"The middle class voting Republican these days is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders." - T. Smith

A front-page story in the New York Times strongly suggests that Roger Ailes--the News Corp executive who runs the Fox News Channel, the Fox Business Network, and Fox broadcast stations--urged a witness to lie to federal officials in order to protect friend and politician Rudolph Giuliani. http://ping.fm/nbefP

Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week

~ Spanish Proverb

Let the object draw the picture using the ink brush as a tool.

~ Chinese saying

Here’s the problem: Wall Street banks have been gambling on what they think future energy costs will be. Traders who think energy prices will increase bid higher and higher on these “energy futures.” This activity can create a self-fulfilling prophesy – and make energy prices go up for you and me. Take action HERE http://ping.fm/eMlHV

Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.

~ Martin H. Fischer

Hey Fascist Koch Brothers stop worrying about more money than you need and get a clue http://ping.fm/yUqap

"Its up to you mankind - have a soul or steal a buck," Paul Burke

According to a USA Today/Gallup poll, a strong majority of Americans support the collective bargaining rights of unions. 61 percent of those queried would oppose a law in their state like that being proposed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

President Obama gave $329,100, or 5.9 percent of his income, to 40 different charities in 2009.

In addition to killing collective bargaining rights over pensions for public employees, Walker wants to hike taxes on public employees for their pension fund. A pension plan who's 'funding ratio' is 99.8 percent. The Government Accountability Office says an 80 percent ratio is considered healthy, while Fitch Ratings targets 70 percent.

I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her.

~ Ellen DeGeneres

Goodnight Red Dog! You lived a full life - say hi to Duane and Berry and we'll see you where the infinite and finite come together....Brother!

Top 5: Why Wisconsin Matters To You

Thousands are rallying in Wisconsin and across the nation to oppose conservative governors who are attacking the collective bargaining rights of our civil servants. And the people in the streets are not just public sector union members.

Why? Why are so many who are not part of a union so committed to protecting the role of organized workers in our government and our economy?

1. Weak Economies Need More Demand: Our economy is struggling and our state budgets are distressed because increased unemployment and falling home prices have reduced economic demand. Weakening the ability of any workers to negotiate fair pay and secure retirements will only weaken demand further, hurting the overall economy.

2. Strong Standards Strengthen The Middle Class. When public sector workers can negotiate for fair pay, healthy workplaces and secure retirements, that puts pressure on private sector CEOs to do the same, or else they risk losing talent to the public sector. Making public sector work less inviting does nothing to make private sector jobs pay better. We need to raise the bar, not lower it.

3. Decent Government Pay Means Decent Government: Most everyone wants our federal, state and local governments to function effectively. That means being able to attract skilled, productive workers with fair pay, healthy workplaces and secure retirements, all of which will be lost if public workers can no longer bargain for their compensation packages.

4. Public Employees Are Not The Problem: Study after study shows the public employees do not receive extravagant compensation, and that the problems with state public pension systems are largely overblown. State budgets are reeling from an economic recession caused by reckless Wall Street speculators, top end tax cuts and corporate tax avoidance. The projected shortfalls in public retirement benefits derive mostly from skyrocketing health care costs thanks to private insurers, and poorly performing pension investments thanks to deregulated Wall Street firms.

Furthermore, civil servants in Wisconsin and elsewhere have repeatedly said they are willing to make concessions regarding pay and benefits. Unlike conservative corporate executives, they have proven their willingness to share the sacrifices. What we can't negotiate is their right to negotiate.

5. Scapegoating Lets The Culprits Get Away: Right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers are pumping millions into a nationwide effort to break the public employee unions. Why would they bother? Because if they can get most people to blame public employees for the nation's economic ills, they won't hold irresponsible corporations accountable and force the ultra-rich to make any sacrifices, such as higher taxes and tougher regulations.

Now that you know why the assault on public employee unions affects us all, what can we do about it?

Sign The Petition: The AFL-CIO has a petition supporting fair pay and worker rights, to be delivered to all 50 state legislatures.

Attend A Rally: SEIU and Justice With Janitors both have compiled lists of rallies taking place all across the country this week.

