Brehm and Bowers, a junior from Robinson, were arrested after officers responded to a report that a gun was fired about 4 a.m. near Taco Cabana, 825 S. Sixth St. Officers were told that someone shot a cat, put it in a sport utility vehicle and drove away, Waco police said.

The cat, which employees dubbed Queso, hung around the restaurant in search of food and kindness, police have said.

Officers stopped Bowers' Chevrolet Tahoe and saw what appeared to be blood on the door and steering wheel, according to police reports. Police found a severed, skinned cat's head in the back of the truck beneath some clothing, along with a pellet gun, a knife and a golf club that appeared to have cat hair on it.

McLennan County jury acquitted former Baylor University baseball player Derek Brehm of misdemeanor animal cruelty charges Tuesday in the shooting and decapitation of the stray cat called Queso.

Brehm flashed a big smile in the courtroom for the first time during the two-day trial and hugged his family and friends after the verdict was read.

The county court-at-law jury deliberated 55 minutes before clearing Brehm in the March 9, 2001, incident in which he and former Baylor outfielder Clint Bowers were arrested in Brehm's vehicle with a severed, skinned cat's head, a pellet gun, a knife and a golf club with blood and cat hair on it.

After Brehm's acquittal, prosecutor Crawford Long dismissed the animal cruelty charge against Bowers.

"The reason I dismissed the charge is that the co-defendant was found not guilty by a jury and our evidence is almost identical on Bowers that was presented on Brehm except for the fact that on some elements, perhaps Brehm's evidence might be a little stronger even," Long said.

Brehm, who since has transferred to the University of Texas at Arlington, testified Tuesday that Bowers shot the cat on the patio of Taco Cabana about 4 a.m. He said he grabbed the cat, which he said was dead, drove a few blocks and he and Bowers both hit it with a 9-iron to make doubly sure it was dead.

After that, Brehm told the jury, he skinned the head and then cut the head off with a knife so he could bleach the skull and keep it like some of his cousins have done to the heads of coyotes, bobcats and deer.

After the players were arrested, the case drew nationwide attention, and animal rights groups and animal lovers wrote to District Attorney John Segrest asking that both men be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Brehm said after his acquittal that he is relieved to have the case behind him. He said he regrets his actions, but insisted that animal rights activists have "blown this all out of proportion," forcing him to go to trial when he was willing to plead guilty for a probated sentence.

The jury of three men and three women was instructed that to convict Brehm, the state had to prove that he either tortured the cat or killed an animal that belonged to someone without that person's consent.

The definition of animal as defined in the penal code and given to the jury Tuesday by Judge Mike Gassaway is a "domesticated living creature and wild living creature previously captured. Animal does not include an uncaptured wild creature or a wild creature whose capture was accomplished by conduct at issue under this section."

"We did our duty. That's all I can tell you," the presiding juror said as she left the courthouse. Two other jurors declined to discuss the verdict.

Brehm's attorney, Russ Hunt, told jurors that the cat was a stray "feral" or wild cat, was not owned by anyone and was not tortured because it was dead after Bowers shot it with the pellet gun.

Prosecutors Long and Melanie Walker alleged that Teresa Jones, the night manager at Taco Cabana, owned the cat or at least had a "greater right to possession" of the cat than Brehm. Jones told jurors Monday that she named the cat Queso because of its fondness for spicy cheese sauce.

She said she fed the cat for several months and had befriended it and another black and white cat that hung around the restaurant that she called Taco.

She testified Monday that the cat was not dead when Brehm snatched it from the patio, saying she heard it "crying" as Brehm took it away.

Hunt said he thinks Brehm was acquitted because the jury realized that the animal cruelty law was not written to pertain to wild animals. If it did, Hunt said it would be "open season" on deer hunters because people could claim that they loved the deer that had been killed and the hunter would be arrested.

"I don't feel that Derek should have ever been prosecuted because the statute obviously didn't fit the circumstances of this case," Hunt said.

Brehm testified Tuesday that he grew up on a farm in San Antonio, where he had lots of pets, including 13 or 14 cats and two dogs.

"I've always loved pets," Brehm said. "I would never shoot anybody's pet and I would never, ever torture an animal. Cats sleep in my bed at home with me all the time."

Brehm said he draws a distinction between domesticated pets and feral cats, which frequently attacked his cats at home and infected them with diseases.

Brehm testified that he performed 50 hours of community service at the Waco Animal Shelter and lost his scholarship as part of his punishment from Baylor after his arrest.

Kathy Robnett, president and co-director of Fuzzy Friends Rescue, an animal shelter in Waco, said she is sickened by the verdict.

"I find it hard to believe that this has happened," she said. "I think the jury has done a terrific disservice to that boy. He needs to be made to make some form of reparation, at least in the form of counseling. It is frightening that this 'boys-will-be-boys' attitude has been so prevalent in this case, especially in light of the research that has been done proving links between animal cruelty and future violence against humans.

"I think it is sending a message loud and clear to come on to Waco and do whatever you want to animals. Come on down," she said.

Bowers, who is from Robinson, is still a student at Baylor, although he is no longer on the baseball team. His attorney, Rod Goble, said Bowers and his family are "extremely happy with the results."

"Based on the jury's decision today, I think the action taken by the district attorney's office was appropriate and the proper thing to do," Goble said of the dismissal of charges against Bowers.

Long said he presented the best case he could to the jury.

"That was everything we had. They heard the evidence, they heard our arguments and they decided that, under the evidence, the defendant was not guilty," Long said. "There wasn't anything else we could do. It was their decision to make and they made it. We accept the jury's decision."

quesotribute.page

MESSAGE FROM QUESO

(More than just a stray)

I look on the world today
from such a better place.
Angels folded wings around me
and now I'm home and safe.

I was one of God's creations
innocent and small
for you to take my life away
made no sense at all.

They said it was not cruelty,
I was just a stray that's all.
But I found my place on earth.
You had no right to make that call.

I pray each day for you,
the judge and jury too,
as Jesus said upon the cross;
you know not what you do.

To the thousands who raised a voice
in memory of me,
Keep up the fight
the world will change.
Let Queso be.

More than just a stray.

Energy companies and other industrial polluters received one of the biggest gifts under the Christmas tree – sent directly from the Bush administration. During the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, when few reporters were paying attention.

The EPA announced the largest rollback of the Clean Air Act in its 22 year history. New EPA rules allow factory owners higher emissions of carbon monoxide and other smog-causing pollutants, and weaken previous clean-up requirements.

The fact that El Paso Energy Corporation and Union Pacific rest high on the list of top soft money donors to the Republican party no doubt encouraged the EPA's pro-industry change of heart.

More than just sending money, energy companies provided a lush talent pool for top administration positions. First and foremost, there's ex-Halliburton chief Dick Cheney.

Fellow cabinet members Don Evans and Gayle Norton, plus National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, all have direct ties to energy industry brand names like British Petroleum, Chevron, and Tom Brown, Inc.

While the new EPA guidelines allow these corporations to reap millions in savings, under-represented citizens and the environment pay the price. Frank O'Donnell of the Clean Air Trust points to a survey indicating that 34 states plus the District of Columbia already have serious – and in most cases worsening – smog problems.

"It is deplorable that the Bush administration would weaken clean air protections and subject us to even bigger health problems," O'Donnell says. "Children with asthma, senior citizens and others with breathing problems are suffering the most."

Big drug companies were a second early beneficiary of post-election handouts. Their gift came stealthily wrapped as an amendment to the Homeland Security Act.

This rider protects the makers of vaccine preservatives from lawsuits charging that their drugs cause autism in children.

Given that the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Inc. and Eli Lilly together contributed over $3.6 million in soft money to Republicans during the 2001-2002 election cycle, few expected that the pharmaceutical industry would receive a lump of coal in its stocking this year.

But even many Senate Republicans were shocked by the callousness of the House-generated amendment.

That the Bush administration did not join in protest was hardly surprising, however, given that White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels formerly worked for Eli Lilly, the primary beneficiary of the legislation.

Even more outrageous, Lilly CEO Sidney Taurel sits as a Bush appointee on the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

The drug amendment is one example of "tort reform" – limitations on the amount of money that individuals who are injured by negligence or malpractice can collect from a company.

Since insurance and tort lobby groups poured $5.7 million in soft money into GOP coffers in 2001 alone, more of these changes are almost certainly on their way.

Ron Bonjean, spokesman for Sen. Trent Lott, says that "Tort reform is a priority for the Senate Republican leadership and will most likely be a focus of the 108th Congress."

From AlterNet

From AlterNet

Two works in recent years, "Veil: Modesty, Privacy and Resistance" (Berg Publishers, 1999) and "Rage Against the Veil" (Prometheus Books, 2000), offer very different but compelling perspectives on the significance of the veil in Islamic society, and its role as both an instrument of resistance and repression.

In "Veil," University of Southern California anthropology professor Fadwa El Guindi lays out a fresh but sometimes one-sided analysis of some of the multifaceted uses and meanings of the veil (and other, modest Islamic dress) in Arabic-speaking Muslim societies.

One Woman's Pain

It is in stark contrast to this more detached, academic perspective that "Rage Against the Veil" delivers its personal narrative, in the voice of the younger sister of the deceased Iranian political activist and medical doctor, Homa Darabi.

