The Documentary, Gasland was RIGHT!

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics
Gasland

English: Councilman James F. Gennaro attends t...
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EPA links fracking to contaminated water in Wyoming | McClatchy

I have used the documentary, Gasland, in my class. The EPA has found clear evidence that hydraulic fracking has contaminated the ground water in a large area. This is evidence that Josh Fox’s crusade against unregulated fracking is based on sound science and I think he is owed an apology by many in the gas industry.

From what I am seeing, Gasland is on its ways to becoming the most influential documentary in modern American history as state after state and region after region struggle with the issues Josh Fox had the courage to bring before the public.

James Pilant

From the McClatchy article –

The EPA initially gathered water from privately owned wells and municipal wells. The presence of methane and hydrocarbons, including diesel, in groundwater led to further testing, including the EPA’s drilling of two monitoring wells. The EPA also tested waste pits for possible contamination. In its two years of sampling of the pits and the monitoring wells, the EPA found benzene, xylenes, diesel and other hydrocarbon compounds, among a list of unusual agents in the water.

EPA links fracking to contaminated water in Wyoming | McClatchy

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We Win the War on Terrorism by Maintaining Our Ideals!

On By southwerkIn International
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Giving up long held American rights, attempting to copy the worst elements of repressive regimes like the Argentine and the Soviet, are not the way to victory in the “war on terror.” These attempts to discover how low we can go in our own behavior are counterproductive. The America whose ideas have become common across the world was a concept of idealism and possibility. People never turned to the ideals of America because of their similarity to totalitarian regimes and monarchies but because they were different.

We win wars of ideas by having better ideas. The Bill of Rights and Habeas Corpus are persuasive ideas. Disappearing our enemies and holding them indefinitely without charges are the cowardly acts of frightened dictators and incompetent despots.

The great ideas that have made America a light to the world require courage, support and sacrifice. They are not cheap or easy.

But having such ideas is how societies win long term conflicts because having such ideas means that a people willing to hold on to its ideals even when threatened with destruction is a worthy people who live for more than just themselves.

James Pilant

Indefinite Military Detention Of U.S. Citizens Is A Win For Terrorists, Former Admiral Says

“As it turns out, our enemies’ greatest weakness is that they are bereft of ideals,” he added. “If we can maintain our ideals, our sense of justice, in the face of this, we can win. What the enemy, what the terrorists want to do — because they know they can’t beat us militarily — [is] they can try to change us. They can cause us to become more like them, and for them, that’s victory.”

The reason why, he argues, is that if the United States cannot portray itself as the holder of loftier ideals, then it is much harder to convince the rest of the world to stay on its side — and it’s harder to fight wars because even allies are less cooperative.

“Who’s going to surrender to the United Sates if they think they’re going to be detained indefinitely without a trial? Is anybody going to give up?” he asked. “Who’s going to say, ‘You know, maybe the United States isn’t as bad as we think it is, and maybe it’s al Qaeda and the Taliban who are the bad guys, and I’m going to side with the good guys?'”

Indefinite Military Detention Of U.S. Citizens Is A Win For Terrorists, Former Admiral Says

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Obama Over Rules His Own Experts – Plan B

On By southwerkIn Opinion1 Comment
I am a more than a little annoyed by this. Didn’t this guy promise to rely on the experts and instead we get some paternalistic crap about 11 year olds? This decision is going to have serious repercussions. Teenage girls are going to get pregnant with all that entails for their futures when they should have had a choice of contraception. We are not yet a nation of Baptists who believe ineffectual admonishments against having sex is an improvement over reality. Every day in this nation, particularly in the South, teenagers have sex, millions of them. They’ve been told not to. However, since the survival of the human species has depended on the young having sex for hundreds of thousands of years, it may well be possible that a church pamphlet and a pat on the head may not discourage them.
President Obama appears to be working his way through all of his campaign promises one by one, tossing them out like softballs at a little league game. I have been disgusted a long time. I don’t know what bothers me more, his fake populism or his gutless inability to negotiate.
Below are some thought from Salon.
James Pilant
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Obama’s woman problem – Gender Roles – Salon.com

But as an American, I think it is important for my president not to turn to paternalistic claptrap and enfeebling references to the imagined ineptitude and irresponsibility of his daughters – and young women around the country – to justify a curtailment of access to medically safe contraceptives. The notion that in aggressively conscribing women’s abilities to protect themselves against unplanned pregnancy Obama is just laying down some Olde Fashioned Dad Sense diminishes an issue of gender equality, sexual health and medical access. Recasting this debate as an episode of “Father Knows Best” reaffirms hoary attitudes about young women and sex that had their repressive heyday in the era whence that program sprang.