Forward This: Share with your friends, neighbors and colleagues the reasons why we all should care about the attack on our civil servants.

This is a critical moment in our nation's history. Will we be a nation where workers can thrive, or where workers are nickel and dimed? Will we have a vibrant economy that works for all, or will we have a stagnant economy that serves the few?

Now's the time to stand up.

Sincerely,

Bill Scher, Online Campaign Manager
Campaign for America's Future

I would like to paint the way a bird sings.

~ Claude Monet

Right now, 70,000 teachers, nurses, and other regular hard-working Americans are in the streets in front of the state capital demanding Republican Gov. Scott Walker end his attack on working families.

How to Save Ourselves From the 'Save PBS' Routine 2/18/11

Repost from FAIR
____________________

It is as predictable as can be: Invigorated Republican politicians announce their intention to kill public broadcasting, which they claim is a bastion of liberal bias. Defenders of NPR and PBS step in to defend the system. The Republicans, who were unlikely to win a vote on their plan, retreat for the moment. Public broadcasting is "saved." (See Slate, 2/10/11.)

The public broadcasting fight of 2011 is playing out the same way. A more productive discussion of public broadcasting is sorely needed--one that is not reduced to "save it" or "kill it."

The purpose of public broadcasting is clear: to promote ideas and perspectives that are ignored or underrepresented in the commercial media. As the 1967 Carnegie Commission put it, it should "provide a voice for groups in the community that may otherwise be unheard," serve as "a forum for controversy and debate," and broadcast programs that "help us see America whole, in all its diversity." How well public broadcasting is living up to those ideals should be the principal test for gauging its value.

Most of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) funding under question goes to local stations, but much of the discussion on both sides revolves around familiar national programming. Some shows represent a good faith effort to live up to the vision laid out by the Carnegie Commission. But as FAIR's decades of research has shown, others--like the PBS NewsHour--do not, relying on sources and perspectives that mimic the corporate-owned media (Extra!, 11/10). If anything, the attacks from the right serve to make room for additional conservative voices on PBS. As FAIR pointed out (Extra!, 9-10/05), "A rival to Fox News Channel could be launched with the list of conservatives who have hosted or produced shows on public television over the years."

So what would be a better way? The CPB was intended to insulate public broadcasters from political pressure, acting as a "heat shield." The fact that this tired routine is upon us once again is proof that it does not serve that function. To the contrary, the CPB has long been used as a political tool to encourage certain kinds of programming and discourage others. (Funneling grants to local stations was considered a good way to develop more conservative programming in the Nixon administration.) During the Bush years, the CPB encouraged right-wing PBS shows to counter alleged liberal bias--giving us Tucker Carlson and the Wall Street Journal's hard right editorial page on public television, supported by public money (FAIR Action Alert, 9/17/04).

Publicly funded media is something worth fighting for at a local and national level. But the politics of the current fight are clear: The right calls for budget cuts because it says NPR and PBS are too left-wing. Liberal defenders weigh in to defend the CPB budget, making few or no demands on public broadcasters. This all but guarantees that public broadcasting will continue to be pushed to the right, and further away from its intended mission. As FAIR described the dynamic (Extra!, 9-10/05):



With each successive attack from the right, public broadcasting becomes weakened, as programmers become more skittish and public TV's habit of survival through capitulation becomes more ingrained.

Even if full CPB funding were restored and political cronies like Ken Tomlinson removed from their posts, the same potential for using the CPB appropriation process as a tool to force public broadcasting further to the right would still exist. If recent history is any guide, it would only be a matter of time until PBS would need to be saved once again—most likely at the cost of yet more concessions to the right.

What's needed is a truly independent funding mechanism--as FAIR and others have called for over the years (6/8/06). A 1.5 percent dedicated tax on TV advertising, for example, would provide $1 billion a year for a public broadcasting system that would be truly free from both commercial pressures and political interference. Such a system would have a good chance of living up to the Carnegie Commission's ideals.