On Feb. 21, 1994, Dr. Darabi's life ended in an act of profound desperation and defiance that captured international headlines, and thrust a new spotlight on the lives of women living in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Darabi, who had been an accomplished respected female child psychiatrist in both Iran and the United States, committed one of the most painful and visually shocking forms of suicide known to humankind: Public self-immolation.

Darabi's sister Parvin recounts eyewitness testimony of her sister's suicide in a public square in a suburb of Tehran: "Several people took notice of her as she removed her scarf from her head. In the Islamic Republic she could have been arrested and beaten for such behavior ...

Witnesses said she wandered through crowds of people shouting slogans in every direction ... 'Death to tyranny! Long live freedom! Long live Iran! Several people approached her and pleaded with her to cover herself and to stop acting out. She refused."

"Eventually, she stopped walking and removed her coat. She sat down on the pavement, tipped the can onto herself, and began to soak the lower part of her body with gasoline ... When she ignited the match, she was immediately engulfed in flames.

For a few moments she bore the pain quietly and remained on her feet. In a matter of seconds, however, her head fell backward and she released an enormous shriek.

Quickly, she collapsed to the ground on her stomach. Her head and torso scratched against the pavement as she used her arms to lift her torso so that the flames would not be smothered ... Tears poured from her eyes and she continued to cry out."

Five years after this gruesome suicide, Parvin Darabi and her son, Romin Thomson, co-wrote "Rage Against the Veil" to form an unabashed critique of Iranian religious laws as they pertain to the lives of women, and to offer a compelling look at Homa's struggle for freedom and liberty in the face of insurmountable challenges.

By reconstructing the circumstances of the sisters' childhood in Iran, Parvin traces the development of Homa's compassionate and politicized perspectives on the world around her. The book's straightforward, chronological narrative brings the tight knit, interdependent relationship between the two young girls to life, just as it distills Iran's tumultuous, complex political history to a day-to-day, cultural and familial level.

Parvin does a commendable job of documenting her sister's early, outspoken role as an anti-Shah activist seeking a self-reliant, self-determined future for Iran. Although Parvin's later accounts of Homa's life as a wife and mother struggling with a controlling, domineering husband, come across in a more disjointed and emotional manner, the reader is nonetheless given a thorough understanding of
Homa's mounting struggle with the multitudinous psychological and societal pressures placed on professional Iranian women.

"Homa was appalled by the laws of hijab," writes Parvin. "Of course, these laws are often the most talked about throughout the world. They are a quickly recognizable symbol of the treatment of women in Iran.

Proponents of the rules often argue that they are designed to protect the dignity of women and to prevent the male population from some sort of 'excessive fornication.

Nevertheless, beneath the surface and beyond the laws of hijab existed nationally sanctioned rules of law which were much harder to absolve ... From the beginning, Homa protested the establishment of the Islamic Republic by participating in demonstrations with other women and speaking out.

She demanded that democracy be instituted as it had been promised."

Versatile in both languages and cultures, Homa ultimately chose to forego the relative freedom afforded to her in the United States (Parvin's adopted country) for her beloved native land. As restrictions on women's behavior and appearance grew tighter through the early 90s, Homa spoke by telephone with her sister, detailing her mounting horror at the torture and public stoning executions of women who, unintentionally or intentionally, broke the laws that dictated strict Islamic appearance and conduct.

Eventually, recounts Parvin, Homa lost both her teaching appointments and her private practice over her refusal to fully comply with mandatory rules of hijab. Gradually, Homa slipped into a dark world of depression and hopelessness from which she did not escape until the moment of her public suicide.

Readers looking for a detailed examination of the present situation facing women in modern Iranian society will not find such analysis in "Rage Against the Veil." But the real-life story of this doctor and activist – trapped and punished by her society for not obeying the strict rules of conduct and appearance – is nonetheless a valuable one.

Cultural Relativism?

Homa's story is the kind of woman's experience that "Veil" seems to avoid acknowledging, even if only to weigh it against the benefits of veiling to those women who genuinely enjoy its political symbolism and religious significance.

Even so, El Guindi has the opportunity to develop an interesting and valuable thesis, on the issue of veiling as a form of political resistance.

Unfortunately, the incomplete nature of the work leaves her premise of empowerment surprisingly weak. While she devotes more coverage to Egypt, a country that has been the focus of much of El Guindi's fieldwork, she grants a scant three paragraphs of "Veil" to Palestinian women.

As chronicled in the essays and books of such writers as Mona Rishmani, Hamida Kazi, Philippa Strum and Kitty Warnock, Palestinian women's struggles are notable not only for their use of the hijab as a symbol of resistance to Israeli occupation, but also for their protest against mandatory veiling.

Palestinian feminists and many women's groups have long decried the patriarchal control exerted by Hamas in the Occupied Territories, as well as in countries like Algeria.

Yet with only a hint at the pressures and physical abuses brought upon Palestinian women by Hamas over the issue of the hijab – a struggle that was particularly heated in the late '80s – El Guindi is more comfortable highlighting the role of the veil in Algerian women's resistance to French occupation.

And in her discussion of Algerian women's struggles, El Guindi overlooks the subsequent downfall of women's rights and freedoms after national liberation. "We will not be another Algeria!" was, in point of fact, a common rallying cry of many Palestinian women's groups active in resisting both Israeli occupation and Palestinian patriarchal domination throughout the Intifada.

In a valiant and important attempt to steer the discussion of Middle Eastern and North Africa women's lives away from the more close-minded, ethnocentric viewpoint that brands veiled Muslim women as little more than oppressed victims of religious dogma, El Guindi commits a perilous error of omission.

Namely, what happens when veiling, as in Iran, goes from being a brave, revolutionary tactic to an institutionalized, enforced norm?

What kinds of societal and cultural pressures – and life-threatening punishments – are brought to bear on those women who defy those norms by accident, or by intention? What happens to women like Darabi, whose visions of self-determination, freedom and democracy compel them to make their deep-rooted convictions known to the culture around them, and to endure consequent alienation, emotional suffering, and physical punishment?

The answers require a willingness to examine the issue from a host of women's life experiences and viewpoints. Taken together, these two, distinct works contribute to an overall understanding of the issue of veiling – and legitimately contribute to a growing body of exciting Middle Eastern, feminist literature.

"Veil," an academic work, also points to the fact that the diversity of Muslim women's cultural experiences demands a more balanced and open-minded approach.

Difficult and challenging as it may be to do so, the issue of feminism – defined by and for women in Islamic societies – requires that we take a carefully considered look at the multilayered complexity of these women's lives, and of their relationship to the veil.

Even as we should recognize and respect the self-determination and religious identity of women who abide by codes of Islamic dress, the struggles and cries for justice of women like Homa Darabi cannot go unheeded.

Silja J.A. Talvi is a Santa Fe-based freelance journalist and co-editor of LiP Magazine.

For the past year or more, Venezuela's upper and middle classes, opposed to Chavez's government, have protested in the wealthy new neighbourhoods of Caracas, while the poor (the vast majority of the city's population) have come from their shantytowns and demonstrated to defend "their" president.

Chavez celebrated his overwhelming electoral victory of four years ago at the weekend, at the end of a week-long insurrectionary strike designed to force him to resign, and so far he has displayed a Houdini-like capacity to escape from tight situations.

In April, a similar scenario led to a brief coup d'etat, from which he was rescued by an alliance between the poor and the armed forces, and this time, the president says, he will not allow himself to be surprised.

The opposition has been hoping to repeat in December what it failed to achieve in April, but the situation is no longer the same.

The armed forces are now more solidly behind the president than before. The most conservative generals no longer hold important commands; those involved in the April coup attempt have all been sent into retirement.

The international situation is different, too. The US welcomed the April coup, but this time, with more important problems elsewhere, Washington is being more circumspect.

It has publicly thrown its weight behind the negotiations being conducted by Cesar Gaviria, the Colombian ex-president who leads the Organisation of American States.

Perhaps even more significant than the changing attitude of the military and of the US is the fact that the poor are more mobilised now, to such an extent that there is talk of a possible civil war.

Until the April coup, the poor had voted for Chavez repeatedly, but his revolutionary programme was directed from above, without much popular participation. After the coup, which revealed that the opposition sought to impose a regime on Pinochet lines, the people realised that they had a government that they needed to defend.

The opposition's protest marches have now conjured up a phenomenon that most of the middle and upper classes might have preferred to have left sleeping - the spectre of a class and race war.

Opposition spokesmen complain that Chavez is a leftist who is leading the country to economic chaos, but underlying the fierce hatred is the terror of the country's white elite when faced with the mobilised mass of the population, who are black, Indian and mestizo.

Only a racism that dates back five centuries - of the European settlers towards their African slaves and the country's indigenous inhabitants - can adequately explain the degree of hatred aroused. Chavez - who is more black and Indian than white, and makes no secret of his aim to be the president of the poor - is the focus of this racist rage.

The trump card of the opposition, in April as in December, has been the state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, often described as the fifth largest oil exporter in the world, and an important supplier to the US.

Nationalised more than 25 years ago, it has been run over the years for the exclusive benefit of its employees and managers - its profits being invested everywhere except Venezuela.

Before the arrival of Chavez, it was being prepared for privatisation, to the satisfaction of the engineers and directors who would have benefited. But with a block placed on privatisation by the new Venezuelan constitution, the company's middle class and prosperous elite has been happy to be used as a shock weapon by the leaders of the Pinochet-style opposition, and they have tried to bring their entire industry to a halt.

