Social Justice News, 10-13-06

Hey everybody,
Not much good news this week, I’m afraid. I did my best to balance it out, but it didn’t quite happen. The world is changing these days, and things are happening fast. I’ll try to find more good news for next week, I promise! But all of this is interesting and important so I didn’t want to leave anything out. So, to the news.

World Overshoot Day: Monday was the day on which we humans officially used up our ecological allotment for the year and begin living beyond our means. This means literally destroying the earth and her resources in order to support ourselves until January 1. The first World Overshoot day was in December of 1987. Now it’s in October. And human demand on the environment is growing by about 5.5% per annum. Currently we are about 30% into overshoot. A rule of thumb I remember from one of my eco books is that ecosystems tend collapse before the demands on them go beyond an overshoot of fifty percent. At our present rate of growth, that date would be: 2016.
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?content=overshoot

Balance the Wealth: This same group wants to balance the eco-wealth to prevent overshoot.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061013-footprint.html

655,000 Dead and Counting: The administration is dismissing this new study as ridiculous and flawed and that the official pentagon estimates are correct. Hmm, I have to wonder just who is more correct –military analysts who’ve never sat foot in Iraq and have every reason to lie, or researchers who went door to door inside the country to collect their data? Hello? When are people going to wake up? Have we become so inured to violence that numbers like these are no longer shocking?
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/10/D8KM6GL80.html

A Garbage Dump Twice the Size of Texas: So this is why all our garbage dumps haven’t filled up yet. We’ve been dumping lots of it in the Pacific Ocean. Now, that’s a real good way to deal with your garbage problem, isn’t it?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1011/p02s01-usgn.html

Forty Countries Face Food Shortages: Droughts, storms, and record temperatures have wreaked havoc on crop production world wide. The result is that more than forty countries may end up having food shortages this year. And the worst is Darfur –where a humanitarian disaster and genocide are all ready occurring.
http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Forty_countries_face_food_shortages_10092006.html

American Prison Camps Are on the Way: A few weeks ago I mentioned the detention camps being built by Halliburton on U.S. soil. Here’s a very good –and scary –story solely about them.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/42458/

Why Does Habeas Corpus Hate America? Keith Olbermann’s take on the Military Commissions Act.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/10/olbermann-why-does-habeas-corpus-hate-america/

Danger Will Robinson! Danger! Even back in the forties the dangers of radioactivity were well known. So, given that, can anyone tell me WHY are we shooting depleted uranium shells all over Iraq? The consequences of all that uranium dust will affect the Iraqi population for thousands of years –and our own troops as well.
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2006/09/26/01233.html

6,200 Acres to be Protected: And mostly prime coastal real estate no less. And why? To save an endangered mouse. I’m glad this is being done obviously, but I wonder how well the mouse will be protected when sea level rises at least 3 feet in the next hundred years? Hmm…
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061013/APN/610131854

More than two terms? Several congressman are trying to build momentum to repeal the 22 Amendment, which limits Presidents to only two terms. Of course, this wouldn’t apply to our current President, any more than the new term limits applied to FDR. Or would it? King George has all ready given himself retroactive immunity for war crimes so why wouldn’t he go all the way if given the chance, and plop on a crown?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52246

Government Joke of the Week: This joke has been circulating for a while, but in quite a different form. You can think JonnyFire of Fuuse.com for the rewrite (and the picture). (What I want to know is who was flying the plane????)
An airplane is about to crash. There are five passengers on board, but only four parachutes.
The first passenger says “I am Payton Manning, the greatest football player in the game. Millions and millions of fans worship me, I am that important to the game.” With that he grabs the first chute and jumps out of the plane.
The second passenger, Hillary Clinton, says “I am the wife of the former president of the United States. I’m a Senator from New York, and have a good chance of being the first woman elected to the office of President.” She grabs the second parachute and bails out of the plane.
The third passenger, George W. Bush, says “I am the President of the United States of America. I am the smartest president in the history of the country, and cannot shun the responsibility to my people by dying.” With that, he takes the third chute and jumps out of the plane too.
The fourth passenger, the Pope, says to the fifth passenger, a young school boy of about ten, “I am old. I have lived my life as a priest should and so I shall leave the last parachute for you. You have the rest of your life ahead of you.”
The little boy responds by saying “Don’t fret old man… there is a parachute for each of us! The smartest president just jumped out of the airplane with my backpack.”

Website of the week: The Simple Living Network http://www.simpleliving.net/main/

UU Joke of the Week: A Unitarian Universalist died, and to his surprise discovered that there was indeed an afterlife
The angel in charge of these things told him, "Because you were an unbeliever and a doubter and a skeptic, you will be sent to Hell for all eternity -- which, in your case, conists of a place where no one will disagree with you ever again!