Certainly, public broadcasting supporters should demand a whole lot more than the status quo. If the energy behind the campaigns to "save" the CPB were dedicated to building support for an independent public trust, we could build the kind of public media system the country deserves.

Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.

Eight-year-old

And as to me, I know nothing else but miracles.

~ Walt Whitman

The sun will not rise, or set, without my notice and thanks.

~ Winslow Homer

What you give you get, ten times over.

~ Yoruba Proverb

The House Republican budget for the remainder of FY11 contains a little provision blocking the Federal Reserve from transferring more than $80 million to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CR also goes after funding for the SEC and the derivatives regulator - just so you know exactly who is on "YOUR" side.

I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.

~ Mother Teresa

Sixty minutes of thinking of any kind is bound to lead to confusion and unhappiness.

~ James Thurber

Any exercise also among others, with groups, is well for the body. As there is the desire for more companionship, use it - the companionship - for creative influences; a living thankfulness to the Creative Forces for the OPPORTUNITIES for a service in this world. For, as ye do unto others, ye do unto thy Maker.

Edgar Cayce Reading 2514-3

"When those are used that make for envyings or strife, or that any would lord himself over his fellow man, or that the advantage would be taken of those that are weak...these must bring doubt, fear, consternation in the experience of the mental bodies of those that do such - and disease, disruption, disorders of every nature in the physical bodies of such.

Edgar Cayce Reading 531-1

Any choice made by an individual is to be worked at.

Edgar Cayce Reading 930-2

What I have to say about this book can be found inside the book.

~ Albert Einstein

For one human being to love another...the work for which all other work is but preparation.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.

~ J. Robert Oppenheimer

. . . the church is within yourself and not in any pope nor preacher, nor in any building but in self! For thy body is indeed the temple of the living God, and ...becomes a personal companion in mind and in body; dependent upon the personality and individuality of the entity as it makes practical application...

Edgar Cayce Reading 5125-1

Beauty is everywhere, but one may see the beautiful view and the other sees a dirty window. You have the power within you to choose what you see, what you think and what you paint.

~ Leanne Cadden

Stunning Statistics of the Week:

* $1.2 million: The amount that congressional Republicans collected toward the end of the midterms for a new fundraising committee called the Founders Joint Candidate Committee
* 30: The number of families who contributed that amount
* 2.5: The number of weeks it took to collect that cash
* $31,170: The average amount collected from each donor

The Congressional pension program is rarely mentioned on Capitol Hill. Taxpayers are expected to foot the bill for around $26 million in pensions to former Members who are already millionaires and billionaires, but lets cut grandma's social security. What a bunch of sh*t stains.

Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.

~ Joseph Wood Krutch

But if ye are attempting to have thy physical body doing just as it pleases, thy mental body controlled by "What will other people say?" and thy spiritual body and mind shelved only for good occasions and for the good impressions that you may make occasionally, there cannot be other than confusion!

Edgar Cayce Reading 1537-1

At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.

~ Jean Houston

"Having to squeeze the last drop of utility out of the land has the same desperate finality as having to chop up the furniture to keep warm."

–Aldo Leopold

It's the environment that creates the jobs industry is just the middle man...Paul Burke

Planetary Discipline - The Environment Creates Jobs

The old canard jobs versus the environment is such a bunch of bullshit as if jobs have been added by polluting industries.

The fact of the matter remains that corporations are looking to cut cost, and labor is the first to go along with waste management. If they can get away with it they flush their waste into the water, and air and look the other way. There's more profit if you do not have to actually hire people to install the clean up devices or do the job of the actual clean up, and more profit if you are somehow not responsible for the waste, mess, toxins that are a byproduct of your particular industry from cigarette filters to nuclear waste, and do not have to clean up after yourself.

Mountain top removal and the coal industry comes to mind. The coal industry are uber polluters, and the first ones to justify their reckless pollution by campaigning that environmental clean up responsibilities hurt job creation.

Jobs versus the environment. Its total bullshit and in fact the opposite is the truth. Lets look at it logically and look at what has really happened after decades of the "jobs versus the environment" chant and mantra of the dirty energy industry.

