien student bailout, one Democratic lawmaker said quite simply: “I listened to my constituents.” An alien concept in Washington, to be sure. http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=1170564 added by: ReverandG

How Not to Talk About Climate Politics

Photo via CO2 Post Yesterday, I wondered aloud whether there was any way to steer the general conversation about climate change away from the realm of political ideology — and the overwhelming response in the comments section left me even more bewildered than before. If anything, the response revealed that there is much work left to do to bring an even-keeled discussion about the science of climate change and potential so… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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How Not to Talk About Climate Politics

HuffPo Asks, ‘Women of the Tea Party: Who Are You, and What Do You Want?’

What a funny but telling title, the sort of question asked only in war zones or when spotting aliens. Had I received that query in person I would have responded in kind, “Who goes there, friend or foe?” But in this case I was pretty sure I already knew, given the news outlet from whence the question came. And sure enough, I wasn’t long into reading the piece when learning the answer was clearly foe, with malicious intent. The writer was liberal feminist Peggy Drexler , assistant prof of psychology at Cornell Medical School , who wondered if the Tea Party women will come the liberal feminist way on social issues: But it’s fair to assume there aren’t many coming out of this base who will champion issues like gay marriage, choice, and single parent families. Gay marriage and choice are clearly high on Sarah Palin’s list of American evils. Single parent families get a pass for obvious reasons. But as Colleen Campbell [writes]… single mothers are “strong enough and smart enough”… to “handle an unplanned pregnancy”, while continuing to pursue education and a career. In other words: when the going gets tough, the tough keep the baby. So my question to the women of the Tea Party is this. If you take back America from the forces of big government, big spending and big taxes, do you plan to share it with the teenage girl who is unprepared to raise a child, with the gay couple who want the simple right to marry, and with families who may not fit your own definitions? Well, duh, Peggy, isn’t that why the Tea Party germinated in the 1st place? In opposition to your ideology? I’ll leave it to others to handle the homosexual issue, but I’ll address Peggy’s abortion concerns. So hey, Peggy, back at you, how are you currently helping “the teenage girl who is unprepared to raise a child” by any other way than recommending she kill it? Are you saying the value of a person is dependent on affordability or convenience? What do you want us to do with you when you’re a crabby old senile feminist? Are you pro-choice for your future phase of life? As a matter of fact, Peggy, there are over 3,000 pregnancy care centers throughout the United States already helping teenage girls financially, physically, and educationally – free of charge, during pregnancy and long after, funded by donations. We also adopt and provide foster care. That as compared to 1,000 abortion mills that charge $350 to $2k and up per. Yes, Tea Party women believe women are uniquely maternal. You mention the term “momma grizzlies” in your piece, so you understand our perspective that women should be encouraged to protect their children, not kill them, as you believe. We believe in the equal right to life of all females, Peggy. You don’t. Since you support abortion, you support killing females. Furthermore, you certainly know abortion is used specifically to target females for eradication. What are you doing about that, Peggy? Actually, can you do anything about that? I’ll answer that. No. Since preborns are not human in your book, you can’t say anything about this form of sexism without exposing yourself as a big fat lying liberal feminist hypocrite. But back to the title of your piece. Its arrogance makes me laugh. You still think you’re queens of the hill.

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HuffPo Asks, ‘Women of the Tea Party: Who Are You, and What Do You Want?’

NYT’s Kate Zernike Warns of ‘Drive for Ideological Purity’ Among ‘Far to the Right’ Tea Party Candidates

New York Times ” Tea Party” correspondent Kate Zernike again insisted that the main victims of Tea Party enthusiasm will be, not Democrats, but mainstream Republicans, in Thursday’s ” G.O.P. Gets a Partner, But Who Will Lead? ” It’s basically a snapshot of the growing conflict between Sen. Jim DeMint, who has pushed conservative Tea Party candidates, and Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, whose job it is to elect Republicans. A photo caption over a picture of DeMint reads: “Senator Jim DeMint has embraced the ideological purity that characterize many candidates with Tea Patty backing.” If ever there was proof that the Tea Party and the Republican Party do not necessarily go hand in hand, it is Christine O’Donnell’s victory over the establishment in the Republican Senate primary in Delaware. So what happens now, with the primary season ending, and the Tea Party having defined it? Does the Tea Party remake the G.O.P. in its image, staging a “hostile takeover,” as Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, the libertarian advocacy group, urged activists rallying outside the Capitol last weekend to do? Or will the Republican Party co-opt the Tea Party, as Trent Lott, a former leader of the Senate Republicans, said it must? The embodiment of this question might be Senator Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican who has made himself and his Senate Conservatives Fund a kind of Tea Party Good Housekeeping seal of approval. Sitting at the intersection of the Republican Party and the Tea Party, Mr. DeMint could be a model for how the two might co-exist — or an example of how the drive for ideological purity could turn the Republicans into a niche party. How “far to the right” are these Tea Partiers, you may ask. Zernike is eager to tell: Even some of the primaries that Tea Party candidates lost suggest how much the Tea Party sentiment has already pushed Republicans to the right. In Tuesday’s Republican primary in New Hampshire, for example, two Tea Party candidates in the Second Congressional District lost to Charlie Bass, a former congressman swept out in the Democratic wave of 2006. Mr. Bass was once known as the classic New England moderate. But to win the nomination this year, he campaigned far to the right — so far that The Concord Monitor editorialized, “It will take such a long way back to the middle that he’d better pack a lunch.” Democrats are certainly counting on the Republicans’ taking a very long trip to a very remote region of the right.

