Monday, May 24, 2010

“MADNESS: Conference Demands We Give Whales and Dolphins ... - RedState” plus 3 more

“MADNESS: Conference Demands We Give Whales and Dolphins ... - RedState” plus 3 more

MADNESS: Conference Demands We Give Whales and Dolphins ... - RedState

Posted: 24 May 2010 11:07 AM PDT

QUIET !!!!!!

Listen closely you can hear them in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, there is a group of whales holding fins, and singing "We Shall Overcome."  And there is more, as you read this, retired TV Star, Flipper, is filming a commercial where he squeaks, "I am not an Animal, I am a human being."

Why the ruckus?  Because in Helsinki a conference of conservationists and experts in philosophy, law and ethics have declared whales and dolphins should get "human rights" to life and liberty because of mounting evidence of their intelligence.  No this is not a Satire. Incredibly President Obama's Czar Cass Sunstein who believe that Animals should have the right to sue in American courts wasn't even there.

Attendees at this at a University of Helsinki conference said ever more studies show the giant marine mammals have human-like self-awareness, an ability to communicate and organize complex societies, making them similar to some great apes.

"We affirm that all cetaceans as persons have the right to life, liberty and wellbeing," they said in a declaration after a two-day meeting led by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).

The WDCS is making the mistake progressive politicians make. Man does not give the right to life, liberty etc. Those natural rights were given to man from God. But maybe we can give them Obamacare and high speed internet.

Thomas White, director of the Center for Ethics and Business at Loyola Marymount University in California who was at the Helsinki talks, said dolphins can recognize themselves in a mirror, an ability rare in mammals that humans only acquire at about 18 months of age.

"Whaling is ethically unacceptable," he told Reuters. "They have a sense of self that we used to think that only human beings have."

Californian, gee somehow I am not surprised. In researching Dr. White, he has made a career out of trying to assign "human rights" in non-human dolphins. Somebody has to teach this guy the difference between human and humane.

Working with White at this conference was Hal Whitehead, a biology professor at Dalhousie University in Canada and an expert on deep-water whales, said there was more evidence that whales have human-like culture. Whitehead might be right, maybe we should put a camera in the ocean to see if any sperm whales are practicing Hamlet's soliloquy after the divers from National Geographic get back on the boat.

He said that sperm whales have sonars to find fish that are so powerful that they could permanently deafen others nearby if used at full blast. Yet the whales do not use sonars as weapons, showing what Whitehead called a human-like "sense of morality."

Morality? Maybe we can send the National Geographic guys back into the water to see if there are any whales holding two tablets inscribed with Ten Commandments.

"It's like a group of human hunters armed with guns," he told Reuters. "There's a clear sense of how the sonar can be used."

…"We want a shift to putting the individual at the center of conservation," said Nicholas Entrup, of the WDCS. That would mean giving minke whales, relatively plentiful and most often hunted, the same protection as endangered northern right whales.

Biologist Paul Manger disagrees, he say many researchers had wrongly concluded that whales and dolphins were smart because they have big brains. He does have a point, many people have made the same mistake with Barbara Boxer and Al Franken.

"There's nothing to separate them from other mammals — seals, lions or tigers," Paul Manger of Johannesburg's University of Witwatersrand, told Reuters. They had evolved big brains largely to keep warm in the chill waters.

Saying whales were not especially bright was not the same as advocating hunts, he said. "We protect fish stocks even though no one argues that they are intelligent," he said.

The real point is, as said above, all Animals should be treated humanely, but that doesn't mean they should have the same rights and protections as a human being.

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U.S. Nuclear Renaissance: Will Nuclear 2.0 Be Better ... - Earthtimes

Posted: 24 May 2010 01:56 AM PDT

BALTIMORE, MD -- 05/24/10 -- Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) -- The so-called "nuclear renaissance" has been discussed and debated at conferences and in industry publications for several years. A lot of important changes have been in the nuclear project design, procurement, and licensing processes in recent years, speakers told a break-out session at the 12th Annual Electric Power Conference & Exhibition in Baltimore. Speakers agreed that these changes would lead to better results as the United States prepares to build its first new nuclear generators in more than 30 years.

Companies featured: Tennessee Valley Authority (NYSE:TVE), Constellation Energy Group (NYSE:CEG), Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

For details, view the entire article by subscribing to Industrial Info's Premium Industry News at http://www.industrialinfo.com/showNews.jsp?newsitemID=160608, or browse other breaking industrial news stories at www.industrialinfo.com.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. IIR's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. For more information send inquiries to powergroup@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at www.industrialinfo.com.

