**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
FLORIDA RED AND BLUE!!!!
Do your part to fight the right-wing state-wide anti-gay initiativeto amend the Florida constitution.
Friday, September 28, at the GLCC, Ft. Lauderdale - 11:45am to 1:30pm.
Michael and I promised to get a minimum of 10 people to attend thislow dollar boxed lunch - only $25 - to learn about Florida Red And Blue andthe multiple efforts to overcome this hateful amendment. Florida Red andBlue has already raised over $1 million, but our work is only beginning.
Will you support us with this? Every GLBT person in Florida needs to be apart of this effort.
Boxed Lunch Series
$25
Friday, September 28
Noon - 1:30pm
Networking 11:45am
GLCC - Ft. Lauderdale
Send us an e-mail and let us know if you'll join us on the 28th.
And...... If you can't attend, we'll be glad to accept your check made out
to "Florida Red and Blue."
Ray and Michael
rays.list@comcast.net
=
Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flaepiscopal0922nbsep22,0,5667591,print.story
No ultimatum issued, says Anglican leader
Compromise sought with Episcopalians
By RACHEL ZOLL
The Associated Press
September 22, 2007
NEW ORLEANS
The archbishop of Canterbury indicated Friday that the Episcopal Churchisn't on the brink of losing its place in the world Anglican fellowship,despite the uproar over Episcopal support for gay clergy.
Anglican leaders, called primates, had set a Sept. 30 deadline for theAmericans to pledge unequivocally not to consecrate another gay bishop orapprove an official prayer service for gay couples. Episcopal bishops havededicated their meeting in New Orleans to crafting a response.
But after two days of private talks with Episcopal leaders, Archbishop ofCanterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, said "there is noultimatum involved." The goal, he said, is "compromise."
"It's been presented sadly as a set of demands," Williams said in a newsconference before he left. "I don't think that what was in the primates'minds. In fact, I'm sure it isn't."
The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States and has amore liberal view of Scripture than most Anglicans overseas.
=
Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/custom/consumer/sfl-0921donotcall,0,7499222,print.story
Don't get stuck falling off telemarketing Do Not Call list
By JENNIFER C. KERR
Associated Press
11:34 AM EDT, September 21, 2007
WASHINGTON
The cherished dinner hour void of telemarketers could vanish next year formillions of people when phone numbers begin dropping off the national Do NotCall list.
The Federal Trade Commission, which oversees the list, says there is asimple fix. But some lawmakers think it is a hassle to expect people tore-register their phone numbers every five years.
Numbers placed on the registry, begun in June 2003, are valid for fiveyears. For the millions of people who signed onto the list in its earlydays, their numbers will automatically drop off beginning next June if theydo not enroll again.
``It is incredibly quick and easy to do,'' Lydia Parnes, director of theFTC's bureau of consumer protection, said in an interview with TheAssociated Press this week. ``It was so easy for people to sign up in thefirst instance. It will be just as easy for them to re-up.''
But Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., says people should not be forced to re-registerto keep telemarketers at bay. Doyle introduced legislation this week, withbipartisan support, to make registrations permanent.
more . . . . .
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/us/22episcopal.html?pagewanted=print
September 22, 2007
Episcopal Church Remains Divided on Gay Issues
By NEELA BANERJEE
NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 21 - Talks between Episcopal Church bishops andtop-ranking representatives of the worldwide Anglican Communion ended withfew signs that the bishops would change the church's liberal stance onhomosexuality. The standoff only increases the possibility of splits withinthe church and in the rest of the communion, the world's third-largestChristian denomination.
The Episcopal Church is the American arm of the Anglican Communion. As thechurch's bishops began their twice-yearly meeting on Thursday, at the top ofthe agenda was a directive from the primates, or regional leaders of thecommunion, asking the church to stop consecrating openly gay and lesbianbishops and to ban the blessing of same-sex unions, or risk a diminishedstatus in the communion.
At a news conference on Friday, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop ofCanterbury, emphasized that the directive was not an ultimatum to theAmerican church. Anglican leaders including Archbishop Williams, who is thespiritual leader of the global communion, met with the American bishops onThursday and Friday.