The vital task for Chavez is to bring the oil company back under government control, replacing the conservative management with the radical executives who had been forced out in earlier internal struggles. If he is to support the crews loyal to the government on tankers such as the Pilin Leon, he may yet need to impose a state of emergency to regain the upper hand.

· Richard Gott is the author of In The Shadow of the Liberator: Hugo Chavez and the Transformation of Venezuela
rwgott@aol.com

Venezuelan Majority Takes to the Streets, Coup Plotters Hide
By Al Giordano
A Narco News Breaking News Editorial
December 10, 2002

These are the hours of immediate history.

As in Eastern Europe 13 years ago, the final defeat of dictatorial power in Venezuela came last night at the doors of its “control rooms” – the TV stations.

On Monday night, the Venezuelan majority - unwilling to allow an upper-class economic coup d’etat that poses dishonestly as a “strike” to unseat its democratically elected government - took to the streets on a scale only seen once before in the nation’s modern history; as they had last April, when they turned back a military coup d’etat.

By early Tuesday morning the masses had every Commercial TV station in the nation surrounded. Their weapons were nonviolent and theatrical: pots, pans, fireworks and thousands of defiant but smiling faces.

Only at one TV installation in one of the outlying provinces - in Maracay State - did the public actually invade the facilities of a station that uses the public airwaves. Everywhere else, including at all the national TV stations in Caracas, immense restraint has been shown by the masses protesting outside of them.

The bluff of the former ruling class and its media – that their top-down imposed sabotage of the Venezuelan economy and oil industry of the past week is somehow a popular “strike” – has been called. The “strike leaders,” including corrupt oil union boss Carlos Ortega, have, in recent hours, disappeared from public view, abandoning their own supporters among the upper classes.

To make sure the coup plotters don’t flee the country, the neighbors of Simón Bolívar International Airport near Caracas have surrounded the airport as well.

The coup supporters, including the rogue ex-military officials from April’s attack on democracy who in recent days have called unsuccessfully for military coup, promptly abandoned Plaza Altamira last night, their physical base: the public stage they had occupied continuously for the past few weeks.

Coup Plotters' Plaza Altamira is Empty

Confronted with the rising of the more massive and true majority of Venezuelan Civil Society, the rogue officers and the elite of Caracas have retreated, returning to their homes to watch the conflict on TV as fireworks boom in the air all around them.

Meanwhile, the ostensible “mediator” of the conflict has cynically called for government repression against the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators assembled outside the TV stations. With that action, Cesar Gaviria has lost any illusory credibility in his aspiration to “mediate” the Venezuelan conflict. He should return to Washington immediately.

Gaviria, Go Home

Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organization of American States (OAS), has just squandered whatever credibility the organization tenuously had as mediator in the Venezuelan conflict. He should leave Caracas immediately – where he has become a destabilizing force against democracy and constitutional rule - and cease posing as a “mediator” of a power-struggle in which he is, now transparently, a partisan player.

On the very same day – Monday, December 9th – that the permanent council of the Organization of American States (OAS), representing all nations in América, stated that “all the countries of the hemisphere ratify unanimously our support for Venezuelan democracy,” the OAS chairman, in Caracas, showed his contempt for that same Venezuelan democracy and the right of public assembly.

According to the French Press Agency (AFP), Gaviria “condemned” peaceful demonstrations by the Venezuelan people outside of pro-coup TV stations Globovision, Venevision, and other commercial media corporations. The “news coverage” of those media companies in recent days has been at extreme levels of simulation and dishonesty even for them: the people have had enough. Terming the popular assemblies as “acts of intimidation” against a “free press,” Gaviria called upon the Chávez government to use repression against the demonstrators.

“The secretary general of the OAS is deeply worried about the acts of intimidation against the installations of some of the principal media of the country such as Radio Caracas Television, the De Armas Group, Venevision and Globovision,” Gaviria stated through an OAS press release from the posh Melia Hotel in Downtown Caracas, according to AFP.

Gaviria expressed his “condemnation of such acts that put freedom of speech at serious risk,” reported AFP, and made “an urgent call upon the authorities to take immediate action to cease such threats. There can be no doubt that press freedom and free speech are two totally consistent elements with the existence of democratic principles.”

But in calling for government action against the free speech rights of the people to peaceably assemble, Gaviria revealed the false discourse of Power regarding “press freedom.” For Gaviria (and some corporate “press freedom” organizations), the libertinism of a paid press takes priority over the liberty of free speech by all the people. Nothing is more frightening to them – nor more important for Authentic Democracy – than a scenario in which the masses confront this era’s hijacking of the public airwaves by an elite minority.

For the past week, coup supporters demonstrated (as is their right, too) outside of Venezuela's public TV station, without a single word of protest from Gaviria or any "press freedom" organization, and without any repression from the Chávez government. Gaviria certainly did not term those demonstrations as "threats" or call on the State to "cease" them, as he did yesterday against the more popular demonstrations against media simulation.

The Venezuelan people have every right and duty to demonstrate outside of the commercial TV stations. Those media companies backed the failed April 2002 coup d’etat in that country with a big lie that “Chávez Resigned” when twice-elected President Hugo Chávez had not. For the past week, those commercial TV stations have nakedly attempted to provoke another coup by inventing another big lie – parroted by most of the U.S. and English-language press corps – that a management imposed work lockout in some sectors is somehow a “general strike.” Like “Chávez Resigned,” the use of the term “strike” is this week’s big lie; repeated ad nauseam in the hope that it will be believed by the gullible among us.

The problem for the Big Liars is that the Venezuelan majority didn’t buy it. The people – having watched foreign companies like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and British Petroleum lock their workers out for the imposed "strike" while the small neighborhood shopkeepers and businesses remained open – have, in this month of December of 2002, showed the world that “the big lie theory” for controlling public opinion no longer works.

Who the Hell is Cesar Gaviria?

Gaviria, the former Colombian president (1990-1994), was the chief beneficiary of the assassination of popular Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan, whose elimination cleared the way for the Gaviria presidency. Gaviria was the president who allowed paramilitary death squads to gain a foothold in Colombia. It was Gaviria who sold his nation’s sovereignty to foreign powers and betrayed his own attorney general Gustavo de Greiff, after de Greiff had defied Washington by calling for drug legalization. And it was Gaviria who Washington later installed as secretary-general of the OAS in order to pave the way for Plan Colombia and military intervention in that country.

In recent days, Gaviria has ostensibly been in Venezuela as a “mediator” of the conflict between the oil-soaked oligarchy on one side and the supporters of the Constitutional democracy and the Chávez government on the other.

Washington’s discourse this week has been to feign support for democracy in Venezuela (while Spaniard intelligence operatives from Europe handled the hands-on dirty work of this most recent coup attempt) by making proclamations of support for Gaviria as mediator.

Now that Gaviria has called for State repression against the peaceful assemblies spreading like wildfire tonight throughout Venezuela, the true goals of this US-backed act of “Mediation Theater” are obvious to all reasonable observers. This was an attempted coup in strike's clothing.

Foreign powers and billionaire economic interests tried to fix the game by installing their own referee, Cesar Gaviria, in Caracas. But he’s not an umpire or referee. He’s a player for the team that has now lost the contest, an advocate for destabilization and repression, and it is time for Gaviria to get the hell out of the stadium.

WinBook Honored as "Laptop of the Year"

Monterey, California - October 13, 2002 - Here at the annual meeting of The State Bar of California, WinBook today was honored as "Laptop of the Year" for outstanding products and technical support.

San Francisco attorney Martin L. Dean, contributing editor of the "TECHnicalities" column appearing each month in California Lawyer and president of Essential Publishers, presented the award during his 20th annual two hour seminar reviewing the best of technology.

In conversations with WinBook officials prior to the meeting of the State Bar of California, Dean praised WinBook for "superb support," and stated that "In my experience, WinBook tech support is batting 100% for the speed, quality and relevance of answers by WinBook's tech support representatives."

"How can you even type on a 3-pound subnotebook?" Dean asked during the seminar. "Verrrrry slowly!" he answered. "The WinBook J4, with its large screen and comfortable keyboard is much better suited to the daily requirements of most attorneys than small subnotebooks," explained Dean.

"The WinBook J4 is a true portable replacement for attorneys' desktop computers," continued Dean.
"We are very pleased to be recognized for our products and technical support by Martin Dean of California Lawyer," said Richard M. Mershad, WinBook president.

"California, where WinBook has sold more notebooks than any other state, has played a critical role in WinBook's growing success," noted Mershad. "WinBook's research indicates that attorneys have bought more WinBook notebooks than any other profession or job title," said Mershad.

"We are particularly gratified by our acceptance by this especially discerning group of professionals," said Mershad.

ABOUT MARTIN L. DEAN

Martin L. Dean is an attorney in San Francisco, adjunct professor of law at The University of San Francisco School of Law and president of Essential Publishers (www.essentialpublishers.com).

WinBook J4 Critic's Reviews

PC Magazine

Desktop Replacements - December 3, 2002

"The J4 has four USB 1.1 ports (though not the faster 2.0); this is more than the other notebooks here offer, and more in line with what you'd expect for such a full-featured system. It also has one FireWire port, integrated 802.11b wireless capability, a TV-out jack, an IR interface on the back, and a combo optical drive. Though it lacks bundled multimedia software, the J4 is a good choice, especially if you're the type of person who has lots of gadgets that need to be connected."