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Rand Paul And The Civil Rights Act: The Difference Between Philosophy ... - Outside Beltway

Posted: 20 May 2010 09:03 AM PDT

Rand PaulJames and Steven have both written at length about the Rand Paul/Civil Rights Act story, and I believe the Washington Post's David Weigel makes an excellent point about this whole controversy this morning that is worth expanding upon:

So is Rand Paul a racist? No, and it's irritating to watch his out-of-context quotes — this and a comment about how golf was no longer for elitists because Tiger Woods plays golf — splashed on the Web to make that point. Paul believes, as many conservatives believe, that the government should ban bias in all of its institutions but cannot intervene in the policies of private businesses. Those businesses, as Paul argues, take a risk by maintaining, in this example, racist policies. Patrons can decide whether or not to give them their money, or whether or not to make a fuss about their policies. That, not government regulation and intervention, is how bias should be eliminated in private industry. And in this belief Paul is joined by some conservatives who resent that liberals seek government intervention for every unequal outcome.

Now, few conservatives would go as far as Paul. In an essay just this month on the thought of William F. Buckley, Lee Edwards criticized Buckley's belief "that the federal enforcement of integration was worse than the temporary continuation of segregation."

"As a result of National Review's above-the-fray philosophizing," wrote Edwards, "and Barry Goldwater's vote, on constitutional grounds, against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the albatross of racism was hung around the neck of American conservatism and remained there for decades and even to the present."

That, in miniature, is what is happening to Paul.

This is a problem that libertarians have had before, especially those like Paul who haven't run for office before. The usual issues where they get tied up are things like legalizing drugs and prostitution, but the strong libertarian defense of property rights, which is essentially what Paul is arguing here, is another one. Philosophically, I think Paul has a point. Politically and historically, however, he approached this from precisely the wrong angle.

The left will say that this is the end of the Paul campaign, and even some on the right who supported Trey Grayson in the primary have been issuing "I told you so" commentary this morning, but reality is probably different. Paul does need to address this issue in a way that gets it behind him, sooner rather than later preferably, but it's not going to become the defining issue of the campaign. This is still a Republican year, and Paul is running in a conservative state that has a history of electing Republican Senators. The race will be competitive, but Paul still has a very good shot at winning.

The golf story that Weigel writes about, by the way, refers to the fact that some on the left decided to criticize Paul for holding his Tuesday night victory party at a members-only golf club in Bowling Green, rather than at a hotel. Paul responded to questions about the choice by saying that the venue was less expensive for the campaign because he was a member of a club, and rejected suggestions that it reinforced Republican stereotypes by noting, correctly, that golf had become much more than a rich man's game in recent years thanks largely to the popularity of Tiger Woods. It's a silly non-controversy, of course, (as Wonkette noted, there's little difference between Country Club and swanky hotel ballroom) but somehow it got combined with the Civil Rights Act story and became part of the narrative that started developing last night.

In short, I think Paul will survive this. However, he needs to learn to be less of a philosopher and more of a politician.

Update: The first post-primary poll of the Kentucky Senate race is out and, so far at least, Rand Paul is doing very well:

Rand Paul, riding the momentum of his big Republican Primary win on Tuesday, now posts a 25-point lead over Democrat Jack Conway in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race, but there's a lot of campaigning to go.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Kentucky, taken Wednesday night, shows Paul earning 59% of the vote, while Conway picks up 34% support. Four percent (4%) percent prefer some other candidate, and three percent (3%) are undecided.

Paul consistently led Conway prior to winning the Republican primary, but had never earned more than 50% support. Conway has been stuck in the 30s since the first of the year. Last month, Paul posted a 47% to 38% lead over the Democrat.

Obviously, even though the poll was taken Wednesday night, it probably does not fully reflect any impact from the Civil Rights Act coverage. Nonetheless, Paul is apparently starting from a very strong position.

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UPI NewsTrack TopNews - United Press International

Posted: 23 May 2010 11:11 PM PDT

Salazar: BP may be 'pushed out of the way'

HOUSTON, May 23 (UPI) -- U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar warned oil firm BP may be "pushed out of the way" if it doesn't cap a Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Salazar, visiting the oil company's U.S. headquarters in Houston, said BP had missed "deadline after deadline," the BBC reported.

"If we find they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way appropriately," Salazar told reporters.

BP has said it could take months to stop the oil gushing from the well on the ocean floor.

Meanwhile, Salazar and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano were scheduled to visit the site Monday.

The departments said the two secretaries will fly over the site, then discuss federal efforts to fight the oil spill. They also are scheduled to meet with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and local community and industry leaders.

The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11, about 50 miles from the Louisiana coast.

U.S.: BP best able to deal with spill

WASHINGTON, May 23 (UPI) -- BP is best equipped to stop the oil gushing from its deep-water well into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. official leading the government's response said Sunday.

Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard, said he believed BP has done its best to cope with the spill, resulting from an April 20 oil rig explosion, explosion and to try to stop the flow of oil 5,000 feet below the surface.

Allen's comments on CNN's "State of the Union" came as BP indicated it would try anew to stop oil flow using mud and cement by early Wednesday.

"They have the eyes and ears that are down there," Allen said. "They are necessarily the modality by which this is going to get solved. Our responsibility is to conduct proper oversight to make sure they do that."

Robert Dudley, BP's managing director, said on the CNN program the explosion, which killed 11 people, and the massive oil leak have been "catastrophic for every employee of BP" and for the 24,000 workers responding to the spill.

"We have to do everything we can to clean this up as fast as we can and we'll make good on our promise," Dudley said.

Allen pointed to vast differences in responses to the gulf leak and any other spill, including that of the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

"We're on entirely new ground here on how we deal with oil spill responses," he said.

Humans have no direct access to the spot where torrents of oil gush into the gulf, and the area must be viewed through remotely operated vehicles and cameras, Allen said.

"This is an entirely new world, and I've said on many occasions, this is closer to Apollo 13 than the Exxon Valdez," he said.

The Apollo 13 space mission narrowly averted disaster when its crew and space agency engineers improvised a solution to an unprecedented in-flight equipment failure.

Palin: WH ties to big oil impede response

WASHINGTON, May 23 (UPI) -- White House links to oil companies that supported President Barack Obama have slowed the U.S. response to the Gulf of Mexico oil leak, Sarah Palin suggested.

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee said, "I don't know why the question isn't asked by the mainstream media and by others if there's any connection with the (campaign) contributions made to President Obama and his administration and the support by the oil companies to the administration -- if there's any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico."

Palin's comments drew a quick response from the White House.

On CBS's "Face the Nation," press secretary Robert Gibbs said Palin must not have been "paying a whole lot of attention" during the presidential campaign.

"I'm almost sure that the oil companies don't consider the Obama administration a huge ally," Gibbs said. "We proposed a windfall profits tax when they jacked their oil prices up to charge for gasoline.

"My suggestion to Sarah Palin would be to get slightly more informed as to what's going on in and around oil drilling in this country."

Palin, who popularized the slogan "Drill, baby, drill" during the 2008 campaign. said Sunday she continues to support offshore drilling to reduce reliance on foreign energy sources.

"Having said that, these oil companies have got to be held accountable when there is any kind of lax and preventative measures to result in a tragedy like we're seeing right now in the gulf."

Paul comments draw new scrutiny

WASHINGTON, May 23 (UPI) -- Senate Republican candidate Rand Paul stayed off the air Sunday, but his comments on civil rights law drew fresh scrutiny on U.S. news programs.

Michael Steele, the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee, distanced himself from Paul's criticism of some provisions of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act.

"His philosophy is misplaced in these times," Steele said on "Fox News Sunday." "I don't think it's where the country is right now. The country litigated the issue of separate but equal. I think in this case Rand Paul's philosophy got in the way of reality."

On ABC's "This Week," Steele said he "wasn't comfortable" with Paul's remarks but had since talked to the Kentucky candidate and both agreed "our party stands four-square about moving forward on civil rights."

Paul, the 47-year-old backed by the Tea Party, who won the Republican U.S. Senate primary this week, has faced widespread criticism since telling MSNBC's Rachel Maddow private businesses should have the right to refuse service to African-Americans. He later issued a statement and said he supported the Civil Rights Act and wouldn't seek repeal.

On ABC, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said Paul also has questioned the legitimacy of the Fair Housing Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act. Kaine said Paul's comments would help Democrats win the Kentucky Senate seat left open by the retirement of Republican Jim Bunning.

On CNN's "State of the Union," Republican Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty called Paul's comments "unfortunate.'

"He sensed that and said he would have voted for that Civil Rights Act," Pawlenty said. "His explanation was unfortunate how he got to that point."

Paul backed out of his scheduled appearance on "Meet the Press" on Friday. He had agreed to the appearance Wednesday, but an aide, explaining the cancellation, said he was tired, the network said.

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