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NYT’s Kate Zernike Warns of ‘Drive for Ideological Purity’ Among ‘Far to the Right’ Tea Party Candidates

Maher Calls "Teabaggers" Racists; Uses N-Word As Proof

On September 16th’s Larry King Live, guest Bill Maher called “Teabaggers” racists, claimed they hate black people, and added when referring to President Obama as a “Kenyan”, it’s code for “nigger”. Note the chuckling Larry King who didn’t at all seem phased by Maher’s casual use of a racial epithet as well as lack of any kind of media coverage. We all know when liberals use racial slurs, it’s never out of sensitivity or hate. Bill was just trying to make a point, right?

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Maher Calls "Teabaggers" Racists; Uses N-Word As Proof

Erick Erickson Smacks Down CNN’s Bash for Calling Voter Anger Racist

Are you getting tired of hearing liberal media members claim the voter anger around the country is all because Barack Obama is black? RedState Editor and CNN contributor Erick Erickson is, for on Wednesday’s “John King USA,” he let Dana Bash have it for reiterating this insulting accusation. “Talking to Democrats, I know you have, privately, will say some of the anger they hear in their districts, they say there’s no doubt some of it is latent racism,” uttered Bash. Erickson was having none of if responding, “Oh, good lord…It’s the last best trick of a losing Democrat, is to accuse the Republicans of racism.” When Erickson concluded his reply by stating Obama’s “world view is fundamentally anti-American,” a heated discussion between him and CNN’s Roland Martin ensued (video follows with transcript and commentary): DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Talking to Democrats, I know you have, privately, will say some of the anger they hear in their districts, they say there’s no doubt some of it is latent racism. They can’t prove it — ERICK ERICKSON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, good lord. When Republicans start talking, they scream racism. It’s the last best trick of a losing Democrat, is to accuse the Republicans of racism. The issue here has nothing to do with race. The issue has to do with nobody, Republican or Democrat, has figured out what this guy’s world view is. And the Republicans are starting to set the narrative for 2012 already that this guy’s world view is fundamentally anti-American. ROLAND MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Erick, you’re not going to sit here and say the president of the United States who is sworn to defend and protect the constitution, has an anti-American view. No what he wants to do — ERICKSON: I think he has a view of America that views America as one of many nations and not the last best hope for mankind. MARTIN: First, if you look at facts, Erick, we are one of many nations, so let’s deal with that. When they have financial crisis taking place across the globe it also affected us, so we can’t act like we’re the only country out here. You will not sit here and call this president anti-American when he represents the United States of America, including you. ERICKSON: I think his world view is an anathema to the American destiny as conservatives have viewed it and I think Newt Gingrich — MARTIN: So what’s your world view? ERICKSON: My world view is that America is the last best hope for mankind for freedom and Obama doesn’t view it that way. MARTIN: It’s President Barack Obama and he is an American and it’s insulting to sit here and have Newt Gingrich talk about this Kenyan view. We know what he was saying there. It made no sense whatsoever. He should be ashamed of himself. And apologize for it. He’s an American and he’s a Christian just in case you were confused. JOHN KING, HOST: I’m going to call it between Roland and Erick here. The other panelists silent during that. I appreciate the respectful debate between the two of you. Nicely done, Erick. This racism schtick by liberal media members is getting old. Are Americans that disagree with Democrat policies going to have to put up with this nonsense until Obama is removed from office? Yes – that’s a rhetorical question. 

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Erick Erickson Smacks Down CNN’s Bash for Calling Voter Anger Racist

Quick, Let’s Name 100 People We’d Rather Hear Fox Announce as Idol Judges

You heard the announcement before the announcement : Fox will officially name the 2011 American Idol judges lineup this Wednesday. Sounds like Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, and Randy Jackson are shoo-ins — but what if they aren’t? Fast, while someone can still print this off and deposit it in Cecile Frot-Coutaz’s cubbyhole, let’s list 100 more exciting options who could fill Simon Cowell and Kara DioGuardi’s old jobs.

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Quick, Let’s Name 100 People We’d Rather Hear Fox Announce as Idol Judges