"Some primates would give it a more robust interpretation, some less so,"Archbishop Williams said of the directive. "But it is inevitably a matter ofcompromise."
The bishops conclude their meeting here on Tuesday, when an officialresponse to the directive is expected. But several bishops with a range ofviews on homosexuality said they did not expect the House of Bishops toendorse the directive. In such an event, those who disagree with theEpiscopal Church have said they might break with the church or with thewider communion.
more . . . . .
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/nyregion/22plumb.html?pagewanted=print
September 22, 2007
Witness Describes Chat With Gay Victim
By MICHAEL BRICK
Hiding his face beneath a jacket as he was led into a courtroom in handcuffsyesterday, a 17-year-old witness mumbled, nodded and shrugged his waythrough an account of the fatal attack on a gay man in Sheepshead Bay lastfall.
The witness, Gary Timmins, avoided the gaze of the defendants, one of them achildhood friend, as he gave the prime testimony meant to convict them. Bothhave been charged in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn with murder as a hatecrime, a distinction that could draw extended sentences.
Though Mr. Timmins has pleaded guilty to attempted robbery in exchange forhis testimony, he stretched any reasonable definition of the term"cooperating witness."
Cutting a squat figure in sagging jeans and a butch haircut, he spoke intones that seemed to defy amplification. He gave answers including "hum,""hunh" and what sounded like "mnyes." Again and again, the judge imploredhim to speak up.
A prosecutor, Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, had to ask him at least half a dozenquestions to elicit an acceptable identification of the defendants. Withoutpointing or looking, Mr. Timmins told jurors the men were "over there."
more . . . . .
=
WashingtonPost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101696.html
Protecting Maryland's Diverse Families
Sunday, September 23, 2007; B08
In the wake of their defeat last week in the Maryland Court of Appeals, gayrights advocates are turning to the General Assembly, where sympatheticlegislators will introduce a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry. Thelegislature should take this opportunity to reevaluate the place ofmarriage -- straight or gay -- in the state's laws.
The Court of Appeals recognized that most households no longer follow "thetraditional model of what constitutes a family." All families and householdsneed the economic stability and emotional peace of mind that usually extendonly to married couples. Unmarried couples of any sexual orientation, singlemothers pooling resources to raise their children together, committedfriends or siblings who live together, and intergenerational households arejust some of the many family forms that need recognition and protection. TheGeneral Assembly should put Maryland in the forefront of valuing allfamilies.
Maryland already has at least one model law to draw on. When an employeedies on the job, the state awards workers' compensation death benefits toanyone who depended on the person who died. Marriage is not a requirement.As far back as 1950, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that workers' compis "not a code of morals." Rather, it's designed to economically protectworkers and those who depend on them. The legislature should extend thisreasoning to other laws. All death benefits should be based on dependency,not marriage. Wrongful-death lawsuits should also be available to anyone whofinancially depended on the person who died; that's the law now in WestVirginia.
The General Assembly can find other models for laws that value all families.In Salt Lake City an employee can cover on her health insurance anyeconomically dependent or interdependent adult she has lived with for a yearand intends to continue living with, as well as that person's children. Thefederal government allows employees to use paid sick leave to care foranyone close enough to have "the equivalent of a family relationship."
Washington state allows courts to equitably divide the property of unmarriedcouples when they separate. The District of Columbia gives unmarriedpartners priority in making health care decisions when one partner isincapacitated. New York gives unmarried partners priority in disposing ofremains. Colorado admits a will to probate even if it lacks all the willformalities, if it can be proven that the deceased intended the document tobe his will. This last provision would have protected Maryland marriageplaintiff John Lestitian, who lost his home when his partner died becausehis partner's will had only one witness instead of the required two.
more . . . . .
=
Fort Report
http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Giuliani+says+Michigan+can+rebound+with+lower+taxes%2C+have+less+government&expire=&urlID=24054947&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.detnews.com%2Fapps%2Fpbcs.dll%2Farticle%3FAID%3D%2F20070921%2FUPDATE%2F709210443%2F1020%2Frss09&partnerID=162731
MACKINAC ISLAND -- Rudy Giuliani kicked off a weekend of pitches frompresidential hopefuls at the Mackinac Republican Leadership ConferenceFriday night, telling 1,200 party activists that the solution to Michigan'seconomic woes is lower taxes and less government.