Obama’s woman problem – Gender Roles – Salon.com

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Heroes to Zeroes? Monetized Fire Department Watches Home Burn

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics

Tennessee family home burns while firefighters watch | The Sideshow – Yahoo! News

From Yahoo! News –

Vicky Bell told the NBC affiliate WPSD-TV that she called 911 when her mobile home in Obion County caught fire. Firefighters arrived on the scene but as the fire raged, they simply stood by and did nothing. “In an emergency, the first thing you think of, ‘Call 9-1-1,” homeowner Bell said. However, Bell and her husband were forced to walk into the burning home in an attempt to retrieve their own belongings. “You could look out my mom’s trailer and see the trucks sitting at a distance,” Bell said. “We just wished we could’ve gotten more out.”

This is video from last year’s similar case. Both homes burned from the lack of a 75 dollar subscription payment. That’s what happens when you take firemen and make them into businessmen. Monetized serviced makes sense to free market conservatives because the believe in the survival of the fittest.

Fire departments are not businesses. Making them into businesses wounds up with them not doing their job as a way of building clientele. It’s cruel, vicious and destructive to those with the least resources. Our proud conservative commentators have never lived in a home where seventy-five dollars was the difference between getting a tire for the car or lunch money or a hundred other things that burden you when you live on the edge likes tens of millions of Americans do now.

James Pilant

Tennessee family home burns while firefighters watch | The Sideshow – Yahoo! News

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Occupy Wall Street Poster!!

On By southwerkIn Economic Justice

My understanding is that this poster is free to use and I recommend you post it as well and visit OCCUPYWALLST.ORG. The struggle is just beginning.

James Pilant

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Big Brother = Carrier IQ?

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics
English: Al Franken, Senator from Minnesota

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When you use Android  and Carrier IQ is running in the background on your phone, Carrier IQ is tracking your data – just a little bit of data. All they are getting is the following:

Every text message. Every web search. Every phone number. The user’s location and the URL of all web sites searched!

Now that’s service! You are not just another customer to Carrier IQ. They want to be close to you every moment of every day. I bet they keep a record of the names of your pets.

I suppose I am just some kind of reclusive paranoid because I can’t seem to feel that they are acting in my best interest. In fact, call me crazy, but I just get the impression that they are stealing private information and converting for their own use.

I am pleased that Al Franken is calling them on the carpet for this, but that’s not what I want. I want the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute these people. This is theft, a form of private espionage. Since these phones are used by government agencies, police, fire departments and the military, I would like an explanation as to how that does not violate The Espionage Act and laws governing homeland security. Isn’t this exactly the kind of data, another country would crave?

James Pilant

Al Franken Calls On Carrier IQ To Explain Mobile Tracking Software

Earlier this week, security researcher Trevor Eckhart posted a video detailing how Carrier IQ’s software — which has the same name — logs every text message, web search and phone number typed on a wide variety of smartphones and reports them to the mobile phone carrier.

The application also logs a user’s location and the URL of websites searched on the phone, even if the user intends to encrypt that data using a URL that begins with “HTTPS,” Eckhart said in the video. The software always runs when Android’s operating system is running and users are unable to stop it.

Al Franken Calls On Carrier IQ To Explain Mobile Tracking Software

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Pepper Spray Cop’s Lament

On By southwerkIn Economic Justice
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Now for the serious side of pepper spray. This is from wikipedia.

Pepper spray typically comes in canisters, which are often small enough to be carried or concealed in a pocket or purse. Pepper spray can also be bought concealed in items such as rings. There are also pepper spray projectiles available, which can be fired from a paintball gun. It has been used for years against demonstrators. Many such canisters also contain dyes, either visible or UV-reactive, to mark an attacker’s skin and/or clothing to enhance identification by police.

Pepper spray – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Hydraulic Fracking and Earthquakes?

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics

Does Hydraulic Fracturing Trigger Earthquakes?