So big coal gets all sorts of legislative favors. The EPA is instructed to look the other way and laws go unenforced or even repealed all because of the "jobs versus the environment" chant. So what happened did the coal industry hire thousands of people for the right to pollute our water streams, destroy our eco-system and spew toxins into the air? For all the environmental forgiving we have done the coal industry actually CUT jobs.

That's right. They didn't hire more workers they fired massive numbers of coal miners and devised new cheaper ways to get at the coal lines. What new super efficient technology did they invent? They devised to lay off coal miners and just blow the tops of the mountains clear off and dump the debris into the valleys destroying homes, vistas, fauna and becoming even more offensive environmentally by heaping even more devastation onto the environment.

They actually increased their pollution liability.

The next time someone says jobs versus the environment holler bullshit right in their face. Because what industry really wants is less labor "and" less environmental liability and responsibility, because their goal is not to provide jobs but to provide profit.

If industry including coal was environmentally responsible, decreased their environmental liability by cleaning it up instead of buying legislation to avoid that responsibility, and actually cleaned up after itself it would require MAN POWER to do that job.

Like wise the switch to a green energy industry format requires MAN POWER to retrofit the transmission lines and build the new infrastructure.

Paying for that MANPOWER cuts into the bottom line of their quarterly reports and profit margins.

And since no one industry calculates profit on a macro-economic scale they never take into account what all the MANPOWER hired would do for the nation as a whole.

You and I know because we are not so concerned with one industries profit margins. We as a nation and a people are concerned with jobs, their availability, how much they pay and can we survive on them while living in this country. That's not industries concern which means whats good for GM - lower pay, fewer workers isn't necessarily good for the country.

In fact whats good for industry is bad for the country. The lack of oversight, the lack of regulation, the lack of a livable wage all increase corporate profit but DESTROY our Country from sea to shining sea.

Industry doesn't want to hire more MANPOWER because it cuts into their profit.

Industry wants to eliminate everything they can including manpower, and planetary discipline because it cuts into the profits they receive from making goods and services. The polluting byproduct of those goods and services are not profitable so if they can walk away from them or wash them downstream or make the tax payers responsible for the clean up then they get to pay themselves more money. Your health and the devastation of someone else's industry or livelihood is your tough shit. That's no way to run a civilization.

So lets understand once and for all protecting the environment creates jobs. Regulation creates jobs because it requires MANPOWER. The struggle today as it has always been is profit over responsibility.

Polluted waters down stream are the responsibility of the offending industry whether its big agriculture, coal, nuclear, oil, gas or pharmaceutical. That's right there are pharmaceuticals coursing through the water supply and food supply as well.

What we lack in all of our business and governing models is PLANETARY DISCIPLINE. We harvest what the planet has to offer in a mad frenzy for a quick buck, but we don't protect and provide for that very foundation that gives us our natural resources in the first place. We don't have the right mindset (greed and a quick buck) or there would never be an overfishing issue, or clear cutting issues or even issues regarding wildlife as they are an integral part in maintaining the environment.

Why do we not understand that the planet is our home base in which everything springs from and returns. We can not pollute, devastate, lay barren the air, water and food supply without without polluting, devastating and laying barren ourselves.

We have to have discipline when it comes to commerce and industry not only toward the bottom line but towards that to which we harvest, and live upon.

Look at all the examples of unregulated profit seeking around the world from Hatti to Somalia to Easter Island to the global fiscal meltdown. When unregulated, un-managed harvest of natural resources strips out the timber, depletes the fishing and ruins the air there is disaster, flooding and ruin on a global scale.

We can not continue to pump mercury, dioxins, and alter the genetics of our farming and food supply without consequences coming home to roost in our own body and in our own economy.

Planetary discipline is needed to frame every decision. Would the coal companies have gone ahead with mountain top removal if they knew they were going to be responsible for cleaning up the valleys? Would they continue to pump all that mercury into the air if they knew they would be responsible for global warming, the downwind asthma and health ramifications they have caused? If the coal industry operated under the assumption that they were responsible for the waste that they created they wouldn't create so much of it, and that truth holds true for every industry. What they spend in lobbying to avoid their responsibility would more than fix the problem in the first place, but they are stuck in an adversarial mindset.

We need to factor in planetary discipline into our hunt for profit. That discipline will create jobs and enable the middle class to support the overall economy.

Without planetary discipline, and integrity for ones own actions there are fewer jobs created and economic collapse.

The old canard jobs versus the environment has it exactly backwards.

It's the environment that creates the jobs industry is just the middle man.

"They want to shrink government to be just small enough to fit inside our bedrooms and our medicine cabinets," Naral president Nancy Keenan

Religion Equals Racism

Face it people each and every separate religious sect, cult, parish, congregation is a giant exclusionary club where you have to become "members". Now on the face of it I am not downing well meaning people. But there is nothing well meaning about saying one religion is right and that there is only one way to reach heaven, nirvana, enlightenment, salvation, or heaven. As long as we have religions who wage war with each other and vie for power and control they are all exclusionary racists.

Demanding my way or the highway or we'll vote against you, blow you up, shoot you, invade your country is just a pre-text for power and wealth. Organized religion is corrupt. Inside all of the churches, synagogues, temples, mosques are men. They are just men. They do not have any special powers. They do not have any special communications with creation. They are just men who put on airs and robes and turbans and light candles and perform rituals. You are bowing down to equals whether you like it or not.

Their actions just like your own define who they are. If they manipulate seekers, well meaning believers, people who choose to have faith in the actions of other men, people who need to follow because they lack the independence and faith in their own self, those who do not realize they are no less and no greater than all that lays before them, then they are evil incarnate.

If they gather resources to help one another without a litmus test then they are doing a good thing. It is the actions of men as groups and individuals that define their worthiness to organize and not blindly follow without question. For one thing is sure we have been given brains to use them and not to turn them off. You have a responsibility and birth right to use your brain, keep your own counsel and listen to your own conscience. The voice within may be the very god you are seeking.

Exclusionary, hateful, the Catholic Church doesn't endorse condoms for decades while the HIV virus is out there spreading, and their poor members trying to tow the line of whatever whims their man made edict form. The followers so submissive as to curry favor of those that wear robes and those who lend credence to the stature of the robes become openly vulnerable to misguided and counter-intuitive actions. Scientology, Mormonism all man made religions requiring weird behavior and tons of money from those that feel the need to join and belong to something. Taking advantage and doesn't Katie Holmes just look shell shocked and beaten down the light in her eyes gone and her smile tortured. This is religion? No this is mind control, this is power seeking to increase its power.

In the end people will believe what they want to believe. That so many choose to believe in a tossed off plot for an unwritten science fiction novel shouldn't come as any great surprise compared to scores of virgins waiting for you after you blow yourself up.

Why does anyone of us need more than the facts at hand to understand the wonderment of our collective existence. We're vulnerably floating in space people with just a thin atmosphere between life and death. You need more than that to act right to be well behaved, to be civilized and treat people the way you would want to be treated. Not one of us put this Earth here. Not one of us populated it with the natural world. For anyone man to act as if he had all the answers a direct line to some sort of god responsible for all of this is ludicrous. As soon as you hear that go the other way as fast as you can and take your wallet with you because that guy is up to no good.

There is no justification for harming others whether its withholding access to birth control or blowing a doctors brains out because your religion teaches you that every sperm is sacred. It may well be but so is each individual and so is each choice an individual makes, and the reason behind those choices. That's what makes abortion right or wrong. The reasons behind the actions all of the actions that lead up to that circumstance and the choices and reasons that lay before the individual in their moment and in their world not yours.

There is no excuse for blowing up peaceful citizens on their way to market, or work. There is no excuse for hanging men from tree branches even if you do burn a cross at the same time.

Religion equals racism in that it seeks to exclude, manipulate and use the weak all over the world. Its exploitation and excels at fear mongering, group think and repression.

Religion is mental slavery. Where is this heaven that we are all supposed to go to and revel in the promised land of peace and prosperity where every wish, want and joy is answered and why can't we do it here on earth right now? Maybe we are getting our purpose confused with our destination?