"Michigan is going through a situation that to me looks like déjÀ vu allover again," the former New York mayor told Republicans gathered in theornate dining room of the island's Grand Hotel. Giuliani said he faced thesame problems Michigan now faces -- job losses, an exodus of population --when he took over as mayor in 1994.
"There is a game plan for what you do when you have a budget deficit, peopleleaving, high unemployment: lower taxes, smaller government, lessregulation," Giuliani said.
Giuliani was the first of a half-dozen presidential hopefuls expected tospeak to the conference this weekend. Later Friday night, CaliforniaCongressman Duncan Hunter addressed the dinner audience, calling the declineof manufacturing jobs in Michigan and across the country an issue ofnational security as well as economics.
Giuliani is the leader in most national polls among Republican presidentialhopefuls, but in Michigan is competing against candidates with moreextensive campaign operations and political networks. Mitt Romney and JohnMcCain, both of whom speak to the conference on Saturday, have both spentmore time the state, and have lined up support from powerful GOP organizers,activists and office-holders.
more . . . . .
=
FortReport.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-warcosts22sep22,1,6931196,print.story?coll=la-news-politics-national
Iraq war budget jumps for 2008
Bush plans to increase his request to nearly $200 billion. The troop buildupand new gear are the main reasons.
By Julian E. Barnes
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 22, 2007
WASHINGTON - -- After smothering efforts by war critics in Congress todrastically cut U.S. troop levels in Iraq, President Bush plans to asklawmakers next week to approve another massive spending measure -- totalingnearly $200 billion -- to fund the war through next year, Pentagon officialssaid.
If Bush's spending request is approved, 2008 will be the most expensive yearof the Iraq war.
U.S. war costs have continued to grow because of the additional combatforces sent to Iraq this year and because of efforts to quickly ramp upproduction of new technology, such as mine-resistant trucks designed toprotect troops from roadside bombs. The new trucks can cost three to sixtimes as much as an armored Humvee.
The Bush administration said earlier this year that it probably would need$147.5 billion for 2008, but Pentagon officials now say that and $47 billionmore will be required. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and otherofficials are to formally present the full request at a SenateAppropriations Committee hearing Wednesday.
The funding request means that war costs are projected to grow even as thenumber of deployed combat troops begins a gradual decline starting inDecember. Spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is to rise from $173billion this year to about $195 billion in fiscal 2008, which begins Oct. 1.
more . . . . .
=
FortReport.com
http://palmbeachpost.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Feds+look+at+fraud+in+area%27s+soaring+HIV%2FAIDS+billing&expire=&urlID=24052951&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.palmbeachpost.com%2Fnews%2Fcontent%2Fnation%2Fepaper%2F2007%2F09%2F22%2Fm1a_MEDICARE_AIDS_0922.html&partnerID=491
Feds look at fraud in area's soaring HIV/AIDS billing
By LARRY LIPMAN
Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
Saturday, September 22, 2007
WASHINGTON - Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties accounted for halfof the drug costs billed nationwide for Medicare beneficiaries with HIV/AIDSin the last half of 2006, according to a government report released thisweek.
That's even though only 10 percent of the roughly 100,000 Medicarebeneficiaries with HIV/AIDS nationwidelive in the three South Floridacounties.
The area also accounted for 79 percent of the drugs themselves and 37percent of the HIV/AIDS services provided from July through December 2006,according to the report by Department of Health and Human Services InspectorGeneral Daniel R. Levinson.
The numbers were released as federal officials already are keeping a closeeye on potentially fraudulent medical billings in South Florida.
The report said the "aberrant claims patterns differentiated South Floridaproviders and beneficiaries from those in the rest of the country."
more . . . . .
