The History of Racial Injustice in America

 

Between the Civil War and World War II, thousands of African Americans were lynched in the United States. These were violent and public acts of torture that traumatized black people throughout the country and were largely tolerated by state and federal officials.

 

I guess there were a lot of people in the USA at that time who didn't comprehend the Statue of Liberty ideals; liberty, peace, human rights, abolition of slavery, democracy and opportunity. HOY Feb 19, 2015

 

 

 

Do Americans Want to see a woman in the Whitehouse?

 

With Hillary Clinton contemplating a run for the White House in 2016, Pew Research asked Americans if they want to see a female president in their lifetime. Interestingly, opinions on the issue depend more on party affiliation than gender. Generally, 38 percent of adults in the United States are hopeful that a female president will be elected eventually.   

 

Hillary may get most of the press as "the first lady in waiting" but let's not forget that there is another lady in the running (a long shot for sure) who wants that particular position too...   HOY Feb 28, 2015

 

 

 

GM Mosquitoes May Be Released in the Florida Keys in 2015

 

The scientific community has expressed concern about introducing a new type of mosquito that is infected with a bacterium that could be transmitted to human. Millions of these GE bugs have been released into the open air as a means of field-testing their new "Dengue-proof" mosquitoes, without sufficient review and public consultation. 

 

Oxitec, the company who developed the GM mosquito have conveniently chosen several countries with weak regulations. In 2009, they released their designer insects onto Grand Cayman Island, an island in the Caribbean, subsequently releasing their "frankenskeeters" in Malaysia, Brazilvi, Panama, India, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Presently, they are seeking approval from the US Agriculture Department to perform similar open-air testing in the Florida Keys. The plan is currently being reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and if approved, GM male mosquitoes would be released into the Florida Keys up to three times a week, starting sometime in 2015.

 

Mother nature may come back to bite us on this... humans never seem to learn that tinkering with things that took millions of years to develop may have unseen and deadly consequences for mankind. HOY March 03, 2015

 

 

 

Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson resigns

 

Thomas Jackson had resisted calls from protesters and some state leaders to step down, after the shooting of Michael Brown and the weeks of demonstrations that followed.

 

Wow... talk about "brevity"... if this is the real deal and Tom wrote it, it sure steers clear of the elephant in the room...hint; it's a word that starts with the letter R!   HOY March 11, 2015

 

 

 

Over The Moon Conspiracy

 

The "moon hoax conspiracy" is a theory that the US Government faked the 1969 Moon landing, because faking a major historical event and then covering it up for all time is somehow supposed to be easier and cheaper than just going to the damn Moon! 

 

The guy who originally came up with this "cracked" theory wrote a book called "We Never Went To The Moon" and probably laughed all the way to the bank. You may want to buy his book if you've got nothing else to do and can't spell "sucker". David Hannum stated when remarking on P. T. Barnum - showman extraordinaire of the 1800's... "there's a sucker born every minute"   HOY March 17, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tax Plastic Not People

 

A consumer tax on plastic packaging.. the more you use the more you pay.

 

Contributed by Steve Hoyt, Connecticut USA

 

 

 

 

 

This "cyber-cousin" of mine has a pretty niffty and reasonable idea here... the less plastic packaging littering our planet the better for humanity. The monetary suffering consumers would undergo (we know who always has to pay for new methods of production in the marketplace) during the transition to a better alternative passes soon enough.   HOY March 17, 2015

 

 

 

Interesting how Obama will take one guy at his "word"...  but not this guy or these guys... yet he's fine with these guys! BER March 24,2015

 

 

 

 

Canada and the United States of America

 

Geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder. John F. Kennedy, In a speech to Canada’s Parliament (1961)   HOY April 15, 2015

 

 

 

Righting Copyright: An Interview With Lawrence Lessig

 

The total body of material available for free and unrestricted public use, has been withering on the vine in the United States for the last 40 years. 

 

Sony Bono got elected to Congress in 1994 and was so instrumental in championing copyright extention, that the bill is known as the Sony Bono Copyright Term Extension Act or more derisively as the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act".
 

"Now that copyrights can be just about a century long, the inability to know what is protected and what is not protected becomes a huge and obvious burden on the creative process." Lawrence Lessig

 

Lawrence Lessig has been manning the "liberty" barricades for years... a lonely intellectual warrior fighting this crucial battle to save the shrinking public domain. An interesting irony is that the foil to Lawrence Lessign in the protection of "intellectual property" debate has been Sony Bono, who gave us such pop-pablum classics (which I personally enjoy) as "I Got You Babe" and "The Beat Goes On".  HOY April 20, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                          

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Photo by Liam Hughes USA

                                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earth Day April 22, 2015

 

Started as a U.S. grassroots movement in 1970, Earth Day created public support for the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and contributed to the passage of the Clean Air Act, the Water Quality Improvement Act, the Endangered Species Act and several other environmental laws. The idea for Earth Day was proposed by then-Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, who died in 2005.   HOY April 22,2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well-Being Index of Large Urban Cities in the USA

 

Compared with residents of the highest well-being communities, residents of the lowest well-being communities are 32% less likely to have someone in their lives encouraging them to make healthy choices. They are also 35% more likely to have experienced food insecurity in the last 12 months, 68% more likely to smoke, 26% more likely to be obese, 55% less likely to like what they do each day and 58% more likely to not feel pride in their community.    HOY April 22, 2015

 

 

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Medical Care Is the Third Leading Cause of Death in the US

 

Preventable medical mistakes account for one-sixth of all American deaths... when you add up medical errors, drug interactions, and hospital-acquired infections, medical care is the third leading cause of death in the US, right after heart disease and cancer.   HOY May 02, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Checking Out The Crosscheck Program

 

The electoral process has become a hot-button issue in the United States, with voter registration and participation being especially controversial. The right wing of the political spectrum claims that more regulation is required to prevent an epidemic of voter fraud threatening the legitimacy of our democracy, while the left wing claims that these regulations are an attempt to silence poor and minority voters.

 

* Backgrounder  >>>   State of Kansas "Crosscheck Program" Presentation (to the National Association of State Election Directors)

 

* The Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program is run by the state of Kansas, at no cost to other participating states.

 

Part 1  >>>   Jim Crowe Returns

 

Part 2  >>>   Challenging Crosscheck

 

Greg Palast has been called the "most important investigative reporter of our time" and is known for complex undercover investigations, spanning five continents, from the Arctic to the Amazon, from Caracas to California, using the skills he learned over two decades as a top investigator of corporate fraud.   HOY May 13, 2015

 

 

 

Shoot First... Ask Questions Later?

 

The infographic below, sums up the shocking extent of fatal police shootings in the United States. 

 

The most amazing thing I learned recently is that there is no national database in the USA regarding people killed by law enforcement... go here for a story on one mans quest to find out why!    HOY May 15, 2015