It seems to me that's the real point of it all. Can man get past his selfish pursuits of power and individual glory, and conquer not each other but ourselves and our selfish desires and hateful impulses. Whether he dresses himself up in robes or sleeps on a bed of gold he's just a man without any more of a clue than you or I. To the extent that he helps to create or destroy what has been laid out before us all on this planet is himself defined.

Too confused by ego, missing the whole point of it all and what would give it meaning and purpose lives are lived to do what gain wealth, power, control, acclaim, followers and minions? Ignoring the teachings of all those who would point to a more positive way we do justify the most horrid unspeakable actions in the name of religion.

Racism pure and simple, each culture having their own set of rules, dogmas, figureheads and myths pointing swords and guns at each other exclaiming you're wrong but only because they stand in the way of their worst pursuits.

Sorry dudes just because you dress up in robes doesn't mean you have a clue. The unanswerable is unanswerable perhaps by design to see what choices we make on our own.

The question is what are we all going to do about it? We can pretend none of it matters or we can step up to the plate, roll up our sleeves and start digging out of the ignorance we seem to revel in, or tear ourselves and our planet limb from limb. Rugged individualism is just an excuse for selfishness and exploitation and the lack of planetary discipline.

Religion is racism, an exclusionary power struggle and dictatorial in its practice and methods. To the extent that any good comes out of it is due to the actions of the actual people, human beings who do the good things and deeds. Its their deeds not their outfits that matter.

Figure heads, counsels, bishops, pastors, clerics and rabbis who claim a position of entitlement and authority above the rest of humanity because of some such special knowledge or position are in a word "wrong".

Obama's mistake is believing that the Chamber of Commerce shares the goal of a "great American middle class" -- the type of class that organizes into unions and demands more wages.

Doesn't "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected?

~ George Carlin

This is a world of action, and not for moping and groaning in.

~ Charles Dickens

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.

~ Marc Chagall

Breaking away from the illusion of market objectivity is the first step toward understanding capitalism.

Reagan helped create the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden.

Reagan vetoed a comprehensive anti-Apartheid act.

Reagan illegally funneled weapons to Iran.

Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants

Reagan did little to fight a woman’s right to choose

Reagan grew the size of the federal government tremendously

Unemployment soared after Reagan’s 1981 tax cuts.

Reagan nearly tripled the federal budget deficit.

As governor Reagan signed into law the largest tax increase in the history of any state. As president, he raised taxes in seven of his eight years in office.

The GOP is committed to the value of life, unless of course you're alive and pregnant.

My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to $3.00 a can. That's almost $21.00 in dog money. ~ Joe Weinstein

Solar World Round Up - 02/04/11

Listening to George Harrison's Brainwashed - seems oddly appropriate for what is going on in our mainstream press both here and across the world. Is Egypt's freedom movement of the disenfranchised middle class being co-opted? Gone are the middle class from the conflict replaced with a lot of kneeling and praying. That's religion and here we go autocracy swapped out for theocracy and freedom gets further buried by a different set of rules to enforce. It makes me want to hurl. Where were these guys a few days ago. I'm so sick of the power elites in religion and in commerce and their non-productive power struggles. The rest of us the majority of us are live and let live types but its always the assholes vying for power. What a bunch of douche bags.

As the new congress tries to legalize date rape and make the world safe for polluters where is their jobs bill? Not to worry democracy and capitalism aren't the same. The majority realize we have to have planetary discipline if we are to survive as a species.

Here's what the real heroes are up to:

Spreading renewable energy know-how around the globe
A key feature of RENAC is its Training Center with its fixed as well as mobile training facilities for photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind and energy ...

Roof-mounted solar assists in cooling too
by Candace Lombardi Conserval Engineering is testing a new product with the US Army based on its original solar thermal wall panels that could help cool a ...

Lux report: Concentrated solar power may see significant growth
... solar thermal technologies are here to stay and that the generation stack of the future will increasingly incorporate concentrating solar power (CSP) ...