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/opinion/22sat1.html?ref=opinion
September 22, 2007
Editorial
Climate Week
The coming week could set a record for the number of high-profile hoursspent discussing global warming and what to do about it. It begins with aspecial one-day session at the United Nations, at which Al Gore will pressthe case for strong collective action to stop the rise of greenhouse gases.It ends with a two-day White House "summit" involving all of the majoremitters, including India and China. Both of those nations have beenconspicuously absent from climate negotiations, but their help in arrestingglobal emissions is essential.
The problem needs all the attention it can get. But if talk is good, it isalso cheap. And it will change nothing unless it leads to a real treaty withreal, and enforceable, limits on the production of greenhouse gases. Thatmeans a broader and more inclusive version of the Kyoto Protocol, a noblebut flawed treaty that expires in 2012.
As we know, firm targets are not what President Bush has in mind. Mr. Bushannounced this summit in June at a time when he was under serious pressurefrom scientists, the Supreme Court, his Europeans allies and the nation'sgovernors to do something about global warming.
more....
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/opinion/22collins.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print
September 22, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
The Women Behind the Men
By GAIL COLLINS
Daisy Bates had to march with the wives.
When the nation observes the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock schooldesegregation on Monday, there will undoubtedly be a great deal said aboutBates, who was head of the city's N.A.A.C.P. chapter. She helped recruitnine black teenagers and escorted them through irate mobs of white adultsand into their first classes. As a result, she and her husband, Lucius, losttheir business. She was jailed, threatened and the Ku Klux Klan burned an8-foot cross on her lawn.
Bates was invited, of course, to the famous March on Washington in 1963,when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. Rosa Parkswas invited, too, and Pauli Murray, the lawyer and feminist who had stagedthe first sit-in at a Washington restaurant during World War II.
When they got there, they were all assigned to walk with the wives of themale civil rights leaders, far away from the cameras. "Not a single womanwas invited to make one of the major speeches or be part of the delegationof leaders who went to the White House. The omission was deliberate," Murraysaid later.
Dorothy Height, the head of the National Council of Negro Women, and othersbegged that at least one woman be included among the speakers. Theynominated Diane Nash, the student leader who had been perhaps the one personmost responsible for the success of the Freedom Riders in the South. Nodice.
more....
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/opinion/22herbert.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print
September 22, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
In 2008, Bush v. Gore Redux?
By BOB HERBERT
Right now it's just a petition drive on its way to becoming a ballotinitiative in California. But you should think of it as a tropicaldepression that could develop into a major storm that blows away theDemocrats' chances of winning the White House next year.
And it could become a constitutional crisis.
It's panic time in Republican circles. The G.O.P. could go into next year'selection burdened by the twin demons of an unpopular war and an economicdownturn. The party that took the White House in 2000 while losing thepopular vote figures it may have to do it again.
The Presidential Election Reform Act is the name of a devious proposal thatRepublican operatives have dreamed up to siphon off 20 or more of the 55electoral votes that the Democrats would get if, as expected, they winCalifornia in 2008.
more.....
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/us/politics/22giuliani.html?hp
September 22, 2007
Giuliani Tells N.R.A. He Opposes New Gun Limits
By MARC SANTORA
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 - Rudolph W. Giuliani appeared Friday before theNational Rifle Association - a group he once likened to extremists - anddefended his very vocal past advocacy of tougher gun laws while affirmingthe right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms.
The appearance by Mr. Giuliani was perhaps his biggest test yet of how hisliberal record on gun control and abortion as a New York City mayor wouldsquare with a core Republican constituency now that he is running forpresident. And he confronted his past directly, saying he faced differentchallenges taming crime in New York City a decade ago, while signaling thathe opposes new restrictions on gun ownership.
"I believe that law enforcement should focus on enforcing the laws thatexist on the books as opposed to passing new extensions of laws," Mr.Giuliani said. He added that his views have been shaped by his time as aprosecutor, mayor and even by the Sept. 11 attacks, which he said, "puts awhole different emphasis on what America has to do to protect itself."
more.....
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-US-Blackwater-Probe.html
September 22, 2007
Feds Target Blackwater in Weapons Probe
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:18 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employeesof the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraqweapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in thehands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, N.C., is handling the investigationwith help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who have concludedthere is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told The AssociatedPress. Blackwater is based in Moyock, N.C.