The Detroit Free Press

Consumer Guide to Laptops - WinBook J4 Celeron 1.7 GHz - December 1, 2002

"The extra USB connectors allow for lots of peripherals and would make the WinBook serve as a good desktop replacement."

HiTechToys Television - Andy Pargh's Holiday Gift Guide

December 2002

"What are my favorite notebooks this year? WinBook. If you've followed my Gadget Guru new product reviews over the years, you know I'm a big fan of WinBook computers, and have been so for many, many years. Why? Because they're reliable. They're so reliable; you'll probably never even need their tech support."

"WinBooks are so reliable; you'll probably never even need their tech support. But you'll have the comfort of knowing that if you do, my reading is that they have the best tech support on the planet, bar none."

"This one (the J4 1.7 GHz Pentium 4 model) is a bargain price!"

The Gadget Guru's Holiday Gift Guide (from General Media)

WinBook J4 - December 2002

"Wrapped in a sleek silver exterior and equipped with a 15-inch SXGA+ screen, this notebook a true portable replacement for your desktop computer."

"Even better, if you ever need it, WinBook has the best, friendliest tech support on the planet."

The Washington Post

Second Chance: Desktop Processors in A Mobile Form Factor - WinBook J4 3.06 - October 16, 2002

"The J4 has some very unique features that allow it to rival some desktop systems."

"The J4 offers a 15" SVGA+ display with a max resolution of 1400x1050. The ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 (M9) with 64MB of video RAM feeds the display. We would rate the display quality as excellent. The Mobility Radeon in the J4 unit was clocked at 260MHz core and 200MHz RAM."

"When it comes to connections, however, the J4 is loaded with everything that you could ask for. The back of the unit includes a headphone jack, mic jack, printer port, VGA port, S-Video out, modem jack, and AC in."

"WinBook has gone the extra mile to keep the J4 well vented, as there are vents all over this system to keep it running cool."

"The J4 has a unique metal magnetic latch locking mechanism that connects the latch to the notebook unit when the lid is almost closed. This mechanism seems sturdy, and our repeated abuses of the case and lid to try to break the locking mechanism failed."

"The keyboard action was crisp and had nice travel with a good key size."

"The system monitors the battery charge capacity and adjusts accordingly. Throttling on battery power is obviously necessary due to the extremely high current draw desktop location of the CPU on the battery. In our test unit, when it was on a full charge and on battery power, the speed of the unit is reduced to 2.3GHz, which is only about 25% less than the 3.06GHz that you receive when the system is powered by AC.

We asked Matt DeLille, the Lead Engineer for the WinBook J4, what would happen if they let the CPU run at full speed, what kind of issues he thought we would see. His response was the following:

The battery pack will overheat and trip the battery thermal sensor, causing the battery to protect itself (i.e. system shutdown).
Unrestricted current draw will play havoc with the battery smart card and the battery is unable to calibrate charge levels correctly. The idea is to have a controlled discharge instead of an exponential discharge (especially when the battery charge gets close to EDV1).
Unacceptable battery life (approximately 75 to 90 minutes if unrestricted and running a heavy load; less than that if the battery protects itself).
WinBook utilizes the following methods for BIOS throttling on the battery in order to prevent these issues from happening:

If charge level is > 14%, then the system implements a 25% duty cycle. (The 3.06 would run at 75% speed or 2.3GHz.)
If charge level is < 15%, then the system implements a 50% duty cycle. (The 3.06 would run at half speed or 1.5GHz.)
WinBook selected these levels because they offer optimum performance while protecting the battery/ system."

"The J4 does everything possible to make the battery last as long as possible. WinBook also offers the user the option of turning on ATI's Power Play technology, which also helps increase battery life."

Battery Mark - Version 4.0 2:02 (hours/minutes)

"While it is obvious that WinBook cannot include all of the power saving features that the Pentium 4m offers, we found that WinBook's throttling strategy did allow the J4 to run at full speed while on battery."

"It is amazing to think that it is possible to carry a 3GHz+ chip in a mobile form factor."

"The obvious applications for a unit like this are for a user who requires the maximum power possible on a desktop in a mobile form factor."

"The J4 strikes a good balance in its performance, getting a lot of 'bang for the buck.'"

"Good performance and nice package."

"The clean, sleek, black color of the J4 is a bit more attractive than the previous J4."

"The J4 offers solid performance in a well-rounded package, and is a viable solution for travelers who remain close to a power source and aren't dependent on battery power. It offers a more than capable solution for those who want a system to carry to LAN parties, for example, or to take along on short trips."

"The J4 puts desktop performance in a desktop replacement form factor."

"The J4 indicates WinBook's attention to detail in its design, and both the CPU throttling to better extend the battery life and the excellent thermal design are features that deserve high marks."

The Washington Post

WinBook Packs Extra Might - October 17, 2002

"A-"

"Powerful processor, good video memory."

"With a Pentium 4 processor, 512M of RAM and a 40G hard drive, the WinBook J4 performed better than any other notebook reviewed to date in the GCN Lab. In our benchmark tests, it scored as high-4,878.1 on average-as some of the fastest desktop systems we've tested."

"The J4 would even be powerful enough to act as a file-and-print server on a small network, which is pretty impressive for a notebook. It shouldn't be pigeonholed for standard notebook tasks"

"It could play and eject CDs without being booted up. The speakers were above average, and there was a choice of Microsoft Windows XP operating systems."

The Columbus Dispatch

WinBook J4 1.7 - October 14, 2002

"Students will especially like its four USB 1.1 ports (for joysticks, cameras, a Zip drive, whatever), rather than the one or two found on many competitors. They're neatly tucked together on the unit's right side, for easy access."

"Consider it a digital-hub replacement for a desktop computer, but with a smaller footprint."

"Its 8-cell Lithium Ion Battery gets you almost three hours of computing time, or 2 hours of DVD watching."

Government Computer News

WinBook J4 packs a desktop-full of power - September 23, 2002

"Speed, performance, capacity make it a star among notebooks."

"The WinBook J4, one of the first notebooks with a Pentium 4 processor, packs plenty of power in a desktop replacement format."

"With a Pentium 4 processor, 512M of RAM and a 40G hard drive, the WinBook J4 performed better than any other notebook reviewed to date in the GCN Lab. On our Alterion benchmark suite, it scored as high-4,878.1 on average-as some of the fastest desktop systems we've tested."

"The J4 would even be powerful enough to act as a file-and-print server on a small network, which is pretty impressive for a notebook. It shouldn't be pigeonholed for standard notebook tasks"

"Best of all, the four Universal Serial Bus ports were located on the side, so the J4 could get away with only one CardBus controller."

"It could play and eject CDs without being booted. The speakers were above average, and there was a choice of Microsoft Windows XP operating systems."

RaveGames.com

WinBook J4: J is for Joy - September 23, 2002

"From the out-of-the-box sexiness, with its sleek wannabe-Mac Titanium look, to the mouth-watering options available (everything from wireless modems to 12 cell Lithium Ion batteries), the J4 did nothing short of turn us on. If it sounds like Geek Sex, it is - this is one of the best damned laptops we've ever seen."

"The WinBook display was also candy for the old opticals. With an ATI Radeon 7500 Chip Set (I had to save money for almost a month just to buy a 7500 All in Wonder for my PC, and it's standard in this laptop), and a 64mb Framebuffer, not to mention the simultaneous LCD/CRT support, you won't have any complaints for your peepers. The standard 1 GB of memory (two 512 144-pin SODIMMs) also helps speed things along."

"The ergonomic layout of the WinBook was equally satisfying, so much so that you may find yourself having a cigarette and making pillow talk after using it."

"An 88-Key keyboard with inverted-T cursor keys grace the front and the ports include PCMCIA, Parallel, USB, 15-pin VGA, Firewire, 1 SIR/FIR, V.1.1 compliant IRDA, and S-Video video out, and 1 RJ-45 Ethernet jack. That is one fully-loaded, built like a brick house, PC sexy mama."

"There are a ton of other options that you can get for the WinBook, including CDRW-DVD combo drives, built-in wireless antennas, and sound cards. The core processor is a desktop class Pentium 4 2.4 GHz package, so even stripped down the J4 is awesome."

"Perfect for system administrators who need a quick, mobile fix when one of the office workstations are down."

"A fast and visually powerful desktop that can be easily moved when the need arises."

"There's not much more to say - buy one if you've got the bills. They're not cheap (the model we tested was just under three g's, although a cheaper 1.7 GHz model was just under a grand), but they are well worth the money."

PC Magazine

First Looks: WinBook J4 - September 17, 2002

"With the hottest components and the best of everything, the WinBook J4 sets a new standard for desktop replacement notebooks and gaming on the go."

"Built around Intel's 2.4-GHz desktop Pentium 4 processor with 512MB of RAM, the J4 scored 46.2 on our Business Winstone 2001 tests, compared with 42.3 for the Dell Inspiron 8200, which uses the 2.0-GHz Mobile Pentium 4-M-currently the fastest mobile processor."

"The J4 delivered smooth motion and excellent background detail on three popular video games, as well as second-to-none DVD playback."

"The gray, brushed aluminum case provides room for such mobile creature comforts as a responsive keyboard with 19.6-mm keyboard (with a touch pad as well as a pointing stick) and audio CD controls that can operate with the system off."

"A stunning 15.1-inch screen, an ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 graphics accelerator, a whopping 64MB of video memory, a DVD/CD-RW combo drive, a 40GB hard drive, and 512MB of RAM make the J4 better equipped than other notebooks and many desktops."

"Still, despite all its high-powered equipment, the J4 Is surprisingly quiet and cool."

"It's a good choice for those who want a portable that can handle the rigors of game play."

"The WinBook J4 has a stunning 15.1-inch screen and the hardware for compelling 3-D gaming."

Gear Magazine

WinBook J4 - September 2002

"Presenting the WinBook J4, the first laptop to run a Pentium 4 with no less oomph than a desktop."

"What does it mean to you, the layman? It means higher processing speeds and vastly superior graphics."

"Several Gear editors were invited to a demonstration and, friend, it was like what the sixties must have been. Colors, sound, everything just whirling and intermingling at supersonic speeds. What was it they used to say? It blew our heads? No, it blew our minds. That's right. It blew our minds."

USA Today

Pick a Laptop: The Perfect Accessory for College - WinBook J4 Celeron 1.7 GHz - August 14, 2002

"Price-sensitive parents, this one's for you: At $1,148, the WinBook comes in considerably cheaper than its better-known rivals."

"The WinBook J4 beats them all (Apple iBook, Dell SmartStep 200N, IBM ThinkPad R32) on price."

"…more than adequate for basic student tasks."

"The WinBook has a nice 14-inch screen, 256 MB of RAM and a 20GB hard drive. While there's no FireWire port, it does include four USBs, double the number of its competitors."

He is a regular contributor to the "TECHnicalities" column which appears each month in California Lawyer Magazine. Dean is also author of numerous articles on technology which have appeared in a more than a dozen legal publications and Web sites. He has been lecturing for more than 20 years to attorneys on technology topics.

ABOUT CALIFORNIA LAWYER

California Lawyer (www.dailyjournal.com/CaLawyer) is a monthly magazine that combines hard-hitting legal news, case commentary, and coverage of technology and corporate counsel trends.

Each issue includes news, reviews, profiles, and opinion. California Lawyer brings together concise legal information and practical advice with entertaining features.

ABOUT WINBOOK

WinBook is the leading American direct computer systems company to focus exclusively on portable computing products including notebook computers, DVD players and LCD flat panel displays.

WinBook products have been recognized by the press with nearly 400 awards, including awards from BusinessWeek.com, CNET, PC Magazine; PC World, The Robb Report, Smart Computing and ZDNet. WinBook notebook computers are sold directly at www.winbook.com.

In addition, selected WinBook models are sold through value-added resellers and a growing number of retailers, including Micro Electronics' twenty-one Micro Center stores.

A federal court order has temporarily scuttled ALDF's challenge to an EPA program that could needlessly expose millions of animals to toxic substances.

Intended to identify chemicals that pose a threat to the human endocrine system, the program could require extensive testing of nearly 87,000 substances.

According to some estimates, as many as 1.2 million animals could be used as test subjects for every 1,000 chemicals the EPA analyzes.

"At the moment, about 20 million animals are used as test subjects each year. This program would quadruple that figure," says ALDF Executive Director Joyce Tischler. "We can't stand by and watch that happen."

Last year, ALDF challenged the EPA's plan for implementation of the program by filing a complaint on behalf of PETA, the Doris Day Animal League, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and other concerned parties.

The complaint contended that the EPA failed to investigate the full range of necessary tests — including alternatives to animal testing — within a timeframe set by Congress.

The complaint also charged that the EPA failed to consult with other federal agencies on its testing protocols (as mandated by Congress) and submitted animal and non-animal tests to differing levels of review, increasing the likelihood that animal tests would ultimately be implemented.

In December, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup dismissed the complaint. That doesn't mean the challenge to the EPA's testing protocols is over, however. ALDF and its clients are currently reviewing the possibility of an appeal.

And Bruce Wagman, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs on behalf of ALDF, says there might be more chances to intervene once the EPA finalizes its plans for the program.

"The EPA is just using the same old animal model they've been using for years without acknowledging that there are valid alternatives," says Wagman, an ALDF member attorney and partner in the San Francisco firm Morgenstein & Jubelirer.

"If the EPA doesn't take its time and really consider some of the alternatives to animal testing, there's going to be a lot of needless pain and suffering."

Police officers pledge to serve and protect, and most of them do. But animal advocates have noticed a disturbing trend recently. Some cops - a small minority, to be sure, but a growing one - aren't serving or protecting companion animals. They're shooting them.

Bradley Woodall, who tracks animal cruelty cases from ALDF's Portland, Ore. office, has seen a sharp increase in reports of police officers shooting dogs.

"I used to get one or two calls about this every month," says Woodall. "Now I'm getting one or two a week."

Fortunately, efforts to combat this trend have been bolstered by an important new ruling by a federal court. In October, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a lawsuit against a Pennsylvania policeman who shot and killed a dog named Immi in 1998.

Immi's human companions, Kim and David Brown, were preparing to move from their home in Reading, Pa., when Immi escaped from the couple's backyard due to a defective latch. An officer in a passing patrol car spotted the 3-year-old Rottweiler, stopped, confronted her and drew his gun.

According to Kim Brown, when she saw what was happening from her house, she screamed and called out to the officer, "That's my dog! Don't shoot!"

But witnesses say the policeman shot anyway, firing five rounds — four of them after Immi was already on the ground, struggling to crawl away.

The decision not only helps Immi's guardians in their quest for justice, but sets an important precedent for other victims far beyond the Keystone State. And it sends a clear message that dogs are not "fair game" for trigger-happy cops.

"It's very very difficult to prosecute anyone in law enforcement for animal cruelty because some district attorneys are going to assume that an officer did the right thing," says Barbara Newell, who co-authored ALDF's friend-of-the-court briefs in the case. "That's why it's so important that a civil case like this one has been allowed to proceed. It gives people a way to seek justice on their own."

Through ALDF, the Browns hooked up with attorney Deirdre Agnew, who filed a lawsuit on their behalf alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress and a violation of the couple's civil rights.

A federal judge dismissed the suit in May 2000, writing in his decision that under Pennsylvania law "a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress cannot be predicated upon harm to a family pet."

But the Browns appealed, backed by ALDF briefs on the strong emotional bonds between humans and animals, and the court agreed, noting "the strength of community sentiment against… animal abuse and the substantial emotional investment that pet owners frequently make in their pets."

Though the court was ruling on Pennsylvania law, its decision is likely to be cited in future decisions elsewhere, potentially extending new protections to animals across the country. And, says Newell, it's especially noteworthy when a U.S. appeals court recognizes animals as more than mere property.

"They've affirmed that animals aren't just insignificant chattel, and that you can expect someone to suffer from severe emotional distress if you violently kill their animal companion," she explains. "That's an important breakthrough."

Daton Fullard, a retired TV news producer in south Florida, could be one of the first to take advantage of that breakthrough. He's considering a lawsuit after discovering how difficult it can be to find justice — or even reasonable explanations — when a cop needlessly shoots a dog.

Late one night last year, a Miami-Dade officer walked onto Fullard's property, where his 11-year-old Alaskan malamute, Lord Atka, was chained. Fullard says the officer fired seven rounds at the animal, hitting him three times. Lord Atka survived, but eventually had to be euthanized due to the grievous injuries he suffered.

After more than seven months — and continuous prodding from Fullard — the police department finally released a report on the incident. According to its internal investigation, Lord Atka was threatening the officer, who believed he had to use deadly force to protect himself.

The department never said what the officer was doing on Fullard's property at the time, or why it took so many shots to subdue a chained Alaskan malamute, a famously friendly breed the Columbia Encyclopedia calls "by nature a gentle and devoted companion."

Fullard says the police report is "total hogwash." He recently began reviewing his legal options with an ALDF member attorney. He's not sure if he'll take the case to court, but he is sure of one thing: There was no reason Lord Atka had to die.

"I have friends in the police department who are very professional and do a good job. And it's a very difficult job.

That I understand," Fullard says. "But I have a problem with someone who would behave like this. If this guy is going to do this to a dog, what does he do with people? In my mind, he's a threat to the entire community."

Fortunately, the 3rd Circuit Court ruling could make it easier for ALDF and other animal advocates to seek damages when such tragedies occur, thus forcing police departments and city councils to address what has become a serious problem.

"It's really important to bring these bad apples to justice," says Newell.

"If they're allowed to escape punishment, it's not fair to all the other people in law enforcement who work so hard to protect animals and uphold cruelty laws. And it's certainly not fair to the animals."

This article just infuriates me. Another argument to fund their work as opposed to someone else cloaked in rhetoric. Who has heard the blame America first argument that we are only a small % of the worlds population but use most of the world's resources? We all have.

This article argues that it is better to "help" (read fund) Africa go solar than to help U.S. citizens get off the grid. This argument is presented by researchers making over $60,000.00 a year.

How come there are no articles on what and why it would be good to help the U.S. go solar? Remember Jimmy Carter's weatherization program? CETA crews (picked from the unemployed and disadvantaged) would be trained (and paid) and then would go to low income houses and install and caulk decent storms and screens.

The current "weatherization" program gives the utility companies money to subsidize their unnecessarily high charges that low income people cannot pay during the winter months. All it does is disguise the fact that they are looting America.It does nothing to solve the energy problem.

We don't want those gas and electric CEO's to suffer.

I wrote the Midwest Alternative Energy Coalition and asked what tax benefits were available to a homeowner who wanted to get off the grid. Silence. Thanks, Mr. non-profit educational alternative energy organization.

Why can't I, in Wisconsin, get tax credits for building a house that runs on solar and geothermal energy? Why can't I get full tax credit or a grant to put a windmill on a farm like the Midwest Alternative Energy Coalition did??

The Israeli High Court of Justice in 1999 struck down the policy that the State Department had described as "often [leading] to excesses." But the United States -- suddenly engaged in a struggle against Islamic terrorism -- now has detained thousands of suspected Islamic terrorists abroad. And suddenly, practices that bear a striking resemblance to the old Israeli policy are taking on an American face.

That, at least, is the concern induced by an eye-opening story by Post staff writers Dana Priest and Barton Gellman. They report that CIA interrogations of captured al Qaeda and Taliban fighters employ tactics such as depriving them of sleep, forcing them to assume "awkward, painful positions," and "softening them up" with beatings by military police and soldiers. Interrogators may threaten to turn over noncooperative detainees to brutal foreign intelligence services, and in some instances they have actually done so. Interrogators have also selectively withheld pain medication from those already wounded when captured, the story reports.

But unlike the Israelis, for whom moderate physical pressure was open public policy, the new tactics -- whatever they may be -- are being kept secret. The government, in fact, denies it is torturing anyone, insisting that all detainees are being held in a manner consistent with the principles of international law. But what, then, to make of anonymous comments from officials involved in the detentions? One is quoted in the story as saying, "If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job"? Another says that "our guys may kick them around a little bit in the adrenaline of the immediate aftermath" of their capture. And while the government denies that its purpose in transferring prisoners to foreign custody is so that other intelligence services can torture them, still another official says, "We don't kick the [expletive] out of them, we send them to other countries so they can kick the [expletive] out of them."

Al Qaeda terrorists mean America great harm, and it is essential that intelligence operatives obtain as much information as possible from them. That process, at times, will not be easy. These grillings may not be governed by the same rules that cover domestic criminal investigative interrogations. Foreigners detained abroad fighting against the United States are not entitled to the protections of the Bill of Rights, after all.

But there are certain things democracies don't do, even under duress, and torture is high on the list. Some of the alleged tactics, while aggressive, may be legitimate: deceptions, for example, or psychological pressure. Others -- bright lights and lengthy interrogations that interfere with sleep -- straddle the line between acceptable and unacceptable conduct. Without knowing more about what exactly is happening, it's hard to judge. But beating prisoners is entirely out of bounds. The critical first step is for the administration to clarify what tactics it is using and which are still off limits. If administration officials have decided that moderate physical pressure -- once an abuse -- is now to be the norm in terrorism cases, the American people ought to know and ought to be able to respond through their representatives and through individual and organizational voices. It shouldn't be the administration's unilateral call.

I was reminded again how much I personally have to thank them both for- Lyndon for the war on poverty that gave me my first job, a CETA job.

And as far as I am concerned, Mrs. Johnson started the Environmental Movement.

She always knew how important Nature is to Spirit. How much nature gives to everyone. She talked about clean air, clean water and the natural native flowers and grasses. So she made it her business to make sure everybody had some along all the highways of America. They made fun of her saying in her southern voice ... "Give what you can, a treeeee, a sur rrrhurb or a buuush"

They always ridicule that which is beyond their grasp.

Too bad that damn war ruined it all for the Johnsons, but maybe that is the only way they got to have 4 years together before he died. He died alone. She has macular degeneration - she is blind now.

Home Power Magazine - Your Small Scale Renewable Energy (RE) Source

Find out just what the people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.

And these impositions will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.

The limits of tyrants are prescribed only by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

Protesters wearing paper respirators waved signs and whooped at passing cars Wednesday just north of Jackson to protest the continued use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park.

More than a dozen protesters gathered Wednesday to make their point on the day Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks officially open to winter visitors. The protesters gathered at the south entrance sign to Grand Teton on Highway 89.

While some protesters wore respirators, one woman donned a green, foam Statue of Liberty crown. They held up a white sheet with a slogan spray painted in red that stated: “Read our lips! No more snowmobiles in our parks!!”

The protesters supported a phase-out of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton that had been approved by the Clinton administration. The Bush administration revisited and reversed the ban as part of a legal settlement with snowmobile manufacturers.

Environmental standards should not change with political parties, the protesters said. The controversy has swirled around air pollution, noise, and how snowmobiles disrupt wildlife.

Yellowstone is one of the nation’s last sanctuary’s for wildlife and should be protected to the highest standard, the protesters said.

“There are times when you have to draw the line,” said Jackson Hole resident Ernie LaBelle. “It’s not that snowmobiles don’t have anyplace to go.”

Likewise, fellow protester Walt Farmer said: “Our national parks do not owe (snowmobile manufacturers) a living.”

Farmer said he is a member of the Fund for Animals and a co-plaintiff in a lawsuit filed this month to stop the Bush administration from overturning the ban. The Fund opposes grooming trails in Yellowstone because bison use the packed surfaces to walk out of the park to their slaughter.

The protesters were citizens who support the snowmobile ban in the park; they were not affiliated with any particular environmental organization, organizer Heather Smith said.

Smith got into an impromptu debate with Jackson Hole resident Adrienne Ward, who showed up to support the right of snowmobilers to use the parks.

Ward brought two signs that read: “Yellowstone is for everyone. Sledheads are taxpayers, too.” and “Ban the ban. Another point of view.”

Smith challenged Ward’s support for snowmobiles, saying that allowing the machines to remain in the park compromises Yellowstone’s pristine values.

Ward questioned Smith’s goal of no pollution in Yellowstone, pointing out that snowcoaches and cars also pollute the park. Ward asked if Smith planned to ban cars and snowcoaches next.

Ward, who said she didn’t snowmobile, said: “I don’t mind the snowmobilers. I think they have a right to be there.”

But protesters countered that snowmobilers ruin the experience of visiting a natural Yellowstone by creating blue haze and noise.

In reversing the ban, the Bush administration ignored public comment, the vast majority of which supported a ban, said Florida resident Kennan Ferguson, who was in Jackson Hole visiting his family for the holidays. The National Park Service received nearly 245,000 comments favoring a ban.

December 19, 2002

THE SPIRIT OF THE SEASON

My housemate tells me that her 3-year old nephew was just given a model of the Nativity Scene. He immediately proceeded to remove all the figurines, drove his Tonka trucks into the barn, and added his Bart Simpson dolls around the outside.

At least someone understands the spirit of the season.

"Christmas is forced upon a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the press; on its own merits it would wither and shrivel in the fiery breath of universal hatred."
-- George Bernard Shaw

While the White House is going to spend an initial $19 billion on a weapons systems that won't work , isn't needed, doesn't target current or likely future threats, and in part doesn't even yet exist, it's cutting medical payments for senior citizen health care. Does it get any more stark than that, people?

Bush's missile defense, as was Reagan's, is about only one thing: enriching the major defense contractors. The program is being rushed through and test results are intentionally misleading or being kept secret.

We all know that no a terrorist group or rogue nation is going to target the U.S. with long-range missiles, when so many other simpler and cheaper terrorism alternatives exist. This isn't the 1950s anymore. It's not even 1985.

What a horrible scam. While people who can't get the cold war out of their heads are ready to spend a hundred billion dollars on something the country does not need, the government is cutting medical benefits for the elderly.

I hope that every elderly voter who voted for Bush, in all those red, rural states where plenty of people rely on Medicare, is happy with the tradeoff.

Dec 16......Here's how the right manages to have such an infrastructure in place, while progressives and moderates are left struggling with each other and barely getting their messages out to the public.

There's a lot of money out there on the right, but there's also a lot of moderate and progressive money out there. The difference is that the right uses its money to provide general operating funding to organizations that exist to come up with ways to convince the public to vote Republican.

The moderates and progressives have traditionally provided money for specific programs with the intent of doing good in specific ways. This is a huge difference.

The idea is that this program money is more results oriented, but look at the results.

The right uses this machine to get politicians elected that carry out their agenda, which involves dismantling almost everything that the moderates and progressives have been funding.

Ethel the Blog

Observations (and occasional brash opining) on science, computers, books, music and other shiny things that catch my mind's eye. There's a home page with ostensibly more permanent stuff.

This is intended to be more functional than decorative. I neither intend nor want to surf on the bleeding edge, keep it real, redefine journalism or attract nyphomaniacal groupies (well, maybe a wee bit of the latter).

The occasional cheap laugh, raised eyebrow or provocation of interest are all I'll plead guilty to in the matter of intent. Bene qui latuit bene vixit.

The usual copyright stuff applies, but I probably won't get enraged until I find a clone site with absolutely no attribution (which, by the way, has happened twice with some of my other stuff).

Finally, if anyone's offended by anything on this site then please do notify me immediately. I like to keep track of those times when I get something right.

Another place to check out for something totally different to amuse yourself for hours. 3 Rivers Tech Review

Science to Save the World

Economist Jeffrey D. Sachs thinks the science and technology of resource-rich nations can abolish poverty, sickness and other woes of the developing world

His extensive travels have led him to realize the importance of geography, he informs me as we wait for his first appointment on a brilliant September morning.