Eco Environments to become Sharp's partner
by Mike Hughes, Evening Gazette THE world's leading solar power manufacturer has chosen a fast growing renewable energy company from Darlington to become ...


Concentrating solar power, microinverters: Siemens to develop molten salt test ...
The project is supported through the High-Performance Solar Thermal Power research project sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, ...

World's most efficient solar cells ready for use in the UK
We have solar PV panels and solar thermal panels on our roof in SW France. We generate half of our electricity needs and heating needs from the sun. ...

Positive signs from the core markets for concentrated solar thermal energy ...
In the scope of its solar energy promotion project, Morocco has tendered a solar-thermal power plant with a capacity of 125 MW. 19 consortia had applied for ...

US Solar Market Set To Expand Amid Falling Prices, Growing Supply
US renewable energy developer NextEra Energy (NEE) said it may switch one of two solar-thermal power plants it is developing in California to solar panels. ...

Green Buildings in Romania
But Otto says that using renewable energy such as wind turbines, biomass or thermal energy, or solar panels was “not pragmatic” for this Embassy design in ...

Sunvalley Solar to Commence Installation of Solar System for Aqua Farming Tech
... valued around $1375550 will incorporate 3140 solar panels manufactured by Tianwei Solarfilms and will generate 294.88 kW of clean solar energy. ...


Solar meets 2.65% of Spanish electricity demand in 2010

"The increase of renewable energy generation on the one hand, and the lower production from thermal power plants on the other, have contributed to a ...

Planetary Discipline !

Almost two thirds of Americans (63 percent) say the EPA needs to do more to hold polluters accountable and protect the air and water...Congress are you listening or is that dirty corporate money stuffed in your ears?

"Washington has been very anxious about what's happening here, but it shouldn't be. It should be happy. This will reduce terrorism. When people have their voice, they don’t need to explode themselves."

--Mohammed Fouad, an Egyptian software engineer. (Source: The Washington Post)

The willingness to try something new, that's what's made America a successful country...Blake Gopnik

Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by What is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him?

~ Pierre Troubetzkoy

Ayn Rand Quote Rebuttal

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."
— Ayn Rand -

This sounds like something Al Capone would say and the reason all your Acolytes are criminals and traitors.

_____________________________________________________

"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swaps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it's yours."
— Ayn Rand

Ayn you sound like another entitlement queen...."the life you deserve" News flash what you put out you get back your life's outcome is dictated by your actions and the intent of those actions.
________________________________________

"A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others." — Ayn Rand -

But Ayn all the biggest assholes who champion you that's all they want to do - beat the other guy, capture all the gold for themselves, cripple the competition, and consolidate the rest under their fiefdom (think Rupert Murdoch). When it comes to capitalism its all about beating the other guy and "eliminating" the competition. Politics is the same beat the other guy especially fervent if the other guy is any good then tear him down with a vengeance. Ayn all your acolytes want to do is beat the hippies. We scare them with our peace, love and understanding, that we share, and care about each other. It cripples their little winner take all minds and they take the opportunity to bully their way to the top with "beating" the other guy as their reason for living. These are your acolytes Ayn.

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....Show me the person they sleep with and I will tell you their valuation of themselves. No matter what corruption they're taught about the virtue of selflessness,sex is the most profoundly selfish of all acts, an act which they cannot perform for any motive but their own enjoyment - just try to think of performing it in a spirit of selfless charity! (try to think of it (?) really Ayn - who has to try - the whole point is to pleasure your partner and make them feel good and then you feel good to) - an act which is not possible in self-abasement, only in self-exultation, (self exultation - what narcissist tripe - in other words only when you are thinking of yourself can you bring real love and pleasure to someone else...people buy this crap your selling?)....only on the confidence of being desired and being worthy of desire (shallow!!!!). It is an act that forces them to stand naked in spirit, as well as in body, and accept their real ego as their standard of value (real ego as standard of value - ego=value - holly shit Ayn - ego is the abomination of real human value).