A spokeswoman for Blackwater did not return calls seeking comment Friday.The U.S. attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina, GeorgeHolding, declined to comment, as did Pentagon and State Departmentspokesmen.
more.....
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Fujimori.html?pagewanted=print
September 22, 2007
Ex-President Is Returned to Peru
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:06 a.m. ET
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was flownto his home country in police custody Saturday, one day after the ChileanSupreme Court authorized his extradition on charges of human rightsviolation and corruption charges.
A Peruvian police aircraft carrying the 69-year-old former ruler departedjust before 9 a.m. EDT from the Santiago airport for the 4 1/2-hour flightto Lima, the Peruvian capital, with at least one refueling stopover.
A blue-and-white Chilean police helicopter had flown Fujimori to the airportfrom the suburban residence where he remained for months under house arrestawaiting the court ruling on his extradition trial.
The Supreme Court ruled that Fujimori should be extradited on two rights andfive corruption charges. The rights abuse charges include sanctioning thedeath-squad killings of 25 people.
Chilean police officers formally transferred control over Fujimori to theirPeruvian counterparts inside a vehicle at the airport tarmac. Fujimori wasexamined by a Peruvian doctor before boarding the aircraft, officials said.
more....
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/us/22shop.html?pagewanted=print
September 22, 2007
Currency Parity Brings Canadian Shoppers South
By WILLIAM YARDLEY and KATIE ZEZIMA
BLAINE, Wash., Sept. 21 - Tracey Carle checked the Web on Friday morning tosee the wait times at the border and then bolted to the United States toshop.
Ms. Carle left her home in the border town of Surrey, British Columbia,cruised through the increasingly tight border here in a relatively breezy 34minutes, stopped immediately to gas up her sport utility vehicle on thecheap at the U.S.A. Mini Mart and shot down Interstate 5 toward her realtarget, Target.
"Anytime in the last few years it's been better," said Ms. Carle, 49,explaining that she has long crossed the border for bargains. "But now, thisis just whoo-hoo!"
The whoo-hoo part, as Ms. Carle and countless other Canadians havedemonstrated recently, is tied directly to the steady rise of the Canadiandollar against its American counterpart in recent years, becoming itseconomic equal this week for the first time in three decades.
On either side of the border, a buck is now a buck, or as Canadians call iton their side, a loonie. Coupled with high prices and high taxes for manythings in Canada, the strength of the Canadian dollar is driving Canadiansinto the United States to shop for shoes, school supplies, gasoline, usedcars and second homes.
more.....
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/washington/22cong.html
September 22, 2007
News Analysis
As Bills to End War Stumble in Congress, Partisan Din Swells
By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 - With the Senate sinking into a legislative quagmireover Iraq, lawmakers and their allies are shifting to what has proved to bemore solid ground when it comes to the war: political recriminations.
Every twist and turn of this week's grinding Senate stalemate wasaccompanied by a new round of political advertisements and accusations.Republicans were portrayed as putting loyalty to President Bush beforesupport for strained troops, while Democrats were characterized as beingbeholden to the ultra-left, as embodied by MoveOn.org. The partisan clamorwill grow louder as the policy fight recedes.
"This is a political consultant's dream, this war," said Senator LindseyGraham, Republican of South Carolina, referring to the myriad possibilitiesfor 30-second spots to be found in the multiple votes on the war.
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101510_pf.html
A Day To Edit Our Lives
What Yom Kippur Means to Me
By Jim Sollisch
Saturday, September 22, 2007; A17
When I was in my 20s, I wrote a novel and sent it to Doubleday. In myhubris, I skipped the editors and sent it directly to the president. Shecalled five days later to tell me she liked it. An editor was assigned andsuggested major revisions. I refused and got an agent, who sent it to otherpublishers.
The novel never made it into print.
I blew it, not because I thought that my novel was perfect but because I
clung to the idea that its nature was unchangeable.
As I've gotten older, it's become easier to revise. Not just my writing butmy life. And I finally understand the genius of Yom Kippur, the Jewishholiday that asks us to acknowledge mistakes and make amends.
On Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, each of us is askedto reread our manuscript of the past year and make revisions. We are taskedwith asking such questions as "What could I have done differently?" and"What were the effects of my choices on others?" When I realized these werethe questions novelists ask of their characters, it became easier to askthem of myself.
more....
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101508_pf.html
Three Wrongs to Right
By Colbert I. King
Saturday, September 22, 2007; A17
Three conflicts; three outcomes, with only one positive. That about sums upmy feelings on the "Jena 6," the dust-up over the West End land deal and theJim Moran controversy.
The 'Jena 6'
If the schoolyard fight had involved only white high school students or onlyblack students, we wouldn't be reading about Jena, La. But it's not thatsimple.
A tree for white students only. Three hangman's nooses. Fights between blackstudents and white students.
Enter, a white prosecutor out to put blacks in their place. White studentswere suspended. Black students were expelled, arrested and charged (asadults) with felonies.
The disproportionately heavy hand of the law on black males -- a story asold as America.
Sick and tired. Converge on Jena. Vigils. Wear black. Peaceful protest thistime.
Next time -- and there will be a next time, unless that unfair prosecutionis reversed and our unjust criminal justice system is changed -- there's notelling what an angry community acting in solidarity can and will do.
more....
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101542_pf.html
What Makes Up My Mind?
By Joel Achenbach
Sunday, September 23, 2007; B01
If I were to be eaten by a shark, I'm pretty sure the worst part would benot the pain or the mutilation or the actual dying and so forth, but ratherthe thought balloon over my head with the words, "I'm being eaten by a[expletive] shark!"
Whereas a fish doesn't have this problem. A fish has no thought balloon, orjust a teensy little one, with a monosyllabic fish-word like "Urp!" A fishprobably suffers, but it doesn't have the additional suffering that comesfrom knowing that it's suffering, and from regretting that it went swimminginstead of watching the golf tournament, and from hearing, as we all dowhenever we're devoured by sharks, the theme music from "Jaws." You know:that tuba.
All of which is a deft way of introducing our subject today: The Mystery ofConsciousness. It's one of the biggest unknowns, right up there with theorigin of life. But it's under a multi-pronged assault by scientists, whovow to crack the code of the mind in the same way that they are decipheringthe human genome. It's all very exciting, with the one catch that no one canreally agree on what the mind is.
"With consciousness, there is no agreement on anything," says Giulio Tononi,a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, "exceptit's very difficult."
more....
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101944.html
Weak Excuses
Senators who opposed D.C. voting rights should hear from their own voters.
Saturday, September 22, 2007; Page A16
SILLY US. We had thought that this week's Senate vote on D.C. voting rightswas about fairness for those who live in the nation's capital. Turns out itwas Montana's interests that were at stake. At least that's Montana Sen. MaxBaucus's explanation for being the lone Democrat voting against the measure.Mr. Baucus's concern over his state's influence being watered down by anexpanded House is laughable -- even if it's no more far-fetched thanRepublican claims of being committed to District representation if properlydone.
It's heartening that supporters of the voting rights bill have not beendeterred by such flimsy excuses. Short the three votes needed to bring thebill to the Senate floor, proponents told The Post's Mary Beth Sheridan thatthey will wage a grass-roots campaign targeting eight senators, some facingreelection. Included are senators who proponents claim had indicatedsupport, only to back out at the last minute. The thinking is thatRepublican senators such as Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) or Thad Cochran (R-Miss.)might be able to resist pressure from party leaders if they get a differentkind of pressure from voters in their states. Then, too, perhaps Sen. RobertC. Byrd (D-W.Va.), who stayed away from the vote, could be persuaded to atleast bring the measure to the floor, where he could then voice any concernshe might have about its constitutionality.
more....
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101507.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
The Story We Needed Ken Burns to Tell
By Cecilia Alvear
Saturday, September 22, 2007; A17
There's an application on my computer called the "Ken Burns effect." It candress up my picture slideshows by inserting pans and zooms, adding a feelingof motion to the still images. It mimics the technique filmmaker Ken Burnsuses to hold the attention of viewers in his epic documentaries, which relyheavily on historic paintings and photos.