"It isn't possible to do good economic development thinking without understanding the physical environment, deeply, in which economic development is supposed to take place," he says. He complains that this "physical framing" is hardly considered by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, nor is it taught to graduate students in economics.

As a result, "the physical scientists inherently feel that public policy somehow passes them by," Sachs remarks.

"They feel politicians neglect a lot of the important messages or don't understand the risks, say, of anthropogenic climate change or of biodiversity depletion." Yet he has often encountered a resistance among social scientists, who believe everything is at root a political problem.....more

But there was little to no popular media coverage of the Aug. 20 announcement of the Fields Medals, the highest honor in mathematics. Given every four years to the best mathematicians under the age of 40, this year's prizes were awarded at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Beijing. No doubt you didn't even know they were getting together.

The medals went to Laurent Lafforgue of the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, in Bures-sur-Yvette, France, and to Vladimir Voevodsky of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. The 2002 Nevanlinna Prize, one of the highest honors in computer science, went to Madhu Sudan of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Speaking by e-mail, Lafforgue said: "When non-mathematicians ask me what I work on, I don't try to explain it to them because I believe that this is nearly impossible. The same with mathematicians who work in other fields." Voevodsky is traveling and could not be reached. But Sudan has been successful, he said, in explaining his work to his 3-year old daughter. If she can get it, so can we.

Let us recognize that mathematicians are not like you or me. We the many can detect some beauty in the paintings of Titian, feel a certain sad hope in a Chopin sonata, recognize the grace in Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. But, most likely, the isomorphism between a modified motivic cohomology of an algebraic variety and the modified singular cohomology of its natural topological space does little for us.

Which is, really, a shame. For there is a beauty in mathematics, which you may have glimpsed that day in first grade when it struck you how peculiar zero was: that you could add it to any other number -- any number at all! -- and the number would stay the same. Or maybe you've encountered a slick little thing called the square root of -1. There are men who have this number engraved on their tombstones.....more, click above.

Irradiation, which has been endorsed by the World Health Organization, exposes food to low doses of electrons or gamma rays to destroy deadly microorganisms such as E. coli O157:H7 and salmonella.

Under the U.S. farm subsidy law enacted in May, the U.S. Agriculture Department must allow government-approved food safety technology such as irradiation to be used in commodities purchased by the federal school lunch program. Some 27 million schoolchildren receive free or low-cost meals daily in the program.........................more.
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Dec. 13 entry ...Court clears way for Clinton ban on forest roads - 12/13/2002 - ENN.com Washington, D.C. -- Environmental groups claimed victory Thursday after a federal appeals court effectively reinstated a Clinton-era ban on road construction on nearly 60 million acres of U.S. forest land, overturning a preliminary injunction obtained by Boise Cascade Corp. last year.

In a sweeping 55-page decision, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said repealing the ban would open federal forests to logging, mining, and other activities, harming some pristine wilderness lands........................more

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Dec. 14...........Some months ago I posted on the attempt by officials in Canada to create a legal option for large predator (wolf and cougar) hunting on Vancouver Island -- really for tourism and votes -- in the name of "saving the deer population." To this end, there may also have been some real concern to save a deer population for hunters as well.

As I pointed out then, while the idea that the wolves and cougars hunt deer, and thereby limit their numbers, is absolutely true, the idea that they were hunting them to the point of extinction would be highly irregular. If such a process really were happening, it would point more towards some other underlying factor that was affecting deer health and reproduction, creating an unnaturally large population of cullable deer, and thereby greatly increasing the number of kills wolves or cougars were making. The emphasis would be away from wolves and cougars, then, because they would be the end part of the process and not the underlying cause.

However, it was my opinion that the data on the issue was completely inconclusive and there was no real evidence that deer population was indeed in the grave danger that was being predicted. Well, I'm happy to report an unexpected victory in this matter, with the caveat that now they are trying to go after large predators in the name of the marmot:...........................more

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Dec. 16...............Global Environmental Histories

Part of an ecological understanding of things is that everything is in relation and is changing over time systematically. Thus, it does some good -- but ultimately not enough -- if we change things in Ohio, but all the surrounding states don't update their own environmental activities and statutes.

The same holds true on the world stage. One of the big projects of our time will be the piecing together and attempting to understand the total environmental history of the planet.

When we have this, then we will finally be able to see the real nature of planetary development and its corresponding effects. The following essays -- one brand new from Finland -- are part of a free H-net series in global environmental history.

Some interesting topics.........more

Why I'm a Democrat With Guns
by an American-in-Exile-at-Home (guest contributor)

I'm a liberal in most ways, but not all. Enough to at least put me solidly in the "left-leaning Moderate" category. Now, I'm solid Dem, I think I cast one Repug vote in the last two even-year elections.

Since impeachment and the stolen election I'm so firmly in the Democratic camp you couldn't pry me out with a crowbar. And I don't mind worrying about the few issues that I do have disagreements with my party because quite obviously the alternative is a horror show.

An issue, like guns. Now I don't want to rave or argue about gun control. It's a difficult issue and clearly something must be done, but nobody knows what. Further, I'm not a huge fan of them.

I don't think I've shot one of mine in close to six years (better remember to oil them), but I'm happy they're there because I'm also a Jew. That means that I have strong feelings about fascism, and I quail when I watch people go without a fight to their doom. 12,000,000 Non-Jews and Jews perished like that.

Because my grandparents escaped Russia in 1920, I was spared that horror and raised an American. And I'm afraid I have a typically American male, macho view of that type of situation. When I used to fantasize as a kid, it would often be about being one of those brave little Warsaw Ghetto rats, fighting and fighting and killing Nazis among the rubble, so that when I grew up, I learned gun safety, purchased a couple guns, and stowed them away largely. In the back of my mind, as ridiculous as it often seemed then, I said to myself, "because I don't want to go down quietly if the Nazis come. I want to be able to run away and join the Resistance."

Now, relax a moment, I'm not going on a shooting spree. Even the fraudulent theft of the election is not a signal for all-out revolution. Far from it. Mostly our lives are very good, even now. Democracy isn't dead, it's only injured and defiled. If enough people speak loud enough in 2002 and 2004, maybe it can go back to "serious, but stable" condition. But my ironclad belief that "it could never happen here" has been severely shaken, perhaps stricken forever...though I hope not. ....more

Since the Gulf victory in 1991, a series of largely unnoticed policy changes have opened new opportunities for women to fight alongside, and even to lead, front-line troops.

The Navy and Air Force, with some fanfare, allowed women into the cockpits of fighters and bombers. But less well known is how vastly the Army has expanded the role of women in ground-combat operations.

Today, women command combat military police companies, fly Apache helicopters, work as tactical intelligence analysts, and even serve in certain artillery units--jobs that would have been unthinkable for them a decade ago.

In any war in Iraq, these changes could put thousands of women in the midst of battle, far more than at any time in American history.

This new role for female U.S. troops is the product of three different forces. One is congressional pressure to integrate the military by gender as it previously had been integrated by race.

Another is the ongoing enlistment shortage; the military remains reluctant to admit women yet is unable to recruit enough competent men to staff an all-volunteer Army.

Fresh Tomato and Basil Pizza

Radicchio and Parmesan Cheese Pizza

Zucchini Pizza with Feta

Seaweed Pizza

Pizza is an Italian "poor" food that has become one of the most popular and loved dishes in the world. Peasant families in Southern Italy used to make it with bread dough and garnished it with tomatoes and seasonal vegetables from their garden.

That's why pizza is such a versatile and complete dish: you can put on it every ingredient you like ("sweet pizza" is quite popular today, with its chocolate or mascarpone cream topping, sugar and nuts), according to your imagination and your taste.

Here, we offer you four vegetarian recipes, simple and mouth-watering, perfect for a summer dinner or party. They are just delicious, light and healty. Try the Seaweed Pizza and you'll never miss seafood or tuna pizza again!

Note: Using the extra vergin olive oil (possibly Italian) to season your pizza will enhance the flavour and nutritional value of the recipe. A little luxury you won't regret.

"Tradition of an Independent Judiciary" - objective judges - this is a crock of lies fed to people outside the profession. The U.S. does not now and never did have an independant judiciary.

All judges have bias-most are very wealthy and come from wealthy families. They are ambitious. They are authoritarian. They are vicious in their methods of controlling their opponents. They silence people in their courts, in their profession and they attempt to silence their critics in the broader political arena. They use punishment and contempt.

Judges use words like civility to silence those who criticize or draw attention to their biases. They say they cannot discuss THEIR RECORD or their politics when they run for the bench. They ignore the fact that the Supreme Court ruled that those seeking appointment to the bench can and should discuss past cases they decided and that others decided. Judicial candidates even refuse to discuss the politics of organizations they belong to, such as the Federalist Society. They refuse to answer questions like "do you believe Roe v. Wade is a constitutionally correct decision? And the media agrees because it is too expensive to hire a legal researcher.

Sheep Sheep We behave like sheep and accept their lies in a civil manner.

Judges are biased on behalf of their own class and kind and they hide behind the need to be/appear unbiased. The Earth Justice Law Center below knows this. Like every lawyer they forum shop, wanting to appear before judges who are known to be liberal as opposed to conservative judges. They are using the party line to attempt to gain public support-your support. They lie and know they lie in service of a higher cause.

Their whole message below is that they will oppose the appointment of Bush's boys to the court.

I believe progressive people will continue to lose as long as we accept and promote the oppressor's values. We should be developing our own vocabulary, defining alternative values and exposing the lies that are commonly accepted as truths.

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Earth Justice: Post-Election Analysis: November 2002

It is hard to imagine what America would look like today if it were not for a series of groundbreaking environmental laws that passed in the 1970s and 1980s and for the judges willing to enforce them.

However, the American tradition of an independent judiciary as a core part of democracy, and the fundamental right of citizens to enforce environmental laws are both now at risk. Following the recent election, anti-environmental interests are now in charge of the White House and Congress.

It has therefore become more important than ever to oppose lifetime judicial nominations that would tip the balance in the Supreme Court and federal appeals courts and rollback environmental laws.

The current administration has capitulated to lawsuits brought by industry, refused to appeal rulings striking down environmental protections, and interpreted new rulings to limit environmental laws. The administration is continuing to advance this court strategy by nominating lifetime judges with a record of hostility to environmental protections.

At the same time, Earthjustice's role has become more important than ever, as the environmental community will have to rely on the courts to enforce the law and to reject efforts to rollback the clock on environmental safeguards.

More than two dozen federal courts of appeals' nominees, reportedly including two who were rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee, will soon be submitted to the Senate for approval.

In addition, by the end of the Supreme Court's session in June 2003, it is likely that one, and possibly two, Justices will retire, followed immediately by a Bush administration announcement of its nominee(s). A vote by the full Senate will follow.

Earthjustice's joint Judging the Environment project with Community Rights Counsel opposes the confirmation of anti-environmental activists to the federal bench.

In 2003, we will step up our research into the background of nominees, apply public pressure to discourage the administration from appointing judges with demonstrated hostility to environmental protections and work in conjunction with a broad coalition of environmental and other public interest groups to oppose judicial nominees with egregious records.

Vacancies in the next two years mean that the current administration could shape the judiciary for years to come by tipping the balance in the Supreme Court and in virtually every federal court of appeals.

Here is an excerpt from a long essay she wrote telling about each of the cows living in the cow sanctuary she supports from the sale of her cow cowches......

Apple lives to eat. She got her name because she was tamed with an apple. Little did I realize at the time that she would eat almost anything. One day I was peeling an orange, and she came nibbing around. I held out the piece of peel for her to smell, thinking she would see it wasn't anything she was interested in.

She gobbled it up and begged for more. She ended up eating the whole orange. I regularly bring home bruised apples from the local orchard, for cow treats. Once they had soft peaches, and I brought them too, just to see what the cows would do.

Everyone ignored them, except Apple, who devoured the entire half bushel. Same story with tomatoes and beans. After everyone is done eating, Apple carefully checks the mangers for any leftovers, and cleans them up. When I put out straw for them to lie in, she eats some of that too. Needless to say, she is the fattest cow.

Oblainka didn't grow up with the other cows. She is an old, blind cow whose first owner was a rodeo cowboy that practiced bulldogging on her when she was a calf. Struggling against him was how she lost one eye, and all trust in humans. The other eye clouded over as a result of pinkeye.

The herd that she belonged to was pastured in a field very close to my cows. Their owner was going through some hard times, and didn't look in on them very often. When winter came, and the grass died, he didn't bring them any hay. They could see me feeding my animals, and would moo like crazy when the hay truck went by.

I couldn't watch them go hungry in the snow, so I started to feed them too. I noticed that one cow with white eyes was being pushed out by the others. She must not have been completely blind, or maybe she could tell with her hearing, but when I set a flake of hay down far away from where the other cows were eating, she came right to it and chowed down.

By the third day she didn't even try to fight her way into the main pile of hay, she just waited and followed me. That's how she and I became friends.

After about a month, her owner finally started feeding his cows, but when I went by, she still came running over. I'd give her a little grain, which she ate out of my hand. We did this through the winter. One day the man came with his livestock trailer. "That old blind cow isn't bred," he said. "Guess I'll beef her."

I asked him what she was worth. "$.60 a pound" he told me. I gave him the money, and she joined our family.

Cows are pregnant for nine months, just like humans. Eight months and three weeks later, she gave birth to Charlie!

Cows have an extremely strong maternal instinct. They really love their calves, a lot. I knew that Oblainka must have had at least nine or ten calves already, and that they had all been stolen from her, so I was happy for her that she was able to keep this last one.

She was determined to keep him, too, unaware that he wasn't in danger. For the next six months, if anyone except me came into the pasture she would position herself between Charlie and the intruder, head down, ready to charge, pawing the ground and throwing clods of dirt high into the air with her hooves.

Somehow she communicated to him that he was not to trust any humans, and he didn't let me touch him until he was three months old, even though she continued to eat out of my hand every day. Eventually she let him share the grain she was taking from me, and soon after that he decided that being scratched all over felt wonderful.

Oblainka still worried though, and would jump up the moment I entered the shelter, nudging Charlie to get up too, and be ready to run, if necessary.

As Charlie got older, she became less alarmed, and would let me move about the other cows without getting up, provided that I didn't come close to her and her son. The breakthrough came when Charlie was just over a year old. I came into the shelter late one night, to check on the cows before I went to bed. Oblainka and Charlie were lying down in a back corner.

I could hear that there was something wrong with her breathing. It was very loud and wheezy. I moved closer, slowly, so as not to disturb her. When I got right next to her and she didn't get up, I was sure that there was something seriously wrong. Pneumonia, I thought. Kneeling by her side, I tried to listen for the tell tale gurgle in her wheezing.

Then she woke up, and the terrible wheezing stopped. Oblainka had been snoring! When she sniffed me, and stayed lying down, I knew that at long last she trusted.

The Insurance Industry, Pharmaceutical Companies and Hospital Owners (often religious charities and churches) are making and stealing tremendous amounts of money from ill and dying people. And they are cooking the accounting books so that their theft is hidden.

Do you know the daily charges for bed and board only in a hospital is minimally seven thousand dollars a day?

Why?

You can hire a nurse and three aides for less than seven thousand a day.

Why can't America develop a network of smaller nursing homes around hospitals?

Then you do not need all the administrators and receptionists and big ticket items.

Do you know that the Drug Company's so called high costs of research and development is often done by our universities and by tax funded federal grants? The majority of the cost is subsidized by working people who get nothing in return, not even an education at those universities?

Do you realize most insurance companies will not pay claims nor insure those individuals who make claims or who have "pre-existing conditions? Do you know what their profits were for 2001? Do you know the salaries and benefit packages of the CEOs? That will be hard to figure out as the Insurance Companies have a bizarre system of ownership that makes it difficult to discover who actually controls your particular division or subsidiary.

The reason you do not know the answers to these questions is that the agencies and boards set up to regulate this Hospital-Drug-Insurance Complex are staffed by people who work for those companies.

There is no answer except the simple one. Don't feel guilty that you cannot spend what little time you have left in futile monitoring and comparison of policies. Do not be drawn into debates over the "fairest" alternative system. The multi-billion dollar medical-insurance-drug complex spends a lot of money devising accounting methods, and public relations campaigns to deceive their customer/patients. They have never been fair with us and never will be. Give up on the Citizen's Utility Board joke monitoring agencies.

Joan Ryan: Pre-emptive strike on Roe vs. Wade, San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 1, 2002

Nations, like families, can die of too many lies. The founders of our republic knew this, and gave us the First Amendment so America would be safe for second opinions that challenge official lies.

Because all of us are capable of deceiving ourselves, each of us needs a personal First Amendment operating within that would protect the quiet, fragile voice that occasionally rises uninvited to say, 'that's just not so -- that's not the truth.'...

"Beneath the distortion and deception of life in America today there is hard reality: the earth is threatened with pollution, nuclear weapons have been accumulating worldwide..., yet our public mind is filled with an image of America where the vending machines are always full, the wounded always recover, and the bills never come due.

We seem to prefer a comfortable lie to the uncomfortable truth. We punish those who point out reality, and reward those who provide us with the comfort of illusion.

http://portalmarket.com/ceremony.html

Harmony

between ourselves and nature
between all the different aspects
of our surroundings
between nature's seasons and our
man-made environment
between us and other people
Harmony never means that everything becomes alike.
The point is to achieve a balanced relationship, not
between things which are identical, but between
things which are complementary.
... Harmony with contrast,
as in the black ink of
the words and the
space of the
white paper.
Harmony weaves everything together
into an intricate,
yet oh-so-simple web.

Respect

for the moment
for each person
for time
for ourselves
for the objects we use
for nature
Respect could
be defined as
the act of giving
particular attention
to the recipient.
In showing respect, we demonstrate
our understanding of the
interconnectedness of all things.
And having shown respect, we
understand even better
why it is valued.

Purity

of mind
(like the clear stream)
of purpose
(has everything unnecessary been swept away?)
of action
(at any one moment, we should be completely
focused on the action of that moment)
of vision
(do I see my goal clearly?...)

To be pure is to contain nothing
that does not properly belong;
so that we are not weighed down
or distracted by that which
contributes nothing to the good
of the whole.

Tranquility

the state of being free from agitation of mind
and spirit.

If we are in harmony with
our surroundings and if we
respect the moment and what
it brings us, then we