They will always be attracted to the person who reflects their deepest vision of themselves, (narcissistic tripe - Ayn never heard the phrase opposites attract - how are partnerships to bring out the best in both people if you are only looking for your own ego in the other person...step away from the water downed Freud Ayn - and have fun making love to yourself in a mirror)....the person whose surrender permits them to experience - or to fake - a sense of self-esteem ..Love is our response to our highest values (apparently those values are your ego and your own reflection - Ayn speak for yourself) - and can be nothing else." — Ayn Rand

The virtue of selflessness (helping others) is corruption -

You are one sick bitch Ayn.

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"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." — Ayn Rand

Sounds like Ayn dies alone, fails to cooperate with anyone and doesn't form any real synergy or bonds with family, friends, neighbors or co-workers...a nice vision for loneliness and foundation for hate - this woman's famous...man what a sick population we have.

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"The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see." — Ayn Rand

You mean like helping each other along the way to make it much easier and that fairer societies are more peaceful...

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"If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, (he doesn't exist) if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, (nice description of a murderer after a crime was committed) his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - What would you tell him?" (to get some help)

I…don't know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?" To shrug." (you mean like - you don't give a shit)— Ayn Rand

Hilarious psycho babble as if any one MAN could hold up the world - her whole life's view is based on a myth - now I see why self ego dominates her rants - she stands there and tells atlas to shrug as if his actions didn't matter, and that he was killing himself for nothing - she's a nihilist and a narcissist. And that whole Stephen King description of blood and trembling whoa Nelly that's a look behind the curtain - easy Ayn back away from the kitchen utensils.
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"I started my life with a single absolute: that the world was mine to shape in the image of my highest values and never to be given up to a lesser standard, no matter how long or hard the struggle." — Ayn Rand

Really "the world was mine"...did you put it here Ayn, did you make it, did you create it - talk about a lack of perspective.... too bad your highest values weren't more attuned to reality - the world isn't yours - we are guests born into this reality to harvest and govern our own actions upon it as we see fit either for our own survival or demise and in harmony with it and with each other or we are doomed....none of what she says makes sense unless your standards and values are ME,ME,ME,ME,ME...
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"Why do they always teach us that it's easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It's the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want." — Ayn Rand

Come on people you really need me to explain that a "child" does what it wants....it takes zero courage to be a selfish child - it takes courage to do the right thing - and it looks like Ayn spent her lifetime trying to pretend living for her ego trumped doing the right thing. If you are looking for a role model try Mother Teresa or Jane Goodall - this crackpot needed therapy.

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"Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing."
— Ayn Rand

Really Ayn - depend on nothing you can't even breath without air - to ask nothing = stupidity - to expect nothing = you become nothing - the truth of the matter is we all rely and depend on each other - every minute of the day - you get on an airplane - you depend on the pilot... you get in a car - you depend on the other drivers to stop at the red lights...we depend on the growing seasons for our food, we depend on the humble bumble bee to pollinate our food - this woman has it exactly wrong...Freedom is live and let live, freedom is do unto others as you would have them do unto you, freedom is not an absolute because we are not free from who we are, where we are or how we are or what we need to do to survive globally, interdependently and with each other.

Ayn's fixated ego and love of self tried for a life time to wrench herself away from reality as if she was god herself - needing no one, seeing no one other than herself - even when she looked into her lovers eyes - this is what you want to have for the foundation of our society, world and government - everybody get a gun and shoot each other - if you subscribe to Ayn Rand - if you are an acolyte - if you hold her words up to excuse your own poor behavior - you are not only a fool but you are dangerous to the rest of us on a magnitude much greater than Hitler.
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When I started this exercise I had no idea what to expect - as an independent thinker, loving person, caring individual who is also a business man and very spiritual not dogma specific but more dogma blended drawing from an array of philosophies. I can not believe what a damaged individual Ayn Rand is don't let those using the rantings of a severally disturbed, ego centric person as an excuse sell you that she and her philosophy are any kind of role model especially for the level of cooperation, understanding and integrity it is going to take to continue to exist as a race upon this planet.

Ayn Rand and her philosophies are a path to violence, war and extinction. The global market system is interdependent. Cooperation, ethics, and integrity are the touchstones to their success and the lack thereof guarantees failure.

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