Rhianna's Groovy Tarot BLOG: What's in The Cards?
Blog of Rhianna, a Groovy Fortuneteller: read about political & economic rants and rambles as Rhianna reveals crystal ball forecasts and tarot card predictions with a mystical twist on celebrity gossip, fortunetelling, current events, astrology, humor, entertainment, news and advice.
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Games centres used as cheap child care (August 1, 2004)
NEWS.com.au | Games centres used as cheap child care (August 1, 2004): "PARENTS are leaving children overnight at Internet games centres to play violent computer games for up to 24 hours."
The Cato Institute : Don’t politicize stem cell research
Benton County Daily Record :: Opinion
"The vast majority of medical and scientific breakthroughs in this country’s history have been accomplished by the private sector. There’s no reason for stem cell research to be any different."
Michael Fumento: Stance on stem-cell use a sham | The Arizona Daily Star
Michael Fumento: Stance on stem-cell use a sham | The Arizona Daily Star
"Far from blocking federal cell research funding, Bush specifically authorized it so long as it used existing lines of embryonic cells.
But more remarkably, RR Jr. made absolutely no reference to an alternative to embryonic stem cells that is decades more advanced and carries absolutely no moral baggage.
Adult stem cells can be extracted from various places in the human body as well as blood in umbilical cords and placentas. They were first used to treat human illness in 1957.
By the 1980s, adult cells were literally curing a variety of cancers and other diseases; embryonic cells have never been tested on a human.
Adult stem cells now treat about 80 different diseases; again, embryonic cells have treated no one."
cards & politics
Ever since Tarot emerged, politics has been in the cards, now there's a funny deck called the Bush House Of Cards
Friday, July 30, 2004
ID cards: a bad idea, but we'll do it anyway | The Register
ID cards: a bad idea, but we'll do it anyway | The Register: "The key thing to note in all this, is that the debate has moved on: we are no longer talking about if we should have a national identity register and identity card, but how the system can be made to work. "
NYSE to unveil radical trading overhaul - NY Times
Latest News and Financial Information | Reuters.com: "The plan, known as Direct Plus, would represent a stiff challenge to Big Board floor traders who use the 212-year-old open outcry model, in which they use their knowledge and capital to help investors get the best price for stocks, the newspaper said.
The Big Board is fighting off competition from electronic trading exchanges that promise fast trades and anonymity to investors."
NYSE to expand electronic trading
finextra news: NYSE to expand electronic trading: "30 July 2004 - The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is expected to unveil a plan to allow large investors to trade large blocks of shares electronically on the floor of the exchange, according to a report by the New York Times.
The paper says the new plan, which is expected to be announced by NYSE chief executive John Thain on Monday, is an expanded version of a proposal put forward in February and represents the biggest challenge yet to the open outcry model of trading."
Outcry over 'open outcry'
Times Online - Business
"The board of the IPE will today consider a proposal to restrict the practice of “open outcry”, whereby dealers in brightly coloured jackets stand on the floor and carry out highly charged trading, to the afternoon.
The practice, once common on financial markets, survives in London only at the IPE and the London Metal Exchange."
A Vote for Kerry/Edwards is like a Check in the Mail
Gadsden Times: "The Associated Press
A list of promises and pledges in John Kerry's Thursday night speech:
Sure, they'll be eager to send their soldiers to Iraq & Afghanistan
How will the jump in enlistment come about? Will the Draft be re-instated?
Oh, you mean President Bush would ignore the recommendations?
Great. What about the looming deficit?
Like tax breaks? Isn't President Bush trying to revitalize manufacturing and the job scene?
Excellent! Spot on.
Good
Wow, the Kerry/Edwards team will emulate master magician Houdini. They will pull rabbits out of their hats, wave a magic wand, cut middle-class taxes, reduce the tax burden on small businesses,plus give a tax credits for college tuition, while adding 40,000 active duty troops, including a doubling of special forces to fight terrorism [these additional troops will be paid, right?]...but they won't touch Social Security [how will Kerry deal with the Federal Reserve Board and Alan Greenspan?] Didn't Kerry promise a phenomenal health care package similar to the ones that Senators have?