Here’s a quote from the article entitled as above –

English: Hanging wall vs Foot wall - faults ar...

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While the presence of a fault line in this region of the United States can be an apt explanation for the 5.6 magnitude Oklahoma earthquake, what about the sudden rise in seismic activity here? Between 1972 to 2008, an average of 2-6 earthquakes were recorded in the state of Oklahoma every year. In 2009, the number of earthquakes recorded reached 50, and further increased to a whopping 1047 in 2010. One cannot ignore the fact that more than a thousand drilling wells and more than a hundred injection wells have cropped up in this region over the course of time. Back in August itself, the region experienced a series of tremors, all ranging between the magnitude of 1 and 2.5, and now the 5.6 magnitude quake. While environmentalists are citing the link between hydraulic fracturing and earthquakes to oppose such projects, those in this business refute these allegations as baseless.

Does Hydraulic Fracturing Trigger Earthquakes?

Does hydraulic fracturing cause earthquakes? From what I have read so far, it would appear possible that fracking may have a lot to do with small earthquakes and may cause thousands of tiny almost insignificant earthquakes.

Having grown up in Oklahoma, I can’t help but recall that there was virtually never an earthquake. However, that they are much more common now is weak evidence that hydraulic fracking is the cause. If there is a pattern of fracking related earthquakes we will soon have measurable data. Both earthquakes and hydraulic fracking are trackable by geography, and patterns, if forming, should become visible.

Let us consider, however, what the effect of thousands of small quakes will be in a state like Oklahoma. What will the effects be? Generally they will be imperceptible one at a time. It seems to me though that bridges, roads and large concrete and stone structures are likely to take damage as the small insults multiply. How much damage? I have no idea. California has many small earthquakes a year. Maybe they have some data.

One thing is clear. Fracking should have been studied in depth before any large amount was done. There should now be continuous studies and a large tax laid upon the industry to finance both studies and regulation.

James Pilant

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Federal Judge, Jed S. Rakoff, Tells the SEC to do its Job

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics
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Citigroup Settlement Tossed: Judge Tells SEC To Get It Together

Citigroup as it has so many times is paying a fine without admitting wrongdoing, except this time it didn’t happen. The judge who was expected to solemnly okay the usual nonsense did nothing of the kind. He refused to play the game like a good boy. What’s going to happen now?

The lack of admission was the main reason Jed S. Rakoff, a Clinton-appointed U.S. district judge, said he decided to throw out the settlement. An admission of guilt or innocence is a matter of significant public interest, he said. “The court, and the public, need some knowledge of what the underlying facts are,” wrote Rakoff. “For otherwise, the court becomes a mere handmaiden to a settlement privately negotiated on the basis of unknown facts, while the public is prevented from ever knowing the truth in a matter of obvious importance.”

Citigroup Settlement Tossed: Judge Tells SEC To Get It Together

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Occupy Wall Street – Peace, Unity and Equality

On By southwerkIn Economic Justice

I was reading this little snippet from Rousseau the other day, and couldn’t help but think of Occupy Wall Street although the passage refers to a simple government and the OWS movement is more of a pursuit of a better government, I still believe the passage is relevant.

James Pilant

This is from Rousseau, Book IV, Page 1, first paragraph of The Social Contract.

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As long as a number of men gathered together regard themselves
as a single body, they have only a single will, which
is concerned with the survival and well-being of all of them.
In this case, the state’s machinery is all vigorous and simple
and its rules clear and luminous; there’s no tangle of hidden
agendas; the common good is always obvious, and only good
sense is needed to perceive it. Peace, unity and equality are
enemies of political subtleties. Simple straightforward men
are hard to deceive because of their simplicity; lures and
ingenious excuses don’t work with them—they aren’t even
subtle enough to be dupes! When among the world’s happiest
people we see a group of peasants gathered under an oak

to regulate the state’s affairs, and always acting wisely, can
we help scorning the sophistication of other nations, which
put so much skill and so much mystery into making make
themselves illustrious and wretched?

I’m not the only person to see Rousseau as being applicable to the Occupy Wall Street, there’s a fellow named Jason J. Campbell. His take is based on Rousseau’s A Discourse on Inequality. Please click on the link to see a very thoughtful, intelligent discourse on Occupy Wall Street and it meaning.

Occupy Wall Street and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s A Discourse on Inequality.mpg

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