Grateful Dead

"TOKYO: Tokyo Electric Power, the utility that operates the Japanese nuclear plant devastated two years ago by an earthquake and tsunami, is scrambling to build more tanks to safely store radioactive water after leaks were found at makeshift pits." "We've been told it's an emergency situation and we have to speed up the construction of the water tanks any way we can," said a worker at the plant who declined to be named as he is not authorized to speak to the media." "There are a lot of makeshift fixes. They are walking a tightrope from one jerry-rigged fix to another," he said at the site, now a cluster of ramshackle buildings and exposed steel girders on Japan's northeastern coast." (Go to Reuters for the full story) Building containment for all the radioactive seawater and other substances at the six unit nuclear facility is proving to be a greater headache than the utility expected.

It took the families of Sandy Hook victims going to Republican Senators offices, but it looks like there will be a brief attempt at filibuster in the Senate before the bill gets an up or down vote. Yeah Obama Yeah America Don't disavow baby steps.

Childless couples who are looking for a surrogate and can't afford the going rate of 100k in the US are looking to India for a cheaper way. For about 25k a doctor in a village is providing prenatal care and nutrition to healthy women for being surrogate mothers. The surrogate gets to keep eight thousand dollars, a potentially life-changing sum of money in rural India. The women are confined to the facility for the nine months it takes to carry the baby where they receive prenatal medical care and food. Although this particular doctor, a woman, seems to be making it work out quite well the fear is the situation is ripe for abuse by those more interested in profit than the mutual benefit of all involved.

How could anybody be against the mild, common sense solution brought forth in the form of the current legislation? If you live in a red state and aren't making your opinion known...

In The Eastern prefecture of Amdo in Tibet, in a deeply deforested area of hillsides, the 110th and 111th Tibetans self-immolated in an act of defiance and protest against the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Lhamo Kyab and Kalkyi, in their late 30 or early 40s either poured petrol over themself or set up a wooden fire to sit in. These acts of defiance against the Chinese government have been going since 2/09. Tibetans have no other outlet for their sheer frustration and poor treatment they are so tightly controlled by the large Chinese militart and paramilitary presence. Those who take this nonviolent tactic are called terrorists. Every so often I give a little update of the genocide being continued on the Tibetan Plateau by the Chinese. These darkest times are hard to find one good quality in. But there is one, impermanence. This situation will inevitably change. This is my part to make this go viral like child-soldiers and Josef Kony of central Africa. ~ One way or another This darkness got to give ~

Rules over common sense most of the time when a college has large in/outdoor stadiums. Sandusky was a ridiculous pedophile. Don't know Rice's story...

Man, it must be so totally awesome to be a college athletics coach in this country! Not only can you molest little children while on university grounds but you can abuse your athletes physically, verbally, and mentally to boot?! Where do I sign up? I swear, it disgusts me what people in these kinds of positions are allowed to get away with. First the Jerry Sandusky scandal, which strangely got shouldered on Joe Paterno, and now Rutgers coach Mike Rice? What disturbs me the most is that this kind of behavior is ignored when it's brought to the attention of the board running the school, but when it gets into the media? All hell breaks loose! As it should, but why do these people get to keep their jobs? Because they run part of the athletics department? Are sports really THAT important? Injecting a little logic into this equation, both coaches should have been fired immediately--Sandusky out of a cannon and into the sun--and not been merely slapped on the wrist if reprimanded at all. I will say this, though: If my child was one of Rice's--or Sandusky's--athletes, whatever disciplinary action taken against the coach would PALE IN COMPARISON to what I did to him....

Totally, but I'm not even expecting the piece of crap legislation Reid is trundling around with in the Senate to pass.

10% of the population in Damascus is Christian. They are protected from the Muslim majority by Assad. When Assad falls the more radical Muslims who will take over will kill all the Christians. These Christians are brave people to stay in Syria and from the look in their eyes it is easy to see that they are fully prepared to die for their religion. This is insane. Not being willing to die for your religion, but the reprisals against them.

What I find most sickening is how quickly conspiracy theories were given wings and spread like wildfire. How there were supposedly other shooters, that it was an Obama-designed anti-gun death squad, that the parents were faking being emotionally distraught, etc. Stinks of an NRA-spun campaign to boost sales of soon-to-be-banned firearms and ammunition...not that they needed it. As we've mentioned here before, the sales of firearms and ammo have skyrocketed since Sandy Hook without the aid of conspiracies. It's just disgusting. I'm with slo, I don't see how the NRA lobbyists or, better yet, Wayne laPierre, can sleep at night. Reminds me of the depiction of the tobacco company execs from the TRUTH ads several years ago. What it really shows is how the almighty dollar is the greatest, most all-powerful god in America, Jesus and the Lord himself be damned. And while we're on the topic, did anyone read that article about the NRA a few months ago in "Rolling Stone"? Scary, scary stuff if it's true. Now one--and I mean NO ONE--should have that much political influence in this country. If it's true, of course, and I find myself becoming more and more skeptical about...well, EVERYTHING.