As a Latina, I've unfortunately run across another kind of Ken Burns effect,one that leaves Hispanics largely invisible in those documentaries.
For " The War," his 14 1/2 -hour PBS series that begins tomorrow, Burnsconcentrated on how World War II affected the lives of people fromSacramento; Waterbury, Conn.; Mobile, Ala.; and Luverne, Minn.
I recently attended a screening of highlights of "The War." I found itstunning, moving and sadly incomplete. Deftly cutting between the battlelines and the home front, Burns shows the cruelty of war in intimate detail.We see hundreds of bodies floating in the ocean during the Pacific campaign.We see the injustice of a black soldier from Mobile serving his country in asegregated Army. We see law-abiding Japanese Americans herded off tointernment camps.
During a segment on the liberation of Nazi death camps, a Jewish Americanveteran bitterly describes the atrocities he saw there. A woman in the rowbehind me began sobbing audibly as the film illustrated the veteran's wordswith shots of emaciated survivors.
more...
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092102151.html?hpid=topnews
After the War, A Struggle For Equality
Latino WWII Veterans Needed Another Kind of Courage at Home
By David Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 22, 2007; Page C01
Latinos came home from World War II to a different struggle. A Medal ofHonor for bravery didn't guarantee service in certain restaurants. Asoldier's body in a coffin and an American flag for his widow didn't meritadmission to some funeral homes.
Fast-forward to 2007. One of the nation's premier documentarians is ready to
unveil his opus on World War II. It's mainly the stories of non-Hispanicwhites, but Ken Burns made sure to include the experience of AfricanAmericans and Japanese Americans. Missing in action: half a million or soLatinos who served, out of the 16 million total.
more....
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092200105_pf.html
Neo-Nazi Web Site Probed In Jena Case
By Avis Thomas-Lester
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 22, 2007; A08
FBI agents are looking into a neo-Nazi Web site, which has listed the homeaddresses and phone numbers of the six black teenagers charged in thebeating of a white schoolmate in Jena, La., a bureau spokeswoman said lastnight.
The Thursday posting on the site that lists the information also encouragesreaders to "get in touch, and let them know justice is coming."
The FBI is investigating to see whether the posting violates federal laws,special agent Sheila Thorne said from New Orleans.
Deputies had already stepped up patrols around the six families' homes "tokeep reporters away," LaSalle Parish Sheriff Carl Smith said last night.Smith added that he did not think the posting was "any kind of viablethreat," but that his officers would remain vigilant.
Parish officials have not encouraged the families to leave their homes, thesheriff said, "because we don't want to make people feel like they're livingunder siege."
Also yesterday, a judge denied a request to release Mychal Bell, the onlyteenager still jailed.
more....
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092100987.html?hpid=sec-politics
Edwards Unveils Plan to Revamp Education
By DAVID PITT
The Associated Press
Friday, September 21, 2007; 9:20 PM
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards rolledout a program for reforming primary education in the United States onFriday, proposing to pay teachers up to $15,000 more in high poverty areasand initiating universal preschool. Edwards detailed the proposals, whichalso include longer school years and overhauling the No Child Left Behindeducation law, in a speech at Brody Middle School in Des Moines.
He called the federal law enacted by the Bush administration "a case studyin what's broken in Washington, D.C." and said it needs to be radicallyreformed, to which he received the largest applause from a crowd of 300,largely supporters and school staff, who filled the school auditorium.
more....
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092100483.html?hpid=sec-education
Columbia U. to Let Iran President Speak
By AMY WESTFELDT
The Associated Press
Friday, September 21, 2007; 9:27 PM
NEW YORK -- Columbia University planned Friday to go forward with a speechby Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while the city mobilized securityto protect him from protests during his New York visit.
Ahmadinejad, who is to arrive in New York on Sunday to address the UnitedNations General Assembly, is scheduled to speak at a Columbiaquestion-and-answer forum on Monday. His request to lay a wreath at theWorld Trade Center site was denied and condemned by Sept. 11 family membersand politicians.
more....
=
[Send your comments about articles to rays.list@comcast.net]
#####
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment