Two Comedians Saw Financial Meltdown in 2007!

How did these comedians see it coming when financial reporters did not?

View the Video

The Far Side of Sarah Palin

Here are some links to the Tina Fey impersonation of Sarah Palin as well as the real interview with Katie Couric.

Tina Fey SNL first skit

The real Katie Couric interview with Palin

Katie Couric interview SNL version

CNN clip showing both the real Couric interview and the SNL version

Biden/Palin debate SNL version

How Does Alan Greenspan Fit into the Credit Crisis?

Read this article in the New York Times that talks about how Alan Greenspan blocked attempts at regulation which eventually led to the current credit crisis.

Meltdown: A Global Warming Travelogue

For a long time -- the first 15 years that we knew about global warming and did nothing -- there were no pictures. That was one of the reasons for inaction. But now the pictures have started to come, and they will not cease.

Read the article by Bill McKibben and view the photographs by Gary Braasch.

Pass the Bailout Package - Warren Buffett Tells Why

Listen to this great interview with Warren Buffett by Charlie Rose to hear why we should all urge our representatives to pass the bailout package. It goes beyond Wall Street to the state of our economy. Without passage millions more jobs will be lost and more businesses will have to close.

Charlie Rose interview with Warren Buffett

What caused the Credit Crisis?

Listen to this special program on This American Life about the housing crisis that was produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

Go to This American Life, Chicago Public Radio web site, to listen to the show.

Register to Vote

Click on this site to register to vote. Pass this link along to your friends just in case they haven't yet registered to vote.

Register to vote now!

The Truth about Sarah Palin

It is time to look past Sarah Palins' attractiveness and to look at the facts about Sarah Palin and why her beliefs and leadership style do not qualify her to be vice president of the United States.

Her hiring and firing shows a pattern of an abuse of power which we are all too familiar within the Bush administration. "Heck of a job, Brownie" Bush said to the head of FEMA while the Katrina debacle was unfolding. As it turned out Brownie had no experience running anything close to what FEMA required. The parallel with Palin is that she hired a high school classmate to run the State Division of Agriculture. Her only qualifications were that she was a former real estate agent who professed a childhood love of cows. Go to the link to read the entire article about this: Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends, Lashed Foes.

When Palin asked the local librarian what the procedure was to get certain books banned from the library the librarian let her know that she was 'aghast' at the thought and would never do that. After that Palin fired her but had to reinstate her because it caused such an uproar. Anne Kilkenny was a vocal critic of this attempted firing. She has known Sarah Palin since 1992 and had attended many city council meetings during the time when Palin was mayor. Recently, she felt impelled to write a letter describing how the Palin mayoral administration functioned because she believes that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent". Read the letter that has been circulating the internet about Sarah Palin.

Not only is she anti-abortion, pro-creationism, and does not believe people have affected climate change, she is uninformed about the Bush doctrine and she believes that Iraq and Saddam Hussein were connected to the 911 terrorist attacks. She alluded to this in her speech at her sons' deployment to Iraq ceremony. Recently, even Bush, admitted that there was no connection.

Considering the debt, the financial crisis, the "war", and the poor standing that our country now has with the rest of the world, this presidency will be faced with enormous problems that only extraordinary people will be able to solve. Based on this information it is obvious that McCain and Palin will not be up to the job because they just represent more of the same. We have had eight years to get into this mess and four more will only be catastrophic. These times require global experience and diplomacy which is something very different from what has been the status quo.

Read the op-ed article by Bob Herbert where he summarizes why Palin is just not ready to serve in the position of vice president which, by the way, is just a heartbeat away from the presidency. Read the article here.

Below are links to opinions about Sarah Palin:

Gloria Steinem wrote a great article called Palin: Wrong Woman, Wrong Message.

To read blog entries by women who are not sympathetic to Palin go to the blog,
Women Against Sarah Palin. If you are against Palin it is a great place to express your thoughts.

Here is a video made by a woman who is expressing how she feels about Palin:
A View of Palin...

View the SNL skit where Tina Fey is Sarah Palin:

The Debt Trap

Great article from The New York Times about Americans digging deeper into debt. They are not the only ones at fault. Read how the credit card companies and mortgage lenders reap profits from the fees they charge. It doesn't matter whether people can pay the loans off because the companies bundle up the loans and sell them as securities. NIMBY attitude and we are paying for it now with the credit crisis.

View the Article

Al Gore's Speech to End Carbon-Based Dependence

Listen to Al Gore's speech about global warming, the oil crisis, and his plan to move from oil to alternative sources of energy.

View the Video

Climate Change has reached the Critical State

Learn about the effects climate change will have on the world in this blog. Unless something is done to halt it dire changes are certain.

View the Blog

Massive Algae Bloom in China Threatens Olympics Sailing Races

The country’s official news agency, Xinhua, reported that algae currently cover a third of the coastal waters designated for the Olympic sailing competition.

View New York Times Article

Garbage covering an area bigger than Texas Floating in the Ocean

Read about the largest landfill in the world that is floating in the ocean.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm

The Materials Economy...The Story of Stuff Movie

Click the link to view the video about how things are made, the resources that are used, and where they go and the effect they have on the planet, full life-cycle of stuff.

http://www.informaticus.org/Movies/StoryOfStuff.mov

Changing Global Climate Documentary

Meltdown: Inside Out is an audio documentary, produced by Inside Out, that explores four regions of the world where the effects of climate change are being felt, the Arctic ice cap, Greenland ice sheet, Peru's mountain glaciers, and Antarctica.

Click the link to go to the web site where the documentary is being presented. It may take a few minutes before starting to play. (Duration 1 hour)
Listen to the documentary

Weekend Nonsense News - Little Known Law

Weekend Nonsense News on a little known law. (Duration 30 seconds.)

Listen to the Newscast.

Blogs, Bloggers, and Podcasting

Blogging and podcasting are great ways of finding out about what is happening in the world, things that one might never even know about. There are blogs and podcasts of all kinds of things, politics, entertainment, and educational, anything you can think of. From your own home you can communicate with others, anywhere in the world, who share these interests.

The blogs that I have been reading are The TED Blog and Long Views blog which have talks by people who are concerned about the future of mankind both physically and spiritually. The podcasts that I have listened to have allowed me to "attend" seminars that would otherwise be impossible to be a part of. I have listened to some Dharma lectures and seminars sponsored by the Long Now Foundation. In my blog I have links to some of these talks.

Blogging has had a profound effect on society. The viral level of communication has given grassroots organizations more power with the ability to raise money and to connect to millions of people with the click of a button. The bi-directionality of this communication has given bloggers a more accurate picture of "what is going on". It's nice to see this revitalization of democracy.

Karen Armstrong Talks About Compassion in Religion

The TED conference held in the first week of March, 2008, is over and now videos of the talks are available. The topic discussed by people from all walks of life was "What is life?". This is a video of guest speaker, Karen Armstrong, where she talks about bringing compassion back to religion. (Recorded March 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 21:27.)

View the video at TED 2008

Weekend Nonsense News - Breaking News

Weekend Nonsense News has breaking news! (Duration 30 seconds.)

Listen to the Newscast.

Introducing Weekend Nonsense News Podcast

This is the introduction to the Weekend Nonsense News broadcast. It will be a series of news podcasts that poke fun at anything under the sun. Subscribe to it to watch it evolve... (Duration 30 seconds.)

Listen to the Introduction