Kerry also reinforced Ron Reagan's visions of Snake Oil Cures which will provide miracles cures to everyone.
Will that finance all of the above without dealing with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, without touching Social Security?
You want Americans to buy prescription drugs from places like Mexico and Canada? Why not institute a system so that Americans can buy more affordable prescription drugs manufactured within the United States. Let's change the laws on generic regulations to start.
Ooh, Kerry/Edwards' visions of healthcare sound so promising, but the details are still vague. Oh, yes, they could deliver a new healthcare system but remember, the Devil is in the details. What the voters have in mind may or may not materialize.
Well, you can see from this excerpt from Kerry: 'I can beat George Bush' that Kerry would like to impose environmental restrictions upon everyone else as long as his family gets to drive the SUVs & minivans.
Hey, the only reason why Rhianna lists the SUV issue here, is because previously Kerry denied owning an SUV, made a big deal about his proposed regulations, but then did the flip-flop dance routine later when the question was asked of him again:
"Q: In 2002, you co-sponsored legislation to raise the fuel economy standards for trucks and SUVs to 36 miles per gallon by 2015, up from the current 20.7. How would this help the auto industry increase jobs?
A: Setting mandatory fuel economy standards has been used for the purpose of trying to safeguard our future environment. I support improvements in those standards, but I’m not locked into a particular number of miles per gallon or a particular formula. I’d be crazy if I want to set up a structure that’s going to automatically lose us jobs.
Q: What kind of vehicles does your family drive?
A: We have some SUVs. We have a Jeep. We have a couple of Chrysler minivans. We have a PT Cruiser up in Boston. I have an old Dodge 600 that I keep in the Senate. ... We also have a Chevy, a big Suburban."
"
Key points of Kerry's speech - Jul 29, 2004 Dealing with War
CNN.com - Key points of Kerry's speech - Jul 29, 2004
"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- In his acceptance speech Thursday night to the Democratic National Convention, Sen. John Kerry talked about what he would do if elected president. Here are the highlights."
War in Iraq
Does this mean that France will jump right in to help in Iraq now that Kerry would be president?
Will dragging in more allies lighten the burden or will the quagmire deepen? Why doesn't Kerry promise that he'll remove the troops right away to bring them home? Think about this quote of Kerry's:
"Before you go to battle, you have to be able to look a parent in the eye and truthfully say: 'I tried everything possible to avoid sending your son or daughter into harm's way. But we had no choice. We had to protect the American people, fundamental American values from a threat that was real and imminent.'"Gee, how come Kerry voted for authorization to use force in Iraq on October 11, 2001? If Kerry plans to add 40,000 active duty troops plus double special forces to conduct anti-terrorist operations, from where will these enforcements come? Kerry believes that we should go to war only "because we have to"...if a war has already started, does that mean we still have to go? It is admirable that Kerry wants to end "backdoor draft of National Guard and reservists," yet at the same time, there is a tricky twist. People now think that Kerry is opposed to a universal conscription which is not the case. He could end the backdoor draft, but he could still start a new draft. Young physicians could be impressed into military service under Kerry's regime to finish out their residency in Iraq.
A plea to President Bush and to John Kerry: promise the voters that there will be no military draft in Spring 2005
Kerry believes that we should never fight "a war without a plan to win the peace..." So Kerry, how do you plan to win the war without the draft?
Thursday, July 29, 2004
FOXNews.com - Transcript: John Kerry
FOXNews.com - Transcript: John Kerry
Thursday, July 29, 2004
The following is the text of a speech given by presidential candidate John Kerry at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, July 29, 2004
Snake Oil: Ron Reagan’s dishonest presentation.
Robert P. George on Ron Reagan & Democratic Convention on NRO
" Ron Reagan virtually promised Parkinson's sufferers that embryonic stem cells will provide a cure for them in ten years or so. 'Sound like magic?,' he said.'Welcome to the future of medicine.' But Ron Reagan has no idea — no one does — whether this is the future of medicine. He is engaged in a campaign of outrageous hype to persuade suffering people that a mere change of administrations in Washington will lead to cures for 'a wide range of debilitating illnesses: Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, lymphoma, spinal cord injuries, and much more.' Sound like snake oil? Welcome to the present of politics."
"Ordinary listeners who are unfamiliar with cloning technology — and, by the way, Ron Reagan was careful not to use the word 'cloning,' though that is exactly what he was describing — would be left with the impression that the process generated embryonic stem cells without generating an embryo! Indeed, by ambiguously referring to 'these cells,' in order to avoid revealing the fact that the cloning process generates a living human embryo which is then deliberately killed, Ron Reagan no doubt left some people with the impression that opponents of embryonic-stem-cell research consider embryonic stem cells, rather than the human embryos from which they are harvested, to be human beings. But this is the very reverse of the truth."
Re: Make a promise to the American voters: you will not reinstate the Draft - July 7, 2004 -- Letters to George W. Bush & John Kerry
Nader wishes for a Kerry speech tonight taking on corporate interests
Nader wishes for a Kerry speech tonight taking on corporate interests
"Nader speaks knowledgeably about Upstate New York. He knows about the companies that fouled lakes and neighborhoods. He knows about the growth of the casino industry, which he sees as evidence of regional despair.
He also knows about the slow decline of bridges, roads and schools in Upstate cities, and he endorses this solution: How about rolling back the Republican tax cuts and using the money for a massive public works program that would provide hundreds of thousands of jobs while rebuilding the cities that crumble at our feet?"
The Politics of Cloning
David Alton
An abridged version of a speech given by Lord Alton of Liverpool at a conference organised by the Centre for Bioethics and Public Policy, November 24th, at the Royal Agricultural Hall Conference Centre, Westminster.
"Looking first of all at the ethics. I maintain that human embryos are nascent human beings and that all destructive research on human embryos, regardless of the potential benefits, is unethical. I remain profoundly concerned about the effect on society of our treating nascent human life as a natural resource to be mined, exploited and commodified and about so-called bioethicists who are happy to bestow their moral blessings on the latest innovation - to be sure, not for love, but for money. Since the passage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, over 925,000 embryos have been created through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment. Just 4% of these embryos have ever seen the light of day."
Morning After Pills: How Do They Prevent Pregnancy?
Morning After Pills
Talk given at a conference organised by the Centre for Bioethics and Public Policy at
The Royal Society of Medicine on Wednesday 28th November 2001
with subsequent discussion
Kerry has turned 180 degrees on abortion issue
Opinion - Palladium-Item - www.pal-item.com
"[Kerry's] first speech in 1985 on the Senate floor was to give his full and unqualified support to Roe vs. Wade. He has opposed all efforts to end the gruesome and horrific process of partial birth abortion (a fully developed, viable baby has it's brains sucked out and skull crushed). He has voted to use federal funds to provide government paid abortions. He has even sworn to appoint only judges who support abortion.
The most frustrating part of the whole deal (as there will always be two-faced politicians) is that there are actually people who call themselves Christians and support this bloody agenda. Those who graze with the sheep and hunt with the wolves."
T-shirt shows poor judgment Planned Parenthood deserves strong criticism for its new T-shirt that states, "I had an abortion.": 7/ 29/ 2004
T-shirt shows poor judgment
Planned Parenthood deserves strong criticism for its new T-shirt that states, "I had an abortion.": 7/ 29/ 2004: "Abortion should remain a choice in our society. But it should not be celebrated on a T-shirt. "
Aborting the Anencephalic Could Lead to Eugenics, Warns Expert
Interview With Humberto Vieira Over Brazilian Court Decision
"Vieira: Eugenic abortion is defended by those who want the improvement of the human race and [who] invest millions of dollars, also in Brazil, to achieve their objectives.
This is a dangerous precedent, because it opens the way to other types of abortion, for example, of the physically or mentally disabled, and even healthy human beings who, however, do not fit the criteria approved by eugenic groups.
The poor, the mutilated, and blacks, according to these groups, are 'sub-races' and must not prosper, for which sterilization and compulsory abortion are instruments to contain these fringes of the population.
'After Hitler, eugenics has not disappeared. It has been renewed,' said Edwin Black in his recently published book 'The War Against the Weak -- Eugenics and the North American Campaign to Create a Superior Race.' "
BBC NEWS | In Depth | Election issues guide
BBC NEWS | In Depth | Election issues guide
Where the main candidates stand on 10 key issues
Republican
Democrat
Independent
BBC NEWS | Business | Can Kerry beat Bush on the economy?
BBC NEWS | Business | Can Kerry beat Bush on the economy?
"The question marks arise over Mr Kerry's second firm proposal. He says he would cut the public deficit by half over four years. To help do that, he would require any government spending increases to be covered by revenue increases.
Concessions
The difficulty would come if the economy refused to grow. Would President Kerry have the stomach to cut public spending? "
US government to open national bank of "approved" embryonic stem cells
bmj.com Hopkins Tanne 329 (7459): 190: "The issue is heating up. Last week the Wall Street Journal reported some scientists were starting a campaign against President Bush, partly because of his policies on embryonic stem cell research (15 July, p A4), and a widely watched Public Broadcasting System programme, News Hour with Jim Lehrer also covered the debate on stem cell research. The New England Journal of Medicine published three articles discussing the pros and cons of embryonic stem cell research and the role of market forces (NEJM 2004; 351: 207-213). "
Joseph Perkins -- Embryonic stem cell research is wrong
SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Joseph Perkins -- Embryonic stem cell research is wrong
"But President Bush is not stopping Goldstein, or any other scientist, from conducting stem cell research. That is, as long as the research uses adult stem cells or one or more of the 78 existing embryonic stem cell lines the president authorized three years ago.
However, if a scientist wants to conduct medical experiments using embryonic stem cells that are not among the 78 existing lines authorized by Bush, he or she must do so without federal funding."
Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity: Ron Reagan Misguided on Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Cloning
Yahoo! News - Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity: Ron Reagan Misguided on Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Cloning
"President of The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity John Kilner, Ph.D. responded, 'History is littered with misguided attempts to relieve suffering by cutting ethical corners. All that Ron Reagan advocated can be achieved through adult stem cell research. But he amazingly never mentioned adult stem cells. Instead, his misleading language covered up the fact that producing the cells he seeks requires cloning human beings and then destroying them. Cloning and killing are too high an ethical price to pay, particularly when there is another safe way to develop the same cures.'"
Gothamist: For the Pizza Loving Republican - GOPizza
Gothamist: For the Pizza Loving Republican - GOPizza
"With less than a month until the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden, the editors of Slice (Gothamist's favorite pizza site) have released GOPizza.net for the thousands of people in town for the convention. No news on whether there will be an Counter Convention pizza site from Slice. Now on the site, those hailing from the nether-regions of the country can learn how to order pizza in New York - it's a slice, stupid - and learn how to hold your pizza."
BostonHerald.com - Opinion: Kerry flips on Iraq war . . .
BostonHerald.com - Opinion: Kerry flips on Iraq war . . .
"A nomination acceptance speech is really just one giant sales job. Which John Kerry [related, bio] will the nominee be selling tonight?
Will it be the Kerry who voted to authorize the war in Iraq and once denounced Saddam Hussein as a `terrorist?'
The candidate who asserted there was only an ``outside chance'' to settle the Iraq conflict diplomatically? Who questioned `the backbone' of key allies such as France? Who said in 1998, long before it was on most politicians' radar screens, that the U.S. had to `be prepared to go the distance' on Iraq? "
Heinz kerry's speech seen as reinforcing image
Quad-City Times Newspaper Online - the Quad-Cities Home Page
" 'Stacked up against Laura Bush, she’s going to be a very difficult sell,' said Mort Kondracke.
.
The reviews weren’t much better in the rest of the media. While a few pundits defended U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s wife as refreshingly unorthodox, her moment in the FleetCenter spotlight seemed to crystallize the media portrait of her as a bit of an oddball."
2000 Florida recount haunts Democrat convention delegates
Naples Daily News: Florida
"BOSTON — The memories of the dimpled chads in Florida just won't go away."
IF ELECTED: CAMPAIGNING FOR THE PRESIDENCY
Welcome to The New-York Historical Society
"IF ELECTED: CAMPAIGNING FOR THE PRESIDENCY
In August and September, 2004, New York City will host the Republican Party's national convention for the first time in its history. The New-York Historical Society will mark that occasion, and this year's presidential election, with an exhibition that examines the history of American presidential elections since the time of George Washington, through the lens of campaign ephemera and other items of material culture. If Elected: Campaigning for the Presidency will be on view from June 29 through November 3, 2004."
Directions
The New-York Historical Society is located at
170 Central Park West
Tel. (212) 873-3400
Subway: B or C to 81st Street
Bus: M10 to 77th Street; M79 to 81st and CPW
Public Parking Garages are located at 203 West 77th Street, 207 76th Street or 201 West 75th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam.
New Exhibit on Old Campaigns Shows Politics As Usual
VOANews.com
"As Democrats and Republicans prepare to formally nominate their presidential candidates for the upcoming 2004 election, a new exhibit traces the colorful history of American political campaigns. As Leah Krakinowski reports from VOA's New York Bureau, the show at New York's Historical Society shows politics have not changed much since George Washington was elected the first president of the United States."
Study: Number of Protestants in US Declines
Arts & Culture: VOANews.com
"The other major shift has been in the category of those who say they are not affiliated with any religion. That group has grown in the last decade from nine percent to close to 14 percent. Survey director Tom Smith says the decline in church membership mirrors a similar decline in membership in clubs and social organizations in recent years. Sociologists have a term for this trend, calling it a reduction in social capital.
Social capital refers to the institutions, relationships and norms that shape the quality of society's interactions. It is sometimes called the glue that holds societies together. That glue, says Mr. Smith, no longer seems as strong as it once was in America."
CNN.com - Kennedy: Kerry a leader worthy of our country - Jul 27, 2004
CNN.com - Kennedy: Kerry a leader worthy of our country - Jul 27, 2004: "BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Rousing the Democratic faithful in his home city Tuesday night, Sen. Edward Kennedy said the November election will be the most important of his long political career, exhorting 'patriots of this new century' to prevent 'four more years of dreams denied and promises unfilled and progress rolled back.'"
CNN.com - Key points of Edwards' speech - Jul 28, 2004
CNN.com - Key points of Edwards' speech - Jul 28, 2004: "(CNN) -- In his speech Wednesday night to the Democratic National Convention, Sen. John Edwards offered a number of specifics of what he and Sen. John Kerry would do if elected. Here are the highlights."
Text of John Edwards' Convention Speech
ABCNEWS.com : Text of John Edwards' Convention Speech
Text of a Speech by Sen. John Edwards Wednesday Night at the Democratic National Convention
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Ban Human Cloning
NCHLA: "On January 29, 2003, Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) introduced the Human Cloning Prohibition Act (S. 245). This measure has 27 other cosponsors and was referred to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. S. 245 is a genuine ban on human cloning and is identical to H.R. 534, the measure passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on February 27, 2003. Human cloning may not be used to bring the clones to live birth or to experiment on the young clones to obtain their stem cells, a process that destroys them."
The New Eugenics: Cloning and Beyond
By: Therese M. Lysaught, Ph.D.
"Advocates of ESCR and human cloning are savvy marketers. They have learned from the past fifteen years of developments in biotechnology—especially from the Human Genome Project and the field of gene 'therapy'—that the way to overcome public opposition to a highly controversial new venture is to cast it in the language of therapy. The language of therapy functions rhetorically as an argument in itself; no further argument need be offered."
[but]
we face what one might call the problem of the *therapeutic bait-and-switch.* Once public support has been won and techniques have been developed, new technologies tend to become detached from their therapeutic moorings and be made available for decidedly non-therapeutic purposes. One need only think of the 'Microsort' sperm-sorting technology, originally developed to aid persons bearing X-linked chromosomal disorders but immediately offered to those who wanted to 'balance' the genders of their children. Or the potential to use gene 'therapy' to treat baldness, a possibility that was heralded in 1999 as a fortuitous outcome of research. Or Botox—the botulism toxin that was originally developed to treat spasmodic conditions of the eyes, but off-label has become the treatment of choice among the cosmetic surgery set, comprising twenty percent of all cosmetic surgery interventions done in the U.S. annually.
Should 'therapeutic cloning' move forward, how would we guarantee that embryos were created and destroyed only in service of the great and noble good of therapy? What 'off-label uses' would be developed in the private sector? The history of government regulation hardly instills confidence here..."
Begotten Not Made: A Catholic View of Reproductive Technology
This article offers a perspective about this controversy.
Why IVF is Wrong
"Human beings bear the image and likeness of God. They are to be reverenced as sacred. Never are they to be used as a means to an end, not even to satisfy the deepest wishes of an infertile couple. Husbands and wives 'make love,' they do not 'make babies.' They give expression to their love for one another, and a child may or may not be engendered by that act of love. The marital act is not a manufacturing process, and children are not products. Like the Son of God himself, we are the kind of beings who are 'begotten, not made' and, therefore, of equal status and dignity with our parents.
In IVF, children are engendered through a technical process, subjected to 'quality control,' and eliminated if found 'defective.' In their very coming into being, these children are thoroughly subjected to the arbitrary choices of those bringing them into being. In the words of Donum Vitae: 'The connection between in vitro fertilization and the voluntary destruction of human embryos occurs too often. This is significant: through these procedures, with apparently contrary purposes, life and death are subjected to the decision of man, who thus sets himself up as the giver of life and death by decree.' The document speaks of 'the right of every person to be conceived and to be born within marriage and from marriage.' To be within and from marriage, conception should occur from the marriage act which by its nature is ordered toward loving openness to life, not from the manipulations of technicians."
Is stem-cell research moral?
Is stem-cell research moral?: "In vitro fertilization is not the only way to obtain stem cells. They can be extracted from adults (not as usable for research) or from an umbilical cord after a child is born. The Catholic Church has no objection to research using stem cells in those ways. The use of that research is a separate, but related, moral issue."
Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | The real reasons Bush went to war
Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | The real reasons Bush went to war: "WMD was the rationale for invading Iraq. But what was really driving the US were fears over oil and the future of the dollar "
Twelve-Year-Old Wows Convention Delegates
Twelve-Year-Old Wows Convention Delegates: "BOSTON (AP) - Twelve-year-old Ilana Wexler had some advice for Vice President Dick Cheney: You need a timeout. The Democrats loved it. Ilana, who founded a grassroots group called kidsforkerry.org, was rewarded last week with a phone call from Teresa Heinz Kerry inviting her to address the Democratic National Convention."
Condoms Do Not Prevent HPV
Concerned Women for America - CDC Reports: Condoms Do Not Prevent HPV
"In a critically important report to Congress, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Department of Health and Human Services recently released its findings that condoms do not protect against human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that is the primary cause of nearly all cervical cancer."